[LetsGoYanks]

For anyone either living in England or who has been to a match, what is it like to attend a match at the Madejski? Are there a bunch of pubs nearby that fans congregate in pre/post-match? Does it get rowdy with visiting supporters of other clubs? How is the atmosphere? Does everyone chant? How many different chants are used and what are they? How much do tickets cost (various ranges) and are close seats readily available? Do they sell much above face value for the really good seats? Are there scalpers or ticket exchanges?

LOL sorry for so many questions but thought this might be an interesting and informative thread!

[RichardL]

Originally Posted by LetsGoYanks

For anyone either living in England or who has been to a match, what is it like to attend a match at the Madejski?

the atmosphere is decent enough this season. The ground's pleasant, if not widly dramatic, and you'll get a good view from any seat, with possibly more legroom than any other ground. The game experience itself kind of depends on the game, as anyone expecting to see "the beautiful game" at a match like the one v Bolton would find that rather than being beautiful, it was more like "the OK in a certain light after a few pints game".

Are there a bunch of pubs nearby that fans congregate in pre/post-match?

Not really. The ground was built on a rubbish tip, next to a crappy speedway track, down the road from a sewage farm, which is why 66 acres of land cost £1. Not a soul lived within half a mile of the place, and those that did lived in an estate called Whitley, which was the kind of place which made you wonder if the whiff that drifted across the area on warm days came from the sewage farm or the estate itself.

Of course that was 8 years ago. The rubbish tip had been landscaped, the sewage farm has gone and is now replaced by houses. The whole area is now surrounded by business parks and a handful of fast food outlets. The nearest thing to an actual pub nearby is the posthouse hotel, which also offers parking. The hotel which is bolted on to one side of the ground (a rather plush 4-star job) offers a bar which serves drinks of a price that makes you expect naked women dancing on poles on the premises, but is pleasant enough. There is also another bar around the other side of the ground, but that is for season ticket holders only, although it'd be a bit of a squeeze if all 18,000 went in there at once.

Beer (lager, bitter & Guinness) is served inside the stadium, although under UK law you can't drink it within sight of the pitch, so you have to stay in the concourse, which can get a bit crowded, and isn't the most agreeable place to have a drink.

There were a couple of pubs 20-30 minutes walk away up the Basingstoke Road, but both have been turned into restaurants, and now the road offers little more than a couple of rather grotty collection of shops. Had the IRA bomb in the street* gone off it'd probably have caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of improvements.

Does it get rowdy with visiting supporters of other clubs?

it depends on who is visiting. Anyone from South Wales is usually best avoided, and Stoke fans have a habit of becoming agitated without provocation, but other than that, violence is incredibly rare, as it is at pretty much every ground.

How is the atmosphere? Does everyone chant? How many different chants are used and what are they?

the atmosphere is greatly improved, but then again it could be awful. No, not everyone chants, but that never happens anywhere. Most vocal is the southern end of the east stand, but the north east corner is getting in on the act a bit. The West stand is sometimes heard to "tut" now and then at controversial moments.

There are no regular songs with stand out from the run of the mill stuff, but you do quite often get one-off songs as piss-takes of a player or fan, which tend do be of the moment.

How much do tickets cost (various ranges) and are close seats readily available? Do they sell much above face value for the really good seats?

tickets range from £32 - £41, and the only place to buy them is from the club, where they'll be at face value. The club has an extensive membership scheme, where tickets are creditted to credit card size smart cards, which limits the opportunity to resell tickets. With 18000 season ticket holders, and 2200 tickets going to away fans, it only leaves around 4000 tickets for general sale. They are not easy to get hold of. The lesser the opposition, the more chance there'd be of getting a ticket. I've never seen anyone selling tickets outside, but then again I haven't gone looking.




* IRA bomb - quite how much of the follwing detail is fact and how much is embellishment, I couldn't say for certain, but the story goes.....

in the early 90s the IRA were (presumably) planning to bomb the Tory pary conference again. Reading is a major train hub, with lines cross from across the country, and it seems a bomb was dropped off in a sports holdall in Reading Station, presumably to be picked up by another IRA member to take it down to the conference. Unluckily for them, in the station that day was a local petty thief from Whitley. He spots the unattended sports bag and thinks "I'll have that" and proceeds to steal the bomb, taking it home with him on the bus. He doesn't think to look in the bag until he gets home, where he gets a little bit of a shock. After hiding it in his garden under some cusions "in case it went off" he decides it's not wise to leave it there, so he takes it round the corner and drops it into a rubbish bin outside Barclays bank. He then calls the police anonymously to tip them off, but is so well know that the policeman answering the call recognises his voice.