Blackburn Rovers CEO on Nottingham Forest pricing & £4m revenue target

The release of prices has been met with widespread positivity from supporters with Rovers having reached round four of the competition for the first time since 2011/12.

Rovers have a poor recent record in the cup competitions, having not won an FA Cup tie since 2017, but the Carabao Cup run, which included victory over West Ham United earlier this month, has come as a welcome boost to the club’s coffers.

Adult tickets for the Forest tie are £12, higher than the figure Waggott had initially earmarked, although with gate receipts shared, it required both clubs to agree.

An EFL arbitrator eventually stepped in to finalise the pricing structure for what will be one of four home games in three weeks for Rovers, starting with their return to action against Preston North End on December 10

“I would have liked to have gone as cheap as possible, understanding the economic climate, and we have four home games in 21 days, from Preston North End to Cardiff City, I’m acutely aware of the economic pressures on domestic households and the affordability factor which we speak about a lot in Championship meetings,” Waggott explained.

“Nottingham Forest, being a Premier League club, last 16 of the cup, there was a bit of resistance, and the gate receipts are shared 45-45 and then 10 per cent to the EFL once you’ve paid your matchday costs.

“I didn’t want to go above a tenner, but eventually we got an arbitration from the EFL that said £12, £5 and £2.

“I just hope our fans have enough money in their personal bank balance to come and support the team because it’s a good opportunity for us.”

The expectation is that Forest will bring up to 6,000 supporters for what will be their first game after the World Cup break.

And Waggott says the financial boost of a cup run, as well as other benefits, have been welcomed by the club.

“We put a number in the budget of what we expect to get, but if you can get a run together, that is a great value added to the club,” he added.

“Equally the West Ham game is important for players like Adam Wharton, playing against international players and will have learned so much in that 45 minutes.

“If we beat Forest we’re in the quarter final. If you look at the other seven ties, we could be the last man standing from the EFL which from a revenue generation point of view would be excellent.”

“It all helps, because the cost base of the club, like every household, it’s going through the roof in terms of electricity and other costs.

“Lighting on the pitch, we’ve doubled to six rigs, which is really, really expensive but very beneficial for the pitch in this climate because the pitch looks fantastic.”

Waggott has been encouraged by crowds at Ewood Park this season, averaging over 13,500, a figure he hopes will rise with positive half season ticket sales.

He is hoping that with full season tickets, half season tickets, and 18-game packages, that Rovers will have over 10,000 season ticket holders.

Similar half season ticket sales to 2021/22, when around 1,000 were sold is the target, particularly given the attraction of local matches with Blackpool, Wigan Athletic and Burnley all still to come, as well as high-flying Sheffield United and Norwich City.

“We have some big games in the second half of the season,” Waggott said.

“You don’t want to breach the full season ticket cost which came out at just under £17.50 but this one was about £18.50 per ticket, which with those games makes it good value and attractive.

“We’ve done over 200 so far and hopefully we’ll do around 1,000 so then we’ll be over 10,000 for season tickets, which was the main target at the start of it all.”

Waggott has seen a younger demographic of supporter increasing, but says Rovers will review family tickets for next season.

He added: “We have a fairly elderly fraternity who can’t come any more for various reasons, we are tending to backfill with the 18-23-year-olds and I think the pricing is right, it’s good and when I look at the FanZone on matchdays it’s quite vibrant, a lot of younger fans there who predominantly go in the Blackburn End Lower.

“That seems to be the growth area so we’ve tweaked certain things like music in the FanZone.

“Families, it’s the affordability factor. We did an international flexi-ticket and a family ticket and the feedback was that the family ticket was still a bit expensive so we need to look at that, review it and go over it.

“There’s quite a few new supporters coming into the stadium, but it’s all predicated on the form of the team. There’s no magic formula, it’s the team doing well.”

Walk-up sales reached 5,000 for the anniversary ticket offer against Huddersfield Town last month, and Waggott says Rovers are on track to beat his £4m figure for revenue.

“That’s where we need to be converting,” he said of walk-ups.

“We have targets set to stay within P&S regulations and I’ve publicly stated mine is £4m and we’ll do that.

“We’re ahead on season tickets in terms of revenue, we’re closing in on £2.5m for that, and we’re probably on walks-ups, for match-by-match ticket sales, up by around 100,000 on target.

“14,000 gets us to where we want to be and that’s with around 12,000 home fans and 2,000 away. That’s a generic number.

“That’s what we’re pitching.

“We’re already over 11,000 home fans for Preston and we have a week-and-a-half to go.”

As well as the pricing of tickets, Waggott says the ease of purchase is another concern of supporters.

“My in-tray is mostly about ticket pricing and the ease of getting a ticket from the platform,” he said.

“In my opinion, we have one of the best platforms in Ticketmaster, but we introduced single sign-in where you have to go in and put your details and we’re all time poor in society, we want immediacy, and after three or four clicks people will check out.

“We’re working with Ticketmaster to trying and make that a lot smoother journey.”

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