Dismantling my QPR ideal Sat 13th Oct 2012 10:54 by Roller QPR blogger Roller returns to LFW, concerned about the shifting dynamics of the club he loves and its support base. One short, simple sentence I read during the pre-season has left me feeling very uneasy ever since. I was watching our friendly match against Wycombe Wanderers on a website which also featured a comment stream enabling all those on-line to chat with each other. At the end of the match Gareth Ainsworth grabbed Hogan Ephraimâs shirt, stretched it across his chest and advanced towards the QPR supporters thumping his heart and the Rangersâ faithful roared their appreciation of the gesture from a much loved ex-player. A comment appeared in the stream asking: âWho is Wycombeâs number seven?â I was too stunned to comment at the time and am still trying to come to terms with the ramifications of it. Am I overreacting? Probably, but it does highlight my concerns regarding the changing fan base at my club. Iâve supported QPR since 197whenever and so proudly bear the scars of many galling disappointments alongside a few cherished memories of magnificent days. I love QPR, I have placed certain former idols on ridiculously high pedestals and I completely understand the heritage of the club. I was on the pitch at Loftus Road protesting against David Bulstrodeâs proposed Fulham Park Rangers and when Ecclestone and Briatore were strangling the club I started a futile online petition to restore Bhatia and Saksena. When John Gregory decided that there wasnât a player at the club who was skilful enough to wear the number 10 shirt I applauded him and when Gerry Francis resigned because Richard Thompson was looking to appoint Rodney Marsh as director of football I shook my head in disbelief. However, throughout these and countless other events, far too many to even attempt to catalogue, I felt secure in the knowledge that it was just another day at QPR, the rollercoaster would race on unchecked and we all understood this, indeed many of us revelling in it. We, the QPR supporters, were members of an exclusive fellowship. Not many wanted to join, only the fully paid up members actually had any idea of what being a QPR supporter was really about, and, like the Eaglesâ Hotel California, no one ever checked out. Because of the constant trials and tribulations we all suffered our bond to each other and with the club was rock solid. As much as I love the buzz emanating from Loftus Road, the calm assurance exhibited by both the current board and management and the new professional outlook, I am concerned; I fear that my vision of QPR, my ideal, is slowly but surely getting dismantled. In my mind, QPR is a friendly, family club. We have strong roots in West London but universal appeal, the uniqueness of the clubâs name and the famous hooped shirts never fail to grab attention. We can boast of a succession of outlandishly talented players who have thrilled in the number ten shirt, and constantly admire the passion and solidarity of the diehard supporters who, undaunted by the disappointment which constantly ambushes their hopes of success, continue to belt out Pigbag in a ramshackle but strangely glorious stadium, a stadium that screams of amateurism and chaos. We are definitely not an anodyne club with an identikit stadium and greedy supporters demanding success at any cost. Of these, the tightness of the supporters is the most laudable. For a small club in London that has seen precious little success at any time in its existence to maintain such a loyal and fervent support is incredible. Generation after generation of parents have taken their children to Loftus Road from an early age and got them hooked on the atmosphere and the passion. These children have resisted the teasing and tormenting in their school playgrounds from their friends who âsupportâ Chelsea or Arsenal or Spurs or Manchester United even though they have never, and will never, go to see them play. We all understand the exquisite pain of supporting QPR, we all have tasted the same defeats, suffered the same torment, we all understand. QPRâs âgoing globalâ plan is a determined effort to increase our fan base, an attempt to bust wide open our exclusive members only fellowship. I fully understand that this is of the utmost importance, that a new generation of supporters is essential, that the merchandise sales this will generate will generate vital revenue and that when we finally have our new stadium it will need filling. However unless the new fans emotionally buy-in to QPR in the way that we all have those bonds will be weakened. I fear that soon we wonât be stopping to talk to complete strangers just because they are sporting a blue and white hooped top, worried that their knowledge of QPR only encompasses the Fernandes years. Loftus Road will remain a bastion for my QPR ideal. Our faithful, long suffering season ticket holders, ably backed up by the members, will ensure this; their unremitting desire to back the team will ensure that very few tickets are available for general sale. The warm welcome that Kaspars Gorkss received on his return to our ground with his Reading team mates and the muted, but genuine, applause for his headed goal was just the latest example of our understanding of the clubâs history and appreciation of those who have played a major role in it. Would the guy who didnât know who Wild Thing was be any the wiser regarding Gorkss? These supporters are the heart and soul of the club and must not be ignored nor taken for granted while the drive for global awareness powers forwards. Every effort must be made to ensure that not a single one of these supporters is disenfranchised as the club forge their relentless path forwards. As soon as we leave Loftus Road this situation will inevitably change, the increased capacity of the new stadium will make it imperative that we have another 20,000 supporters passing through the turnstiles and this is where my worries are centred. Do we have another 20,000 supporters desperate to go to the every home match or will this void be filled by temporary supporters curious to see Ji-Sung Park, Julio Cesar or whoever the latest marquee signing is? Will there start to be quieter areas in the ground, or heaven forbid a âneutralsâ stand? The internet, on the other hand, has an infinite capacity and could give us a clear indication of what the future holds. Forums and social media welcome the whole world and grant everyone the freedom to express their views in relative anonymity and it is this fertile breeding ground that will initially bear the brunt of the unwanted side effects of âgoing globalâ. While we all love to argue about events and dissect them down to the nth degree, we all do so from a common standpoint, our shared passion is unquestionable. As more and more new supporters join it is likely that the levels of understanding and insight will decrease, banality will increase and the more knowledgeable posters will quietly slip into the background. Even among current QPR supporters the level of ignorance surrounding John Terryâs racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand was staggering. Going forwards I can see this getting worse, but regardless of how informed or uninformed anyone is everyone will have the same level of access to many platforms from which to assert their views. Twitter, Tony Fernandesâ and Amit Bhatiaâs preferred method of communicating with the fans, will be swamped, the amount of trivia and misinformation potentially soaring to pandemic proportions. I stated on my introduction page of my blog that I regard myself as remarkably lucky to have stumbled across a club whose glory is encapsulated by the passionate characters associated with it not simply recorded by trophies won. How many of our new supporters will share this view or even understand it? New supporters attracted because of certain players or any ill-advised glory hunters will only be interested results and trophies. I donât want QPR to become a soulless club like Chelsea. I asked a few Chelsea supporters I know if they ever had any equivalent qualms when Abramovich took over, none did, nor did they even begin to comprehend my fears. Maybe because Chelsea was always a bigger club with many, many more supporters they didnât ever have that feeling of kinship with their fellow supporters or any feeling of ownership of their club. As we seek to expand our fan base around the world, possible with people who have never heard of Queens Park Rangers, I fear that things that I hold dear about QPR will get trampled underfoot. I keep coming back to the conclusion that the problem here is me; Iâm probably just overly sentimental, viewing our history through rose tinted glasses. Iâm undoubtedly over reacting to necessary change, but Iâm not one to idly sit by and watch. Maybe I need to expand my horizons to keep pace with the club, maybe I need to forget my ideal and the past and just look towards the future? We were of course all new supporters once, maybe these new fans will ultimately become just as passionate, they just wonât have the same scars. It is up to us to ensure that our fellowship does not get diluted, our forums do not get swamped and our stadium stays passionate. Am I just apprehensive of change? I donât think so, I think just part of me will miss what we all are moving on from. The French poet and novelist Anatole France summed it up perfectly many years ago: âAll changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.â
Whilst I understand Roller's concerns, it needs pointing out that Rangers have always benefited from the "floating" fans in and around London. When we were London's top side in the top flight and got regular attendances around the 25-30k mark, a lot of these "fans" were the "floaters" that simply went where the best players were and to watch the best football. I suspect that hasn't changed much looking at Chelsea and Fulham.
I have to say I find this attitude hard to bear. People saying that they've supported the club through thick and thin SINCE we were good and then lamenting the next generation of fans joining because we're in the top flight. Give the newbies a chance and see where they are in 10 years AND THEN JUDGE. Rant over.
It is a difficult question, do I want to see Rangers somewhere like the emirate, full yet all quiet without soul, or a lovely new half empty stadium like the Ricoh, or do I want to stay at Loftus Road atmospheric but will not sustain a club with ambition. Do I want 50,000 at a home game 35,000 of which haven't heard of Stan Bowles or 10,000 die hards who know all the ins and out. Difficult question and not sure of the answer.
The price of fame... I know exactly where Roller is coming from here. I remember our ground in the 60s and 70s, packed in like sardines for the big games and the fantastic atmosphere of the time. Yes, we were successful, at times, and it was a very unique club that was 'unfashionable' but distinctive. Our lean years somewhat rekindled that quaint small club feel, but we always longed to be a club in the big-time. Now we've made it and retained our status we are beginning to see that the two don't quite match up to what we experienced over 15 years ago. We have to make the change, you cannot sustain a Premier League set-up on 18,000 gates end of, and that doesn't sit easily to some of us 'fossils' from our golden era...
The answer could be to build a modest sized stadium, perhaps 30-35k and then you'll get a mixture of the two.
There's not really a choice, since the all seater laws came in there's no way we can have the money to stay up here in the Premier League without a new ground. In the old days with terraces the head count was different but today it's either the Championship or move. Always wondered whether some crazy "verticalised" solution like the Boca Juniors ground would be possible in the space we have now as an alternative to moving?
Yeah, 'tis a shame this board of ours failed to retain the interests of folk such as Roller... Never mind though, cos he's now blogging away quite happily (I guess) and we still get to read his mind from time to time - thanks chiefly to Kiwi's trawling. Question is does Roller get to read the better bits of our stuff if he ever feels inclined to have a quiet browse? Doubtful with all the thread hijacking that's been going on of late. Haystacks and needles come to mind. Has to stop. Getting back to the article, doesn't surprise me at all that someone watching the Wycombe stream didn't know Gareth Ainsworth... Wasn't a lot of football on that close season night, so that poster could've been anyone. That said, times change and new people getting more interested all the time - especially with all the attention we've been getting of late. Just a shame we haven't been able to expand on it with a few more satisfying results. The other thing I have to question is the rather rose-tinted idea that fortress LR rocks that often. Despite its intimacy (euphemism for archaic architecture), the place all too often still has the atmosphere of a morgue at the best of times (times when you just wish the 'pups' both in R block and beyond would sing-up ffs!). Sure it wasn't like that in the days of Rod-neee and similarly uplifting times when the ground can be a positive wall of sound and imposing arena of passionate, fan-driven desire. It would help of course if there were more player performances, goals and points to get the blood up - otherwise it's all just an empty feeling downward spiral. Can't see this happening under a management regime that lacks both passion - and the ability to acquire the type of players (goal-grabber and key defender) who'd make the necessary difference. Oh well... rock on Roller!
I always enjoyed Roller's earlier pieces but I have to say this is bordering on the inane. Several hundred words based around a single innocent text from that could be from a kid or a foreigner or even a WUM. And from that we get a piece of rambling, overlong melancholy that would not look out of place in Mills and Boon. I'm pretty sure that we all wanted Premier League status and all the concerns he expresses are simply part of parcel of that. If he was brave enough to say "I wish we were back in the Championship" then perhaps the article would have some credence but he doesn't do that; he just pines for the good old days as though there was a time machine we could jump into and restore them. Sorry Roller but we have enough bad news at Loftus Road already without you dreaming up tenuous scenarios of angst for us.
To be honest Aaaaaarrrggghhh sometimes I do hanker after a 'simpler' qpr experience that I enjoyed in the lower leagues. More football and not so much sky nonsense, I could always get a ticket and there is a certain romance in Barnsley away. Don't get me wrong I like us being in the prem but part of me misses the normality of it. But then I'm knocking on and things were always better in the good old days weren't they?
I guess there was a time - also back in "197whenever" - when a young Uber first fell in love with the Rs and started asking seasoned fans a series of what must have seemed pretty ridiculous, ignorant or naive questions. It was the magic of the answers to those questions, the wonderful world that was evermore coloured (in blue and white hoops) before me, the history and tradition I felt I was becoming part of, and the legends and lore that was being passed down to me that drew me inextricably into Queens Park Rangers Football Club. I've upgraded my wife. I've moved home. I've switched bank accounts. I've changed jobs. But QPR has been a constant. Don't be too hard on the new supporters coming to the club. That was me nearly 40 years ago. You've got to start somewhere.
