Why do you think ticket prices would go up? Surely with more people attending games it would follow that prices would come down at least initially in order to fill the stadium.
Exactly, tickets would be a lot cheaper unless we become a top six side and start to sell out every week. Unfortunately WHU will be doing the same thing but they will have the worst stadium in football so we should be hoovering up the new fans that can't see a game elsewhere. Of course the elitists won't like that but we were all new fans once.
A couple of random responses: Not wanting to be in Harlesden: my Mum still lives on the White City and had been mugged a couple of times in years gone by. I know how personal this kind of thing can get but I'm not sure how NW10 would be much worse for that kind of thing than our current home. Also, the whole point of the regeneration project is to create a brand new neighbourhood of which the stadium would be a centre piece. Anyone who has seen how major projects have transformed areas such as Southwark, Stratford and even Shepherds Bush will know the power of that. Not wanting a bigger stadium: get real please. Surely we all know the reason why a businessman like TF would be interested in a club like QPR is the potential for growth. Being the closest club to the West End we already attract a large number of foreign visitors on match days even in the Championship but the potential for more is huge. We must surely be able to come up with a stadium design that retains the intimacy we all love but with increased capacity. Whisper it quietly, but Stamford Bridge gets close to this already.
Can't really argue with any of that. .............and being purely selfish, a new stadium cannot come soon enough. Currently it is usually Sunday by the time my knees have stopped aching due to my current "seat".
Spot on Flyer! I think that a lot of people just canât grasp how big news this would be for the club if confirmed. Iâd go so far as to say that if this goes ahead it would be the single best thing to happen to QPR since moving to Loftus Road. And itâs not bl**dy Harlesden FFS! What we would be talking about would essentially be a completely new city, with us at the heart of it, bigger than Canary Wharf, bigger than Stratford. With Cross Rail, HS1, Bakerloo Line and Overground all confirmed, plus potentially an HS2 interchange, with access to the Heathrow Express, the Great Western mainline, the West Coast mainline, the North London Line, West London Line and the A40⦠Weâd be talking about the best connected stadium in the Country⦠Bar none. Itâs a huge opportunity for the club, and the sooner itâs confirmed the better as far as Iâm concerned! Have you seen the video??: [video=youtube;Lo8sa1g75Zg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo8sa1g75Zg&list=PL4198C8A364D61916&index=1[/video]
Good grief The comments about 30 years are daft ... We will be building a football stadium and do so in the next 3-5 years max if it gets a green light ... It will easily fill ... We are in London FFS Yes there will many QPR fans that don't even that they are yet There are many QPR fans that are dead It's called life and the legacy of our club will continue
Don´t you think that TF will make such a big investment without having to raise ticket prices, catering will go up etc. - he is still a businessman and will want to bring in new people to the ground (like all the other big clubs). This will defintely change the whole club and that is nothing I am interested in. I never understood why people were complaining about LR (narrow seating etc.) - you only have to spend 90 minutes there so what´s the point ? I love this tight stadium quite often providing some good atmosphere (compared to many other stadiums I know) - I even love the old turnstiles and I do not understand why people would want a new stadium in a new location, these are the people who did not care when they changed the badge again.
How often do you actually go? I've been going for over 40 years and sadly its now an embarrassment - facilities, seats, access all way out of date. Yes its great when it rocks, but we can reproduce that.
I go there 6 - 7 times per season and started going 1984 and do not think it is an embarresment at all. Yes, facilities are out of date but who cares about that as it is only for 90 minutes or so. It is tradition and cannot just be reproduced as you suggest. What makes you so sure that we will easily fill the new one - where should all the people come from and why would they now continuously come to watch our team if they never tried before. Perhaps if we will become like Chelsea or Arsenal that will attract more people but then again will this be the club you have been following for 40 years ?
It's very easy for fans to come on to these types of forums and post opinions and come down on one side of the fence or the other and stick to that opinion when in truth none of us know the full facts, none of us has a crystal ball and can predict the future and more importantly even TF and the board are only guessing at what they can achieve. What I think many of us will appreciate is that the "New Loftus Road" cannot and will not just be about Queens Park Rangers Football Club. You can't build a 40K seat stadium on a derelict site next to a graveyard and railway sidings and expect to open your doors on day one to a full house. I would guess that the financing of the huge debt that will be taken out on the build will be based on New Loftus Road being eventually a multi use sports and entertainment arena strategically positioned to be an entertainment hub at the centre of the next big urban regeneration project to rival Canary Wharf and Stratford, which may or may not be fulfilled in our lifetime. At the end of the day TF and his fellow investors are business men. They have apparently learnt lessons in the past two years and now with regards the next big move they appear to talk the talk about caring about the club and its fan base in any prospective move. If they get this right then the use of the stadium outside of football could pay for the development and the upkeep and therefore if they are true to their word it should not result in an immediate unrealistic price hike for existing fans. However, like any business the board will be driven by market forces and if we are sat in a brand new stadium, have a full house every week with a waiting list for season tickets in 5 years time, they will take advantage of that in the same way as all the established Premier League clubs do in London by charging a premium. From here on in business needs dictate what happens to QPR in the next 5-10 years, not the goodwill of the owners nor the demands of 10-12K regular supporters some of whom believe that it is their divine right to dictate whether their club moves with the times or stays in the dark ages.
Butthuber, genuine question, how do you think that TF, the investors and PB would react if you put that statement above to them? What do you think their serious response would be? IMO, it's too late at this stage to say its about 90 minutes, it's not about 90mins, it's about the effective running of a business and a return on investment for those business people who have looked at QPR FC LTD and have believed it to be a worthwhile investment. It would be great if we had a multi-billionaire SUPPORTER who owned the club and was solely using the money as a gift to allow his team to play football and keep the traditions of the past 125 years intact, but unfortunately multi-billionaires tend to make their money from being good with other peoples money first and making more money is top of the agenda. So in the absence of a benefactor we have had to seek investors to keep us from going belly up. The truth of the matter is that TF and co will HAVE to look at US as a business and therefore it most certainly is not about only 90mins on every other Saturday. You also say "Perhaps if we will become like Chelsea or Arsenal that will attract more people but then again will this be the club you have been following for 40 years ?" - Well, frankly yes it will as long as the team are called Queens Park Rangers, they wear Blue and White Hoops are wildly inconsistent and blunder from disaster to disaster. What it will be is an evolved QPR. If we do not evolve, we do not survive, there is no standing still.
Its a league one ground and if we dont move to a new ground, we can either make massive losses or sink to our natural level. Chelsea were regularly getting sub 10k crowds before got the money, Hulls crowds increased 7 or 8k overnight when they moved. You do realise once our gate gets to about 13k, you cannot get a pair of tickets together or an unobstructed view? Also anyone of average height will find it painful to sit at LR.
Nothing much to add to these responses Butthuber. We're dead if we stay where we are. I have stood in a 36,000 crowd in LR (admittedly a long time ago) - the supporters are there. There will be nostalgia and sadness at leaving LR (I for one always associate it with my Dad, who first took me in 72), but overall a very good thing.
Mate you won't stop progress Do you think honestly we could ever stay at LR and aim to play in the biggest football league in the world in the best city in the world? Does anyone think there is no promotional strategy in place to grow the club to fill a 40K stadium? LR has been good but needs levelling now You need to catch up mate ... why would anyone buy QPR and have any ambition if we were just to stay there. Playing at the highest level will rightly or wrongly means one thing ... money Unless the bottom falls out of football... that won't happen anytime soon... its this country's religion bigger than the bloody church and will reap massive financial rewards to the clubs established in the top flight. ( of course its all wrong IMO ) You won't stop progress and QPR needs some badly I still believe that we go up then with our vision we will signing 15m players willy nilly ... we need a new ground and I am very excited by that 4stringR: You can't build a 40K seat stadium on a derelict site next to a graveyard and railway sidings and expect to open your doors on day one to a full house. Yes you can build a 40k stadium and yes you can fill it from Day One ... its called marketing and playing at the top tier I am willing to bet that there may even be a waiting list! Case study have a look at what Brighton did 4K and now expansion to 30K and a waiting list ... if that can't be done in London then people need to get shot
It will be a very sad day for me when we play our last game at Loftus Rd. So many memories etc. However, we must move on if we want to be successful imo. A new stadium will hopefully herald exciting times ahead.
I'll have a tear in my eye when we play our last game at Loftus Road, all those games, but I cannot wait for that first game at the new stadium
We were talking about this after the match on Saturday. The main concern would be the "fact" that the core of our supporter base is getting older. Just look around next time you are at a match, it is the same old faces, few new ones and few younger ones coming in. We need to have some sort of success to pull the next generation of supporters into our ground rather than Stamford Bridge or Craven Cottage.
