Should club offer free away coaches ever game?

[bobby1413]

I saw that Stoke have free coach travel for every away game and this season they're continuing this. I'm fairly sure there's another club - Swansea?? - that also do the same.

Would it be worth the club trialling this for a season or two. Just to see if it gets a good uptake.

Just a thought really

[CountryRoyal]

I saw that Stoke have free coach travel for every away game and this season they're continuing this. I'm fairly sure there's another club - Swansea?? - that also do the same.

Would it be worth the club trialling this for a season or two. Just to see if it gets a good uptake.

Just a thought really

Considering how many we take it would hardly be a huge expense.

[bobby1413]

Considering how many we take it would hardly be a huge expense.

Yea I did think if we got another 100-200 fans at Hull or Barnsley it may help increase support to other games.

I don't know if or how it would effect STAR. I know you have to be a member to use the buses currently.

Maybe club could keep this rule. Anyone turning up who isn't pays £10 on the door for membership and that's sorted for the season

[Nameless]

You can't run coaches allowing people to just turn up on spec Bobby.
I don't think there is any real reason why the club should offer free travel to a subsection of fans.
A much better idea would be to do what the did with the Man U tickets and subsidise the cost to ensure we only paid £20. Would mean all travelling fans benefitted,
But why should they ? It's not like the clubmakes a profit...

[West Stand Man]

It would be an interesting (and by that I mean bad) business decision.

In short: business that is losing money decides to sink "investment" into a venture that makes it no income at all and has no tangible marketing benefit. Directors have been sacked for less!

[Mid Sussex Royal]

A lot of fans who go away go to have a beer and something to eat and a look around etc - something you cannot do if you go by coach - unless they've changed it.

Not been on a supporters coach for 30 years

[CountryRoyal]

A lot of fans who go away go to have a beer and something to eat and a look around etc - something you cannot do if you go by coach - unless they've changed it.

Not been on a supporters coach for 30 years

Never really understood that.

I go to (drink and) watch football, I wouldn't walk around the ground unless I had to, to get to the necessary entrance.

The concept of a stadium tour is a bit baffling to me.

[Nameless]

A lot of fans who go away go to have a beer and something to eat and a look around etc - something you cannot do if you go by coach - unless they've changed it.

Not been on a supporters coach for 30 years

Travelling by coach doesn't prevent you from having a beer once you are there.
You can't drink on the coach and the coaches are limited in terms of how early they can arrive and where they can stop en route.
So yes, for those who like to arrive 3 or 4 hours early, have a look round a town, stop at a couple of pubs, maybe stop on the way home for a meal, it's not going to work.
Likewise those who don't live in Reading wouldn't be able to take part, hence my pint of it offering a benefit to a small number of people.
Putting on free coaches to Brentford seems a bit insulting to the Royals fans who travel to games from all over the country and wouldn't get any deserved help. Hence the ticket subsidy being a better and fairer way of spending money, if the club decided they had a few grand spare each week....

[tmesis]

A lot of fans who go away go to have a beer and something to eat and a look around etc - something you cannot do if you go by coach - unless they've changed it.

Not been on a supporters coach for 30 years

Never really understood that.

I go to (drink and) watch football, I wouldn't walk around the ground unless I had to, to get to the necessary entrance.

The concept of a stadium tour is a bit baffling to me.

I guess some people would rather wander off and find a proper pub, rather than drinking in the concrete bunker that's the average football ground concourse.

Sometimes there might be the odd interesting thing nearby. OK, I struggling to think of too many famous places very close to football grounds. I think you'd need to be a massive "Only Fools & Horses" fan to get a thrill of walking behind Bristol City's Dolman stand, and seeing the tower blocks that were Nelson Mandela House in the series, but yeah, I can see why fans often have a wander about rather than just going straight in.


Stadium tours are a completely different beast, and wouldn't be available on a matchday anyway. Tours are usually based around the behind-the-scenes stuff you wouldn't ever see normally. They don't just let you into the seats, and that's it.

[Snowflake Royal]

Seems like it'd be another move in the direction of supporter's growing sense of over-entitlement.

[Forbury Lion]

Let's see how the "free" home buses go first, on the face of it they are free but in reality ticket prices will go up a few £ to cover it.

If they had "free" away travel in effect they will do the same, maybe increase home tickets by £1 and use that to subsidise travel for the small minority who go to away games on the bus.

Better to just try and keep prices down for tickets and allow fans to then use the savings towards making their own way there on bus/train etc

[John Smith]

As much as people knock the supporter's coach, it is very cheap

[Lower West]

Many Reading fans live well away from the Stadium. Except for London trips. For me far easier to drive.

[tee peg]

Maybe do free travel for mid week games.

[Kitsondinho]

If they are running them from Chesterfield for home and away games, I'm all over it!!!