I FEEL very bitter and angry that the lifeblood of Blackburn Rovers - the season ticket holders of several years standing - are being completely taken for a ride by my club.

The club survives annually, from the "year in, year out" commitment from season ticket holders. This commitment is now being taken for granted by Blackburn Rovers. The club does not survive on the "fickle" purchasers of the Top Tenner tickets.

For the last 25 years, while following my town club, Rovers have had absolutely no idea about public relations with the fans, and I know that this has been a problem for many years. Even before I caught the bug, wasn't there a tremendous "cock up" with the distribution of the 1960 Cup Final tickets?

I understand, from business clients of mine, that if you have the correct postcode, you can quite regularly get two free match tickets for Ewood.

In the standard communication to season ticket holders (dated December 9) Rovers concede that the Top Tenner tickets have not been greeted too well by season ticket holders, but then go on to insult us by giving season ticket holders an exclusive offer of a Charlton ticket (FA Cup match) for only £15. A paltry saving of £3. This is one rule for one (ie season ticket holders) and another rule for another (non-season ticket holders). They will never fill Ewood for the Charlton match, so why charge us £15 to attend? I simply do not understand the logic in making this abysmal business decision. If Rovers sell Top Tenner tickets for most matches, why haven't they gone one step further, on this occasion, for season ticket holders and offered us attendance at the Charlton Cup match for a fiver. Why not let us have a go at a ticket for a tenner.

It's all well and good trying to pacify us by letting us buy cut price tickets for family and friends for the Arsenal and Aston Villa matches, but why oh why can't they give us (the season ticket holders) something for ourselves?

We will probably not renew our season tickets for the 1999-2000 season due to feeling totally used by our beloved Rovers, unless they can convince us otherwise.

My message to Rovers is, please:

a) Don't suggest that you have integrated the top tenner brand into the season ticket in selected areas of the stadium and therefore will let us have annual entry for a reduced charge by moving us from our existing seats to some obscure corner of the ground. That won't wash with us (or other season ticket holders).

b) Do consider offering a progressive discount, which rewards year in year out season ticket purchasers. Example: A rolling five per cent annual discount resulting in a maximum 25 per cent reduction after five consecutive years of season ticket purchase. This would on the one hand reward loyalty and on the other hand penalise the faint-hearted by reverting to the full charge if the sequence is broken. This must be introduced retrospectively.

c) Openly address the massive imminent problem that you are soon to be faced with due to the introduction of pay per view football. Currently our two season tickets work out at approximately £31 per match. When pay per view starts it's going to cost perhaps £10 per match irrespective of the number of people watching, ie if there are five people watching they pay a nominal £2 per head.

This recent mailshot in no way convinces us that Rovers are making constructive efforts to preserve hardcore loyalty against this additional threat to Ewood's financial viability.

ANDREW CROSSLEY, Grasmere Close, Rishton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.