Attendances

[Elm Park Kid]

Personally speaking, the sacking of McDermott was like a kick in the stomach to me and I decided not to renew my season ticket. I don't know if the McDermott thing was just an excuse for a lot of people who had grown disillusioned with the club to give up on it and they're yet to be tempted back. I've pretty much stayed away unless someone has had a ticket going spare. I was surprised when going recently after a gap of a couple of months that atmosphere still feels so flat given Reading's position.

Maybe part of it is that we're in a bit of a limbo where getting in the top 2 appears to be unrealistic but there's not much apparent risk of us dropping out the play-off places at the moment. So there's not a lot of excitement around. So then it just comes back to your love of the club and goodwill for them - which for me is lacking at the moment . . . .

[Muskrat]

The football is dull as dishwater

Yeah not only that but it's also dull as ditchwater

[JR]

A topic close to my heart given that I featured on TalkSPORT, Sportsbible and The Sun this week on the subject of attendances (plus took endless twitter abuse / banter)......

I stand by my original comment about the fallacy of games on Valentine's Day as championship attendances were down 10% on average.

What's more the attendance statistics are fake news to borrow a topical trend.....they are not attendance figures, but the amount of people who have paid for the game.

I sit with 6 other season tickets holders and none of us (for a variety of reasons, not solely romantic) went on Tuesday. BUT we were counted in the 15.7k attendance.

So it wouldn't surprise me if the actual attendance was more like 12k.

[Top Flight]

I think there will be always be the die hards like us who will go week in week out whatever , but after being a season ticket holder for over thirty years , though I'm not thinking of leaving, I 'cant ever remember being so disillusioned and "out of love" with football

I believe the average person is simply fed up with the gotesque obscene wages being played these so called professional footballers.

When a really average crap fringe player is getting paid say £10,000 a week and driving his Aston Martin or pimped up Range Rover you just despair.

The game is full of obscene greed, corruption , cheating and gives nothing back to the loyal fans .

I've loved football all my life but just look at Wales v England last week in the 6 Nations if you want to see real sport played by men who don't cheat , played until they cant walk though battered and bloodied and then clap the opposition off win or lose .

Football has lost and sold its soul, that's why IMHO the attendances are dropping.

I'm considering choosing a non-league side actually and following them as well as Reading - just to get a flavour of proper down to earth football with none of the circus you get with the big leagues. It might be fun. I don't think the football would be that awful either - some decent players down there.

Good shout. Wealdstone FC is my second team. I watch Reading out of habit and loyalty but I watch Wealdstone out of choice. I enjoy the Stones games so much more. There is a much better atmosphere. The Stones fans have much better songs. There is more abuse directed at the players. Just like from the South Bank of old. The fans are more witty and funny. I can just decide at the last moment if I want to watch a game whereas with Reading it all has to be planned in advance. At Wealdstone I can just make arrangements with mates and rock up at the place. I like the pubs near the ground and the pre and post match drinking and banter. Sadly Reading can't compete with any of that anymore. The stewards are killing the atmosphere inside the ground and the passion has been stamped out. The whole package of watching Reading has lost its enjoyment factor. So despite the fact that Reading are flying in the Championship and the Stones are struggling in the National League South it seems to be more fun watching the Stones.

[Lower West]

Reduce the admission prices. Return football to the working man. Clubs are losing money due to the obscene levels of wages that have to be paid simply to retain players. Appears owners are only interested in the premiership for the money , not with any aim to win anything. Just survival. Destroying great competitions such as the FA Cup in the process. Leicester being a prime example. Hopefully Arsenal will be the next club to fall from grace. As needs an established name to fall on hard times.

[Top Flight]

I think the price you pay on the day should be the same as the advance price. If I wasn't a season ticket holder and wanted to make an on the day decision to watch Reading, I wouldn't go just because the price on the day is higher than the advance price and I would feel that I'm being penalised for late decision making.

As a season ticket holder I don't mind if the club offers people a deal to come in or charges people the same price for not planning ahead. I won't get upset by that. I want the club to grow and the atmosphere to improve.

[bobby1413]

Danny Williams comments on fans booing and attendances - http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... d-12914064

All of the top-six teams I have played against, if you look at Brighton, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield, they all have full stadiums

Reading Attendances

• vs Rotherham: 16711
  vs Blackburn: 15,353
  vs Leeds: 23,055
  vs Newcastle: 23,121
  vs Wolves: 18,629
  vs Brentford: 15,710
  vs Barnsley: 16,222

Putting the Leeds/Newcastle games to one side the average of those is an attendance of 16'525

% of ground filled: 68%

Huddersfield

• vs Preston: 21,254
  vs Norwich: 18,706
  vs Burton: 20,154
  vs Aston Villa: 20,584
  vs Newcastle: 23,213
  vs Reading: 19'894
  vs Leeds: 22'400

Huddersfield have an almost identical stadium capacity. Again taking out Leeds and Newcastle - Average of those games is: 20'118

% of ground filled: 82%

(Got bored at this stage and didn't want to do this for every club)

Other Clubs

• Reading - 68% average
  
  Huddersfield - 82% average
  
  Brighton average is 27.889 with maximum capacity of 30'750. 90% average
  
  Newcastle average is 51.093, maximum capacity is 97% average
  
  Sheffield Wednesday average is 26733. The maximum capacity at present is 33'800. 79% average
  
  Leeds average is 27398 - their capacity is 37'890 - 72% average
  
  Fulham average is 18'954 - their capacity is 25'700 - 73% average
  
  Norwich average is 26'290 - their capacity is 27,244 - 96% average
  
  Derby average is 28'951 - their capacity is 33'597 - 86% average
  
  Preston average is 12'679 - their capacity is 23,404 - 54% average
  
  Brentford average is 10'328 - their capacity is 12,763 - 80% average
  
  
  
  
  Cardiff average is 16265- their capacity is - 33,280 48% average
  
  Barnsley average is 13871 - their capacity is - 23,009 60% average
  
  Ipswich average is 16889 - their capacity is - 30,300 55% average
  
  Wolves average is 21910 - their capacity is - 31,700 69% average
  
  QPR average is 14531 - their capacity is - 18,360 79% average
  
  Bristol City average is 18994 - their capacity is - 27,000 70% average
  
  
  … got fed up – not doing the rest!

Summary

I have way too much time on my hands during this week off work and should have planned to do something more.

Comparing our % attendances to every other club shows that we’re all very similar. Not many clubs are getting sell outs every week. Impressively Norwich are and Derby are similar which I think we all knew

However, our %attendances are pretty poor when taking into account our league position. I think it’s a rubbish argument to say their down because of the type of football we’ve been subjected to. We’re 3rd in the league but getting 16000ish for some games and only really getting a full house against clubs like Newcastle/Leeds/Villa who sold out the away end.

[Winston Smith]

'new money' club, no long term history of big time football in the area, close enough to London for fans to migrate there instead, poor positioning of the stadium, lack of promotion/awareness of the club in the area, recent history of hitting the glass ceiling, football is quite pricey these days.

unless we are in the PL I think the attendances are about as good as they will get.

[LWJ]

Newcastle's 97% is pretty impressive tbf.

Shows they are the only true big club in the Championship..

[The Informant]

Hudds are only getting big fans because this is their best season in years and years. We were the same.

Plus - the football they play is actually worth watching.

[Winston Smith]

If Brighton come down in the first 2 years and don't go str8 back up then I would expect them to be in the same situation we are attendance wise

[Silver Fox]

When do the poor attendance points deductions happen?

[Hound]

These attendances are just the home fans though are they?

Rotherham brought along the square root of f all, and they aren't the first.

Geographically we are at a disadvantage. Dross like Preston, Barnsley, Blackburn are going to have their attendances boosted by the fact they have lots of derbies. Sheff Weds and Leeds will be boosted by their near neighbours taking plenty to try and do over their big boy local rivals. When the fixture list comes out, I expect visiting Reading probably comes bottom of their priority list.

Reading have no local rival to speak of, and barely any other team in the same part of the country. I don't think the club make enough the games against the London teams as they are the ones nearest us, but realistically QPR, Fulham and Brentford don't really care a great deal about us. The Brighton 'rivalry' again comes due to the fact neither team has a near neighbour.

Its certainly not the only issue, but I'd say accounts for a good 5% of our attendance figures.

I also think the attendances will be considerably better next year after a highly enjoyable and successful season this year.

[multisync1830]

As was said to me, why go to all the expense of have safe standing if we can't fill the ground as it is.. RFC have a serious issue if there is no club within 50 miles and a large demographic local and can't ye get more than 12k (discounting away fans) in one place at the same time .

Perhaps it's a 10k club punching above it's weight?

[Nameless]

As was said to me, why go to all the expense of have safe standing if we can't fill the ground as it is.. RFC have a serious issue if there is no club within 50 miles and a large demographic local and can't ye get more than 12k (discounting away fans) in one place at the same time .

Perhaps it's a 10k club punching above it's weight?

Except there are lots of clubs a lot closer than 50 miles !
And even allowing for away fans we rarely get just 12k...

[bobby1413]

I do think the club could do more around town to be visible. It's great to see that big new flashy bus they have going round which is RFC branded.

The sooner they open the train station the better

It should be to our benefit that there's no clubs within 30 miles or whatever it is. Other clubs have other towns/cities attracting new fans or encouraging visitors in.

[multisync1830]

As was said to me, why go to all the expense of have safe standing if we can't fill the ground as it is.. RFC have a serious issue if there is no club within 50 miles and a large demographic local and can't ye get more than 12k (discounting away fans) in one place at the same time .

Perhaps it's a 10k club punching above it's weight?

Except there are lots of clubs a lot closer than 50 miles !
And even allowing for away fans we rarely get just 12k...

I mean big clubs ManU Liverpool etc. Small teams rely on local support . Basingstoke, Reading and Newbury should be enough

[Stranded]

Our average over all 22 games this year is 17,429, which is slightly up on the last 2 seasons.

Looking back over the past few years, we seem to go up to about 19k either side of time in the PL but it always falls back to around 17.5k. That is our fan base at this level.

Huddersfields average attendance has jumped 8k this year compared to last which I think you can just put down to a team doing better than it has done in a very long time.

For Reading, this is actually a fairly "normal" season at this level i.e. in or near the play-off places, so hardly surprising the gates haven't jumped too much. If we'd been closer to the top 2 since the new year, then I think we would have seen larger crowds but as it is, whilst it has been a great season, there hasn't been much in the way of tension to pull in fans who are the more casual attendees.

[The Informant]

Expectations will be high if we're in the champ next season.

Quick early good results and the attendances will be in the late teens every game.

[Nameless]

As was said to me, why go to all the expense of have safe standing if we can't fill the ground as it is.. RFC have a serious issue if there is no club within 50 miles and a large demographic local and can't ye get more than 12k (discounting away fans) in one place at the same time .

Perhaps it's a 10k club punching above it's weight?

Except there are lots of clubs a lot closer than 50 miles !
And even allowing for away fans we rarely get just 12k...

I mean big clubs ManU Liverpool etc. Small teams rely on local support . Basingstoke, Reading and Newbury should be enough

Within 50 miles we have Southampton, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and West Ham. Add in QPR, Fulham, Brentford, Oxford, Swindon, Watford and Wycombe and your claim that there are no clubs within 50 miles looks a bit weak....
Presumably you are also withdrawing your claim that we never get more than 12k home fans ?

Your grasp on facts has never been good has it ?