Reading Football Club commercial head, Tim Kilpatrick, believes it is the club's responsibility to make people proud of the town.

A Blackpool native who has been at the club since 2019, Kilpatrick has the unenvious task of turning around falling crowds and getting bums on seats at the SCL Stadium.

Speaking on the popular 1871 podcast, Kilpatrick explained that he did not think many people felt proud to be from Reading- a trend the club want to reverse.

"In the modern world it is very easy to be detached from what’s right in front of you on your doorstep, given the accessibility to Netflix, PlayStation, watching Arsenal or Chelsea on TV- or even getting to Chelsea if you want to watch them live. It is something we need to create emotive connections between our population and the football club. We worked really hard during the anniversary season to try and do lots of activations around that, whether it be the museum, working with local schools to have Reading FC as part of their history syllabus and we’ve got stuff planned for next season.

"I’m not from Reading- I’m from Blackpool- but I don’t feel like a lot of people in Reading are proud to be from Reading? I feel like they should be- it’s an incredibly fast-growing town with incredibly exciting things happening. We, as Reading Football Club, have a responsibility to communicate the great things that Reading is great at. We’re not just Reading Football Club, we’re Reading’s football club."

Average crowds, currently at just over 13,000, have dropped off by over 2,000 since the return from Covid-19 and 6,000 since returning to the second tier in 2013/14.

Reading Chronicle:

Over 22,000 turned out for the 150th anniversary fixture last season, and matches offering cheap tickets to students have attracted the largest turnouts of the campaign, so Kilpatrick is confident his team are heading in the right direction.

"From my perspective, in terms of making a difference in my role, if we’re going to move the needle commercially for the club we need to be growing the fanbase in terms of driving more bums on seats on a regular basis," Kilpatrick said. "When I joined the attendances weren’t much better than what they are now, but there’s been a slight decline and I don’t think Covid’s helped with that. I’m not saying the club can’t do better, I think we can, but in order to move the needle commercially and in the general fan experience and atmosphere we need to drive more people into the stadium. My opinion on what we need to do to do that is we need to try and connect the club to the town and the community a lot more."