Away following plummeting?

RoyalMatt · by **RoyalMatt** » 25 Oct 2007 13:20

Stranded
RoyalMatt This year I decided that due to just finishing uni and not working full time yet I couldn't rely on my loan/savings to fund a year of watching Reading play everywhere. Last year was always going to be exciting, whether we finished 20th or anywhere higher, so I bought my AST to take every game in.

This year the prices seem to have gone up again for most (Can Pompey really charge Â£6 more for putting a roof on us?). It's scary if you add up the cost of a match with everything taken into account.

I didn't use to say this but there really is more to life than football and I am enjoying the freedom of having some Saturdays spent at home chilling out. I had to ask myself whether i could afford the Â£80-Â£100 for Man U at the start of the season whereas a few years ago I would willingly pay that much! Times change, and my opinion has changed too!

There's a scientific name for what you've just described. It's called Growing Up.

LOL, very good, and probably very accurate!

AF1 · by **AF1** » 25 Oct 2007 13:22

LOLLY @ the ol' 'more to life than football' excuse being rolled out again.

Skyline · by **Skyline** » 25 Oct 2007 13:25

I think a lot of the reasons why people aren't attending away games can also be found in the 'Football Overkill' thread over on General Football.

anR · by **anR** » 25 Oct 2007 13:35

Last season I made the decision to do every single game, with it being such a historic campaign.

This season I am being picky. I have plans for only certain games. I've done Swansea, Sunderland and Portsmouth this season and all the homes, apart for Boro I shall miss. Money and commitments are why I will not do them all again.

Irvinchangeyaname · by **Irvinchangeyaname** » 25 Oct 2007 13:36

For me it's the cost of travel that prevents me attending every game. That, together with Sky changing kick-off imes that make it impossible to travel by public transport without a hotel stay (adding to that cost).

readingbedding · by **readingbedding** » 25 Oct 2007 14:11

Yeah, away games are a lot more expensive than they used to be.
I still see the some of the same familiar faces around, but the hardcore is certainly reducing, and if the hardcore is reducing the main reason is because of expense.

ShrewsandRoyals · by **ShrewsandRoyals** » 25 Oct 2007 14:15

I managed 7 away games last season. This year mine and hubby's work committments have not coincided conveniently with games I would go to. The minis are giving me grief about this. Next year may work out better.

Will be at Brum on the 15th Dec defo (kids should be mascots).

The 17 Bus · by **The 17 Bus** » 25 Oct 2007 15:49

We have done one more away game than at the same point last season, but two less home games.

No furhter games pencilled in at this point, do we miss it, well TBH no, I would if I could afford the prices and could not go, but at current prices I have no regrets.

davis69 · by **davis69** » 25 Oct 2007 17:10

i got an AST but i can see why people don't want to travel 2 games anymore. We play such negative football away from home and end up losong all the time

bobby1413 · by **bobby1413** » 25 Oct 2007 18:40

RG30 Ticket prices certainly doesn't help.

Â£34 for portsmouth
Â£35 for fulham

Behindu · by **Behindu** » 25 Oct 2007 21:12

davis69 i got an AST but i can see why people don't want to travel 2 games anymore. We play such negative football away from home and end up losong all the time

Just the 17 goals in the last couple of away games....

From Despair To Where? · by **From Despair To Where?** » 25 Oct 2007 21:28

It's too bloody expensive, added to the fact that home games are a big enough treck for me, it's a change to have a few weekends when i'm not sitting in a motorway tailback. I'll get to maybe 5 away games this season and i've already done my 2 local games, Bolton and Blackburn.

handbags_harris · by **handbags_harris** » 25 Oct 2007 21:33

RoyalMatt Can Pompey really charge Â£6 more for putting a roof on us?

At least Pompey have a reason, if as flaccid as an 89 year old c0ck. What's Fulham's excuse for charging a fiver more?

davis69 · by **davis69** » 25 Oct 2007 22:26

Behindu
davis69 i got an AST but i can see why people don't want to travel 2 games anymore. We play such negative football away from home and end up losong all the time

Just the 17 goals in the last couple of away games....

agreed but we only start attacking once were 3-0 or 2-0 down and when we do we can't defend

The Quiet Man · by **The Quiet Man** » 25 Oct 2007 22:47

We haven't sold out a single away allocation this season so far and I expect this may hold for the whole season given the fixture list and TV demands. Someone posted on here a few weeks back that there are only 70+ AST down from 700+ last season.

I originally got an AST when the scheme started to lose the hassle of turning up outside the ticket office at ungodly hours to be sure to get tickets to see us play the likes of Brighton. Most of the home regulars around me in the Madstad got AST for the last season because they all thought it would be our one and only trip to the premier division. Their reaction to the greed and hype of prem football was to say thanks and none of them have gone to an away game this season despite normally getting to 7 or 8 games a season in the championship. Reasons are cost and our sh*te brand of football (i.e even last season it was plain that we were less than competitive on some occasions - Liverpool springs to mind as a particularly boring attempt to avoid a thrashing). I suspect that even if we stay in the premier league then this attitude will increase and increasingly home games will be cherry picked and season tickets not renewed - after all it's a tough argument to defend that we have paid premier league prices to see the same side we had in the championship.

cmonurz · by **cmonurz** » 25 Oct 2007 23:30

When a home game for 2 adults, including parking, food and beer, can cost Â£90, it shouldn't really be a surprise that away attendances are dipping.

Woodcote Royal · by **Woodcote Royal** » 26 Oct 2007 11:06

Didn't go to Blackburn 'cause it hasn't got an airport

Having had an AST since they started, it's the poxy M6 and, to a lesser degree, trains (don't get me started on the coaches

) that have started to get to me rather than the football..................as a fan, I think I'm entitled to 2 hours a week watching my team however they might be playing

Anything beyond Manchester is a very long day (or overnighter) unless a plane is involved and, at Â£70 return for Citeh, it's doesn't really cost a lot more.............................I might even risk Easy Jet to get to Merseyside............

Royal Lady · by **Royal Lady** » 26 Oct 2007 11:27

Woodcote reminds me of that Harry Enfield character who always used to say "I am considerably richer than you" but in a brum accent.

SWLR · by **SWLR** » 26 Oct 2007 11:36

Royal Lady Woodcote reminds me of that Harry Enfield character who always used to say "I am considerably richer than you" but in a brum accent.

It was a Black country accent - never mix the two, they take it very personally in the West Midlands

Royal Lady · by **Royal Lady** » 26 Oct 2007 11:45

SWLR
Royal Lady Woodcote reminds me of that Harry Enfield character who always used to say "I am considerably richer than you" but in a brum accent.

It was a Black country accent - never mix the two, they take it very personally in the West Midlands

Oh. Ok.

Away following plummeting?

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