Do the people of Reading care?

[St Pauli]

There’s a theory that towns that expanded massively as a result of the Industrial Revolution have larger and more loyal support. The reason being that thousands of people moved there very quickly and needed a sense of belonging, and football filled that sense of belonging.

Smaller towns, or towns that were significant before the Industrial Revolution don’t need the sense of football belonging, because the population was not made out of a group of thousands of people settling in a new location in just a few decades.

Reading, compared to Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle etc is not that different in size and significance compared to what it was in pre industrial days, because Reading was a pretty significant medieval town, and is still just a town really.

Same thing seems to hold true other significant medieval towns.

Oxford, York, Lincoln, Peterborough, Exeter, all significant medieval towns that are now just small cities with small clubs and fan bases.

[WestYorksRoyal]

It's a transient population. We don't have loads of families who have lived for generations and worked in shipbuilding/other old industries. The area is a collection of commuter belt towns; a lot of residents have their first team and will go along and watch the local team if they're playing good football.

I think there will be disappointment in what has happened to the club, but not the visceral anger, that is being seen at Everton for example.

This is the closest to it, in my view.

Reading is without doubt the Capital City of Silicon Valley.
So,so many of the local residents living within a 20-30 mile or so radius make up the massive IT-employed workforce.
These people did not grow up here, having served an apprenticeship in the silicon mines at Twyford, but have been recruited from worldwide locations in addition to Universities all across the UK and beyond.
They came purely for the work, and if their employers were to relocate en-masse to Stranraer, the workforce would follow them there.
These are people who bonded with their chosen team (perhaps their birthplace, or in the case of the foreign workforce, the big football franchises that get the global exposure) before they set foot in Berkshire.
I remember a club spokesperson quoting that they could have sold out the Madstad twice over when we were playing the really big fish in the Prem days. I can personally recall sitting near fans in the now Dolan stand spending the whole bloody game oblivious to the action, just trying to get pictures of "Stevie G" on their phone.

I'd argue you've probably gone a bit further than me. Looking back at better days, fans going to the Mad Stad every week wanted the side to win and felt a connection with the club. They weren't just there to watch illustrious opposition.

But it's not the sort of club where generations of families go together, or where it is the main focus of your social life. We have some fans like that of course, but for plenty of fans watching the game is at the expense of other things they could be doing (e.g, visiting other friends or family). And when the football is poor and there is no connection with the club, why should people prioritise it?

Compare that to a situation where your community is based around football, and without it there is nothing to do on a Saturday. You'll go no matter how shit it is.

When I put it like that, maybe being a plastic isn't a bad thing.

[Elm Park Kid]

I've argued in the past that the stadiums location and lack of amenities are negatives in attracting the 20/30s casual football fans who are looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon. That sort of thing where you meet your mate in town for a pint at midday and after 2-3 decide that you'll go to the game. Or maybe if you live a popular bus route like the 17 your dad might decide last minute to take you. It's not like other clubs where going to the match can be a 2 hour detour from the rest of a fun day - going to Reading is basically a 4 hour commitment with travel. Which is big deal if the game and atmosphere is crap.

I've had multiple days where I've met friends in the pub at 1pm and everyone is having a great time, you jump on the bus feeling good but then gradually get fed up with the traffic and arrive with 10 mins before KO and have to decide whether you want to down an overpriced pint or not. You lose, team hasn't played very well, jump back on the bus and sit in another 30 mins of traffic, and by the time you get back to the pub everyone wants to just go home because they've had enough.

I'm not saying these problems are specific to the club, or that's the experience for everyone. Maybe it wouldn't make any difference at all to our attendance if the ground was more central - like people have said, maybe our fans are people travelling in from outside the town anyway, and the sort of crowd i'm describing is a relic of a different footballing time. But it's a reason I stopped going to games.

[tmesis]

There’s a theory that towns that expanded massively as a result of the Industrial Revolution have larger and more loyal support. The reason being that thousands of people moved there very quickly and needed a sense of belonging, and football filled that sense of belonging.

It's probably more that they got into the football league earlier, and obviously joined at a higher level than Reading, and in a lot of cases had some degree of prolonged success to 'bake in' the generational support and become a focus for the identity of the town/area.

If you look at the clubs that joined the football league at the same time as Reading (or the Div 3N clubs that joined a year later), the only ones you would really say have better support than Reading are the ones who got promoted and had a fair degree of success.

People keep going on about why our support is poor, but really I don't think it is. We are not the same club as the Elm Park days. We sit quite comfortably in the championship for support, which is really probably where were ought to be.

I grew up in Bracknell (70s/80s) and didn't know a single person who supported Reading. Not one. It's not that Reading were thought 'not good enough', they just literally weren't even on the radar. That definitely is not the case now, but becoming a team for a region takes time, and a decade of failure doesn't help.

[SCIAG]

It's a transient population. We don't have loads of families who have lived for generations and worked in shipbuilding/other old industries. The area is a collection of commuter belt towns; a lot of residents have their first team and will go along and watch the local team if they're playing good football.

I think there will be disappointment in what has happened to the club, but not the visceral anger, that is being seen at Everton for example.

This is the closest to it, in my view.

Reading is without doubt the Capital City of Silicon Valley.

San Jose might have something to say about that.

[Snowflake Royal]

The club is shit at attracting supports who aren't from a White British background.

We have some fans from other backgrounds (even a few who have played for the first team - Obita, McIntyre, Loader) but fewer than you'd expect.

Seems to me like you only get into the club if you are brought along by a male relative, or maybe a childhood friend. Far fewer get into it through other routes, like moving to the town for university or work and deciding to go along.

Don't think that should be especially controversial. On the other hand "support is declining because traditional fans are being displaced by immigrants" is obviously wrong.

What ethnic background do you think Reading born-and-bred, Scottish international Tom McIntyre is from ?

He has Caribbean ancestry through his maternal grandmother.

Loader and Obita are also locally born-and-bred mixed-race domestic youth internationals. There's basically one generation separating them.

[Forbury Lion]

To be fair, reading is mainly a London/South coast commuter town.

Most people in reading support either a London club because they moved here from the city, or else a South coast club (Brighton, Bournemouth, Southampton etc).

It's not that reading fans don't care, so much as most people that might care, support other teams more.

I think a lot of our developing fan base hasn't returned since COVID. Attendances still feel way below pre-lockdown levels.

The players don't deserve a protest and with the amount of his personal money he spent (albeit poorly), I'm not entirely sure dia does.

Rather than protest at the training ground, let's go across the road to Nirvana for a massage and a dip in the salt-water pool

This. Reading is also popular as a place to live for people who move to the UK from abroad. Whereas somewhere like Sunderland have a community of people who were born and brought up there and so support their hometown club.

Do we have many Chinese residents who would be willing to express their disappointment at the way their local football club has been run?

[Royal_jimmy]

Too many Chelsea fans who can't get in who support us instead. Don't care if we go bust

[Orion1871]

Too many Chelsea fans who can't get in who support us instead. Don't care if we go bust

Would you say Nath is a Chelsea fan, Jimmy?

[From Despair To Where?]

Give it a rest, Jimmy, you're really embarrassing yourself now.

[Winston Biscuit]

If you are not playing at the top level and attracting fans just for that reason then you need to give your local community a reason to want to emotionally buy into you. Being in an affluent area a short distance from London is part of the problem, but when you also decide to move your stadium out of town to an area that is not easy to get to then you are just choosing to add an extra challenge on top.

[Royal_jimmy]

Give it a rest, Jimmy, you're really embarrassing yourself now.

Embarrassing myself by giving a doo doo?

[From Despair To Where?]

No, by having such a condescending and immature attitude towards anyone who doesn't ape your gormless " Only I care" attitude.

There are many on here who fought to save this club from worse peril than we are in now when when you were barely a spunk stain on your parents' mattress so don't lecture us on how to support the club. Get a grip and grow up.

[Snowflake Royal]

I would have gone with by posting like you could be a DD alt, but that works too.

[Loafer]

Give it a rest, Jimmy, you're really embarrassing yourself now.

+1

[Loafer]

Oh stfu DD you don't even go to games

[St Pauli]

Oh stfu DD you don't even go to games

[NathStPaul]

Mystery solved.

[Loafer]

[leon]

Too many Chelsea fans who can't get in who support us instead. Don't care if we go bust

Would you say Nath is a Chelsea fan, Jimmy?

I believe he used to do a Leeds Utd fanzine. So no not Chelsea….