From the off, I’ve never written an article before, but my mouth, or thumbs on Twitter/X, have got me here. So be gentle.
Our new owners (can we still call them new after a year?) have recently launched One Royal and, unless you’ve forgotten your email password or been living under a rock, you’ll know what it’s all about.
The basis of it, which I think is good, seems to be around spreading the cost of your season ticket across a 12-month period at no additional cost. That can’t be sniffed at and should,
in its own right, be a really attractive proposition.
What I’m going to focus on is the noise around One Royal outside of that and why for some – perhaps for many – it isn’t landing quite as the club may have envisaged.
Buying a ticket to a football match is usually a pretty simple decision-making process:
“Do I want to watch my football club?”
“Yes.”
“Can I go every other week?”
“Yes – I’ll buy a season ticket then.”
Or:
“No – I’ll buy tickets when I can.”
Simple.
The introduction of One Royal has added a number of new, alien elements to that and turned what was once just a subconscious “I must renew my season ticket/buy a ticket” into a ‘get the kettle on, sit down and have a think’ exercise.
That’s a dangerous place in which to put your customers (fans) because, at the time of writing, there are arguably more reasons not to renew than there are to renew, so you don’t want people thinking too much at this point when it comes to value exchanges!
A lack of engagement
My biggest takeaway from the One Royal launch has been the apparent lack of fan engagement pre-launch, aside from unclear involvement from the Royals Advisory Group and a last-minute, invite-only “we’re doing this” presentation to some other fan groups, who I do think were the right audience. However, that session didn’t give any opportunity for change and possibly didn’t really go to the intentions behind One Royal.
The ownership are beginning to show they do not listen to fans. At all levels they seem to actively ignore any feedback/unrest or pretend not to hear it (see: booing at games). They know there’s a perception among some supporters that we’re becoming a Berkshire version of Wycombe Wanderers (see recruitment) and the One Royal launch has not helped that.
Now, whether that’s fair is another debate entirely, but what is true is that there’s already a chasm in the relationship between club and fans, so this was a golden opportunity to address it. They could’ve set out their vision, explained what they want to achieve and engaged supporters from the start on what is and what isn’t important to them, to build a genuinely brilliant fan experience.
Within minutes of any engagement they would have discovered that, rightly or wrongly, messing with Loyalty Points (or Royalty Points if you’re old enough to remember) is a big no no.
They would also have discovered that there are many different types of Reading supporter, all of whom buy season or match tickets for very different reasons.
Perhaps not something common in their experience, but Reading seem to have a decent number of supporters who buy season tickets simply because they see it as their way of supporting the club, irrespective of whether they can go to games.
They might live abroad or far away. They might only make a handful of games each season, but their connection, loyalty and support come through buying a season ticket with their hard-earned cash, knowing they won’t get close to full value from it. They earn Loyalty Points and feel they’re doing their bit by putting money into the club.
There are supporters who buy season tickets knowing full well they won’t attend every game. Life gets in the way: work commitments, midweek/lunchtime fixtures, Sky Sports moving games that clash with the kids’ swimming lessons.
They know they could probably save money by buying individual tickets because, let’s be honest, there’s no mad scramble for Leam-ball tickets anytime soon, but they still buy a season ticket because that’s part of their relationship with the club.
Then there are supporters like myself: former season-ticket holders who now live further away, have multiple priorities and can only get to games occasionally.
Every trip becomes a full day commitment, making a season-ticket financially pointless. Yet we’re still members, we still have a wedge of Loyalty Points and we have decades of history with the club that we want to continue building.
There are countless other reasons people buy tickets, right up to the simple Saturday afternoon logic of: “What else are you going to do?”
Blowing through the simplicity
One Royal seems to have blown straight through all of that simplicity. Fans who would previously have blindly parted with their cash for a season ticket now have a decision to make. They have to consciously decide what level of subscription they’d like, unless of course they pay it all in one hit.
But the club do not want you doing that, clearly, because if you do, you don’t get any of the benefits set out in the One Royal tiers.
If you want or need to spread the cost monthly, you need a subscription, and that’s about where the clarity ends.
The issues start in the subscriptions being tiered and varying quite a bit in price. An adult Core package in the Sir John Madejski Stand costs £34.55 per month, while the top Elite package – for the same seat – jumps to £63.57 per month. A massive 84% increase.
The club will point to the additional benefits. Your name in the tunnel, your name around the pitch, a free shirt, prize draws for “top prizes”, parking discounts… a bumper sticker.
All benefits, technically, but in all my years supporting Reading, I’ve never heard a fan say: “What would really make me happier is my name in the tunnel and a bumper sticker. Oh yeah, I’d pay big bucks for it too.” And I’ve heard A LOT of things at the Madejski Leasing Dome.
What our fans do care about is Loyalty Points and feeling like they’re being rewarded for their commitment to the club (and my God has our commitment been tested in the past few years). That’s where things start to get messy.
Under the old model, Loyalty Points were simple. You bought your ticket, you earned your points. Nobody needed an Excel document or a degree in mathematics to work out what you needed to buy or what was best value.
Now, Loyalty Points are split by subscription/loyalty tier. Core gives you 10 points per game, Plus gives you 12 and Elite gives you 14. Well, only if you attend, of course.
Oh yeah, if you don’t attend, you only receive half the points. Unless you tell the club that you can’t make it 24 hours before the game and release your seat, in which case you’ll receive five points instead.
Clear and logical?
No, didn’t think so. Release your seat… to who?! We have more empty seats than filled seats in most games. What if you’re ill? What if your work changes on the afternoon of a game, what if your transport lets you down? Well, do better, you’re not loyal enough in the club’s eyes. No. Full. Points. For. You.
Maybe it’s simpler for the single-game tickets, and those who want to go to the odd game but don’t want a membership. Nope, now you won’t earn ANY Loyalty Points at all. WHY?! The stadium’s barely 40% full in the home end. Buy a ticket and it’s like unreserved seating. Incentivise people to go!
The club have said Loyalty Points aren’t that important when it comes to ticket demand, which then again begs the question: why mess with it and why make it a core selling point of the tiers?
And we’re back to the point made earlier: no one was consulted.
What was once a simple transaction now requires supporters to understand subscription tiers, attendance requirements, seat-release schemes and varying loyalty point awards. Maybe it worked at Wycombe?
For supporters who attend every week, perhaps that’s not a problem, but what about the supporter living abroad who buys a season ticket primarily just to support the club? What about the fan whose work commitments mean they miss six or seven games every season? What about the long-distance supporter who carefully chooses the handful of games they can realistically attend?
These are all supporters who have historically demonstrated loyalty in different ways. However, the new system appears to place far greater emphasis on attendance and subscription level than simply backing the boys.
The relentless marketing focuses on tunnel names, shirts, prizes to not see an F1 race and bumper stickers. The debate among fans has focused almost entirely on the confusing Loyalty Point system and whether they are now actually seen as loyal by the club. That alone probably tells you what fans actually value – which a bit of research could’ve easily pointed out.
Whether that’s the intention, many supporters have come away feeling that Loyalty Points are no longer simply a reward for loyalty. They’re becoming a reward for a particular type of loyalty, and that – more than any free shirt or bumper sticker – means the true One Royal message is lost.
One Royal is self-defeating
For a club that currently barely fills 40% of capacity, any scheme should be focussed around getting more bums on seats.
One Royal, in my view, actively does the exact opposite of that. It confuses existing and potential season-ticket holders and, for the single-ticket fans, there’s now no incentive to actually buy one on the spur of the moment.
All of the above is before a proper discussion around the unrelenting marketing of One Royal, the poor designs from an accessibility view, the hidden three-month notice for cancellation, the benefits and – most importantly – do I REALLY want to watch a team coached by Leam Richardson for another season?!
It’s painfully obvious that One Royal has been dreamt up in a boardroom by people who are not fans of Reading Football Club, do not understand the supporters’ relationship to the club and frankly do not care what fans want. This is opposed to bringing fans closer to the club and successfully pushed a widely disillusioned fanbase further away.
After six months of awful football, the club as a whole have just missed an open goal.
