Reading owner calls on fans to 'fill the stadium' with season ticket update
Trosclair, described by business partner Rob Couhig as the 'quintessential self-made man', has become popular on social media with regular interactions with supporters and teasers.
In his latest message, he called on supporters to 'fill the stadium' and stated that season ticket details will drop this week.
While figures aren't available for this season, last season saw the lowest number of season ticket holders for well over a decade, with 7,941 committing for the campaign and just shy of 13,000 average home crowds.
(Image: James Earnshaw)
In the campaign immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, over 9,500 were sold and a whopping 14,000 were sold in 2013/14 following the club's relegation from the Premier League.
Couhig, who is set to return to the town next week for the first time since sealing the deal, believes season ticket holders are the lifeblood of the club and deserve praise for their 'unequivocal support of the magnificent institution.'
Trosclair said: "We need your support…season tickets go on sale Thursday…we want to win and need you to fill the stadium…what a privilege to be your partner."
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An old-school Chinatown market tried hanging on. Assaults, raids, gentrification proved too much
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She spends her mornings scouring the produce warehouses in nearby downtown for the oranges, mangoes, mushrooms, yams, garlic and greens her customers rely on to meet their daily grocery needs. 'I don't feel ready to let go of the store, but there's not much I can do to bring more people in,' she said. 'Business was booming and a lot of people used to come around, but now there is no foot traffic and a lot of people have moved away from Chinatown.' Tran has watched the neighborhood change from a bustling historic enclave where many Asian immigrants live and work, to what is starting to feel like 'a ghost town.' Chinatown is where she settled after immigrating from Vietnam in the '90s. Her son was born at the pink hospital on Hill Street. With no formal education, she worked in restaurants in the area before taking over the Yue Wa Chinese herbal supplement and tea shop in 2007. 'She noticed that a lot of locals were always asking her for ingredients like sweet potatoes and taro, so she started selling fruits and expanded to vegetables,' said Derek Luu, Tran's son. Luu went to school in the area and spent many childhood afternoons in the back of the market. 'She realized all of her customers were looking for fresh stuff, so she started going to the produce warehouse district to get produce for them.' What started as a small row of groceries in front of the store quickly grew to include snacking fruits like apples, oranges and berries, and anything the primarily Asian clientele might need for cooking. There was always a steady supply of bitter melon, eggplant, gai lan and bok choy. 'Most of the old folks didn't want to walk all the way into the store, so she found that most of her business was happening on the sidewalk,' Luu said. 'She sort of started the trend in Chinatown of putting the produce out on the street.' The need for fresh produce and other market goods grew over the years as the existing stores in the area started to close, and Chinatown was left without a real nexus for its Asian ethnic communities. Ai Goa and G&G, two long-standing full-service grocery stores, closed in 2019. Other shops in the area attempted to fill the void, with the bookstore next to Yue Wa selling a selection of produce and Banh Mi My Dung, a sandwich shop around the corner, following suit. When she's not at the market, Luu said his mom spends the majority of her time hunting for deals for her customers at the produce warehouses in downtown Los Angeles. 'Because the population that I serve is mainly elderly and low-income, the pricing, if I ever raise, they won't be able to afford it,' Tran said. 'So I want to be one of the stores in Chinatown to be able to provide fresh fruit and produce for the elderly.' 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He found a job at one of produce warehouses downtown, working shifts that started at 3 a.m. 'I didn't want to hear a story of my mom getting punched,' Derek said. 'But even when I was there, it didn't stop people from taking our stuff and throwing it onto the street and calling out racial slurs.' Most recently, the family credits the ICE raids with stoking fear into an already diminished immigrant community in Chinatown. 'When my mom goes to buy produce, she's noticing half the workers are gone or the shops are closed,' Derek said. 'These raids are kind of mysterious to the Chinatown community and people here don't want to risk being arrested or abducted, so a lot of the foot traffic has died down.' But it was a series of robberies at both the store and later at the family's home in the San Gabriel Valley that prompted Tran to make the difficult decision to close. 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