Why the **** are you still here ?

[Loafer]

I go watch my local isthmian league team now. They give a oxf*rd about the fans, players try hard and its a better experience then watching some over paid primer donars lose.

[tmesis]

I meet up with a mate at games (it used to be two, but one stopped going this season after having a season ticket since 1982). If I had to go on my own, I wouldn't bother. With our home form being so bad for years, it doesn't make it a good day out.

In fact I look forward to weekends when we don't have a home game, which is not a good sign.

[NathStPaul]

I rarely go, been twice this season. On both ocassions they were free tickets, have no intention to help fund the club in its current state and with its current ownership. If I am ever free on a Saturday afternoon I will tend to watch Maidenhead United instead, much better matchday experience.

[paddy20]

Been going since 1962. Mostly its stressful with the occasional wonderful moments like at Brentford when Cureton scored that goal and Leicester away when we won promotion to the premier. for the first time. I think as a true supporter you don't really have a choice. Irrespective of whatever happens you still go. Its in the blood

[RoyalBlue]

Been going since 1962. Mostly its stressful with the occasional wonderful moments like at Brentford when Cureton scored that goal and Leicester away when we won promotion to the premier. for the first time. I think as a true supporter you don't really have a choice. Irrespective of whatever happens you still go. Its in the blood

It is indeed. I would love to kick the habit, given the pain of the last few years, but I think it's pretty much impossible.

[Green]

Been going since 1962. Mostly its stressful with the occasional wonderful moments like at Brentford when Cureton scored that goal and Leicester away when we won promotion to the premier. for the first time. I think as a true supporter you don't really have a choice. Irrespective of whatever happens you still go. Its in the blood

This kind of viewpoint interests me - at what point did it stop becoming entertainment? Maybe it never was.

I guess the way you describe it sounds like there's an element of sunk cost fallacy (you've been supporting them for 60 odd years, you can't pack it in now) along with perhaps fear of missing out (what if after all this time something good finally happens) and you're basically locked in.

I guess for many it's also become habitual - you've centred your weekends around it and find it hard to imagine how else you'd spend
a Saturday afternoon. Or perhaps it's an escape from whatever else you would be doing (probably family life).

[Tilehurstsouthbank]

Been to very few games this season, but it's for a good reason. The Missus is expecting our first child and it's been a hard road for us. I'm willing to sacrifice anything to enjoy this pregnancy and what will be our only child.
Will I have a season ticket next season? More than likely.

[NathStPaul]

Been to very few games this season, but it's for a good reason. The Missus is expecting our first child and it's been a hard road for us. I'm willing to sacrifice anything to enjoy this pregnancy and what will be our only child.
Will I have a season ticket next season? More than likely.

Enjoy the pregnancy? I have never heard that said by a man before, not a criticism btw. Congrats.

[LUX]

I still come over for home and away games from time to time.

last game was H v Coventry, before that QPR. Over for Xmas matches home and away, but Covid caused them to be postponed.

Must admit, I am losing interest in football in general, but am pretty much obsessed with RFC, and their fortunes can dictate my mood.

Been attending games since 1968, aged 7, have been at all the glory boy occasions, from Robin Friday v Tranmere to the play-off and FA Cup semi-final losses.

[Tilehurstsouthbank]

Been to very few games this season, but it's for a good reason. The Missus is expecting our first child and it's been a hard road for us. I'm willing to sacrifice anything to enjoy this pregnancy and what will be our only child.
Will I have a season ticket next season? More than likely.

Enjoy the pregnancy? I have never heard that said by a man before, not a criticism btw. Congrats.

Oh mate there have been and will be trying times between now and early June, but as I said, this has been a long hard journey for us getting to this point and we'll only be able to do this once.

[morganb]

perhaps fear of missing out

I was thinking the same earlier, going along to matches think that today will be the day that it all clicks and we rack up a cricket score and I was there, only to be down heartened at 10 to 5 after we've lost again...

[Getthebeerens]

Had a bit more of a think last night about the club in its current state and what is turning me off it. I think it comes down to a lack of longer term plan / strategy which I just don't see visible anymore.

For instance if the club announced a Director of Football now who would be working on our Squad for next season, it would be something to get behind. I bet right now no one at the club is even looking at the fact we are about to lose a shed load of players.

[Dirk Gently]

perhaps fear of missing out

That's exactly it. For years and years I had a season ticket and went to drab, miserable and depressing matches week-in, week-out always in the fear that if I didn't go I'd miss a 4-3 over Plymouth or an Archie vs Wolves or a similar dramatic and memorable match.

I came to resent the obligation I'd set myself and the opportunity cost of countless other things I'd much rather have been doing with my Saturdays. More than the financial cost, it was time it cost me.

The breakthrough was simply not going and walking away from the obligation. Now I go to games when I feel like it and when I fancy watching football (often not at Reading), and on other Saturdays I do other things I enjoy. It's brilliant, and I'm starting to enjoy football again.

[grey_squirrel]

Mine is a very similar story to many others.

First game in 1974. Intermittent STH over years. Over 70 away grounds visited. But lost the faith completely in 2016.

I found my first thought on waking up on a Saturday morning was ‘Oh God. I’ve got to go to football today’ and with that realisation, I packed it in and haven’t been back once since.

I don’t miss it. The soulless stadium, overpaid, uncaring mercenaries, no local community spirit, endless revolving door of cr@p managers, grotesque financial mis-management, disconnected foreign owners and above all absolute abject, horse-shlt football on the pitch.

I still follow the results and always hope for a win and the avoidance of relegation but sadly ‘My Club’ has long since gone along with my fanaticism.

[windermereROYAL]

I posted this a while ago after losing at home to Sheffield united, and it still stands.

Taking the long cold disappointing walk home last night (and it`s happening far too frequently now for my liking)after whatever that was I got a lot of time to take stock of what I want to do regarding my support for this club.
Seriously I`ve been a fan for longer than I care to remember, 30 years at old Elm park, yes it was a dump but it was our dump with it`s very own unique atmosphere, especially under the lights, lots of those noisy buggers on the bus last night only know this shiny newish bowl with no character,
I`m a nostalgic old fool but I prefer the good time at the old place, stood behind both goals before settling under the clock, great atmosphere when the place was full crammed together.
We had some success, promotions and dancing on the pitch, and dropping down to the old division 4. I remember the sad walk back home across Prospect park and kicking the cat when I got through the front door.
The Simod cup in 88 and of course the bone crushing disappointment of what turned out to the first of many play-off defeats.
We all fought and won the Maxwell plan, before eventually SJM came in to rescue us, I was has excited as anyone when he unveiled plans for a spanking new state of the art stadium, and I watched it as it grew in the distance from my bedroom window from my then home in Southcote.
The big day arrived and the walk down Bennett road thinking this was a new dawn beating Luton 3-0 and thinking the sky is the limit, we soon got promoted to the second tier where we have been ever since except for two brief spells in the top flight,
Nobody can forget the 106 season, that will stay entrenched in my memory till my dying day but sadly now that`s all it is..a memory.
What we have now is a million miles from that team and has been since our second relegation, manager`s come and go but apart from the play-off season when we embarrassed ourselves on national tv , it`s been dreadful for want of a better word.
I woke up early today with what is now an oh too familiar feeling, how much longer can I let this club rule my head in this way?
I`ve said it before since we`ve been a fortress madstad that I might not renew but always have.
That long walk up Bennett road chuntering to myself or to anyone that`s cares to listen is such a predictable reality in the new world of my Reading football club.
Will I renew whatever division we are in? of sodding course I will, we can dream the dream that there are better days on the horizon.

But maybe not!!!

[Norfolk Royal]

I never go to games but strongly believe everyone else should. It really encourages the players.

[tmesis]

I kind of envy the fans who have only got into it in the last few years. Image what it'll be like when things change, if this is all you've known.

[Elm Park Kid]

It's argued that this is simply a generational thing. People tend to love the game most in their 20s and early 30s when it's a way to socialise and have passion about something. Everything is new and exciting, visiting away grounds, going on cup runs and challenging for the promise land. But you get older and that magic subsides for most - you have more important things in your life to worry about, it all becomes a bit same old, same old.

It's like that Mitchell and Webb sketch about the football never ending and everything being hyped to death. We get promoted, we get relegated, we win the big game, lose the big game. It's a cycle that very occasionally ends with the death of a club and starts again with a new one.

If you don't get anything from the experience anymore then just stop. You don't have a moral duty to support a football team, just carry on living your life.

[tmesis]

It's argued that this is simply a generational thing. People tend to love the game most in their 20s and early 30s when it's a way to socialise and have passion about something. Everything is new and exciting, visiting away grounds, going on cup runs and challenging for the promise land. But you get older and that magic subsides for most - you have more important things in your life to worry about, it all becomes a bit same old, same old.

I agree. When you are young, it's brilliant. It's a way of life. You almost live for the next game, travelling away, meeting regular away fans on the train etc. The games are exciting. Going to new grounds is exciting. Playing new clubs, in new divisions is exciting.

Eventually though, it does get a bit 'been there, done that'.

But, I do think that a sustained period of crapness does you in. It doesn't help that we've only had two seasons in the last nine where we've not finished in a low position, and most fans weren't there for one of them, while the other didn't have the most exciting football going.

It's been a long time since there was a sense of optimism at the club. Just a slow deflation of expectations. And with our appalling home form in the last few years, it's not a surprise many don't find going along an attractive prospect.

[Millsy]

Been to very few games this season, but it's for a good reason. The Missus is expecting our first child and it's been a hard road for us. I'm willing to sacrifice anything to enjoy this pregnancy and what will be our only child.
Will I have a season ticket next season? More than likely.

Congrats mate. All the best to you, your Mrs and a potential new Royal.