Only caught this on Jim White's Talksport show whilst in the car this morning but they had a chap on who is a local businessman who tried put a consortium together who would take over the day-day running costs of the club from owners Venkys (although unable to pay the now c.£127 million pounds of debt owed to the Venkys). This offer made some years ago (Venkys purchased the club for £43 million in 2011?) was rebuffed with the Venkys saying something on the lines of they would continue to be committed to supporting every aspect of the club).
However, there has been no SMT/Board structure in place at Ewood Park for years - all decisions are made in India but no one from India now attends matches.
The chap interviewed said that the expected 0.5million pounds revenue from the weekend's cup game against Man Utd would only cover the running costs for about 10 days and that the Venkys continue to pay the running costs but as a debt incurring interest.
He said that they were paying wages to a 'Global Marketing' advisor at one stage (perhaps still are?) who was based in India (bit reminiscent of Katrien Meire's role at Standard Leige with her job title of Head of International Affairs before she came across to Charlton).
Living in the town, he said that usually there would be a buzz about playing Man Utd in the cup but very few fans have much enthusiasm for it and attendances are dwindling as fans feel that the Club has been effectively abandoned by its owners and the FA who will do nothing, say nothing, even though Blackburn Rovers were one of the founder members of the Football League.
Post-script- went into wi-fi cafe to send this and read the CAST newsletter first and the dire straights in which Leyton Orient find themselves after their Italian owner has turned against the fans.
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A united protest with Blackpool, Blackburn and especially Orient (and any others, of course) would be fantastic.
Anyone fancy a march up to FA HQ?
We should all be concerned about Blackburns current situation, it isn't looking good for them.
Thank goodness we've got
OH hang on a minute
The Venkys saved the club and no one else would buy them, they've invested millions over the years so unless you've got millions to spend shut up. They are successful business men, it's the stay away and moaning fans who are causing the problem.
Bedwetters, leftie vegatarians the lot of them.
Let's wait and see what the sqaud is like in August. Meanwhile, stop the protests and get behind the manager.
You either need to be in the PL where you can make a profit or you need to be a small club like AFC Wimbledon/Colchester etc with small grounds where overheads are low and you can break even or close if you run a sensible ship but with no ability to realistically push above League One except for the very rare and likely short lived occasion (Burton etc) but with a fan base probably not expecting more.
The middle ground clubs with large grounds and a recent history of PL still knawing away at fan expectations (Blackburn, Charlton, Coventry, Ipswich, Fulham etc etc) have far too big stadiums and fixed over heads combined with fans unhappy to plod along in mediocrity and demanding money spent. Ridiculous wages in the Championship in comparison to revenue is seeing the vast bulk (maybe all) clubs there lose money hand over fist.
Fans get upset about debt being loaded onto their club but equally don't want to break even and be relegated for it.
Very few owners are fans essentially gifting equity into a club as the quantity of money needed now makes this increasingly out of reach so clubs slowly (in some cases rapidly) accumulate ridiculous amounts of debt.
The likes of Blackburn find themselves as zombie clubs, in far too much debt to ever get out of it but with the owners seemingly unwilling to write it off and walk away.
Football needed FFP to control wages outside the PL and give it a long term future. over 75% of Championship clubs made an extraordinarily poor governance decision including clubs like Brighton who are perceived as being well run.
Unless this changes clubs will be run by owners who have more money than sense and then lose interest but can't find a buyer.
I genuinely think our location in London means there will be buyers out there for us but for the likes of Bolton and Blackburn even if their owners wrote their debt off why would anyone buy a club that will just lose millions forever with less and less chance of a PL pay day as parachute monies forever increase making the PL increasingly like a cartel.
The Venkys have made a mess of Blackburn and it is a terrible state when such a club with a fine history, loyal fan base and place in the community faces a history as a zombie club or, quite possibly, no club at all.