General enshittification of the club?

[Green]

There are basic things which should've been done to improve fan experience, which hasn't been done. Things like cleaning the toilets; fixing the taps; replacing faded/damaged/missing signage; ensuring staff are actually knowledgeable; etc. These things have an impact as to whether people would want to return to the stadium and shouldn't cost very much.

Most of what they've done so far in 'improve fan experience' seems to be based on gimmicks or low priority things: the fireworks; safe standing; the training ground visit.

Arguably the only major thing the current owners are doing is relaying the pitch and I believe that was required to be done due to the subsidence and unevenness. If I'm remembering what I was told by a member of the ground staff a couple of years ago correctly, we were having to get special dispensation from the EFL to keep playing on the pitch and we were only getting that due to our ownership situation.

I kind of see your point but I do think (and this is crazy to say because of how he basically saved our entire club), he can't win.

He does all the things I mentioned, recruited new and innovative people, tried to engage and speak to fans, and still people will moan about toilets, signage and staff.

Had he started out by fixing the bogs, educating staff and putting signs up, people would say "all he's done is put some signs up"

I agree with another poster that people are expecting too much. Poeple think the club and business revolve around the 90 minutes we spend there but it's obviously far greater than that. From the 100s of staff working from HR to Finance, Legal, etc, to the vehicles they own, youth staff, the training sites, the funds for equipment, the maintance of all aspects from the office space, to Bearwood, to the ground.

Yet fans are focussing on the taps being shit, and the signs being dull/removed.

As I said, I get your point, I really do - but I think fans need to be realistic and also reasonable.

People complaining about taps and toilets or bathrooms as the yanks call them, are relevant.
They are the basics that any customer would expect from a supposedly modern sports stadium.

faucets

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Not sure what people have been expecting tbh.

Reclining padded seats?
VR enhancement headsets?
Prawn sandwiches delivered by topless staff?
10 different 5 star restaurants on the concourse?
FIreworks before and after every game?
Red arrows for every half time?


Not enough that he's saved the club from ruin and is taking time to sort things out in a sound and sustainable way?

ffs

He didn’t save the club from ruin. He strong armed himself into a position where only he could by it, knowing that he didn’t have enough money. His only intention here is to strip back costs as much as possible to show the club to be artificially profitable.

Other buyers were there with more money and more prowess, but he just couldn’t let it lie. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills because he took on a project he cant afford.

What in God's name are you talking about? How can he not afford it? He's paying the wages, he's installing new speakers, he's upgrading the pitch, he's got food back in the training ground, hotels for players before games, new investors and partnership deals, investment in Royals TV and social media, and AI.

I will never understand fans like you at all. He agreed to buy the club a year before he did but DY f.cked him about and so rightly took legal action.

Either way, he did save the club from ruin. How can you even argue that. We were mere days from league expulsion.

He’s had to borrow money to do all of the improvements to the stadium. We also have a huge amount of suppliers who aren’t paid in a timely manner.

What partnership deals are you referring to?

What investment has there been into social media? And what tangible differences have you seen from the use of AI?

He was going to buy the club a year earlier than he did, but Howe knew he didn’t have the funds to be able run the club so determined there were better suitors out there. He was paid back his loan with interest but didn’t return the security he had of the club.

We had the opportunity to be taken over by billionaires with a good track record in football, but his ego or his urge to try and make a quick profit (or both) wouldn’t let the club move onto much better solutions.

[Marcel]

He didn’t save the club from ruin. He strong armed himself into a position where only he could by it, knowing that he didn’t have enough money. His only intention here is to strip back costs as much as possible to show the club to be artificially profitable.

Other buyers were there with more money and more prowess, but he just couldn’t let it lie. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills because he took on a project he cant afford.

What in God's name are you talking about? How can he not afford it? He's paying the wages, he's installing new speakers, he's upgrading the pitch, he's got food back in the training ground, hotels for players before games, new investors and partnership deals, investment in Royals TV and social media, and AI.

I will never understand fans like you at all. He agreed to buy the club a year before he did but DY f.cked him about and so rightly took legal action.

Either way, he did save the club from ruin. How can you even argue that. We were mere days from league expulsion.

He’s had to borrow money to do all of the improvements to the stadium. We also have a huge amount of suppliers who aren’t paid in a timely manner.

What partnership deals are you referring to?

What investment has there been into social media? And what tangible differences have you seen from the use of AI?

He was going to buy the club a year earlier than he did, but Howe knew he didn’t have the funds to be able run the club so determined there were better suitors out there. He was paid back his loan with interest but didn’t return the security he had of the club.

We had the opportunity to be taken over by billionaires with a good track record in football, but his ego or his urge to try and make a quick profit (or both) wouldn’t let the club move onto much better solutions.

And this led to him installing an inexperienced CEO who in turn landed the club with a clown of a manager with no ambition to even attempt to play any form of watchable football.

[morganb]

What's more important - shiny taps or a decent manager
What's more important - new signs or an experienced CEO
What's more important - fireworks or promotion
Sounds simple doesn't it?
Or perhaps we can have a mixture of both?

[Green]

What's more important - shiny taps or a decent manager
What's more important - new signs or an experienced CEO
What's more important - fireworks or promotion
Sounds simple doesn't it?
Or perhaps we can have a mixture of both?

Seems you've missed the nuance of the conversation entirely.

[katweslowski]

People complaining about taps and toilets or bathrooms as the yanks call them, are relevant.
They are the basics that any customer would expect from a supposedly modern sports stadium.

FFS, I didn't say they weren't relevant. In fact, I said I completely got the point but people need to be patient and realistic.

The club was in a complete state and some fans seem to be thinking that what they see and experience for a single 90 minute visit is the most vital. Forgetting the debts, the messed up admin, the basics just not being there at all.

[Green]

What would Dave Brailsford say about the lustre of the taps.

[Marcel]

People complaining about taps and toilets or bathrooms as the yanks call them, are relevant.
They are the basics that any customer would expect from a supposedly modern sports stadium.

FFS, I didn't say they weren't relevant. In fact, I said I completely got the point but people need to be patient and realistic.

The club was in a complete state and some fans seem to be thinking that what they see and experience for a single 90 minute visit is the most vital. Forgetting the debts, the messed up admin, the basics just not being there at all.

I and most fans only visit for a 90 minute football match so that should be a priority to the owners if they expect people to come back and purchase season tickets. We are customers after all.
The debts and messed up admin is not the supporters problem

[SouthDownsRoyal]

What's more important - shiny taps or a decent manager
What's more important - new signs or an experienced CEO
What's more important - fireworks or promotion
Sounds simple doesn't it?
Or perhaps we can have a mixture of both?

Think we’ve on,y got fireworks out of all that so far

[Marcel]

What's more important - shiny taps or a decent manager
What's more important - new signs or an experienced CEO
What's more important - fireworks or promotion
Sounds simple doesn't it?
Or perhaps we can have a mixture of both?

Think we’ve on,y got fireworks out of all that so far

Yeah and definitely no shiny taps or decent manager

[Webster750]

Rick Catania tweeted earlier about Reading’s new AI partnership with Stelia, NVIDIA and Lenovo, driven by the club’s Head of AI, Stuart Fenton.

When asked what the partnership actually means, Rick replied:

“Implementing agentic AI on repetitive, time consuming tasks frees up club staff to work on more impactful initiatives. The Centre of Excellence will provide a platform for innovative people/organizations to apply AI expertise in a football context, allowing us do more for less.”

I’m struggling to work out what this means in practical terms.

The first part sounds like using AI to automate administrative and operational tasks, which could potentially save staff time. Fair enough. But what specific tasks? Ticketing? Customer service? Commercial operations? Recruitment analysis? Match analysis?

The “Centre of Excellence” sounds even vaguer. Is this a physical facility? A partnership programme? A research project? A training hub for local schools and universities? Or simply a marketing label between the club and its technology partners?

Reading the announcement, the most concrete thing I can find is that the club will use Stelia’s AI platform, backed by NVIDIA and Lenovo infrastructure, to develop and test AI applications. Beyond that, there seem to be very few specifics about what will actually be delivered.

Perhaps the simplest translation is:

“We’ve partnered with an AI company and some major technology firms to explore ways AI can improve club operations, fan engagement and football-related analysis.”

Which is perfectly reasonable, but quite a long way from the grand language in the announcement.

I also think there’s a legitimate question here about staffing. If the club is already making people redundant, supporters are entitled to ask whether “doing more for less” really means improving efficiency, or simply replacing paid staff with automation.

That may not be the intention, and the redundancies may be unrelated. But when the public explanation includes phrases like “freeing up club staff” and “doing more for less”, it is fair to ask what that means for actual employees.

Are we meant to be excited because this improves the club, or concerned because it could mean fewer people doing more work with AI tools?

[Clyde1998]

Rick Catania tweeted earlier about Reading’s new AI partnership with Stelia, NVIDIA and Lenovo, driven by the club’s Head of AI, Stuart Fenton.

When asked what the partnership actually means, Rick replied:

“Implementing agentic AI on repetitive, time consuming tasks frees up club staff to work on more impactful initiatives. The Centre of Excellence will provide a platform for innovative people/organizations to apply AI expertise in a football context, allowing us do more for less.”

I’m struggling to work out what this means in practical terms.

The first part sounds like using AI to automate administrative and operational tasks, which could potentially save staff time. Fair enough. But what specific tasks? Ticketing? Customer service? Commercial operations? Recruitment analysis? Match analysis?

The “Centre of Excellence” sounds even vaguer. Is this a physical facility? A partnership programme? A research project? A training hub for local schools and universities? Or simply a marketing label between the club and its technology partners?

Reading the announcement, the most concrete thing I can find is that the club will use Stelia’s AI platform, backed by NVIDIA and Lenovo infrastructure, to develop and test AI applications. Beyond that, there seem to be very few specifics about what will actually be delivered.

Perhaps the simplest translation is:

“We’ve partnered with an AI company and some major technology firms to explore ways AI can improve club operations, fan engagement and football-related analysis.”

Which is perfectly reasonable, but quite a long way from the grand language in the announcement.

I also think there’s a legitimate question here about staffing. If the club is already making people redundant, supporters are entitled to ask whether “doing more for less” really means improving efficiency, or simply replacing paid staff with automation.

That may not be the intention, and the redundancies may be unrelated. But when the public explanation includes phrases like “freeing up club staff” and “doing more for less”, it is fair to ask what that means for actual employees.

Are we meant to be excited because this improves the club, or concerned because it could mean fewer people doing more work with AI tools?

For me this is all just marketing speak. It's likely this all just means they'll use AI to replace even more humans at the football club.

I seem to recall "centres of excellence" being used to refer to football academies at one point.

[blueroyals]

What a strange announcement, and even stranger that a club director would think it is something that would excite fans.

[JedMaxwell]

Catania seems like a likeable guy, but this is a classic case of bullshit marketing speak (ironically probably put through Chat KFC or some such) intended to make the product sound better than it is.

I imagine the practical explanation is: 'We've made x amount of people redundant, and the investment in AI only accounts for 10% of their salaries and other benefits so we're hoping this can replace whatever they were doing at a fraction of the cost'.

Obviously at some point the returns will diminish to such an extent that they will probably need to bring humans back in. By that point I suspect Couhig will either have sold up and effed off, or effectively stopped putting any money in beyond what we need to scrape by without punishment.

'Football for the people', eh?

[Marcel]

What a strange announcement, and even stranger that a club director would think it is something that would excite fans.

What a load of old bollocks.
The club must think all their fans a gullible idiots.
The club seems to be run by a bunch of bulls***ing morons

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Maybe it's not an announcement for the Fans...

Maybe it's for people with deeper pockets looking to buy a Football Club at the cutting edge of technology, but currently in League 1....

[WestYorksRoyal]

I work in the corporate world and the chat about AI is all the same. "Transformative", "game changer" when all you really see it used for is admin tasks like proof reading, summarising documents/meetings, formatting data etc.,

All these little things add up, but are no yet a "game changer". I can see that in football you have loads of opta stats, performance and scouting data, but all AI will do is assist the humans to analyse it more quickly. It won't produce some magical answer that we can't currently see.

Ultimately, you need good quality people doing this work and AI assisting them. It's not the answer by itself.

[Brogue]

i'm sure the owners know what they are doing...

[Stranded]

i'm sure the owners know what they are doing...

I'm sure they have their plans and are enacting them.

[Marcel]

I have zero confidence in an ownership that insists Richardson is the right manager to take the club forward.