By John Hobson, Sales Centre Manager

Earlier this week the Club decided to make a special offer available for the Wigan and Derby games, allowing new members to sign up for a Member Card without having to pay the usual joining fee if they buy a ticket for one of those games.

We did this because we're very keen to make sure that Madejski Stadium doesn't become a 'closed shop' to potential new fans, so we wanted to give non-members a good incentive to join.

Of course we also want to try to get a full house for these two games, which are very important ones for the team, and promotional offers like this one can only help.

The last two home games - against Everton and West Ham - weren't complete sell-outs, and we're well aware that we won't find it as easy to sell tickets this season as we did last year.

It's no longer our historic first ever top flight season so the novelty factor isn't there, and selling the 3,000 or so tickets that we have available on a match-by-match basis will undoubtedly be a harder task for the lower profile games.

We also think there's a general perception locally that games are sold out when really they might not be. Because tickets sold so quickly last season, a lot of the more casual supporters, who may attend three or four games a season but won't come every week, seem to be assuming that tickets are all sold out so they don't even bother trying. In time, hopefully people will realise that it's not as hard as they might think to get tickets for most of the games.

It's also important for the Club to look to the future, particularly with the stadium expansion in mind. Within the next two years, the stadium capacity will grow by 8,000 and we will need to fill those seats - there's no point in building them otherwise.

To achieve this we're very keen to stay active within the local area - as the Chairman regularly says, being a focal point of the community is extremely important to us, which is why we spend so much time working with local schools and community groups.

In the short-term, though, we're focussed on selling tickets for the Wigan and Derby games so come along and support the team - and tell your friends!