A bit worrying

[Schards#2]

What's our highest average attendance in the Championship other than the season we won it?

16K? 17K?

I'm sure building the extention won't bankrupt us but huge swathes of empty seats are not good for morale or atmosphere. Seeing an entire tier closed at Elland Road last time we played there was a depressing sight.

The extention only makes any sense whatsoever if we remain in the Premiership.

[Baines]

A small extension of 5-6,000 makes perfect sense as part of the brick-by-brick building process (literally in this instance) that the club has gone through over the past 15 years.

It enables more fans to attend big games, it gives the club more scope to offer deals to increase attendances at smaller games. It also means that casual fans are more likely to attend as, I know from people I've spoken to, the sell-out crowds of last season, have made several 5 or 6 games a season punters believe that there's no point thinking about attending a game without several weeks planning.

The more fans at big games means more revenue immediately. The other two plus points are important elements in building the club up over the long term.

[zac naloen]

What's our highest average attendance in the Championship other than the season we won it?

16K? 17K?

I'm sure building the extention won't bankrupt us but huge swathes of empty seats are not good for morale or atmosphere. Seeing an entire tier closed at Elland Road last time we played there was a depressing sight.

The extention only makes any sense whatsoever if we remain in the Premiership.

You don't think they are still going to expand the stadium if we get relegated do you?

[Platypuss]

extention only makes any sense whatsoever if we remain in the Premiership.

Only?

If we were to get relegated but bounced back well we would frequently get more than 24k in the Championship.

[Schards#2]

What's our highest average attendance in the Championship other than the season we won it?

16K? 17K?

I'm sure building the extention won't bankrupt us but huge swathes of empty seats are not good for morale or atmosphere. Seeing an entire tier closed at Elland Road last time we played there was a depressing sight.

The extention only makes any sense whatsoever if we remain in the Premiership.

You don't think they are still going to expand the stadium if we get relegated do you?

I don't think we would or should but plenty of others do.

[Schards#2]

extention only makes any sense whatsoever if we remain in the Premiership.

Only?

If we were to get relegated but bounced back well we would frequently get more than 24k in the Championship.

It's possible but i'm not certain. Last time had an unchartered territory feel about it which wouldn't be there a second time round.

There are very few clubs that sustain attendances above 24K and I wonder if Reading can season in season out. The rest of this season will be telling, we are unlikely to perform as well as last year so the gates will be a good indication of how much of the new support, garnered in the two most successful years in our history, sticks when the going gets tougher.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

What's our highest average attendance in the Championship other than the season we won it?

16K? 17K?

I'm sure building the extention won't bankrupt us but huge swathes of empty seats are not good for morale or atmosphere. Seeing an entire tier closed at Elland Road last time we played there was a depressing sight.

The extention only makes any sense whatsoever if we remain in the Premiership.

No-one likes to see empty seats, but it isnt the end of the world. I just feel a 30k stadium would serve more purpose than a 25k stadium, and Id be prepared to take the sacrifice of a block of empty seats if needs be.

Whatsmore, on a more obtuse note, having the expansion on the agenda [and I dont know whether we're contracted to it or not] gives the Reading Board more incentive to help us stay up.

[Spirit of Elm Park]

My head tells me that relegation would be the end of any expansion, but I think you have to look slightly out of the box. You would not only be talking about increased revenue from the footballing aspect. You have increased revenue from other areas, such as being used for international events on the football and rugby side of things, concerts and other events which could use the stadium.

You only have to look at the results released by Arsenal yesterday to see the effect of increased revenue. OK, so they may have had the fan base to accomodate the increase, but there is no reason to suggest that if pricing, experience and entertainment are all set correctly we could not fill a 38000 seater stadium at least 25% of the time. The difference being, with our lack of spending in the transfer market, there is a good chance that a large percentage of the cost of expansion has already been put to one side allowing us to reap the benefits at an earlier rather than later stage.

At the end of the day, we spend our time on a forum talking codshit about why our club isn't the same, how it used to be, who's shaggin' who etc, while a team of highly motivated, highly skilled proffessionals are very carefully planning the next step of Reading FC's rise into the Elite of the English and eventually world game. If they weren't doing that I would be worried, and the club would be languishing in Div 1 along with the other clubs who are just happy being there.

[RG30]

At this moment in time, expanding to 30,000 makes perfect sense regardless of whether we are playing Championship or Premiership football. It shouldn't affect our transfer budget with increased parachute payments for the first 2 seasons in the Championship (should we get relegated). The likelyhood is we're going to lose the likes of Shorey and Lita eventually so in today's transfer market will make a mint on those 2 players in particular.

As others have pointed out and the question that will hang around if whether an expansion to 38,000 is right, which remains to be seen.

But going on current ground capacities in the Premiership, 30,000 would see us match the likes of Birmingham and Blackburn while giving us an advantage over Bolton, Fulham, Portsmouth and Wigan.

30,000 also sees us allow give away teams 3,000 away seats which will easily be sold by at least 6 or 7 away sides. It just remains to be seen if Pat Coyne & his staff can properly market the remaining empty seats on a game by game basis.

[SWLR]

RG 30 - agreed

Saved me some typing, ta

[Forbury Lion]

If we get relegated, just give away fans the entire North Stand and reallocate the Reading fans to the new seats. That should see us with good attendances as we will be a big draw for about a season.

[Silver Fox]

Only 10k STHs took up their seats for tonight, having sold 4k to Liverpool fans the other 8K of the 22K attendance must be [mainly] people taking the opportunity to go to a game as they can't normally get a ticket. Is this evidence that the extension is a good idea?

[AF1]

Only 10k STHs took up their seats for tonight, having sold 4k to Liverpool fans the other 8K of the 22K attendance must be [mainly] people living in reading who support Liverpool. Is this evidence that the extension is a good idea?

[Silver Fox]

That was the rebuttal I expected, hence the [mainly] we'll see tonight I guess

[AF1]

If there's not a flurry of 'Liverpool fans in the East Stand' etc threads tomorrow I shall buy a hat and eat it.

[Sharpy]

lol at the stadium artist impression computer graphics in pre match video montage

[Woodcote Royal]

So, if only 10k STH's took up the option to buy their seats for tonight yet we still came close to selling out a televised cup tie, on top of a similar turn out just a few days earlier for those crowd pullers from Wigan ........................should we stop fretting about attendances and concentrate on making sure the builders turn up on time

The club decides to remove the charge for member cards and nearly 47k turn up in 4 days..................................not quite general sale but it worked!!!!

[Alan Partridge]

So, if only 10k STH's took up the option to buy their seats for tonight yet we still came close to selling out a televised cup tie, on top of a similar turn out just a few days earlier for those crowd pullers from Wigan ........................should we stop fretting about attendances and concentrate on making sure the builders turn up on time

The club decides to remove the charge for member cards and nearly 47k turn up in 4 days..................................not quite general sale but it worked!!!!

While i agree that we should expand and i agree with you Woodcote more than the Schards view, I would say a LOT of people in the home ends tonight were not supporting Reading.

I know many friends who are southern armchair Liverpool fans who went tonight, and the amount of red shirts under coats i saw near me tonight was not pleasing.

[Woodcote Royal]

I didn't notice as many as I expected to but there were bound to be quite a few.

However, in some ways it doesn't matter that much.

Even with a lot of apathy from STH's we still came close to selling out an attractive fixture that people could have watched at home or in the pub................a very impressive turn out regardless that bodes well for the future.

[Silver Fox]

YEs, there were Liverpool fans in the home seats but unless they were all very good at sitting on their hands as Torres toyed with us I wouldn't even call them a sizeable minority of the 8K I earlier estimated we sold to non-regulars last night.

I think it's time for this argument to be drawn to a close and book some builders