Reading-wow! We Can Learn From Them

[Scarlet pimple]

I have been in LR with 35000 people and more gates over and near the 30000 mark. in those days people were used to **** facilities and such, and cos LR was mainly terracing and cheap to watch.

Now it is totaly differant, all seating stadiums are expensive for your average fan to watch their team, and fans demand good facilaties as well as good football.

LR was never designed to be all seating, and views in a lot of area's are bad to say the least, coupled with uncomfortable seats, poor facities.

These mount up to why fans dont come in big numbers, plus the cost of st's and matchday tickets.

WE NEED A BIGGER BETTER STADIUM IN THE LOCAL AREA, and then watch the fans come back if we are playing good football with sensable pricing.

[Nodge70]

I have been in LR with 35000 people and more gates over and near the 30000 mark. in those days people were used to **** facilities and such, and cos LR was mainly terracing and cheap to watch.

Now it is totaly differant, all seating stadiums are expensive for your average fan to watch their team, and fans demand good facilaties as well as good football.

LR was never designed to be all seating, and views in a lot of area's are bad to say the least, coupled with uncomfortable seats, poor facities.
These mount up to why fans dont come in big numbers, plus the cost of st's and matchday tickets.

WE NEED A BIGGER BETTER STADIUM IN THE LOCAL AREA, and then watch the fans come back if we are playing good football with sensable pricing.

This is undoubtedly true but, isn't it ironic that the areas converted from terracing are far more comfortable, have better facilities and view than those seats (Ellerslie and SAR Upper) specifically designed to be seated areas!!!

[West Acton]

Personally would love a ground like Readings.

The only change I would make is to have the double tiered stand on both flanks and the two big banks remaining behind the goals to make it a bit different.

Talking about stadium size's Arsenal's supper structure has been built to take another additional tier bringing the capacity to 100,000 however the costs of building the extra tier outweighed the benefits

[stanistheman]

I take it that post is a joke?

You do not build a stadium to a capacity that you could meet 5 times a season. You build it to a level that you can fill or almost fill most of the time.

Liverpool could fill 100,000 against United and Everton - do you think that's what they should build?

Do you want a stadium like Blackburns, Boltons, Wigans...where it is full of empty seats for all but 5 games a season?

But QPR regularly got attendances of 25,000+ in the 70s and sometimes even in the 80's.

It can happen again if QPR win promotion and had a better ground than the antiquated Loftus Road.

As Scarlet Pimple says, LR was not designed to be an all seater stadium. The seats are small, with little leg room and those in the E Rd and SA Rd stands offer poor views. Add the rest of the poor facilities at LR is it any wonder many fans don't want to spend £25+ to attend games?

[silvercue]

But QPR regularly got attendances of 25,000+ in the 70s and sometimes even in the 80's.

In 1975/6 our average attendance was very high at 23k. By 1978/9 it had plummetted to 16k and we were still in Div one. We have generally had poor gates ever since and only once had an average of 16k in the last 10 years.

I am sure gates will be higher, but 25k is plenty for one of the poorest supported clubs in the CCC...16 teams have higher average gates than us in this division!

[W12_Ranger]

I've seen this thread a dozen times and IMO we wouldn't fill a 30000 seater stadium in fact I think we'd struggle to get 20000 for 75% of matches in the PL, its not saying in the long run we couldn't build our fan base up but I wouldn't want us playing in an empty stadium for less glamorous fixtures short term.

Fulham have probably acquired a few thousand fans we would have got had we been in the PL which hasn't helped.

The best way forward IMO is to build a 25000 seater stadia which could be expanded to 35000 in the way Hanwell Ranger has outlined. I would also welcome a ground share with Fulham if it meant the long term future of our club was secure. If we went down the route of ground sharing with Fulham, we'd get the council on side IMO as well which would be beneficial to both teams.

As for expanding LR I refuse to believe we can't rebuild the Loft, cantilever the SAR Roof and put another tier on top of the Ellerslie Road. Logistically speaking developing LR would be a nightmare but it is possible. However, redeveloping LR would probably require us ground sharing for a season with Fulham.

[Scarlet pimple]

In 1975/6 our average attendance was very high at 23k. By 1978/9 it had plummetted to 16k and we were still in Div one. We have generally had poor gates ever since and only once had an average of 16k in the last 10 years.

I am sure gates will be higher, but 25k is plenty for one of the poorest supported clubs in the CCC...16 teams have higher average gates than us in this division!

We lost a lot of fans when the club started to put seats in the paddock, and after protests from fans, the club removed them lol. but it was too late those fans who stopped going to games never came back.

The paddock, b4 seats went in was nearly always packed for games and much of the noise came from there.

That was all lost when exec boxes, then seats went in.


If you look at pics of games from the seventies, have a look and see what i mean about the paddocks being packed out.
Was a great place to watch football from, and helped create a top atmosphere, which then LR was famous for.

[superhoop67]

One of the hardest things in buisness is winning back old customers . Finding new ones is easier

[Ric-Roc]

One of the hardest things in buisness is winning back old customers . Finding new ones is easier

So what are we waiting for???? Lets do it