A bit worrying

[southbank1871]

According to Andy West on BBCRB yesterday morning, around 10,000 ST holders did not attend Tuesday's match. Nevertheless, the ground was nearly full. Surely that shows the latent demand for tickets among the casual fan who would want to attend on a casual basis if they could get tickets fairly easily.

Not really, as it's widely accepted that there were loads of Liverpool fans in the home end that would be unlikley to attend on a regular basis just to see Reading.

[Behindu]

There were also lots of new fans who weren't liverpool fans.

Plus just becasue someone's first allegiance is to one club it doesn;t mean they won;t come and watch another. I would suggest a largish % of our fan base at one time had another Premier League club as their first club. Most of the Liverpool fans in the home areas would have been local, and may well com eback to watch us against other teams. I know that I brought 3 Liverpool fans to the game who all enjoyed it and want to come back (pencilled in the Arsenal game for that !)

[FinchOwl]

According to Andy West on BBCRB yesterday morning, around 10,000 ST holders did not attend Tuesday's match. Nevertheless, the ground was nearly full. Surely that shows the latent demand for tickets among the casual fan who would want to attend on a casual basis if they could get tickets fairly easily.

Not really, as it's widely accepted that there were loads of Liverpool fans in the home end that would be unlikley to attend on a regular basis just to see Reading.

Liverpool got given an extra 2,000 or so on top of what they would have got for a league game, so that still leaves with 8,000 STH seats to sell, regardless of who bought those seats it shows that we can sell an extra 6,000 seats for the big games, which shows that an extension to 30k is a good idea. We have to accept that people will always come to 'see' liverpool or manure or chelski when we play sides like that. And the club will happily take their money, which ultimately is what this all boils down to for them, an oppurtunity to increase gate reciepts, thus make the club more profitible and in theory spend the money on improvong the team

[Skyline]

What hasn't been mentioned (I don't think) is the latent demand for people who go to matches anyway to be able to introduce extra people to matches - friends, family and so on.

Yes it has been mentioned Dirk - by Woodcote Royal on more than one occasion, which is probably why Schards (at least) appears to have missed it.

Its also been mentioned more than once that an expanded stadium will allow the club a much greater flexibility in terms of pricing, special offers, KFAQ, and so on.

Not to mention (though I already have) the fact that with a higher capacity the club will almost certainly increase its currently rather low-key advertising efforts, as it will actually be worth peoples' whiles to try and get tickets for a game. Was it Southampton that took out ads in our local rags for their games? Would be great to be able to turn the tables and do the same to them.

[Schards#2]

I don't understand Skyline's need to personalise this debate.

If you think the extention should be built, that's fine, I don't and i'm happy to argue the reasons why. Isn't that what a discussion board is all about?

In the end, my opinion or anyone elses on here won't make the slightest difference to the ultimate decision in any case.

[cmonurz]

Its also been mentioned more than once that an expanded stadium will allow the club a much greater flexibility in terms of pricing, special offers, KFAQ, and so on.

Surely this is not a given, and is completely dependent on if we achieve a certain average attendance, i.e. stadium overheads will presumably increase so if the club wants to introduce 'more flexibilty in pricing' then it will need to see a more than proportional increase in overall attendances.

[Dirk Gently]

Its also been mentioned more than once that an expanded stadium will allow the club a much greater flexibility in terms of pricing, special offers, KFAQ, and so on.

Surely this is not a given, and is completely dependent on if we achieve a certain average attendance, i.e. stadium overheads will presumably increase so if the club wants to introduce 'more flexibilty in pricing' then it will need to see a more than proportional increase in overall attendances.

That depends - there's flexibility between games as well as flexibility within games - if that makes sense.

So for the 6 or so matches which will completely sell out each year there'd be no need for doing anything special, but the likes of Wigan & Derby matches etc could be used for KFAQ etc.

It could be argued that the sell-out matches alone would cost-justify the extension, so anything extra is pure profit - especially as stadium overheads will only increase proportionately to increased attendances.

[Royal Lady]

I know that I brought 3 Liverpool fans to the game who all enjoyed it and want to come back (pencilled in the Arsenal game for that !)

Playing devil's advocate here for a moment - isn't bringing away fans into the home end stopping the thousands of genuine Reading fans who want to see games but currently can't? Also, these fans you speak of who support other teams but live in Reading? If they start coming to watch RFC games after the proposed expansion, won't we end up just like Fulham and possibly have a mainly "neutral" stand?

[Stranded]

If they come through the gate and pay their money I doubt the club would care if they are "neutral" or not.

[Behindu]

I know that I brought 3 Liverpool fans to the game who all enjoyed it and want to come back (pencilled in the Arsenal game for that !)

Playing devil's advocate here for a moment - isn't bringing away fans into the home end stopping the thousands of genuine Reading fans who want to see games but currently can't? Also, these fans you speak of who support other teams but live in Reading? If they start coming to watch RFC games after the proposed expansion, won't we end up just like Fulham and possibly have a mainly "neutral" stand?

1. Interesting that you believe there are thousands of genuine Reading fans unable to get to games. I assume this marks the end to your opposition to the extension !

2. Why would anyone need a neutral stand ? Neutrals have always gone to games, there doesn;t seem any logical reason why you need to seperate them out from home fans.

[Royal Lady]

If they come through the gate and pay their money I doubt the club would care if they are "neutral" or not.

Fair comment. However, it will severely damage our "atmosphere" imho.

[RG30]

If they come through the gate and pay their money I doubt the club would care if they are "neutral" or not.

Fair comment. However, it will severely damage our "atmosphere" imho.

We don't do atmosphere at RFC

[Royal Lady]

Hence my inverted commas.

Behindu - I was being "devil's advocate" - didn't say I truly believed there were thousands of fans wishing to be able to purchase tickets.

[weybridgewanderer]

As Reading is full of us immigrants many many reading fans "grew up" with a different allegiance. I will be in Lyon supporting my other team on Tuesday night and back at the mad stad next saturday.

Nothing wrong with targeting these fans of other teams who will come to a few games. If they like what they see they will come back more and more. they'll start bringing their kids, who won't have the same allegiance to the other team and so we get a enw generation of supporters.

Currently, without the expansion, we cannot actract the "neutrals" and turn them into reading fans.

[Behindu]

Hence my inverted commas.

Behindu - I was being "devil's advocate" - didn't say I truly believed there were thousands of fans wishing to be able to purchase tickets.

You don't say

[Behindu]

I'm told Sunday is looking like a sell out - a few hundred tickets left at this point.

Not too shabby for a televised league game against uninspiring opposition on a non standard day off the back of a slightly disappointing run of results.

[Mr Angry]

well, no-one can say that we aren't offering entertainment at the moment!

[RoyalBlue]

I'm told Sunday is looking like a sell out - a few hundred tickets left at this point.

Not too shabby for a televised league game against uninspiring opposition on a non standard day off the back of a slightly disappointing run of results.

I will be absolutely staggered if it is a sell out!

[Dirk Gently]

Presumably there's no way that Derby will have sold their full 2000 0- if they even took the full allocation in the first place.

Do you mean a home sell-out?

[RoyalBlue]

According to Andy West on BBCRB yesterday morning, around 10,000 ST holders did not attend Tuesday's match. Nevertheless, the ground was nearly full. Surely that shows the latent demand for tickets among the casual fan who would want to attend on a casual basis if they could get tickets fairly easily.

Can someone please remind me how many season ticket holders we have in total?