Reading FC 'is a small club' Post pod last week. Discuss

[melonhead]

imo only sig was sold early
lomng had a very long time with us tbf

and both were sold purely to fill holes we couldnt otherwise fill.

we arent in that position any more

You're right, we're not in that position anymore. We don't have anybody to sell.........

Maybe Pearce Morro?

got loads of players that would fetch decenmt money and get into most championship teams

[Avon Royal]

imo only sig was sold early
lomng had a very long time with us tbf

and both were sold purely to fill holes we couldnt otherwise fill.

we arent in that position any more

You're right, we're not in that position anymore. We don't have anybody to sell.........

some people are negative, but speak sense from their own point of view, and i like listening to their views
you are just an unrelenting spanner.

Nice

If you disagree with what I say then make an argument back. I know you're upset like the rest of us, but resorting to personal abuse is a weak response.

[melonhead]

spanner was quite restrained i thought.


and i did state my argument in th enext post

[Avon Royal]

I'm a very sensitive soul.

[SLAMMED]

I have been steaming all week about it.

Get a grip

[Northern Git]

imo only sig was sold early
lomng had a very long time with us tbf

and both were sold purely to fill holes we couldnt otherwise fill.

we arent in that position any more

Maybe if we had not had that 'suprise' legal bill at the end of our last top flight season that was by coincidence the same as the profit we made we may have been able to fill a few 'holes'

[Born 'n Bred Royal]

It's all relative, yes we're small for the Premier League, but we're not the smallest - QPR and Wigan take that mantle.

In the Championship last season we were about 10th in the average attendance list so I don't think we can be considered minnows. We have been regularly getting average attendances of at least 15k to about 18/19k for the last ten years when not in the top flight - I mean christ Swindon are getting 7k every week... Not really sure what any one is trying to achieve by calling us small...

[Royal91]

Football clubs cannot be grouped into just 'big or small'.

Loads of people have views on what the most important criteria is for being a bigger club. For me its about the stadiums capacity utilisation, the trophies won and how many years active in the top flight.

The only thing we can make claim to is the Full Members Cup and does anyone really give a toss about it?

We are a small club but not as small as Wigan.

[REMTARDROYAL]

I'd put as practically level with Wigan and probably below QPR, not an insult, just my perception.

I see the whole big club small club thing as a pyramid or an exponential

There are a handful of big clubs and it takes a lot to get there

There are a good dozen clubs in the next tier, from sleeping giants such as Aston Villa to practically dormant leviathans such as Leeds but also teams that are consistently decent (Norwich spring to mind).

It gets blurred with the next level where there's a handful of nouveau middling clubs and teams that just linger. We're in here, imo. There's 20-30 teams that have more success, most history, whatever. But we're getting into the 'bigger clubs' bracket. But, without petrobillions, it takes time.

And then there's the dregs of the Championship, most of League 1 and practically all of League 2. Small. All broadly as small as each other. The differences are tiny compared to the gap between the bulk of the club and the next level up.

Until 2002 (and maybe 2006 ... ), we were unarguably in that category.

[westongeezer]

Who cares...surley the whole argument is based on vanity....i don't care how other supporters see us, i just care about Reading fc ..

[melonhead]

imo only sig was sold early
lomng had a very long time with us tbf

and both were sold purely to fill holes we couldnt otherwise fill.

we arent in that position any more

Maybe if we had not had that 'suprise' legal bill at the end of our last top flight season that was by coincidence the same as the profit we made we may have been able to fill a few 'holes'

conspiracy theory arse water

and it was a over draught recall from a bank - due to the credit crunch etc
nothing we could have any influence on at all.

not only that, but that was just one year. we operated at a loss every year we were in the prem until JM ran out of money

[melonhead]

It's all relative, yes we're small for the Premier League, but we're not the smallest - QPR and Wigan take that mantle.

In the Championship last season we were about 10th in the average attendance list so I don't think we can be considered minnows. We have been regularly getting average attendances of at least 15k to about 18/19k for the last ten years when not in the top flight - I mean christ Swindon are getting 7k every week... Not really sure what any one is trying to achieve by calling us small...

attendance is only one measure of club size though.


QPR are a massive club historically compared to us- in terms of years at the top, actual silver ware etc.

[Top Flight]

Well, I would like to see the capacity of the stadium extended and Reading having ambitions to genuinely assert themselves as a BIG club.

In my opinion the way to do that is to follow the German model and put the fan at the centre of the idea and build us up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ier-league

Matchday ticket revenue is not the prime income source for an EPL team. I would like to see a 40,000 capacity at the Mad Stad with average ticket prices at £10 for adults and £5 for kids. Get everyone involved in the local club. High prices deter many people when they get to a certain stage in their life. Football should be for football fans at every stage of their lives. When you start having a family and you have small kids, it becomes very difficult to justify spending in excess of £30 for a football match. For a normal wage earner, once you have kids and mortgages, spending more than £50 quid on a ticket, programme, parking etc. feels like you are denying your children something that they need. Whether its clothes or something else. You feel selfish for splurging that sort of money on 90 minutes on a Saturday. I felt selfish and have jacked in my season ticket until further notice. I can't look my kids in the eye if I'm spending £50 on watching Reading and I know that it will come at the cost of something that they will need.

This is how football today is treating their supporters with disdain. Reading will have to break out of this mentality if they have genuine ambitions to be a big club. Until they change their mindset, they will forever be a small club. They will lose alot of fans along the way because people eventually get fed up when they feel they are getting poor value.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Admirable idea, but that would require some long-term planning.

Football doesn't so long-term planning - it just lurches from the latest crisis to the next with no thought of strategy or vision.

[Top Flight]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... -soul.html

Note these comments from the Borussia Chief Exec. He is 100% correct.

[Esteban]

Well, I would like to see the capacity of the stadium extended and Reading having ambitions to genuinely assert themselves as a BIG club.

In my opinion the way to do that is to follow the German model and put the fan at the centre of the idea and build us up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... ier-league

Matchday ticket revenue is not the prime income source for an EPL team. I would like to see a 40,000 capacity at the Mad Stad with average ticket prices at £10 for adults and £5 for kids. Get everyone involved in the local club. High prices deter many people when they get to a certain stage in their life. Football should be for football fans at every stage of their lives. When you start having a family and you have small kids, it becomes very difficult to justify spending in excess of £30 for a football match. For a normal wage earner, once you have kids and mortgages, spending more than £50 quid on a ticket, programme, parking etc. feels like you are denying your children something that they need. Whether its clothes or something else. You feel selfish for splurging that sort of money on 90 minutes on a Saturday. I felt selfish and have jacked in my season ticket until further notice. I can't look my kids in the eye if I'm spending £50 on watching Reading and I know that it will come at the cost of something that they will need.

This is how football today is treating their supporters with disdain. Reading will have to break out of this mentality if they have genuine ambitions to be a big club. Until they change their mindset, they will forever be a small club. They will lose alot of fans along the way because people eventually get fed up when they feel they are getting poor value.

I think this is a great idea and I'm in the same boat you are, but clubs (and especially us) would need a back-up plan in case of relegation. It's hard to think of one for Reading; we don't have a big enough long-term fan base to take the risk. It would be near impossible to convince a fan to part with more money to watch Championship football, if they've been used to paying £10 for PL football. And the reality of it is, we'd never fill a 40k seater stadium in the Championship, even with ticket prices so cheap. We'd attract more than we'd get now, definitely, but I'm skeptical about filling the whole stadium.

That doesn't even take into account the initial cost of expanding the stadium to 40k. We're back to sugar daddies on that one. A very good idea though and one that I'd love to hear feedback from the club on, even though I think I know what the answer would be.