Blackburn Rovers’ chief executive Steve Waggott has asked fans “where is everyone” after the club fell short of its 10,000 season ticket sales target ahead of the 2019-20 Championship season.
The club is set to host Charlton Athletic at its 31,400-capacity Ewood Park home on the opening Saturday of the campaign, having sold just over 8,500 season tickets.
Waggot said the club “couldn’t have done more” to drive season pass sales, having announced earlier in the year that it would freeze prices at the early bird rate of last year.
He said, according to the Lancashire Telegraph: “Our campaigns have been fairly hard-hitting, wide-reaching, but where is everyone? I know there are mitigating reasons, with cash being tight and other things, but as a club we’ve held firm and I still hope to get 10,000, that’s the trunk of the support tree.
“You get your hardcore number of season tickets, you get those who buy on matchday, but I think the value of the ticket is virtually eight or nine games free compared to walking up match by match. The view is that we need to sell 10,000, it’s a quantum of cash we need.”
Waggot added that 25 per cent of Rovers’ overall income derives from ticketing, adding that he would like to increase the average attendance to rise above the 14,000 mark.
He continued: “I feel I have improved engagement with the fans since I’ve been come in. I’ve been to every meeting I’ve been requested to. Now, can we get the conversion rate coming back? I understand the population and the demographic, there’s a lot of work to do as I mentioned on One Rovers Day.
“We have had a lot of focus on junior membership, with the BAME community there’s a big push with the composition of Blackburn, we have to target people who football isn’t their first love. We have to get them to start engaging with us so we can get that core support and try and nudge the average attendance up from the 14,000 mark.”
Image: dom fellowes
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