Home vs Away

[Stuka]

I'm aiming this more at non-season ticket holders, but do you find yourself going to a higher proportion of away games to home games?

I realised that 2/3 games I go to are away and it's not just because I live in London. Perhaps the whole 'Family Club' thing might be alienating me a bit. I'll still continue going to the Madejski, but I seem to be putting more of an effort into away visits.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

I massively enjoy away matches more than home matches.

You get the trip there and all the banter that involves, beers before the game - often with friendly banter with away fans, all the anticipation of the match, seeing a different ground and experiencing a different atmosphere - where they away crowd is usually so much louder and more lively because they're all packed into the same area.

Or you get a trip to the MadStad where there's nowhere decent to have a drink, then you get an anodyne match-day experience where if you're not in the target demographic of "middle-class family with young kids" you're hardly acknowledged as being there.

[Badger Finger]

I haven't been to a home game in 7 years.

Long way to travel, no where to drink, pretty turgid atmosphere 90% of the time...

Make 4 or 5 away games a season, and it's just a better experience all round.

If I lived closer, it might be different...

[Stuka]

The only way I can mitigate the lack of amenities around the ground is the bus provided by the Nag's Head.

I guess I can cope with the 'Family Club' thing to an extent, but it is grating on me more and more. I try and take my seat just a few seconds before the kickoff whistle. I'll sit as far away from that drummer and brass band as I can. If Queensly comes near my section I'll use that opportunity to read something in the programme.

[Fox Talbot]

Going to the Madstad when Reading are not playing well is misery - much more than so then going to Elm Park was.

Other than that happy with either and as AL says they are very different experiences. (I bring my own demographic with me rather than submit to what RFC think I should enjoy pre-match / half time).

[Green]

Can't ever imagine a scenario when I'd go and watch a game at the Mad Stad tbh.

As well as the atmosphere, and the lack of facilities (i.e. pubs), it's just such a mission getting there and away from, especially if you're no longer local to the Reading area.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Can't ever imagine a scenario when I'd go and watch a game at the Mad Stad tbh.

As well as the atmosphere, and the lack of facilities (i.e. pubs), it's just such a mission getting there and away from, especially if you're no longer local to the Reading area.

Be thankful you don't support Brighton and their inaccessible craphole.

[Wizard]

As I have a season tickets I ultimately make more home matches, but do prefer the away ones.

Still never had an alcoholic match before, during or after a football match so that bit doesn't bother me.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I hardly ever go to away games (other than pre-season, oddly) these days, but it's not really through preference. It's just nearer. I used to got to a lot of away games and just got sick of the travelling, to the extent that I can rarely be bothered. When you've been somewhere a few times, there isn't the same buzz.

I don't really enjoy the Madejski experience. I don't think the family club angle has that much to do with it. I sit in Y25 and it's not a family area to any degree, but the atmosphere is poor usually. The whole place just feels jaded somehow, as if most fans, to be frank, can't be arsed.

To be honest, the atmosphere everywhere at football these days is just so negative and suffused with casual yet limp antagonism, that if I lived a distance away, I don't think I'd bother.


ps, anyone who thinks there's something that makes our fans different to the rest should just look at this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgS1RFk1cU8
Imagine what people here would say if we did something like that.

[urz13]

That is ghastly

[who are ya?]

Going to the Madejski feels like a chore these days and I can't have been more than 10 times in the last couple of years. Unless you're 13 or under or just a bit of a geek it's really not enjoyable.

The buzz comes flooding str8 back for away days though and they remind me why I love being a football fan tbh

[Stuka]

Which begs the question, is it sustainable to go for the family market?

On the one hand I'm just a guy who goes to a few games. If local families want a day out with all the trappings that the home games lay on than that's fair enough to the Club. Is this a good long term plan?

Also does the Club make any money out of the away tickets I buy off them?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Which begs the question, is it sustainable to go for the family market?

On the one hand I'm just a guy who goes to a few games. If local families want a day out with all the trappings that the home games lay on than that's fair enough to the Club. Is this a good long term plan?

Also does the Club make any money out of the away tickets I buy off them?

Just a very small (<5%)handling charge on the away tickets, so hardly anything significant - it all really goes to the away club.

As to whether the family market is a good long-term plan, it is as long as those families keep coming back. But if football ever gets unfashionable they'll have problems.

In the sort-term, families tend to spend more per head than "traditional" supporters, but they're also a lot more fickle, and more easily lured away by other entertainments.

[Green]

Should Reading position themselves as a family club?

Given the demographics of the area and the way football is going, of course they should. I think Floyd made a post recently saying similar, essentially it's going to happen, just don't expect us to like it.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Economically they have too - but there's a conflict between being a "family club" and all the "back the boys and make some noise" malarkey.

If you want to be a family clubs you won't get the same atmosphere as a club with more "traditional" supporters, so just accept it and don't try to force it with bands, music after goals and clapper-banners etc

[Stuka]

^ Good points

[Whore Jackie]

Economically they have too - but there's a conflict between being a "family club" and all the "back the boys and make some noise" malarkey.

If you want to be a family clubs you won't get the same atmosphere as a club with more "traditional" supporters, so just accept it and don't try to force it with bands, music after goals and clapper-banners etc

Surely the band, music after goals and clapper-banners are aimed at the "family" market? For people who quite like football, have children who've only seen stuff on the TV, Xbox etc, probably haven't sworn allegiance to a particular club and, most crucially, wouldn't have a clue what the "traditional" supporters are singing about. And keep those kids entertained for the 80-odd minutes that isn't end-to-end action.

By and large "traditional" supporters will come what may, we might grumble about these add-ons, the bloke with the mic and the price of a pint, but still stump up the cash each and every season.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Economically they have too - but there's a conflict between being a "family club" and all the "back the boys and make some noise" malarkey.

If you want to be a family clubs you won't get the same atmosphere as a club with more "traditional" supporters, so just accept it and don't try to force it with bands, music after goals and clapper-banners etc

Surely the band, music after goals and clapper-banners are aimed at the "family" market? For people who quite like football, have children who've only seen stuff on the TV, Xbox etc, probably haven't sworn allegiance to a particular club and, most crucially, wouldn't have a clue what the "traditional" supporters are singing about. And keep those kids entertained for the 80-odd minutes that isn't end-to-end action.

By and large "traditional" supporters will come what may, we might grumble about these add-ons, the bloke with the mic and the price of a pint, but still stump up the cash each and every season.

It used to be like that, but the number of "traditional" supporters goes down all the time as ticket prices go up and the "matchday experience" moves away from what attracts them to games. Look at the number of people on this thread who don't go to home games any more, and that number is replicated everywhere - so many watch in the pub, where you can drink, stand with your mates and no-one behind you tells you to sit down if you get excited.

The majority of "traditional supporters", I'd suggest, really fell in love with the game in their teens or twenties when they started going along with a group of mates. That's getting harder and harder when grounds are 75% season-ticket holders and prices go up all the time. The old "let's go to the match tomorrow" is now a thing of the past, it's a military operation requiring pre-planning weeks in advance to go to a PL game these days - and while stadia are selling out to "family" supporters there's less and less chance for the next generation of "traditional" supporters to come along.

FACT : The average age of a Premier League Season ticket holder is 43. Or at least it was a few years ago - it's been going up consistently every year since 1992, but the PL no longer publish the information for some reason. Perhaps they're aware also that ticket pricing and typical matchday experiences mean that there will be no new generation of "traditional" supporters coming through.
Instead there'll be a generation of kids who learnt how to support a football team through watching SoccerAM, who demand instanct success on the pitch and walk away to another entertainment experience as soon as the team stops being as successful as they realise.

[Wimb]

It's not as if the 'traditional' fanbase was exactly huge during the era when you could just pitch up to a match and drink at the pub over the road. What was the average attendance at Elm Park during the 70s-90s? I doubt it ever got above 10,000 and I remember in my youth going to First Division games where the gate was 7-8,000 or so.

Now we have average gates of at least 16k and even in the Burns era we still had a good 10k or so turning up most weeks.

The home match experience will never be as good as the away day experience but that's always been the case. Even 25 years ago I'm sure fans loved piling into the car and heading down the motorway far more than pottering down to Elm Park.

I think AL is right in that the 'traditional' fan might be slowly dying out but the fact attendances continue to grow and demand remains high shows that there's a new type of fan stepping in to take their place.

It's a shame that there can't be some middle ground, which is why safe standing areas and a couple of pubs near to the stadium would be a brilliant idea going forward.

[Stuka]

If there were safe standing areas and more amenities near the ground I would definitely go to more home games.