A Ticket To Ride The Good News Bandwagon

A month is a long time in football. It has been a little over a month since Reading fans last received a piece of bad news regarding the club: March 13 was when the proposed sale for the Bearwood Park training ground to Wycombe Wanderers was first reported.

Fast-forward to now. Since then, the agreement to sell the training ground has collapsed, a Letter of Intent has been agreed with proposed new owners Chiron, we’ve played six games (winning three, drawing two and losing one) and, in doing so, we’ve secured survival in League One for another season. And the bond we’ve developed with the team continues to blossom, with Ruben Selles and Lewis Wing in particular getting a lot of love, and rightly so.

You could argue that the 5-2 loss to Bolton Wanderers was a low point, and while it didn’t do us any favours to our goal difference, it was a loss we had anticipated, and not only this, we had full faith in the team to bounce back and pick up traction with results. Which they did. And both draws were arguably results where we should have picked up wins, having done enough to do so. So those are the only grumbles, and really, it just seems to grow confidence that this is a team heading in the right direction.

Strange really, isn’t it? All things considered, it’s almost been like supporting a normal football club for a while. I could get used to this.

The next good news to arrive from the bandwagon is the release of the season tickets for 2024/25. Firstly, this is good news because I cannot remember in recent times having seen this done so early on.

Secondly, the way it was communicated was fantastic. Last year’s announcement wasn’t handled so well, despite containing many valid points, but it feels like lessons have been learned. The breakdown of what the cost per game is for fans, particularly the kids, is a really clever piece of work by the club. Simple, clear and effective communication.

For example, the cost of renewing a season ticket for someone who is under 13 years old is between £23 and £105. That, as a one-off number, is a pretty good. But the fact that this averages out across 23 games as between £1 and £5 per game really puts into perspective the value.

Photo by Kieran Cleeves/PA Images via Getty Images

I recently bought my daughter premium branded trainers for her birthday. The cost of these trainers was an astonishing £110. Now, while she may get more use out of these over the next year, if I were a betting man, then between now and May next year I’m pretty sure those trainers will have been outgrown and she will have moved onto the next pair.

That’s not true of the season ticket – we’ll still get to go to games together and enjoy the day out. That’s great value, and not just because these designer trainers cost more than a season ticket.

Not only this, but the pricing structure attached to the announcement is so much clearer than many of the other teams in the division. For example, many teams have “early bird” prices where you get it at a lower price if you book before a certain time, and if not, the price goes up. While this could have an appeal, not everyone readily has funds available to commit and this doesn’t feel fair to everyone.

Other teams just don’t have a very clear outline for what to pay at all, unlike the clear graphics and charts provided by Reading, and I know this because I researched it for all the teams in the division! Some teams have more varied age groups, but many have their lowest “cut off” as under-11 or under-12, as opposed to Reading’s at under-13.

For Reading, it’s very clear: if you’re renewing, here’s the price for each of the seat locations based on your age group. If you’re purchasing a new season ticket, here are the prices for those age ranges and locations within the stadium. Not cut-off dates, no messing around with flexible pricing dependent on when you buy the ticket. It’s clear, simple and easy.

In League One this season, 12 teams have released the pricing structure and availability for season-ticket renewals and purchases. While it’s understandable that some teams who are fighting against relegation might be waiting to get a better idea of what league they will be competing in next season before releasing a pricing structure, this is still pretty ‘ahead of the game’ for Reading compared to other teams in the league. In terms of the cost for next season, this places us fourth out of the 12 so far released. I’d say that was good value given our football system and visibly being a club on the rise.

Last season, we ranked 10th out of the 24 League One clubs for having the cheapest season tickets. Despite having just been relegated the Championship, we were only more expensive than nine other clubs. For reference, Fleetwood Town had the cheapest at £269.04 and Shrewsbury Town (!!!) had the most expensive at £475. It’s likely that most clubs will see an increase, but even with the increase considered, Reading is still cheaper than a number of clubs prices from the last season.

Photo by James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images

Listening to the recent TTE podcast with Tim Kilpatrick, it was really interesting to hear about how the staff at Reading have pulled together in these troubled times to support one another, and I really liked hearing about how the graphic designs for the season ticket campaign were created by Rosanne, who isn’t a graphic designer by nature, but you’d never know it. Brilliant stuff, from a club that feels as united behind the scenes as it is on the pitch.

It’s great to see the communication coming from the club getting better. Not just the topics that are being shared and discussed, but the way in which the topics are being put out there for the Royals fans and the rest of the world to consume really is a big step in the right direction for what we have been asking for from the club for some time. This is a quick win, but a good one to see, because it feels like we are starting to be heard and valued more as fans, more than we have done in recent times.

If things continue in this vein, admittedly a big “if” given how things have been with the club recently, then the Reading good-time bandwagon will start to gain momentum soon, and it will really start to pick up speed over the course of the summer if we can get new owners in place.

For now though, it’s just nice to be able to buy tickets to see our club again next season, when a month ago we weren’t even certain sure we’d still exist then. Combined with the improved communications, reasonable pricing for the season tickets and upturn in form from the team, the SCL should be a real fortress for us next season with the atmosphere we will bring. And I can’t wait.