EP or Madstad?

[Jerry St Clair]

EP - 1987 to 1998 11 years
MS - 1998 to 2009 11 years

I'm never going to watch another game at the Madejski. I'd rather kill myself than admit to the majority of my time supporting Reading being in a soulless plastic bowl.

[Royal Prince]

Elm Park '95 - '98 (3 years)
Mad Stad '98 - present (13 years)

Wish I had more time at Elm Park. I was relatively young so my memories are quite vague, but everything seems so much more fun when we get to visit the old away grounds that still somehow exist. There's something strangely satisfying spending you time and money standing on a terrace freezing cold and nipping off at half time to take a whizz in a shed!

[percy_freeman]

Elm Park 1968-1998 30 years
Mad Stad 1998- Present
To beat Elm Park I will still be going when I'm 72!

[peterroyal76]

Elm Park 85-98
Madstad 98-2011

[Man Friday]

Elm Park: 1974-1998 (24 years)
Madstad: 1998 - Present (13 years)

[Ian Royal]

Elm Park '95-'98
Mad Stad '98 - current

[marcusopp]

33 years at Elm Park. It was a toilet, but I miss it.

It was awful, but I also loved it.
However, I voted madstad.
There's no contest really.
The pros of elm park were;
*walking distance from the town (via PFC and/or the goldon pagoda!)
*great atmosphere
*away fans got wet!

The pros of the mad stad
*ample space
*great views
*feels clean (i'd even consider doing a poo in the toilets there)
*is part of us growing as a club. If we'd stayed at elm park we'd have a worse ground than wwfc and oufc

[Ian Royal]

33 years at Elm Park. It was a toilet, but I miss it.

It was awful, but I also loved it.
However, I voted madstad.
There's no contest really.
The pros of elm park were;
*walking distance from the town (via PFC and/or the goldon pagoda!)
*great atmosphere
*away fans got wet!
*unrestricted standing compared to restricted seating

The pros of the mad stad
*ample space
*great views
*feels clean (i'd even consider doing a poo in the toilets there -It's not a great experience but I've had worse)
*is part of us growing as a club. If we'd stayed at elm park we'd have a worse ground than wwfc and oufc

I miss Elm Park a lot and preferred the experience there, but the Mad Stad really puts us on another level and was a big step forward.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I shudder to think what Elm Park would be like if it had gone all-seater. It's like thinking of a girlfriend from your youth and imagining her in her 50s, sagging and remembering the better days.

The Madejski has helped us progress as a club, and it's given us two years in the top flight, which is two more than I ever thought we'd see. And when the crowd are buzzing, the place really does genuinely have a good atmosphere.

It just doesn't happen anywhere near enough though. You feel like an audience, rather than a crowd. If it wasn't for the fact that I have mates who go, I'd probably stop going. That is pretty normal though. Few of the older fans in an era tend to have quite the same fire in the belly they had when they were younger.

[URZZ]

EP '97 - '98
Madejski '98 - Present

[Bluey]

First game, Elm Park, 1964, sitting watching the Royal's just does'nt do it for me. Walk from Rylestone Rd, up Chester St, across Oxford, up Wantage, stand on the cold concrete for two hours and walk back. Or you can drive to Madstad, sit with your blanket and thermos, ' leave me alone '.


EP 34 Madstad 13

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

33 years at Elm Park. It was a toilet, but I miss it.

This. 31 years at EP for me but I miss the "quaint old charm", the smell of stewed onions and the pi55 at the top of the SB. Nothing like it when sheeting with rain under the floodlights in February - and a stroll to the R&T.

[Jerry St Clair]

I miss Elm Park a lot and preferred the experience there, but the Mad Stad really puts us on another level and was a big step forward.

Indeed. When we were at Elm Park we were losing at home to teams like Barnsley. At the Madejski we're now.....oh........

[Terminal Boardom]

Elm Park was a dump but it was our dump. McGhee said famously during the first Gulf War that a stray Iraqi Scud missile had hit Elm Park and caused £2m of improvements. 1971 was my first game there so that makes it about 27 years. As for the Mong Stad, my last visit there was in 2010.

[East Stand Ste]

Elm Park - 1993-1998
Madjeski - 1998-Present

[nailseabiscuitman]

1961-1998 Elm Park
1998-Present Madstad
Only thing I miss about EP is that you could stand somewhere different if you got caught next to a real numpty

[ruprecht]

EP - 6
Spackerdome - 13

[RepressedRoyal]

EP 20 years Mad Stad 13 years. Hard to say which I preferred.....one of my earliest experiences in the South Bank was a 3-0 win v Blackpool, a game that stands out because the Reading fans were singing "A....Lan Ball...he's a oxf*rd, he's a oxf*rd.....which means I saw a 1966 World Cup winner play, even if he did spend his time outside football masturbating. After I started going to pubs around '85 EP became a favourite place for a group of us to break up the time between pub closing time at 2.30 and opening time at 5.30. It was more a social event, they were good times, but it was a rough old place and Reading were, in general, utter shite.

During modern times The Madstad has allowed me to take my two lads to football from a much earlier age than would have been sensible at Elm Park, hence making it easier to brainwash them in to years of misery supporting Reading rather than watching on forlornly as they attach themselves to Chelsea or Manchester United. Some call it child abuse, but believe me, if you can get them down there at aged four or five they know no different. With that in mind I suppose it has to be the Madstad for me.

[grey_squirrel]

EP: first game 1974
MS: since 1998

EP wins hands down for me for more reasons than I could mention on here. Since nothing lasts forever I am just glad I experienced them and can remember, er, most, er, some of them!

[grey_squirrel]

I miss Elm Park a lot and preferred the experience there, but the Mad Stad really puts us on another level and was a big step forward.

Indeed. When we were at Elm Park we were losing at home to teams like Barnsley. At the Madejski we're now.....oh........

We beat Barnsley 7-0 at Elm Park! (1978?)