Steve Waggott has thanked the 2,100 Rovers supporters who have signed up for a season ticket for 2020/21 ahead of Friday’s deadline.

The club released season ticket details earlier this month only for the Government to push back the phased return of fans from the original date of October 1.

There is now uncertainty across the game at when supporters will be allowed back, with the Rovers chief executive saying the decision dealt a big blow to clubs up and down the country.

Ticketing revenue at Rovers equates to around 25 per cent of their income, but not since the 2-2 draw with Swansea City have the club been able to have supporters through the turnstiles.

Despite the prospect of not attending any matches live, fans who sign up for a season ticket will be given access to iFollow codes for all 23 home matches, and seven midweek away fixtures, as well as around £170 off a season ticket for 2021/22, with the £7.50 difference between the £10 match pass and season ticket rate discounted against next season’s price.

The club’s chief executive told BBC Radio Lancashire: “Higher up in the pyramid in the Premier League if you’re getting £140m broadcasting money then the percentage of season ticket sales compared to that diminishes drastically.

“A Championship club like us it generates between 20 and 25 per cent of our total income, it’s a huge amount that we have to try and keep driving through the revenue.

“It’s a forecast and it moves daily. It’s really vital in terms of income that we try and get as many people in on a season ticket.

“I know it’s difficult and it’s dividing people on whether to buy or not, but the way we’ve tried to arrange the package is that if you take a standard adult price of £399 we’re going to give you 23 home games that you can watch for a £10 match pass price, seven midweek away games to try and get that value up to £300, and the differential, of £7.50, we’ll multiply that by the number of games you miss and discount that off the 2021/22 season ticket pass. That’s about £172 for the entire season.

“We’re trying to give circa £475 value for the £399 ticket. I get it that’s it’s not live, but we have to manage the process within the environment we find ourselves.

“That’s how we’re trying to manage it, nothing is ideal at the moment.

“We’ve just gone over 2,100 season ticket holders, which is about 25 per cent of our normal number, I can only thank them enough for coming in, even though they know the situation and how difficult it is that they are not going to be let into Ewood as much as we’d like them to be.

“But they’ve still come in and supported the club and I thank them for that.”

Rovers had hoped to be allowed some fans into all 23 home matches this season, but were knocked back in their bid to stage a pilot game for the Wycombe fixture because of local Covid-19 rates.

Eight pilot fixtures went ahead on the second weekend of the EFL season, and while it was hoped that would be a starting point from which to build, subsequent Government announcements have halted that plan.

Waggott says work is ongoing behind the scenes in a bid to urge a re-think on the decision, and believes all the procedures are in place to ensure fans could watch games safely, while adhering to social distancing guidelines.

“It was a real blow to myself, the club, to the whole football pyramid. We’ve adhered to all the protocols and procedures, we’ve spent circa £150,000 on testing regimes for players and staff to fulfil the last nine games of last season,” he added.

“There was a stat that out of 27,500 tests in the EFL, only 58 players tested positive, and most of those were within the first two weeks of the protocols being applied.

“We’ve done a lot of work on getting our environment adapted to Covid-19 and we felt confident that we could bring in supporters early and even if it was on a reduced capacity, oil the wheels again, and get supporters used to coming back to Ewood again and realising it’s a safe environment and for staff to also be trained up as well in the new way forward.

“It was a real body blow to be quite honest and subsequently we’ve written to all MPs, shareholders and stakeholders, and we’ve got a meeting with the leader of Blackburn and Darwen Council and public health director because we have to keep forcing the issue that football can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

“I’m determined to represent our supporters and football in general with other chief executives, chairman and owners to drive the agenda forward.

“Coming to a football stadium, where we are regulated in the way we deliver the health and safety aspect is as high as anywhere. As long as people adhere to the rules and regulations, I’m desperate to get fans back for all sorts of reasons, and for the mental wellbeing and health of individuals who aren’t getting out much, and where football crystalises their week of meeting people and socialising, albeit with social distance and social bubbles which we’ve been working on, we’re very keen to get them back and we’ll keep going, we have to.”

Rovers are now beginning to dispatch orders of home shirts, with away shirts following not too far behind, with Waggott hoping the Roverstore will be back open, albeit on a limited basis initially, possibly from as early as next week.

Waggott too says owners Venky’s have been key in meeting the shortfalls with income streams having dried up during lockdown, and since the latest Government announcement.

“I want to sustain the club and navigate our way through it the best we can,” he added.

“The owners have been absolutely brilliant in meeting any shortfalls, we haven’t had any matchday commercial income in since February 29, it’s been a long haul, and we were all hoping that from the beginning of October we’d start bringing fans back and generating some income.

“That’s not the case so the owners have been called upon to make up the difference, and shortfall. If we have a collective and unified approach from everyone then we’ll get through it, and if the team can keep performing at the same level then that breeds real hope going forward and let’s see how far we can take this season.”