A bit worrying

[papereyes]

I used the HNA results page, perhaps the soccerbase page is tickets sold rather than attendance, I saw loads of gaps in the 3 main stands, but the South was mostly full

I'll check the OS, as well, then

Everton 06 - 24053
Middlesboro' 06 - 23855
City 07 - 24092

Everton 07 - 22813

Do you want me to link them?

Now, there is some argument that attendences will be lower for the first few weeks. It is seen in *most* teams, and for *most* divisions.

[papereyes]

Hmmm so are you suggesting that the away end was half full for that game, I think not, it was mostly sold out and there were a lot of Everton folk in the West as well in hospitality areas. I would however agree that there were more gaps today, but the official crowd was just 200 less, how would you explain that?

Tickets sold, but people on holiday. Given that it is the summer.

[The 17 Bus]

I also checked the official site as you were, looks like HNA is wrong,

[papereyes]

I'd certainly one missing fan - and I will be until I get a new, paid, job.

[papereyes]

I'd?

I'm

[The 17 Bus]

I't

[cmonurz]

would demand increase if there was "more flexibility" in ticket prices that stadium expansion may allow?

Amongst all the pathetic arguments on this thread, this is the most salient point. At current ticket prices, we won't sell 30,000 tickets, let alone 38,000.

[Wycombe Royal]

Today, the Everton end was full

No it wasn't, I would reckon on somewhere between two and three hundred empty.

[Schards#2]

No, Schards, 24053.

Sorry, I was looking at the Hob Nob stats.

So the crowd had dropped by well over 1,000 - pretty much, if not all, in the home stand. Thank god there's not a drop in demand for tickets or we might get some really low gates.

[Schards#2]

Sorry, I still cant see any evidence of a drop in demand

Woodcote Royal pictured yesterday:

[Stranded]

Surprised by the lower gate and as I've said before if this remains to be the norm gate wise (or indeed) lower then I'll happily change my mind re extension.

However, as with Schards position that the Chelsea sell out and bigger gate is not enough proof, I will forward that neither is one low crowd in isolation at the time of year that gate at Reading have traditionally been lower.

If by Xmas we are still seeing significantly lower crowds then fair dues, I'll change my position. If we still have sell outs regardless of when they are sold then I shall not.

Just as an aside, I personally know of 6 regulars who weren't there yesterday due to combinations of being at weddings, on holiday, at the V festival and away for a mates b'day.

[Royal Rob]

Even though we didn't hit capacity for the Everton game we should still push ahead and expand to 30,000 seats. I think it is likely that we frequently have a thousand or so seats available on general sale on a matchday. Attendances were comparatively low before we were promoted to the Premier League and now the novelty factor has worn off we've seen a small fall. This is not really surprising.

If Reading are to continue to push forward they need more seats. Since moving to the Madejski attendances have grown slowly year on year. A small fall now is by no means a disaster. An expansion would allow us to give away teams a much bigger allocation to away fans (4-5,000 potentially depending on demand from home fans). While we would all like to see the ground full of Reading fans ultimately we would be maximising our revenue. Also, the club pointed out that extension would allow them to put on 'ticket offers' to attract a new generation of supporters. Cheap kids tickets, four games for the price of three type offers and even bringing a mate is not really possible at present.

Demand has fallen but it is neither surprising or a disaster.

[Coppelled Streets]

We could always do a Southampton and advertise in surrounding towns local news papers. Swindon, Oxford, Brentford.......SOUTHAMPTON.

[BLUES & ROYAL]

Just as an aside, I personally know of 6 regulars who weren't there yesterday due to combinations of being at weddings, on holiday, at the V festival and away for a mates b'day.

To counter that argument I know of three Everton fans who had tickets in the North stand yesterday.

[Woodcote Royal]

Sorry, I still cant see any evidence of a drop in demand

Woodcote Royal pictured yesterday:

What I saw was our Second? league gate below 23k for over a season in a stadium that holds 24k and guess who thinks this justifies not expanding our stadium.....................Mr & Mrs Selfish of the East stand

Never mind that we're in the middle of the holiday season and still had no more than a thousand free seats in the home stands, Mr & Mrs Selfish nearly snap the family keyboard in half in their stampede to hold up this dreadful attendance as proof that demand is falling and, despite all the sellouts since Christmas 2005, this means we shouldn't expand the stadium.

Forget that the club haven't even begun to entice vast swathes of middle England because they've never had enough spare seats to make it worthwhile.

Forget that I can't be alone amongst 18k STH's in not having brought friends to matches since 2005 because getting spare tickets and seats to together has been too difficult.

If seeing your crusade on this matter as both misguided and selfish makes me a "tosser" that's fine by me.

[Platypuss]

This is great!

I'm just curious as to whichh camp I fall in as I believe demand has fallen but also that we should still expand the stadium.

[Royal Lady]

This is great!

I'm just curious as to whichh camp I fall in as I believe demand has fallen but also that we should still expand the stadium.

Isn't it just?! I'm not sure which one of them is going to spontaneously combus first. Schards and myself are merely of the opinion that as demand has fallen and may continue to fall, expanding the stadium at the end of the season would be folly in the long term, until we've had another couple of seasons in a good position in the Prem. We have NEVER stated that we don't want expansion full stop.

We're not being selfish per se, we're thinking of the greater good of this club - if the powers that be, despite the evidence which may appear between now and the end of the season showing that we can't fill the stadium, decide to continue with the expansion, so be it.

[Stranded]

And my point is I can't see how expanding by another 6,000 seats can have a negative impact on the club.

[Royal Lady]

Well, assuming that we then have a total capacity of 30,000 and this time next year we're getting gates of, say for arguments sake, 18,000 - do you think we will be better or worse off as a club? We might have a total capacity of 30,000 and have average gates of 25,000 - does that make us better or worse off?

[Stranded]

Well, assuming that we then have a total capacity of 30,000 and this time next year we're getting gates of, say for arguments sake, 18,000 - do you think we will be better or worse off as a club? We might have a total capacity of 30,000 and have average gates of 25,000 - does that make us better or worse off?

If we're only getting say 18k then I'll doubt we'll be in the Prem (so won't have built anyway) but for the sake of 6,000 seats I'd say that even if our average were to fall and stay below 24k regularly the extra seats would allow for the odd bigger gate (which we would still get).

So in the long term (which is the point) the benefit would at worst be minimal.

The thing is when you have a stadium that has been sold out for as long as it has (most games for 18months) there is only one way that any average attendance can go and that's down, simply because there is no more seats to be had. So any dip (whether for one game or sustained) will be more noticeable because the place has always been full. Until we have the additional seating available we'll never know if the demand is truly there for another 6k. It's a risk but no more a risk than we made in the past.