Last year Harry moaned about away fans having both tiers at the School End and he couldn't understand why the club did it as it gives the away team a lift. I have to say I agree 100%. Well, it looks like it's going to happen again this season as Sheffield Wednesday have sold out the lower and upper tiers. Opposing teams will see QPR as their big away day this season so the likelihood is demand will be high for away fans. I've tweeted Ian Taylor and Phil Beard on the subject but no response. Views?
It made no sense in the PL when we could have easily filled the lower section with QPR supporters (although I suspect a lot of those 'supporters' would have been tourists). In the Championship we will be lucky to fill the ground for many of the games so selling as many away tickets as possible is just common sense, particularly if your books look as bad as ours do right now.
Fair play to Sheff Weds for selling so many tickets. The ground won't be packed each game this season unless we are in the race for promotion. If we are in the race for promotion and our own fans are being excluded from seeing games, then by all means the club should ensure the lower school end is full of QPR fans. Lets wait and see how we start the season before demanding action on something which may not be an issue.
I remember Tony Fernandes being questioned on this, I think the club HAVE to give a set amount of seats away to traveling fans.
Didn't the club cover this last year? I thought they said that as the school end is recognised as the away end, the club are obligated to offer both tiers to the away club and can only retain one tier if the away club is unable to sell enough tickets
Alternative is making part of South Africa or Ellerslie Road stands available for away fans. With the design of our ground this doesn't sound too safe/ secure to me, and would certainly upset season ticket holders of many years standing. Hopefully in the new stadium away fans will be tucked away in the Gods somewhere, like at Newcastle (actually thats a disgrace, means they contribute nothing to atmosphere) or will have a corner like at Arsenal (where away fans create all of the atmosphere).
You have to allocate 15% of your capacity to the away teams fans. This would be 2,700 in our ground. The school end has a capacity of just under 3,400. The lower tier has a capacity of 1,417.
I thought it was 10% in which case the upper tier qualifies. It only makes sense to do it if the home end doesnt sell out or if trouble is expected. Ideally they should be put in the corner but I dont see how we can do it.
