ATTENDANCES at Ewood Park have gone up by 12.5 per cent - and chairman John Williams has revealed the demand for season tickets for next year has been "terrific".

Blackburn Rovers finished 15th in the Premier League's average attendance table for last season, with their highest gate 30,316, lowest just 19,316, and an average of 23,944.

It comes after the club cut the price of season tickets by 25 per cent, investing around £1 million of extra revenue generated by the new television deal to pass on savings to supporters in the form of reduced prices.

Williams said: "I'm very pleased. We used some of the television money to keep prices low and the public have repaid us for that by voting in their numbers.

"We'll continue to keep prices as competitive as we can.

"It's about volume of people but it's also about creating an atmosphere in the stadium and that has been much improved this year."

Rovers' price-saving initiative last season was hailed by leading figures in the sporting and political world.

The price of season tickets were frozen again this year as part of the club's Early Bird promotion for those purchasing before the end of last month.

And Williams admitted the demand has way exceeded their expectations.

He added: "There has been a FROM BACK PAGE terrific take-up on the Early Bird promotion, bigger than we thought and bigger than we had budgeted for.

"Within that, we have also had a healthy number of new season ticket holders.

"Clearly the challenge now is to make sure we not only get the people who didn't renew, but we also grow further with even more supporters."

Although prices have since increased by 10 per cent since the Early Bird offer finished, children's season ticket prices remain fixed.

The next important deadline is for anyone who wants to keep their spot in the stadium. All existing season ticket holders now have until Tuesday 1 July to Claim Your Own Seat.

Meanwhile, Rovers midfielder Steven Reid is to have an operation tomorrow to check on his recovery from his earlier cruciate injury.

But the Republic of Ireland international is confident he will be given the all clear as he focuses already on the build-up to next season.

He said: "I'm going in for a little operation on Wednesday just to check everything's okay, just to look at how the cruciate is.

"It feels fine.

"I'll get a good rest now and come back in pre-season, get a full pre-season in and hopefully an injury-free year next year."