MATCHWATCH : West Ham United U21

[Four Of Clubs]

The non first team games never used to be on any TV channel but with streaming it would be interesting to know how many people watch games in that way.

...living in RG1 I'd class myself as pretty local to the SCL - but two or three factors have worked against me of late when pondering attendance at these kind of 'subsidiary' Res/under-age etc matches
-NOTE in the past I would have made a the effort (probably) - or at least strongly considered it.
i) As stated : it's now often on Sky
ii) Car Parking - no longer young/fit/care enough to bother parking some distance away for free and walking up to the Stadium
- these games were previously free to park - but now not only do they charge (the same amount as for Champ games) but I need to go thru the pfaff of remembering to purchase on line - which admittedly isn't too arduous.
iii) if it's Tue/Wed there's often some decent NL games around locally that are a better 'draw' or if Fridays .. (drinkinnninnge night)

[stealthpapes]

From my own experience a lot of Reading fans who go to Saturday games live some way from the ground.
Around where I sit there are 4 from Didcot and one from Honiton another lives near Brentford's ground so any evening games are far from easy.

I grew up two roads away from Elm Park and, possibly because I was young, I would go to Reserves games in midweek as it was easy but now it would be a 150 mile round trip so even for some League games I don't make it but, in line with the other poster ,I watch nearly all games on TV especially first team away games.

The non first team games never used to be on any TV channel but with streaming it would be interesting to know how many people watch games in that way.

I'm genuinely impressed with the Sky Sports+ app.
Watched pretty much every midweek game in the back bar of a mate's pub.
I know at least one family member who no longer does midweek home games as they're on telly, in the warm.

[Greatwesternline]

From my own experience a lot of Reading fans who go to Saturday games live some way from the ground.
Around where I sit there are 4 from Didcot and one from Honiton another lives near Brentford's ground so any evening games are far from easy.

I grew up two roads away from Elm Park and, possibly because I was young, I would go to Reserves games in midweek as it was easy but now it would be a 150 mile round trip so even for some League games I don't make it but, in line with the other poster ,I watch nearly all games on TV especially first team away games.

The non first team games never used to be on any TV channel but with streaming it would be interesting to know how many people watch games in that way.

I'd love to know how much of Reading's support isn't from within RG post codes. Reading is a biggish place to support one club. The fact it draws its support from such a wide area and still is getting relatively meagre crowds suggests to me that support from within the town itself is quite low. This isn't news, Reading is home to large numbers of London PL club fans. You can see them on Saturdays streaming into Paddington.

[stealthpapes]

From another thread, in Club Policies

Location
• 0-10 miles - 53%
• 10-20 miles - 21%
• 20-30 miles - 7%
• 30-50 miles - 9%
• 50+ miles - 10%
• Outside UK - 3%

(50+ miles and outside UK share that 3%, I think)

[Clyde1998]

I think competing with a Champions League night of fixtures has a lot to do with it. Despite how much the masses claim to "care", they'd rather stay in and watch some Champions League than watch Reading play an EFL trophy game.

I do think there is very little depth to RFC home support.

No, I'm a season ticket holder of over 50 years, only ever watch RFC, wouldn't watch a champions league game if you paid me.
Why would you expect people to turn up in their masses to watch us play West Ham u21's in an irrelevant lower league competition?
I actually watched the game on Sky as it was a cheaper more convenient option than having to buy a ticket and make a 100 mile round trip on a Tuesday night. The fact that Sky broadcast these games probably contribute to the low turnouts. This pointless competition is one too many in an already congested fixture list in the modern era.
And no, I won't be tempted by a Wembley final or a game against Swindon, my only wish is a return to the championship, where, remember, we've been and sometimes higher, almost all this century!

I think my messages came across as critical. They were more of an observation around what people do in their spare time. Clearly for many the commute to Mad Stad is a long one. I'm more surprised about the people who live within walking distance of the ground. Or who increasingly live in the town centre. For £7- £10 you can have an evening of entertainment at the ground, which I'm surprised is not taken up more.

I live in East London so do not go to these games but do go to Tuesday night Walthamstow games, and the attendances are around 200, purely because people are looking for something to do and watching footy for £10 is something to do. And the population of Walthamstow is much smaller than Reading and the football is not much better than Sunday league.

My posts also were meant to be more observational - merely to point out the crowd on Tuesday was significantly lower than comparable fixtures in this competition in recent seasons and trying to identify reasons for it.

I don't think anyone is expecting massive crowds in this competition (given it's importance; the kick-off time; etc.), but the decline and relative crowd is what's concerning to me. The TV/streaming factor is probably the biggest one in this (although that's been possible for the last couple of years).

[MR. CYNICAL]

No, I'm a season ticket holder of over 50 years, only ever watch RFC, wouldn't watch a champions league game if you paid me.
Why would you expect people to turn up in their masses to watch us play West Ham u21's in an irrelevant lower league competition?
I actually watched the game on Sky as it was a cheaper more convenient option than having to buy a ticket and make a 100 mile round trip on a Tuesday night. The fact that Sky broadcast these games probably contribute to the low turnouts. This pointless competition is one too many in an already congested fixture list in the modern era.
And no, I won't be tempted by a Wembley final or a game against Swindon, my only wish is a return to the championship, where, remember, we've been and sometimes higher, almost all this century!

I think my messages came across as critical. They were more of an observation around what people do in their spare time. Clearly for many the commute to Mad Stad is a long one. I'm more surprised about the people who live within walking distance of the ground. Or who increasingly live in the town centre. For £7- £10 you can have an evening of entertainment at the ground, which I'm surprised is not taken up more.

I live in East London so do not go to these games but do go to Tuesday night Walthamstow games, and the attendances are around 200, purely because people are looking for something to do and watching footy for £10 is something to do. And the population of Walthamstow is much smaller than Reading and the football is not much better than Sunday league.

My posts also were meant to be more observational - merely to point out the crowd on Tuesday was significantly lower than comparable fixtures in this competition in recent seasons and trying to identify reasons for it.

I don't think anyone is expecting massive crowds in this competition (given it's importance; the kick-off time; etc.), but the decline and relative crowd is what's concerning to me. The TV/streaming factor is probably the biggest one in this (although that's been possible for the last couple of years).

Remember that our crowds in general have been in decline over the last few years, in the league particularly. Obviously not helped by the takeover saga and relegation. Even with the ownership sorted, there has been no significant increase.
Think the club are aware that once you lose supporters, it's difficult to get them back once they break that habit and maybe find other things to do.

[Snowflake Royal]

The non first team games never used to be on any TV channel but with streaming it would be interesting to know how many people watch games in that way.

...living in RG1 I'd class myself as pretty local to the SCL - but two or three factors have worked against me of late when pondering attendance at these kind of 'subsidiary' Res/under-age etc matches
-NOTE in the past I would have made a the effort (probably) - or at least strongly considered it.
i) As stated : it's now often on Sky
ii) Car Parking - no longer young/fit/care enough to bother parking some distance away for free and walking up to the Stadium
- these games were previously free to park - but now not only do they charge (the same amount as for Champ games) but I need to go thru the pfaff of remembering to purchase on line - which admittedly isn't too arduous.
iii) if it's Tue/Wed there's often some decent NL games around locally that are a better 'draw' or if Fridays .. (drinkinnninnge night)

Well, listening in to ol Phil, they got about a dozen texts from viewers globally. And I was also watching.

Also, when they had their data breach and accidentally CC'd all the subscribers to RoyalsTV rather than BCC'd it was maybe a couple hundred email addresses max. I think including Dean Bouzanis' dad.

It's likely stranded and I have each other's email addresses buried deep somewhere because of that

[MR. CYNICAL]

The non first team games never used to be on any TV channel but with streaming it would be interesting to know how many people watch games in that way.

...living in RG1 I'd class myself as pretty local to the SCL - but two or three factors have worked against me of late when pondering attendance at these kind of 'subsidiary' Res/under-age etc matches
-NOTE in the past I would have made a the effort (probably) - or at least strongly considered it.
i) As stated : it's now often on Sky
ii) Car Parking - no longer young/fit/care enough to bother parking some distance away for free and walking up to the Stadium
- these games were previously free to park - but now not only do they charge (the same amount as for Champ games) but I need to go thru the pfaff of remembering to purchase on line - which admittedly isn't too arduous.
iii) if it's Tue/Wed there's often some decent NL games around locally that are a better 'draw' or if Fridays .. (drinkinnninnge night)

Well, listening in to ol Phil, they got about a dozen texts from viewers globally. And I was also watching.

Also, when they had their data breach and accidentally CC'd all the subscribers to RoyalsTV rather than BCC'd it was maybe a couple hundred email addresses max. I think including Dean Bouzanis' dad.

It's likely stranded and I have each other's email addresses buried deep somewhere because of that

Can you rewrite that so a 5 year old would understand?

[MR. CYNICAL]

Afraid to say, another reason the gates have gone down is that the football is crap, negative tactics at home games won't bring the fans back.

[Snowflake Royal]

...living in RG1 I'd class myself as pretty local to the SCL - but two or three factors have worked against me of late when pondering attendance at these kind of 'subsidiary' Res/under-age etc matches
-NOTE in the past I would have made a the effort (probably) - or at least strongly considered it.
i) As stated : it's now often on Sky
ii) Car Parking - no longer young/fit/care enough to bother parking some distance away for free and walking up to the Stadium
- these games were previously free to park - but now not only do they charge (the same amount as for Champ games) but I need to go thru the pfaff of remembering to purchase on line - which admittedly isn't too arduous.
iii) if it's Tue/Wed there's often some decent NL games around locally that are a better 'draw' or if Fridays .. (drinkinnninnge night)

Well, listening in to ol Phil, they got about a dozen texts from viewers globally. And I was also watching.

Also, when they had their data breach and accidentally CC'd all the subscribers to RoyalsTV rather than BCC'd it was maybe a couple hundred email addresses max. I think including Dean Bouzanis' dad.

It's likely stranded and I have each other's email addresses buried deep somewhere because of that

Can you rewrite that so a 5 year old would understand?

Er...

The bit about the data breach?

Reading FC have an internet service where you can sign up (subscribe) to pay to listen to games, or if you're located internationally, watch games, online.

Someone at the club, or service provider, accidentally sent out an email to all subscribers about the service. But instead of making it so each subscriber's email address was hidden from every other subscriber - meeting GDPR legislation requirements, they sent it so every subscriber could see every other subscriber's personal email address. Which is a bit of a major whoopsie. This included Dean Bouzanis' dad. And I assume Stranded, and me.

Some of the less savvy subscribers kept replying all to it, discussing games. Repeatedly gifting their personal email address to everyone else.

Is that what you wanted?

CC - copied in on an email, stands for carbon copied - from old timey form days.
BCC - blind copied, ie so others can't see they're copied in, stands for blind carbon copy...

[Clyde1998]

I think my messages came across as critical. They were more of an observation around what people do in their spare time. Clearly for many the commute to Mad Stad is a long one. I'm more surprised about the people who live within walking distance of the ground. Or who increasingly live in the town centre. For £7- £10 you can have an evening of entertainment at the ground, which I'm surprised is not taken up more.

I live in East London so do not go to these games but do go to Tuesday night Walthamstow games, and the attendances are around 200, purely because people are looking for something to do and watching footy for £10 is something to do. And the population of Walthamstow is much smaller than Reading and the football is not much better than Sunday league.

My posts also were meant to be more observational - merely to point out the crowd on Tuesday was significantly lower than comparable fixtures in this competition in recent seasons and trying to identify reasons for it.

I don't think anyone is expecting massive crowds in this competition (given it's importance; the kick-off time; etc.), but the decline and relative crowd is what's concerning to me. The TV/streaming factor is probably the biggest one in this (although that's been possible for the last couple of years).

Remember that our crowds in general have been in decline over the last few years, in the league particularly. Obviously not helped by the takeover saga and relegation. Even with the ownership sorted, there has been no significant increase.
Think the club are aware that once you lose supporters, it's difficult to get them back once they break that habit and maybe find other things to do.

They have, although what I was hearing from people was 'I'll go back when Dai's gone' - but there's been no obvious increase in attendances since and cup attendances are down since the takeover. We'll see what the Milton Keynes crowd is before being too hasty, but it may just be people feeling like they don't need to financially support the club in the same way now or the apathy from the relatively slow start to the season.