Ewood Park attendances are ‘a real concern’ for Steve Waggott who says he is juggling ticket affordability with raising revenue streams.

The crowd of 9,141 for the Hull City win last week was the lowest for a league game at Ewood since November 1991, and only the second sub-10,000 crowd in that time.

Season tickets were frozen at £399 for adults, with discounts available for supporters who signed up last year, with Waggott revealing the club have passed the 7,000 mark, 1,500 fewer than in 2019/20.

The cheapest adult ticket for a Category B game at Ewood is £25, as it was for the Hull fixture, and will be again for the weekend visit of Cardiff City.

Waggott says the pricing structure falls in line with the cost of a season ticket, which works out at £17.30 a game, with the club keen to reward those who have signed up for the whole campaign.

Yet dwindling numbers through the turnstiles are a worry for a club whose income relies heavily on match-going fans to the tune of around 25 per cent.

Waggott said: “It’s a real concern. I’ve said for a few years that digital era is really exciting in terms of connectivity with supporter bases and across the world, but at the same time, you can pick up highlights, you watch games on the red button, and if it’s a midweek, back-to-back home games, the affordability for fans, you can see knock-on effect.

“It’s not just a concern for Blackburn Rovers, it’s a concern for football in general, even some top Premier League clubs are struggling to fill their stadium for various reasons.”

Asked if he felt the pricing structure at the club, with the cheapest ticket for a Category A+ match £36, was affordable to the people of the town, Waggott responded: “We’ve tried to make it so that the season ticket prices are what we base everything on.

“Adult prices are £17 per ticket and senior citizens work out at £12. We’re trying to make it as affordable as possible but I’m also challenged on budgets to have a competitive squad, a competitive team that will drive revenue.

“The matchday prices are adjusted accordingly with the away fanbase that are coming in and therefore that’s quite a considerable increase. Most are valued at around £25 but I see supporters at away games and they tell me about the price of the tickets and how expensive they are for what their current circumstances are.

“We’ve got to consider all of that and we’ve got the commercial team looking into all different prices and trying to come up with some dynamic pricing, if we can. Open days, junior days and we have the next generation stand coming through, of which there were just under a 1,000 at the Luton game.

“We’ve got another one coming up against Cardiff, we’re trying to get more and more young people into the stadium and we need to push all-round to try and get as many people into the stadium.”

Rovers plan to re-introduce the 1875 Membership Scheme to offer a discount on tickets for supporters who sign up, and will also consult with Blackpool over the availability of more tickets for the trip to Bloomfield Road next month after the 2,100 initial allocation, and 1,000 additional tickets, sold out.

The unavailability of the club’s home, away and third shirts have been a source of frustration for supporters, and Waggott apologised for the delay, and said it was a view shared by the club.

He said pre-orders were in the process of being dispatched and that shirts would be on sale at the Roverstore ahead of this weekend’s game with Cardiff.

On the criticisms that were coming the club’s way, Waggott said: “I don’t think there’s a huge disappointment with the club but there are various individual parts, particularly sensitivity on ticketing and the cost of matches along with the Blues Bar and the entry fee.

“There’s things that are merging and obviously the kit being late doesn’t help but I have to keep saying that we’re not the only club, we’re not immune from the global impact of what we’ve just gone through.

“Hopefully we can come out of it and we can move forward as a club. I listen to all the different views of fans, at away games and at forums, and they tell me what they think and then I push it through to the various heads of departments so that we can keep reviewing and get to a balanced position of having an affordable and competitive squad, funded by the revenue of the support base and other commercial sponsors.”

A £3 entry charge for Blues Bar on matchdays has also come in for criticism for supporters, and Waggott says those complaints have been taken on board.

He added: “There’s been a lot of debate about Blues Bar having met with various fans. Supporters pay a membership at £60 but there’s discussions as to whether we should make it free, charge £1 or put it up to £3 for individual entry. So for 23 games that would come to £69, but you pay £60, but it’s never as easy as that.

“The members do get a little more in terms of being able to watch the game from inside and half-time entry but I’ve asked the commercial team to review the strategy because I don’t want to be creating difficulties for fans but when you have membership schemes and incentives like that, you need to ensure a season ticket is of huge benefit so people can buy that.

“There’s still a bit to go but that’s been the issue with Blues Bar and we’ve taken on board all the complaints from fans.”