...From Clive Whittingham/Loftforwords. It's actually the first half of the Bolton "match preview" (ends at the Peter Crouch picture) http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/32637/back-to-the-future-â-preview "A week where QPR finally appeared to have cracked the problem of building a new stadium in West London could have ended in few better places than Bolton Wanderers' Reebok Stadium.."
I found it pretty boring to be honest. "If Rangers, like Bolton, ended up in a half full ground like that, surrounded by a retail park and a lone pub and a train station, in the middle of the Championship, would it draw you back week after week in the same way Loftus Road and Shepherds Bush does?" It would if it wasnt physically painful to sit in and there wasnt a 25% chance of getting an obstructed view. No one wants a St Marys but a new ground is a must or we will sink into L1 where our facilities would fit in, in 5 years, Brentford would have past us.
The difference is that is written by a true supporter who sees it from 'our' perspective and it's very true what he says, in effect we are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. We need a better, bigger ground to compete at the next level, which, sadly, is just existing in the Premier League. If, as he says, we can build something along the lines of the Boavista stadium, then we may still feel at home, but a souless bowl is not my idea of a place I'd want to be at...
I've been coming to LR for more than 50 years (even a season at WC) and I am 100% convinced that it needs to be replaced as soon as possible. It is unacceptable as a 21st century stadium.
Sadly, this is true. Would be great if new stadiums could contain a standing section, as long as it's properly organised. And if the rules are changed, of course!
Being an architecture student, and a aim to get into the stadium design area in the future, I am interested to see how we go about the design. TF has said many times he wants a bigger version of Loftus Road to maintain the atmosphere - as said above, a stadium like Boavista would be ideal.
Send TF a tweet and ask him if you could work on the stadium design. You could do worse than work in a place you really love.
The stadium design is already done I think. Remember TF tweeting just before the start of last season that the stadium looked fantastic, and the said he hoped to bring us more news before the start of the season, but I think he got out in his place by PB as he was is the press the next day calming things down saying its still quiet a way off before we can show anything off.
I just get bored of people who dont want to move forward. Ill be dancing when we leave LR. Stoke is the loudest ground in the league and its not a great stadium to look at. Arsenal is the quietest and its perhaps the best architecturally.
Hes already said its steep, 2 tiers at least and will be close to the pitch. However I really really doubt we will get a Boavista type ground as 95% of new stadiums in the UK are awful flatpacks. I hope we buck the trend.
Remembering that it's to be multi-purpose, I'm sure it will be quiet tight and will have a great atmosphere, with hopefully enough leg room for those who aren't 5 years old.
Boavista's is a ****e stadium, too tight and no private boxes for the posh, too small as a venue for other events, and definitely would not be considered safe, so ours will never look like that. Boavista's sits on a plot smaller than LR, so why would we want that?
