Reading FC’s low attendances at the Select Car Leasing Stadium this season were discussed recently on a popular football podcast.
Football podcast ‘The Football Ramble’ spoke about Reading FA Cup tie against Carlisle United last weekend in which the Royals were victims of a cup upset.
Reading were 2-0 up and cruising against their non league opposition until a late fightback with two goals in added time saw Carlisle take the game to extra-time.
The visitors won the game 3-2 in extra-time much to the delight of their travelling away support.
Despite Carlise’s impressive away following, there were less than 4,000 in attendance in total at the 24,161 capacity stadium.
“As you know, I think Reading are a disgrace,” joked podcaster Luke Moore.
“I couldn’t get over the fact that Reading were playing a game at home, at the historic Select Car Leasing Stadium, against a non-league team who brought their own sizeable travelling away support and only 3,900 people turned up.
“It was like an empty stadium, in the FA Cup. Is there something happening at Reading that I don’t know about? I know that they’ve been through the mill.
“But could you support your team a bit more? Were they boycotting this game or what – what was going on?”
Pete Donaldson added: “The advertising hoardings throughout the match were saying ‘follow us on Whatsapp’ so maybe all the crowd were just following on there rather than watching at the stadium.”
Reading average home attendance in the 2024/25 season was 12,525 which was the sixth highest for average attendance in League One.
