Clyde1998Royal GingerWhore Jackie Anyone go to the Former Players' Q&A with Rob (and Todd) last night?
Thought it was really good, Rob can certainly talk. 76 years old, but still sharp as a tack. Didn't backdown from any question, and Ady chucked a couple of trickyish ones at him. Loved his anger at the media for not properly covering the Morecambe story and has some pretty sensible ideas on how to reform the football pyramid. Other interesting* bits:
– New players still coming in, but not until next week earliest. Todd is pushing for a striker!
– Academy will stay as Cat 1 as long as they're there, but they are looking at ways to make it more cost efficient.
– Got very frustrated with certain sections of the media and social media pushing the he's closing down the Academy rumours.
– He's a big fan of Noel and will back him, but he's got 3 names they'll interview if Noel leaves for whatever reason. Ainsworth is not on that list.
– New investor will be announced next week. Much like player recruitment, they're very picky on who they bring in to invest.
– Converted some of their investments from loans to equity in order to maximise the funding for the Club.
– Lots of the infrastructure investment at the SCL is to both enhance the fan offering, and also make it more attractive for concerts, events etc. These will take time, aim is every time you go to the stadium you'll see improvements
– No Interest in getting involved with Royal Elm Park. Is aware of significant issues with the methane underneath the car park, sounds like it could be an issue for any development there.
– No plans to change the badge.
– 9.5K STs sold. Want to get up to an average of 16K home crowds by the middle of the season.
– We have a Head of AI! First English club to have one.
– Already using AI in their new scouting software he mentioned at the Purple Turtle. Reckons they'll start to see the benefits of this next season.
– Still chats to Rubén, but more to Ainsworth and Bloomfield. Really rated Rubén, but knew he'd go when their deal collapsed in September 2024.
– Rob isn't much of a drinker! Likes a Guinness and the occasional glass of wine. Todd loves a Bourbon and Amaretto. Together. He's a big man, Todd Junior is massive.
I am a diehard baseball fan as much as I am a Reading fan and the baseballification of what they’re trying to do is evident from the collectible cups to the heavy leaning on analytics. I’m all about it. However, I also work in large music venues and am adamant that going after concerts (and boxing) is a waste of time and effort for a stadium of that size. It falls into a homogeneous middle that suits nobody. Stadium costs are excessive compared to arenas, and the thing that makes up the difference is huge capacity. There’s a gap. If you can sell 20,000 tickets you go to the O2, if you can sell 50,000 you go to one of the big stadiums in London. Artists falling into the gap in between are extremely rare and even if they do fit that gap promoters will sell them the larger dream. I don’t think it’s on.
Agree with concerts. Since the last time we regularly had them at the Mad Stad, better venues have opened up and many of those are closer to London. I doubt there would be much of a financial advantage coming here over say Milton Keynes - and we have a smaller venue. That's without considering venues within London.
Ashton Gate is regularly used for concerts, but Bristol is a bigger place than Reading and can attract people from the West Country and potentially South Wales (Newport and closer). It's probably a city with a more demographically appropriate population too.
Would be great if they can make it work though.
I agree with all your points. Brizzle doesn’t have an arena yet (one is being built) which makes them a bit more viable.
Would be fun to have the gigs, just don’t see it happening with the 02, Wembley Arena, the Hammersmith Apollo, Brixton Academy, Hyde Park and various London stadiums catering for every medium to large gig on the map.
