I can still remember like yesterday the day that Jack Walker announced that Kenny Dalglish was taking over as Rovers' manager, to get us out - at long last - of the second tier of the League, and take our rightful place with the other giants of English football.
It was October 12th 1991. It was a special day for the Straw family anyway, as our son - then just 11 - was going to be the mascot at the game. Everyone thought I'd fixed the date but this was not correct - I'd arranged it months before, when I had no idea that Dalglish would be coming. But aside from the natural paternal pride of seeing the joy that was brought to my son as he stepped onto the pitch with the players, this date sticks in my memory for another reason. It was feeling the excitement in the air - almost the electricity - as the crowds went down the Bolton Road to the ground. People were light of foot; a sense of self confidence seemed to return. And over the weeks which followed it became clear that this sense of greater confidence was not confined just to ardent Rovers' fans, but to the community right across East Lancashire. Even hardened Claret supporters would admit in private that good was being done for the area as a whole.
When we won the Premier League in 1995 it was amazing what a difference winning made. Blackburn really was on the map.
I was put in mind of all this when I went on my first visit to Arsenal's brand new Emirates Stadium for Monday's game. It's lovely. It's huge. It cost hundreds of millions. The club paid over £60 million just to move a waste transfer station that was on the site, so that they could start building.
We played well for much - sadly not all - of the game. We're certainly much better than I've seen in many seasons in getting back into a game after conceding an early goal against us. But I was also brought up sharp against the stark reality of the David and Goliath nature of today's Premier League.
Arsenal's average gate this season is 60,000. Ours is 23,500 (happily up by a seventh on last). Standard tickets at the Emirates are running at £46 - and they fill the ground. Rovers - who admirably have dropped prices this season to encourage bigger crowds - are lucky to get an average of around £15 a head. You don't need access to either Arsenal or Rovers' accounts to work it out for yourself - that for each game Arsenal, with nearly three times Rovers' crowd, at three times Rovers' prices, will take, in gate receipts getting on for nine times the gate at Ewood Park.
There's an added twist to this. It's no accident that all the really big wealthy clubs are in our big cities - London, Manchester, Merseyside. They each have a huge natural fan base. Contrast that with Blackburn. We are the smallest conurbation by far sustaining a Premier League team. Reading (in the relegation zone) has a council area, at 140,000 the same size as Blackburn with Darwen's. But it has a much bigger suburban hinterland. Derby (a cert for relegation) is 240,000. Middlesbrough is in the big Teesside conurbation. And we are in the region with the greatest density of competing clubs - with Wigan (305,000) and Bolton (260,000) just down the road.
So what the Board, the Manager Mark Hughes, and the players are consistently achieving is in my view nothing short of remarkable.
Blackburn has always aimed high. But do we take the significance of the club to the town and to the area too much for granted? I don't think so. The fan base per head of population is also extraordinary; and though, as in any area, there are plenty who don't care for football, I think - or hope - that everyone benefits from Rovers' presence, in the economy of the area, and what we feel about it. It has a national record for its community activities. The Council has long been supportive, and has just put in £2million towards the new Business Centre in the Darwen End of the ground. But could we all do more? My answer to that is "yes", too. We have to nurture and sustain the Club. And even the greatest cynic would really notice the difference if ever it were not there.
