BLACKBURN Rovers have slashed season ticket prices to the equivalent of £10 per Premier League game for next season.
In an unprecedented move to “bring football back to the people”, season tickets for the Blackburn End and Riverside have been reduced to £199 – £100 less than last season.
That ranks Rovers as the third cheapest in all FOUR divisions, with only Accrington Stanley and Huddersfield offering less expensive season tickets.
It's the cheapest Premier League season ticket for a decade.
And the club is also taking back the Darwen End lower tier for the entire campaign, with season tickets priced at £150 for 15 games.
Chairman John Williams said: “With the global recession, we felt we had to make football at Ewood Park as affordable as possible.”
Williams has called on Blackburn Rovers fans to repay the club’s unprecedented ‘financial gamble’.
Season ticket prices for the 2009/10 season have been slashed in every area of Ewood Park, with supporters able to watch 19 games of top flight football for just over £10 a game.
Adult season tickets in the Blackburn End and the Riverside Stand will start from just £199, a massive £100 reduction on this season’s prices, and offers the equivalent of a minimum of 12 free games compared to buying single match day tickets.
Rovers have also given the Darwen End back to the Ewood Park faithful, with an unreserved season ticket available for the lower tier for only £150, which takes in 15 home matches with the option to buy – at preferential rates – for the remaining four fixtures.
Every season ticket seat in the ground will include significant reductions, with up to £50 cuts in the Jack Walker Stand also, as Rovers blow their Premier League rivals out of the water in terms of value.
The £199 ticket is also more than £200 cheaper than even a lot of their lower league competitors, with even some non-league clubs struggling to match Rovers for value.
“This is the most attractive season ticket offer in years and in many ways it is a big gamble for us,” said chairman Williams.
“We feel that the deal we have finally rubberstamped represents tremendous value.
“To get it to jobs" target="_blank">work, both emotionally and financially, we now need the people of the area to get right behind us and swell our season ticket numbers.”
The mouth-watering offer comes in the wake of the success of the club’s ‘crucial three’ intiative, which helped swell the home crowds during the finale of Rovers’ relegation battle.
The £20 for the final three home games package, which saw the WEC Group Darwen End packed with home fans, has resulted in an improved atmosphere and brought two straight wins - with the final game against West Brom on Sunday.
Williams said: “The reaction to the Crucial 3, whereby we offered the final three home games for a total of £20, was a huge hit with the fans.
“More than 4,000 took up the offer and, coupled with the financial problems people are experiencing due to the global recession, we felt we needed a plan to make football at Ewood Park as affordable as possible to season ticket holders.
“Additionally we have all seen first hand what a difference it has made to the atmosphere on a matchday to have our own supporters behind both goals.
"To that end, we challenged ourselves to find a way of making every game a Crucial 3 event.”
Matchday prices will remain highly competitive, with the club splitting the fixtures into A (10 games) and B (9 games) categories with Walkersteel Blackburn End prices at £35 and £29 respectively.
Junior season tickets will start from just £65, with boss Sam Allardyce full of praise for his board’s brave ticketing policy.
He said: “This must count as one of the best deals anywhere for top flight football.
“It is very refreshing to see the chairman and directors prepared to stick their necks out in this way and I appeal to the fans to give the deals their full support.
“Home backing has been crucial over my time here and to have bigger and bigger crowds at Ewood Park can only help our efforts to push the team forward.”
Only yesterday a survey, carried out by ING Direct, revealed Rovers were the second best value Premier League club for the current season, but today’s revelations will see them significantly leading the way compared to their top flight rivals.
All season tickets for 2009-2010 will go on sale on Wednesday May 27 and full details will be announced shortly.
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