Free Membership for Wigan and Derby

[crossie]

:lol: Desperate measures indeed.

Don't be cynical.

I'm sure, as we speak, the tens of thousands of fans that Woodcote Royal speaks of, who are desperate to see a game but don't have a member card, are descending on the Mad Stad to take up this offer. After all, it's not the holiday season any more.

mmmm....nope....i would if we weren't playing so shit.

scrap that...i'm going for free!

[Woodcote Royal]

Cheap shots about delving deeper into our pockets to get a flight home rather than the train don't really add to the discussion, more show Woodcote to be the person he is.

Did I imagine hubby calling me a "complete w@nker" on another thread regarding this subject and (not that I give a damn either way) surely this says just as much about the sort of person he is

Yet more nonsense from HNA's very own Terry & June.

[mini _dariusz]

As with players, when it comes to supporters, form is temporary but class is permanent.

At last Mr Schards admits he is the better fan.

As Finch hasn't been to a game this season, I'd say we're all better fans than Finch, the one-time self proposed best ever Reading Fan!

I thought I hadn't seen him. Does he not have a season ticket anymore?

Nope. Not been at all this season Shades, glad to hear you're missing me though. I'm touched.

[Stranded]

Of course if the team keep playing as they currently are, this whole discussion becomes mute.

[Behindu]

Of course if the team keep playing as they currently are, this whole discussion becomes mute.

Quite possibly. I certainly think that there must be a decision point around Xmas. If we look like being in a relegation battle I would think there must be a chance they will put the expansion on hold - irrespective of crowds. If on the other hand we are safe I reckon they will go ahead - irrespective of crowds.


'Irrespective' of course being used fairly loosely - if we're down to 10k then they won;t go ahead ! If we're above 20k then it's not a big deal IMHO.

[Schards#2]

What would it take for one side to be shown to be right or wrong in all this?

Sub-20k?

Consistently lower attendences all season long?

Out of interest I see there were less than 40,000 at Sunderland, in a 49,000 capacity stadium. They are planning on increasing the capacity to (i believe) 56,000 and eventually 80,000 (source - member of staff at Sunderland yesterday). Is this prudent given they seem to be hitting not much more than 80% capacity at the moment ?

An increase to 56,000 would be imprudent

An increase to 80,000 would be utter folly

[Behindu]

What would it take for one side to be shown to be right or wrong in all this?

Sub-20k?

Consistently lower attendences all season long?

Out of interest I see there were less than 40,000 at Sunderland, in a 49,000 capacity stadium. They are planning on increasing the capacity to (i believe) 56,000 and eventually 80,000 (source - member of staff at Sunderland yesterday). Is this prudent given they seem to be hitting not much more than 80% capacity at the moment ?

An increase to 56,000 would be imprudent

An increase to 80,000 would be utter folly

An email has been sent to Niall Quinn, I have no doubt he will be scrapping plans as we speak

The guy I was talking to seemed to think 56k would be about right if Sunderland establish themselves in the Prem. Even he thought 80k would be pushing it a bit !

[Yorkshire Royal]

And are people genuinely suprised by the dropping attendances? Reading have always been supported by glory supporters. I have never to this day understood how we sold 40,000 tickets for Wembley in 95, yet rarely sold out a home game that season?

Reading got promoted. The glory boys jumped on the bandwagon. Reading start to perform badly.. they stop coming. I actually gave up trying to get tickets home or away last year as none where available. This year I can get tickets. As it happens, I choose not to usually as the sheer cost of going to football makes it nigh on impossible. Although I may head over to Blackburn away next month, on the assumption it might be more reasonably priced.

Oh, and LOL, at all the pessimists on here saying Reading are on the decline. Six games in with the injury problems we've had is hardly cause for concern. Yet. A couple of wins and we'll be clear of the bottom 3...

[T.R.O.L.I.]

A couple of wins and we'll be clear of the bottom 3...

Exactly - and with Wigan and Derby next up at home, all this pessimism is a tad early IMO. However, should we get less than 4 points from those games...

[Dai Brainbocs]

I think the aim should be to make it so the ground is only rarely 100 per cent sold out, rather than only rarely left with spare capacity. In other words, so nearly everyone who wants to spend their hard-earned on a seat can do so and families/groups of friends have a reasonable chance of seats together. 30K would fit the bill for that, 38K would be daft.

[papereyes]

I'd like to see some flexibility in pricing. at least the free membership card is a step in the right direction. Well done to club on that account.

[AJ~]

They've extended this offer to the Liverpool game now:
http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 52,00.html

Chairman John Madejski said, "More than 10,000 season ticket holders have already taken the option to book their seat for the Liverpool game, so it looks like being a very healthy crowd.

"When you include the 4,000 allocation for Liverpool, plus our corporate guests, we've already issued approaching 15,000 seats.

"However, we are very keen to give as many people as possible the opportunity to watch this exciting cup tie, so we are again offering free membership to new supporters."

[floyd__streete]

Next week on http://www.readingfc.co.uk:

Club waive member card fee and the chairman agrees to send his chauffeur-driven Bentley to pick up the extra four supporters this exciting new scheme has attracted.



Woodcote Royal bemoans the holiday season.

[RoyalBlue]

They've extended this offer to the Liverpool game now:
http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 52,00.html

Chairman John Madejski said, "More than 10,000 season ticket holders have already taken the option to book their seat for the Liverpool game, so it looks like being a very healthy crowd.

"When you include the 4,000 allocation for Liverpool, plus our corporate guests, we've already issued approaching 15,000 seats.

"However, we are very keen to give as many people as possible the opportunity to watch this exciting cup tie, so we are again offering free membership to new supporters."

By the sound of it, people already had the opportunity to watch the exciting cup tie - some 9,000+ seats going spare! For all the 'opportunity' talk, it was clearly felt that extra incentives have to be offered to get people to take up the opportunity.

[Jerry St Clair]

RFC have obviously been caught completely on the hop by the large downturn in demand this season. I really wish they'd just accept that prices are simpley too high, rather than fanny around with such schemes.

If the Liverpool game was less than a tenner, I'd go. Remember it wasn't so long ago that this board was in uproar over £23 tickets for an away game at Ipswich.

£18 for a reserve game in a meaningless competition is too much.

[Behindu]

RFC have obviously been caught completely on the hop by the large downturn in demand this season.

I know it's been discussed but just to repeat that the attendances this season so far have been:

24,031
22,813
23, 533

representing 99.3%, 94.3% and 98.1% of capacity in each case.

I'm not sure saying that there is a 'large' downturn in demand is really accurate. Of course tickets have gone to open sale which suggests there is a different demand, but we're hardly playing to empty houses !

Liverpool will be somewhere around 18k I reckon (low key cup game against fairly unattractive opposition we'll have played 6 times in 2 years and it is Ramadan remember....)

[Schards#2]

RFC have obviously been caught completely on the hop by the large downturn in demand this season.

I know it's been discussed but just to repeat that the attendances this season so far have been:

24,031
22,813
23, 533

representing 99.3%, 94.3% and 98.1% of capacity in each case.

I'm not sure saying that there is a 'large' downturn in demand is really accurate. Of course tickets have gone to open sale which suggests there is a different demand, but we're hardly playing to empty houses !

Liverpool will be somewhere around 18k I reckon (low key cup game against fairly unattractive opposition we'll have played 6 times in 2 years and it is Ramadan remember....)

Citing the percentage of capacity is of no help when calculating the fall in demand though.

All games were sold out last year and many would have been hugely oversubscribed. Therefore, a fall in demand from, say 30,000 to 24,000 is a 20% drop but not reflected in the drop in the actual attendance.

Surely you are not still seriously suggesting there has not been a drop in demand this year as opposed to last year?

[Winchester Royal]

Back to 2005 style if we go down?

[Behindu]

Citing the percentage of capacity is of no help when calculating the fall in demand though.

All games were sold out last year and many would have been hugely oversubscribed. Therefore, a fall in demand from, say 30,000 to 24,000 is a 20% drop but not reflected in the drop in the actual attendance.

Surely you are not still seriously suggesting there has not been a drop in demand this year as opposed to last year?

Citing % attendance is a lot more help than randomly picking a number purely to support your contention. You have no idea whether 30,000 people tried unsuccessfully to get tickets for any given game. It's a rubbish piece of spin.

I know you never thought about or read any of the posts presenting a different view to yours but it may not be a bad thing to try it one day.

[papereyes]

All games were sold out last year and many would have been hugely oversubscribed. Therefore, a fall in demand from, say 30,000 to 24,000 is a 20% drop but not reflected in the drop in the actual attendance.

Supply is limited to 24100 and something.

Demand last season was probably higher than this so the 'signal' clips and you can only estimate the demand on top of the capacity. Anything from a few hundred to a few thousand could be argued to some extent.

To really compare, you'll need attendances from home fans, bearing in mind the upper limit to supply.

If we do expand, I'd just like to see some incentives to accompany it like the odd cheaper seat or even limked tickets for a discount. Go to Colchester midweek and get Bristol free! There is NO point in expanding unless the club tries to sell out the extra thousands of seats.