I got to thinking about the costs when I realisedhow much the next few weeks would cost on top of the STs. I'm not criticising the club but observing it will not be surprising if the gates do not reach expectations. Should we reach the final it will bring my spending on match and season tickets alone to one-twelth of my net annual pay. One month's work simply to fund watching the Rovers. The point is a general one, not aimed at Rovers, but at the game. These costs, distinct from prices, are ridiculous. The PL as an industry is one in which the employer costs are too high, the product is moving out of reach of more and more people and I predict we will see a serious decline in attendances in the coming years. When income begins to decline the clubs will have to cut costs which means cutting wages and NOT signing the likes of Benni McCarthy. It will have to happen. The only point I would criticise the Rovers on is the way the price has been publicised. I'd guess Rovers would have settled for £15 tickets but United know they can sell 67000 at £25. This is probably why it's a £25 ticket. The club arte saying prices are reduced, I don't feel many will see £25 as cheap!

The younger of the two, Tom 17, is disabled and will never be able to support himself financially. The older works and has done since he first had a paper round about 5 years ago. Generally we have encouraged him to use that money for other things, skiing trips and the like, all of which would have been unaffordable had he not paid at least 50% plus spendies. Now he's 19 and earning his money is being saved towards university next year. It's a reasonable question and I certainly don't take offence at it. Yes I am stumping up for all the tickets.

Exactly the same here. Maria said she'll wait and see if we get to Cardiff as the money saved on the semis will pay for her final ticket.

We have a very exciting 5/6 weeks ahead of us, so this is an observation on the cost of football, not a dig at the club: Sunderland Wigan Portsmouth QPR Man Utd LC Bolton Man Utd LC - assume away price is the same as EP cost Man Utd PL Not to mention a trip to Newcastle as I'm just thinking about games that are local. My football watching family these days consists of one adult, and three lads aged 19, 17, 13. That translates to 3 adult tickets and one junior. Using the cheapest tickets in Ewood the cost is a staggering £565, and to buy our usual seats in the FS it's a gob-smacking £697. We all have ST's so I'm only paying out for QPR, Wigan and Man Utd x 2 in the LC. This is going to cost £306. If I'd known about the Utd semis I might well have skipped Wigan and maybe even QPR, but I already have those tickets. It will be very interesting to see which games folk chose to attend. If Ewood is to be full for the semi-final people are bound to miss other games. I'm afraid we can expect truely appalling gates against Portsmouth, QPR and Bolton. Those are the ones I'd skip if I was buying matchday tickets. How many people in Blackburn have over £550 to spare at any time let alone just after Christmas. I doubt we will sell out the semis. The Rovers website states prices have been reduced for the Utd game. I'm not sure folk will react kindly to £25 as a reduced price. No doubt there has been a lot of negotiation with United but £25 is hardly a reduction. As I have to fund all of this from ONE salary it doesn't take long to understand why fans stay away. Individual prices are irrelevant for families, it's always Dad who ends up paying. Now where's the credit card? or worse Where's the remote? Prices are out of control and it is little wonder Rovers gates are dropping. I suspect the PL as a whole will suffer the same next year. To put it mildly it is simply ridiculous to expect people to pay these prices on a regular basis.

At least the kids will eat and watch the footie

I can't believe people are rowing about tickets for Cardiff already. IF we beat United, which we have a good chance of doing, I'll lay £20 now ANY fan who wants to go to Cardiff will get one. We've +/- 12,000 ST holders and the likely allocation will be +/- 30,000 at the final. No problem at all. Aside from that what a fantastic few weeks coming up at Ewood and locally: 28th December - Sunderland 31st December - Wigan (A) 2nd January - Portsmouth 7th January - QPR (FA Cup) 11th January - Man Utd (CC - H) 14th January - Bolton 25th January - Man Utd (CC - A) 1st February - Man Utd (PL - H) Eight games in 34 days, I'm not sure I can stand the pace. This could be fantastic for Rovers, we really need to perform over the next 5/6 weeks as it's a great opportunity to get the town buzzing again. I hope the marketing people are working NOW! Anyone else spot our PL fixture with Arsenal should be 25th February?

Paul Dickov's 90th minute goal secured a 1 - 0 win for Rovers in tonight's game against Middlesboro. Arsenal and Manchester United have been kept apart in the semi-finals. Arsenal will play Wigan with Blackburn Rovers taking on Manchester United in the two-legged semi-finals. Rovers will be at home in the first leg, probably on 11th January, with the return leg being played on 25th January - dates are taken from the Football League website. Tonights's teams: Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Bates (Parnaby 45), Riggott, Southgate, Pogatetz, Rochemback, Doriva, Boateng (Queudrue 83), Johnson (Maccarone 70), Hasselbaink, Yakubu. Subs Not Used: Jones, Ehiogu. Blackburn: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Nelsen, Gray, Bentley (Reid 90), Savage, Tugay, Pedersen (Emerton 68), Kuqi, Dickov. Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Khizanishvili, Thompson. Booked: Savage, Pedersen, Tugay. Goals: Dickov 90. Attendance: 14,710. Referee: A Wiley

So that's Rovers v Wigan on February 26th - probably with an 11.15 KO

First leg should be January 11th Second leg January 25th

So what is it about Wigan? I've known for months, even before the fixtures were announced, we would be going. Unless something happens in one of the cups this will be our only away trip of the season. Back in my youth it was always Wigan struggling for election to the league. 34 attempts I think it took them and I always had half an eye on their results. Would 3000+ travel if it wasn't NYE? Is just because it's close? The Dave Whelan factor? In some ways a similar club to Rovers, is this the answer? I can't say I know the reason but the Wigan games are the two I'm most looking forward to this season.

Sad old so and so that I am I can furnish you all with statistics which tend to dismiss the suggestion there is a lack of Rovers related stock in SWI. Dump bins - 9 Rovers, 9 other products Wall space (excluding footwear) - 90% Rovers 10% other Display racks - 7 Rovers, 13 others of which 7 were Lonsdale Display pillars - 2 Rovers, 1 others Having spent more than hour hanging around for the film crew from JBFN I found this was one way to occupy my time! In all seriousness I looked very closely and estimate 80% of the product in-store, excluding footwear, is Rovers related. There is everything from key rings to the full strip. The problem is none of it is very imaginative and I could not have bought a Christmas present, there was literally nothing I would have bought, other than a shirt Only one item I looked at was 100% cotton, the rest were at least 65% acrylic or polyester. Of course this is what you get if you want cheap clothing.

You can always move

While I can't argue with others experience I think it is worth recalling the "car boot" style sale Rovers had in the concourses before SWI took over. On those two days very large quantities of exactly this type of merchandise was sold off for buttons from cardboard boxes. There was product that must have gone back literally ten years. This highlights a problem for the club; fans want this merchandise yet I suspect the volumes that have to be purchased to achieve a "perceived value for money" are higher than the club can actually sell. I have polos and sweats from 1994, and before, which are still in pretty good condition considering they've been worn to every game since. Personally I'd rather pay more for one or two high quality items that will last and I can enjoy wearing. I have a concern this coud lead to another round of criticism on high prices. I'd happily pay £10 for a decent polo or £20 for a sweat. I've still got for example the Natural Born Champions T-shirt which was one of the best Rovers ever did - just need an occassion to wear it now! This September I bought around 20 shirts for site members over a two week period. I visited during the week and must say I didn't experience any problems. On the other hand I have returned two coats with faulty zips and had quite a battle to get replacements. The shop manager confirmed to me in October the on-line store is out-sourced by SWI. This was in response to my query regarding the difference in the on-line price for names/numbers and the in-store, higher, price.

Last two visits - pre-season and League Cup - it has been parking on the areas immediately outside the ground. Got 4 this morning plus QPR. The upper tier of the BBE is shut for the QPR game so we shall be in the JW, upper central row 3....very nice thank you.

Thoroughly entertained all afternoon and delighted with the result. I'm still not sure how we managed to win! I'm not convinced Kugi should be a regular starter but I thought he should have a had a full 90 minutes against a very shaky WHU; he would have battered them. To some extent West Ham can only balme themselves for this defeat, they can clearly play well but while there was a possibility of a draw they sat back and let us play for long periods. Last week I was probably the only person who felt the Todd handball decision was correct. I thought the sending off was harsh but it was a handball. How many on here think we should have had a penalty for this week's "handball?" If Todd's was accidental then so was this one - a very dodgy decision. I'n not complaining but it does back up my point that had the Todd decsion been an Everton player we would have been demanding at least a booking. Mind you we had a much clearer shout for a penalty in the first half.

Is that a prediction?

We have.

Well we're still going but have to say I am utterly p1ssed off with the pricing. Only one solution, out sing and out play them. £90 this going to cost. Football is simply not worth that amount of money. No wonder crowds are declining.

True....but Oystons should be able to help

I'm not 100% on this but I believe he has not even spent that £3m. Reports I have read and heard in the media suggest ALL the financing is simply supported by the bank Romanov owns. these debts can be called in at anytime should Romanov chose to walk away. I suspect he has no exposure and everything to gain.

The Walkers can't buy more players because the club is not owned by the Walkers, it's owned by the Jack Walker Trust. The Trust is there for each of Jack's companies and the trustees have a duty to ensure that money is spent correctly. Pouring money into Blackburn Rovers would probably break the responsibilities and/or terms of the trust placed on the trustees. I don't think anyone is fully aware of who the actual trustees are but I'm sure they will be financial people first and foremost. Jack's stated public ambition was for Rovers to wash its face, be self-funding. As far as I can see the trust has no more responsibility than to make up short-falls in income and to provide cash for players if this makes financial sense - i.e it's cheaper to financially support rovers in the PL than in the Championship. To invest in the club via players would be daft from a financial standpoint and break the terms of the trust. Why? There would be no guarantee of a return on investment - Leeds United anyone. Thanks cletus, I think you are right.

Wigan have already had Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Bolton, Sunderland and we still have each of those to come except for Newcastle. I reckon GAV's money is safe.......but I may need a couple of spares

I've been thinking about that since someone called Radio Rovers yesterday making the same point. So far I've been against the idea as it could result in constant stop/start of the game. Yesterday the replay would have been used just once so perhaps there is a place in the game for replays, and if that happened, for the referees to be miked in the same way as in Rugby Union internationals - the only time I watch that code. I think FIFA's arguement is the laws of the game must be equally applied throughout. i.e what happens in a pub game? Seems a pretty daft arguement to apply when one considers the vast gulf between the professional and amateur games. As an aside did anyone else wonder about the Everton keeper's strip? I was convinced we had a penalty shout until it was pointed out it was the keeper's arm. All I saw was the flash of colour as an arm went up and the ball being parried.

I agree entirely about what the laws of the game state, it probably wasn't ball to hand. On MOTD this morning there was a penalty given, against Villa?, where the defender clearly moved his whole upper body towards the ball and I thought was struck on the shoulder joint though the commentator said arm. Nailed on penalty. In another game a Liverpool player was hit on the hand by the ball a yard from the goal-line but nothing was given. It was clearly ball to hand. In the split second the linesman had available he can't study Todd's eyes or his arm movements, he may only have seen the ball contact with the hand and assumed it was deliberate. Todd did have an open palm. With the benefit of TV replay the majority believe the decision to be wrong; at the time I thought it was right with as much time to judge as the linesman had. Had the situation been reversed the BBE would have been screaming a red card and a free-kick.

Well it's all about opinions, to quote Scotty's view of what happened rather than the decision At the game I thought it was a clear hand ball, after seeing seeing re-runs on MOTD (two different views, three times each) the view with Todd's open palm being struck by the ball is clear it was a hand ball. So the question is was this intentional? Todd's a professional footballer, did he have a decision to make? Take my hand away and Beattie is through, leave it there and it's accidental hand ball, I hope? I don't feel this was clear cut and had the positions been reversed, Everton defender with Bellamy say, we would have been screaming for a free kick and a red. I'm not blaming Todd but I think he knew what he was doing; there is little doubt Beattie would have been clean through if he had taken his hand away. Right decision by the linesman which probably cost us the game. Tin hat time I think. Overall we played very well, showed Everton to be a poor side, six months ago I'd have been really angry at this defeat. Today I think it's a question of two mistakes and two bad misses costing us the game - Nelsen and Pedersen stand up please. The worry must be that we have now lost twice to very, very bad sides in Newcastle and Everton. We should not be losing to rubbish teams of this type.