Its all starting to go horribly wrong for Reading !.

[clapham_gull]

Why don't you get a skating rink, a multi-plex cinema and a theme pub attached to the side of the Madjeski and make it really fit in with its surroundings.

Now thats progress...

 

[Inkerman]

Not the Reading home fans then you were apparently cheering Preston passes towards the end of the cup game then.

I think that you may have got confused with the Wimbledon game on Boxing Day. I wasn't there for that game as we had a game but I understand it happened. Tuesday night I didn't hear it - the last 10 minutes was full hearted support for RFC as they scored 6 minutes from the end of normal time.

Full hearted support from those that were still in the ground that is!

 

[burrish gull]

Berkshire, Readings zzzzzzzzzz.... biggest average was 16,000 last season, they will tell you how massive the were in the thirties but post war they are are the same as the likes of Swindon and Peterborough we were getting 20,000 average in the old 2nd division!!! It all went tits us for us in the 90's basically.

 

[clapham_gull]

My heart felt apologies to all Reading fans who populate this board.

I stated that some had cheered the opposition towards the end of their recent cup game.

I would like to make it clear that their loyal fans actually cheered the opposition in a league competition against Wimbledon.

This has been verified by somebody at the game.

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[burrish gull]

So what makes you think you'll get big crowds at Falmer?
You've shirked my question ever since I've asked it.
Can you give me a straight answer, or are you living under an illusion?

Right here goes

1/ 23k registered for tickets last season
2/ No club within 50 miles of Brighton
3/ No modern stadium in Sussex
4/ Withdean has been at 95% capacity for most of it's life

 

[burrish gull]

Oh yes and Brighton are well and truely a sleeping giant

 

[clapham_gull]

Note to NSC regulars.. this is a good old messageboard spat between fans.

Thanks Burrish and Royal - and I for one am enjoying it more than pathetic polls about celebrities and petty arguments between NSC users.

The Reading board may be poor in my opinion - but at least they talk about football (when somebody bothers to post)

 

[burrish gull]

Small town in Swindon you're just a small town in Swindon, small town in SWINON you're just a small town in swindon

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

A la fin de la jour Falmer, although being our only real option of a ground, is far from ideal location-wise because floating supporters who used to just stroll up on the day at the Goldstone, will be deterred by the effort of having to get on a packed train and the general hassle of getting to an out of town ground. IMHO, this will mean that hundreds, possibly thousands of floating supporters will not attend games on a regular basis unless the team is on the verge of something big.

Royal Ali?

 

[clapham_gull]

NSC regulars please note. Royal Ali and Burrish gull are not discussing which car thay own, or which Merchant Bank they work for.

Please continue.........

 

[clapham_gull]

Seriously Ali the transport arrangements at your Stadium can be a bit of a joke. Maybe you have a point there

But, I think with the experience of Withdean - we may be better at it. It is also an integral part of the Falmer planning.

Have your club thought about doing something to make sure that the buses get you back to the station in less than an hour (which I've experienced twice at the Madjeski)

 

[burrish gull]

You really are uninformed about the Withdean situation are'nt you? Brighton FC don't own Withdean never have never will, the ground holds 6,800 of which 5,000 are season ticket holders. That leaves approx 1,800 tickets to split between home and away supporters.
A max of 750 go to away team, very rarely do they take up the allocation which means the Albion can sell the remainder a couple of days before the match, BUT NOT on the match day at the ground like other clubs. Bearing in mind Withdean is a shit hole, averaging around 6,000 is a fantastic testiment to great support we have.
How many times do you have to be told? Until we get Falmer it's pointless to slag our attendances off.

 

[clapham_gull]

Living in London and not owning a car I'm quite used to using public transport. I guess it might be a bit of a culture shock for floating Reading fans and maybe Brighton. Reading strikes me as the sort of place where people drive everywhere because they have to.

But with the almost zero tolerance parking restrictions around Withdean - I think we are now quite used to getting on a bus.

 

[Simster]

So what makes you think you'll get big crowds at Falmer?
You've shirked my question ever since I've asked it.
Can you give me a straight answer, or are you living under an illusion?

You've asked for a decent answer, now you're going to get one:

27,000 applied for tickets against Mansfield when we first got back to Brighton. We finished mid table that season after 3 years of being the 91st best team in the league. Not a bad response, that.

The club is part of the community once more and is marketed properly. From about 1985 to 1998, that simply wasn't the case. The club was next to useless is virtually everything it did, from watching the ground crumble to missing out of every business opportunity available. I'll tell you a story: I had a collegue about 5 years ago who - in 1987 - phoned the club wanting a price to hire the ground one evening (in mid season). The bloke who answered went "err, dunno. How about a hundred quid". That sort of thing doesn't happen any more. You should see the number of local lads in the reserves and the quality of our excellent youth teams.

Historically, we have managed decent crowds when the club was being run reasonably well. Unlike yourselves, that includes several seasons outside the top flight when gates averaged over 20,000.

Our catchment area is enormous. 1.85 million people live in Sussex, and Albion's closest rivals are 40 miles North and 50 miles West. Give them a decent football team at decent facilities and they will come.

Unlike you, there is no one club who traditionally draws it's support from our own catchment area. Sadly for Reading (and I do sympathise with this one), Chelsea draw a lot of their support from the corridor between the M3 (almost down to Basingstoke) and north of the M4 out as far as Slough. Floating fan type kids at school are going to find it tough to support Reading when the other half of their mates all support Chelsea. It's the same thing with West Ham in Southend or Middlesbrough in Hartlepool, or Wolves in Shrewsbury. In Brighton we do of course have loads of kiddie glory hunters, but they support a variety of the big teams. So half your mates support Brighton, half support one of the big teams. You're in the majority if you support the local team then. Hopefully, this pattern will change with time now that you're out of that Elm Park toilet. You need it to - there's no atmosphere at Reading home games otherwise.

I'll put money on Albion averaging 18,000 over the whole season in our first season, whatever division we are in. Even Hull (the 8th biggest city in the country) couldn't do that.

 

[burrish gull]

Tell your dad to get out of his bloody car then the buses might be able to get through

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

With that situation at the Madjeski, I should imagine that the ground starts emptying with 15 minutes to go as the mass scramble begins.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Readings record average ever while at elm park was 15,997
They had 4 seasons in the 90s of 8-10k averages including promotion etc.
Before those 4 they spent 20 years with 6-7k averages and funny enough records biggest average of all time at elm park as above was in the 1930s.

40s 50s 60s 70s 80s etc all very very low indeed and the 30s was the high point in crowds by a mile.

 

[clapham_gull]

A big factor is the weather (yeah.., yeah.. fair weather fans)

You get soaked and cold at the withdean. The empty seats increase when rain is due.

I can't confirm this - but I suspect that a fair few season ticket holders don't come in the rain. Sad but true. We've had a couple or so bad weather games at the Withdean this season where the attendance has dropped.

Being a season ticket holder, and it taking me almost two hours door to door to get to the stadium I've often felt like staying at home... but I always go.


Compare this to QPR tomorrow undercover, where I believe we will take take 3,000 plus. (a couple of hundred seats left yesterday, with an allocation of 3,500 )

 

[burrish gull]

You really are uninformed about the Withdean situation are'nt you? Brighton FC don't own Withdean never have never will, the ground holds 6,800 of which 5,000 are season ticket holders. That leaves approx 1,800 tickets to split between home and away supporters.
A max of 750 go to away team, very rarely do they take up the allocation which means the Albion can sell the remainder a couple of days before the match, BUT NOT on the match day at the ground like other clubs. Bearing in mind Withdean is a shit hole, averaging around 6,000 is a fantastic testiment to great support we have.

Actually Burrish, I know more than most non-Brighton fans about Withdean's situation, Knowing Yorkie, who has explained it to me, in great depth, many many times



I have also been told that they are on sale in Brighton city centre on the morning of the match, but people don't buy them because the club do not advertise them well enough.
I got a ticket, as an away fan, in the Brighton end last year.

How come, if people are desperate to attend, you got higher attendances (by about 1000) in division one than you get in division 2?

Facts are mate:-


2003 season average 6651
2004 season (so far) 6248

Again I plead with you to get your facts right before posting

 

[berkshire seagull]

Reading is about a half hour walk from town, down a busy dual carriageway, and that will deter a lot of the floating Reading fans.
Also parking is appaling, and often the Buses take ages to get all the fans away from the stadium.

If we were in town I think we would average crowds at least 2000 greater than we do, as travel now plays a big part in a Reading fan's matchday arrangements.

Give me a break its one of the buisest routes for buses etc and you have a great shuttle service etc.

Christ its just 3 miles from town not 10
Not to mention its a mile from the mighty whitley estate which is pretty big.