I mean the cheek of it, commercialising their business interests towards maintaining a profit, at the expense of absolutely nobody really. I can see an argument with ticket prices, but whilst the Jedi was popular, he wasn't playing for us much for the first half of last season and it made no difference and no one seemed unhappy when we were 5th at Christmas.

Its important to remember when we were making a loss, that the same directors were the people footing the operating losses, out of their own pocket. They didn't put up ticket prices to recover those losses, and they honoured a lot of season tickets that had years to run.

So whilst I do sympathise, its somewhat hypocritical to complain about the owners looking to profit and branding over fans desires, when they also were the ones shelling out 5m or so a season in losses to cover us in the championship.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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Also the whole welcoming away fans, throwing them shirts and playing their songs - well that just seems kind of what football should be about. Its a game, a sport - we and them share in common.

The alternative seems an embrace of that old 80s and 90s hooliganism quasi-tribalism. In which being an away fan was tantamount to being the enemy - and going to an away game came with a risk of actually getting a kicking for no reason other than wearing the wrong scarf.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

It's not "Either we give them all free t-shirts and hear their silly songs OR we all have a punch-up", is it?

You can make Away fans' trip accommodating without having to give them a reach-around too.

Don't talk sense.

Better that we despise the manager, stop singing and supporting, have a private party in the corner singing songs nobody sings or even knows and get relegated and gradually return back to the days of selling anyone worth a few quid to stay above 4th from bottom in the Championship. Let's do it.

Best to let everyone get on with what they're best at, and they're best at creating a great atmosphere at times, not trying to change the world or broadcast the opinions of 24,000 people, which are completely contradictory when you look at who and what they've supported and now don't like it when who/what they supported are the reasons for it.

COYP

I seem to remember a story before Christmas that 1500 or so season tickets were cancelled as they had identified unusual behaviour i.e a lot of paper tickets being issued

Not what I said though is it.

Well its hardly a reach around is it, playing a song and throwing them some T-shirts. I can't think of any other business where it would be considered 'good practice' to try to alienate paying customers and make them unwelcome.

Well except s**ty pubs that typically also have a reputation for violence and are frequented by people as a 'badge of their hardness' (before they're closed down because they don't make any money).

Appealing to away fans is going to get bigger and bigger in football, especially in the top flight - Make their away day welcoming and the them.

A lot of Reading fans were very keen on discussing the Crystal cheerleaders when we first introduced them and played Reading. These kinds of differences swing people who might only go to two or three away games.

Edited by jamiemartin721 (05 Jan 2017 6.09pm)

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]