How long before the fans turn?

[Schards#2]

Real fans don't stop going, but they do criticise. As is their right.

[rg6royal]

Real fans don't stop going, but they do criticise. As is their right.

'greed

I would never even think of turning my back on the club just because of poor results...

[Schards#2]

Difficult to predict - because for about 75% of the posters on HNA? when we win a game we are the greatest team the world has ever seen, and when we lose a game we are crap and everyone deserves sacking.

All credit to the other 25% who are consistent in their views and their arguments regardless of what happened in the last match. I'll leave each of you to decide which category you each belong in...

TBH, I think the opposite is true, 75% have their mind made up, the STG's won't be swayed by a good performance and the RTG's won't be swayed by a year of poor performances.

The remaining 25% ("the Streets") base their opinion on the last performance they saw.

[PLASTIC PIG]

fans have always moaned about ticket prices. I remember the sharp intakes of breath when upon promotion in 1986, fans noticed it now cost £3 to get in. I remember our first away match at Barnsley back in the second tier in 1994, when fans were outraged at having to pay £12 to get in, to the extent that they spent much of the game giving the Barnsley board stick about their prices.

I remember that, thing that pissed most people off was that the Barnsley fans only paid about £5 & had a nice stand with nice seats. We were stuck in what resembled a massive potting shed.

Still, we won 3-0 as I recall & Scott Taylor ripped them to pieces...Happy days

What I wouldn't give to have a fit Scott Taylor in our team right now

[FiNeRaIn]

If we are not at least top 8 by xmas fans will start to turn. Rightly so.

[Big Ern]

The remaining 25% ("the Streets") base their opinion on the last performance they saw.

Or the last post they read.

[Moderator 5]

There is only a tiny percentage of fans who have "walked away" in protest at prices/lack of expenditure by the club etc. Most of those who don't go anymore do so because they can't afford it. Some will be there tonight though, because it's only £10 a ticket.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Given the likely lack of any further signings and SC's imminent statement of how he's happy with the current set up and that he's always got the loan market to ignore when an emergency arises during the season, I reckon that it could be well before christmas that fan's patience finally starts snapping if the results are not "competitive" with those at the top of end of the table.

Of course whether its SC or JM that get the brunt (is he available by the way?) of it remains to be seen.

[papereyes]

There is only a tiny percentage of fans who have "walked away" in protest at prices/lack of expenditure by the club etc. Most of those who don't go anymore do so because they can't afford it. Some will be there tonight though, because it's only £10 a ticket.

Surely a protest about prices and not being able to afford it are similar.

A friend who worked at a Prem club said that they had a churn of 5-10 % every season of old season ticket holders not renewing and new ones coming in. I don't know how accurate he was but that seems a lot to me.

[FiNeRaIn]

There is only a tiny percentage of fans who have "walked away" in protest at prices/lack of expenditure by the club etc. Most of those who don't go anymore do so because they can't afford it. Some will be there tonight though, because it's only £10 a ticket.

I have been to every home league cup game for like the last 10 years. I won't be there tonight.
The club don't deserve anymore money and the team that will be played will be shite and scrape a 1-0 win against crap opposition.
I am so angry at how bitter the management of the club have made me, I wish I had no excuse to be fuming at them.

[Moderator 5]

I agree RE, but when it becomes moaning against the very thing that the fans purport to support then perhaps they should move away, I did and at the moment I do not miss the things that go on at RFC, the only club that i will ever really follow.

And then

Upper West for this old part timer, I aim to sit in WR's seat and shall not move regardless.

I concede this is for a £10 game however. Still seems a bit hypocritical. Either you don't go anymore and you don't miss it. Or you only go to the cheap games!

[rg6royal]

I agree RE, but when it becomes moaning against the very thing that the fans purport to support then perhaps they should move away, I did and at the moment I do not miss the things that go on at RFC, the only club that i will ever really follow.

And then

Upper West for this old part timer, I aim to sit in WR's seat and shall not move regardless.

I concede this is for a £10 game however. Still seems a bit hypocritical. Either you don't go anymore and you don't miss it. Or you only go to the cheap games!

Tbh, £10 for an adult ticket is pretty good.

[Moderator 5]

Yes, it is.

[rg6royal]

The joys of an Under 16's ticket

[dellwoodboy]

I've supported Reading since I was eight (almost 35 years) and have watched the likes of Ollie Kearns and Ray Hiron play for us - errr...to the younger folk out there they weren't very good. But I've honestly never felt quite as cynical as I do now. You look at a player like Jimmy Bullard who would have kept us up and cost us a few million quid but I'm sure the club just thought they could get away with what we have. Essentially, the club appears so disinterested. I do not exaggerate when I say I much preferred the old Elm Park days of the 1970s when we knew we were crap but all had a good afternoon out rather than the false optimism and expectations of these days.

I have also supported Reading for a long time mostly from afar so do not get to very many live games usually just a couple per season but always watch the live games on Sky. So I have been a bit spoilt in recent seasons.After Saturday's loss Iwas more disapointed and depressed even angry about the overall perforance against a side totally more up for the game than us.Over the years I too have experienced many dark days,inadequate ground lack of money etc. In my view after our relegation in 1998 it only took us three(?) seasons to get back into the second tier and in our four seasons there we established ourselves there something we had never done before. As well to help us along the way we had a great new ground and m uch better infrastructure and a manager who had achieved promotions at previous clubs. Then of course to my delight and surprise we gain promotion to the premiership and after our first season achieving 8th place I thought I was in heaven.
Last season always looked as if it would be a lot harder but we managed to keep ourselves out of the relegation places and despite lack of investment in new decent players one always thought we would manage to stay up. And of course we were so close to doing so and I felt that just one good player e.g. Bullard, McFadden etc would have done it for us but instead the players that came in were untried in English football and we all know what happened.And I reckon that is why already on this board you get the feeling that the true fans are turning as well as those that are much more recent additions to the fan base.
I will always support Reading as I'm sure many other posters will but that does't mean that we are not going to want changes when we can see all the good work of recent seasons going down the drain.I accept the ups and downs of supporting a football team but when you can see it all being stuffed up that is the time you turn

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

There is only a tiny percentage of fans who have "walked away" in protest at prices/lack of expenditure by the club etc. Most of those who don't go anymore do so because they can't afford it. Some will be there tonight though, because it's only £10 a ticket.

Surely a protest about prices and not being able to afford it are similar.

A friend who worked at a Prem club said that they had a churn of 5-10 % every season of old season ticket holders not renewing and new ones coming in. I don't know how accurate he was but that seems a lot to me.

I think that'd be pretty normal. Every year you get fans who have had enough for various reasons and stop going, and some more who join.

Given that every year we attract new fans to the club (as does every other club), if we didn't lose any then crowds would just rise forever. Back in the old days of 4000 crowds, we'd have averaged 4000 or so over a decade, but clearly it wasn't the same 4000 people, just as if crowds dropped to 16000 this season, it won't be the same 16000 that watched up in 2003. The key is getting enough new fans in to replace the ones who leave.

[Streets]

Difficult to predict - because for about 75% of the posters on HNA? when we win a game we are the greatest team the world has ever seen, and when we lose a game we are crap and everyone deserves sacking.

All credit to the other 25% who are consistent in their views and their arguments regardless of what happened in the last match. I'll leave each of you to decide which category you each belong in...

TBH, I think the opposite is true, 75% have their mind made up, the STG's won't be swayed by a good performance and the RTG's won't be swayed by a year of poor performances.

The remaining 25% ("the Streets") base their opinion on the last performance they saw.

My opinion on the club never depends on results, never! I'm as happy watching Reading play Yeovil in the LDV Vans as I am watching us play Liverpool.
What has annoyed me is our lack of ambition/commitment, call it what you like, in the transfer market and I'm opting to pick and choose for a while partly because of that and partly because Saturday's I have my kids now.
Results NEVER affect me turning up to the next match, they never have and never will!

[Barry the bird boggler]

I accept the ups and downs of supporting a football team but when you can see it all being stuffed up that is the time you turn

That's it entirely. No attempt made last season to try and stay up and nothing learned so we hit this season with iffy performances and the same unadventurous signings.

If we'd made a couple of impact signings and at least tried to stay up and failed it would have been palatable to some degree but to just throw all the hard work away is just so wasteful and annoying, now we have to start again only this time we have the problem stale players and having to get them up for games.

[Streets]

The remaining 25% ("the Streets") base their opinion on the last performance they saw.

Or the last post they read.

Cheap! I can say I have only missed about 12 games in 5 years, and that's from when I moved to Leeds and since moved back. Sometimes driving down from Leeds twice in a week for the football and always back in the same day.
In general I haven't missed more than 4-5 games a season at home since 96.
So if you want plastic, **** off to Mexico and find it.

[Schards#2]

The remaining 25% ("the Streets") base their opinion on the last performance they saw.

Or the last post they read.

Cheap! I can say I have only missed about 12 games in 5 years, and that's from when I moved to Leeds and since moved back. Sometimes driving down from Leeds twice in a week for the football and always back in the same day.
In general I haven't missed more than 4-5 games a season at home since 96.
So if you want plastic, **** off to Mexico and find it.

No one has said performances affect your attendance rate, we've said it affects your opinions.

I'm with you, i'll still be going even if I think it's crap and there's no hope whatsoever but I don't consider myself disroyal simply by stating I think it's crap.