by Stranded »
20 Apr 2017 12:58
Hound there's a potentially very big fan base with all the Berkshire towns like Slough and Newbury. I reckon if we were to establish in the Prem, you'd start getting more people from these places coming along
Absolutely, the key for Reading as a club is getting up to the PL and staying there. 1 or 2 seasons as we have had in the past doesn't do much to grow a fanbase (except on a temporary basis). If we can stay up for 3 or 4 years, then we will get 23k+ every week. At which point we can look to expand the stadium and get more people in from the surrounding areas.
Reading's biggest problem, has and always will be, that it is a largely transient town. A lot of people who live in Reading, don't come from Reading but moved for work/uni. As a result, for a town of Reading's size there is likely a larger percentage of football fans who support another club either as that is there home town, or simply one of the bigger clubs. You also have the issue that for years we were a small lower division club and lots of people travelled up to London of a Saturday to see a higher standard. Those people are lost, bar the odd game, as are their children who may well follow in Dad's footsteps and go up to London to watch Chelsea/West Ham every other Saturday.
So whilst we do have a great potential catchement area, we have a number of challenges in attracting new fans that may be fairly unique given the geography of Reading and the make up of it's residents.
The same issue will apply to surrounding towns - Slough again a transient town with quick links to London. Reading could sustain 28-30k crowds in the PL, but this will always drop back to mid-teens in the Championship simply due to the demographic of the town.