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I went to watch Reading a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what their old ground was like
An utter dump - tiny ground, penned in on all sides, which could never have been converted to an all seater stadium.
I think that's the crux of the matter; a lot of these old grounds that people reminisce over were crumbling, decaying old stadia, that couldn't meet the standards laid out in the Taylor report. Many were in locations where there wasn't the space to expand the foot print of the stadium, so clubs had to move.
I went to watch Reading a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what their old ground was like - sounds like @elpresidente will know - but the train to Reading and the bus to a shit retail park where tickets were £25 was enough to put me off watching pro football for a couple of years.
It makes you realise how well Arsenal and Tottenham have done to keep their stadiums in the heart of the community.