Where have the hardcore gone? Culture loss.

[3points]

Having moved to the Midlands during the week for my job, I have spent the last three seasons coming back to Reading (at my personal cost) for midweek games. I think I've missed one midweek game as a result. This year, I've already missed both Carabao cup games and will no longer prioritise coming back for league games. I intend to make the Norwich game as I can't make Hull but, unless things improve, I probably won't be coming back for other midweek games (especially if they are Wednesday rather than Tuesday)

[Stranded]

Having moved to the Midlands during the week for my job, I have spent the last three seasons coming back to Reading (at my personal cost) for midweek games. I think I've missed one midweek game as a result. This year, I've already missed both Carabao cup games and will no longer prioritise coming back for league games. I intend to make the Norwich game as I can't make Hull but, unless things improve, I probably won't be coming back for other midweek games (especially if they are Wednesday rather than Tuesday)

And now on TV.

[leon]

Having moved to the Midlands during the week for my job, I have spent the last three seasons coming back to Reading (at my personal cost) for midweek games. I think I've missed one midweek game as a result. This year, I've already missed both Carabao cup games and will no longer prioritise coming back for league games. I intend to make the Norwich game as I can't make Hull but, unless things improve, I probably won't be coming back for other midweek games (especially if they are Wednesday rather than Tuesday)

Yes it does make you wonder why you bother. I haven't lived in Reading for 22 years - but had a season ticket all that time. I used to be fairly strict but in the last 5 years my attendance has diminished to probably 75% (or less) of the home games.

[Forbury Lion]

If you're the winning team or a neutral yeah. As a Reading fan it was awful, I hated it

of course, but at least it made you FEEL something...
and I bet you didn't h8 the bit where we 4 goals up. i bet you oxf*rd loved that.
that was one of the greatest feelings ever, and that still counts, despite the crushing and inevitable heartbreak that followed

Sometimes I watch the highlights and switch off at 4-0. The rest never happened.

I had two Arsenal fans with me at the stadium as guests, they arrived late and missed the first two goals. At 4-0 they said we've won the match, I told them not to bank on it as we'll let a few in.

[Forbury Lion]

Towards the end of games where we're trailing by one goal, I tend to find myself wishing the time away so I can go home for dinner because the team tend to show nothing that suggests to me we're going to surge forward and get a late equaliser.

Attending a match isn't a 90 minute commitment, the local buses get there an hour before kick off and for me it takes about 20 minutes each way to get there add in half time and most of your Saturday afternoon is eaten up and for little return

[Snowflake Royal]

Last thing I want is for team to go down, is a matter of pride we're in the league above.
If they were to go down though, I could just about handle it and could see some positives in being in L1.
Those thinking we'd definitely win more and play better football are a lot more confident about the current shower on the pitch and in the boardroom.

The plus side is right now we could hardly win less.

[royalsmudge]

Last thing I want is for team to go down, is a matter of pride we're in the league above.
If they were to go down though, I could just about handle it and could see some positives in being in L1.
Those thinking we'd definitely win more and play better football are a lot more confident about the current shower on the pitch and in the boardroom.

The plus side is right now we could hardly win less.

we'd struggle to win less in a Champions League group with Juventus, PSG & Barcelona let alone dropping to L1

[Uncle Andy]

If you mean Gary who owned the Prince of wales he still goes, unfortunatly Gary (GP) passed away last year.

[poohs pure]

The entire club is a poisonous pot of piss, has been since lord Knobjocksi built the plastic spackerdome and we all pissed ourselves at what a big club we were.

[Denver Royal]

Bit harsh.

[STAR Liaison]

Many excellent posts in this thread, and some really good, honest thoughts. Would be great if the club came in here and read it (do they?). Suteki made a good point, what does STAR think of all this? How can things be turned around?

How long have you got?

Yes, many sad and heartfelt sentiments in this thread - the worry is not that they are new but the numbers are still growing. We saw some evidence of a significant fall in engagement of older (male) fans a couple of years back. We're now into the 7th season of different kinds of disappointment (thankfully not including going bust or falling into LI) . Our home form has been grim much of the time so what we're hearing is no surprise.

STAR has consistently argued for a more traditional and authentic presentation of the club to balance the club's own emphasis on family friendliness and 'children as the supporters of the future'. We've pushed and applauded measures like the Fanzone, Good Old Boy truck, toning down the guy on the PA and the club has supported our Hall of Fame which we launched in 2016 to stress that we have roots going way back to the 1870s. We back the efforts Club 1871 are making in difficult circumstances. But a lot of time has been spent on the minutiae of 'atmosphere' - like where should the drummer sit or exactly what point should Sweet Caroline kick in rather than the bigger issues which we, and most of the people at the club we talk to, can't control.

Some beliefs - I'd like to call them facts but who knows these days! Maybe they'll help the discussion?

- half of our current match-going supporters never saw a game at Elm Park

- in every era fans most fans feel more fondly about the football they experienced between the ages of 10-30

- every club sees a churn of 10-15% in season ticket holders each season as people die, become infirm, lose their jobs, move away to study, get fed up with football or their club. If it gets higher than 20% you're in trouble because of the domino effect e.g. - if my mate isn't going then the three of us won't go either etc. I think the RFC renewal rate was alright this season but it's obvious season ticket holders are picking their games now - and the bizarre, in my opinion, decision to allow UK access to midweek games on iFollow could have serious effects on future season ticket sales

At some point, some level, we will start winning again and it will be all the better if the club is able to present us all with a story, a mission we can feel involved in and some strong heroic characters who can take it forward. This is something quite different from marketing - you might call it casting. A new era will create its own culture - to replace long-lost icons like The Whiff, the Rendezvous, Terry & June ….

[Millsy]

Ok I started chants on the Southbank.

When we went to madstad our culture was lost. I was one of the chantstarters on thr East Stand in the middle. We were the loudest. We were the left side if the stand. Then the middle.

The biggest loss of culture was reserved seating which screwed it all up for everyone. You could no longer go up to where the noise was and get it going.

Then a million 12 year olds from nowhere started following Reading (your generation? ) and camped out in the south east corner and they sung the same three songs but FAR FAR too quickly. Had no idea how to get a chant going and sustained like good old slow powerful chants that could go on for several minutes. That was another dent to the culture.

Then at some point we started playing music after goals. Another death to the culture.

Then we got promoted and glory hunters joined us who knew nothing of the classic chants or how to start one and thought that giving a suggestion on HNA was the only method of getting one going. More culture death.

Then we were shit.

And now the old boys are old. I've got a couple of kids. I've seen enough ganes, been in enough violent situations etc and now I'm just happy to still have functioning legs and a voice.

What I'm saying is people get old and move on and there is always a change in culture and different generations of chanters will always be asking what happened.

To me it's all about the Southbank and the mad rush and crush that happened whenever we scored a goal. Picking on fat birds in the opposition stand. Ignoring the game and goading the opposition to fights after the match which we hoped would never happen anyway.

Those days have gone. My Reading has changed. One day my kids will go with their replica shirts and reserved seating in the soulless stadium and chant really quickly like the kids these days and then do a half hearted 2 second dance to the music when we score. And one day they will ask where their culture has gone when their kids will be cheering on their holographic phones or something.

I miss the Southbank . Everyone missed their culture inevitably evaporating.

[leon]

So basically we’re saying supporting Reading is like being married. When you first met, you’d try and get up there every chance you got nowadays you’d rather watch it on the Internet.

[Elm Park Kid]

From reading posts on here it almost sounds like the club would be better off if it moved back into a 12,000 seater stadium in the town centre and just accepted life as a league 1/2 outfit.

[CountryRoyal]

From reading posts on here it almost sounds like the club would be better off if it moved back into a 12,000 seater stadium in the town centre and just accepted life as a league 1/2 outfit.

I went to see Forest Green Rovers V Cheltenham in the checkacrowd trophy tonight and trust me we don’t want to be a League Two outfit.

I’m all for the romantisicm of relegation; new away days, maybe get back to winning ways, chance to clear out the rot and refresh and restart.

In truth we don’t know how calamitous relegation could be. Look at the level of apathy now, imagine if if we were to do badly in the league bellow (which is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, in fact I’d think it very likely), what would happen to the already dwindling support? The financial situation?

Yes the idea of relegation may at least partly seem preferable but it really isn’t something to toy with on the presumption it will make us stronger. Not that it matters anyway as I suspect it will happen regardless of what we want.

[leon]

From reading posts on here it almost sounds like the club would be better off if it moved back into a 12,000 seater stadium in the town centre and just accepted life as a league 1/2 outfit.

I went to see Forest Green Rovers V Cheltenham in the checkacrowd trophy tonight and trust me we don’t want to be a League Two outfit.

I’m all for the romantisicm of relegation; new away days, maybe get back to winning ways, chance to clear out the rot and refresh and restart.

In truth we don’t know how calamitous relegation could be. Look at the level of apathy now, imagine if if we were to do badly in the league bellow (which is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, in fact I’d think it very likely), what would happen to the already dwindling support? The financial situation?

Yes the idea of relegation may at least partly seem preferable but it really isn’t something to toy with on the presumption it will make us stronger. Not that it matters anyway as I suspect it will happen regardless of what we want.

Well quite.

[Old Man Andrews]

I was having a think about this stuck in traffic yesterday. Why are the club not doing more offers on home games, especially the ones they know full well are going to be quiet? The Bolton one for example. They are doing NOTHING to incentivize people to turn up to the games they know will be a struggle to sell. Its a oxf*rd easy win lads, you make things cheaper or put on an offer the public cannot refuse then they turn up. Its so basic and an easy win and takes literally a little bit of social media advertising to do. Where is kids for a quid or a buy one get one free adult ticket? Yes the club lose out on a bit of ticket revenue but they will gain massively in terms of food and drink sales and they might just get a few new regular fans out of it.

This is what is worrying me about the club, there is nobody anywhere in it who knows what they are doing from a business or footballing level. That combined is why we are where we are. We are ridiculously short-sighted.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

I was having a think about this stuck in traffic yesterday. Why are the club not doing more offers on home games, especially the ones they know full well are going to be quiet? The Bolton one for example. They are doing NOTHING to incentivize people to turn up to the games they know will be a struggle to sell. Its a oxf*rd easy win lads, you make things cheaper or put on an offer the public cannot refuse then they turn up. Its so basic and an easy win and takes literally a little bit of social media advertising to do. Where is kids for a quid or a buy one get one free adult ticket? Yes the club lose out on a bit of ticket revenue but they will gain massively in terms of food and drink sales and they might just get a few new regular fans out of it.

This is what is worrying me about the club, there is nobody anywhere in it who knows what they are doing from a business or footballing level. That combined is why we are where we are. We are ridiculously short-sighted.

Probably to appease the people who have forked out for season tickets already. If they keep doing deals the incentive for a season ticket falls significantly.

[Old Man Andrews]

I was having a think about this stuck in traffic yesterday. Why are the club not doing more offers on home games, especially the ones they know full well are going to be quiet? The Bolton one for example. They are doing NOTHING to incentivize people to turn up to the games they know will be a struggle to sell. Its a oxf*rd easy win lads, you make things cheaper or put on an offer the public cannot refuse then they turn up. Its so basic and an easy win and takes literally a little bit of social media advertising to do. Where is kids for a quid or a buy one get one free adult ticket? Yes the club lose out on a bit of ticket revenue but they will gain massively in terms of food and drink sales and they might just get a few new regular fans out of it.

This is what is worrying me about the club, there is nobody anywhere in it who knows what they are doing from a business or footballing level. That combined is why we are where we are. We are ridiculously short-sighted.

Probably to appease the people who have forked out for season tickets already. If they keep doing deals the incentive for a season ticket falls significantly.

They can easily work around that though. Give discounts on food and drink for season ticket holders etc. They have to be seen to be doing something for everyone though you're right. I am not saying offer ticket deals on every home game, just those they know are a hard sell. We have to start getting more people in through the door and pretty quickly.

[BR0B0T]

So basically we’re saying supporting Reading is like being married. When you first met, you’d try and get up there every chance you got nowadays you’d rather watch it on the Internet.

depends on the LTRPAWI rate!





AE to TB crossover skillz in effect