Latest research suggests that under 10 per cent of the local authority area regularly attend Reading matches.

A popular talking point among football supporters, average crowds have been slowly rising since the Covid-19 pandemic, but remain over 5,000 down in the last decade.

Now facing a first season in the third tier since 2002, crowds are expected to continue to decline.

According to social media site The72, only 7.2 per cent of the local authority attend matches at the SCL Stadium.

Over 174,000 are in the local authority, according to the 2021 census, while the club only averaged 12,548 home fans.

This is exactly in the middle of last season's Championship, with a range of almost 20 per cent from top to bottom.

Burnley, last season's runaway winners, topped the chart as 19.7 per cent of the town attend matches.

Averaging 18,613 home fans, in a town of 94,700, sees them narrowly above Middlesbrough, Norwich City and Watford.

At the other end of the table, just 2.7 per cent of Birmingham attend matches at St Andrew's.

A two-club city, Blues averaged over 15,000 in a city of over one million people.

Millwall, Huddersfield Town, Luton Town, Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic all recorded under five per cent.