Over the relatively short tenure of Tony Fernandes, there has been speculation over these issues ranging from hailing him as a tremendous benefactor to suspicion he may pull the plug at any moment and, consequently, send us down the drain. In the light of the current transfer activity and the will for the new stadium with the resulting business opportunities, I'm curious about what level fans think we will achieve over the next, say, 7 years. Let's leave aside the "QPR are the next Portsmouth" just for the moment. I suppose there are roughly four categories: 1) Near the bottom most seasons, struggling against relegation and yoyoing between the PL and SBC. 2) Mid table security, buying the calibre of players we've just signed or slightly better and eventually having a solid team across all the areas but with depth to spare. 3). As above plus pushing for a Europa league spot, maybe by actually winning the FA cup for a change! 4). Lastly, of course, is to aim to restore the glory year(s) when we nearly won the league and were the highest finishing London club. Now, before opposing fans accuse us of arrogance, this is just chat. We've done arrogance and even a casual glance through most threads will reveal that arrogant is one thing we are not! Can we imagine a scenario when QPR are spending 20, 30 or even 40 million on players trying to achieve the goal in (4) above? My own take is that the ambition is there - we know from Wembley that Tony hates to lose / loves to win - but as to the funds I'm less clear about that. Rich men don't squander their money so it seems the potential revenue from the new development is key. Perhaps Roller might ask the question. What level of ambition are we realistically dealing with? What do others think?
Good post! I hope with some grounds for optimism that we are aspiring to the very top, but for that we will need a new stadium, and I suspect even this will take more than 7 years. But it could happen. I think we have to set targets in gradual steps, survival as your 1 this year must be the target and it will be tough, but if we manage to stay up we should be looking at your 2 next season, and so on.
Four year plan: 1. Survival 2. Lower mid-table 3. Upper mid-table 4. Champions league. 5. I'll get my coat.
Every season that passes without a new stadium puts us more and more at the whim of any owner. Simply there isn't the money coming in and others such as Brentford are already moving to resolve their own stadium problems. As for TF I don't think he'll be around (as our owner) in 7 years time, probably we'll still be at Loftus Road and in the Championship along with Fulham who face similar ground problems. Blessing in disguise really, Premier League ends in tears for most outside the top six anyways.
In 7 years I think that we could achieve item 2), or maybe even 3) if we had some luck. To be able to challenge for 2) and above consistently we'd need a new stadium to generate more income. The trouble with that though for me, is that we'd lose the "little QPR" that we all know and love and I'm not sure that is what I want. By then though I may not be around so my opinion wouldn't count, but all my life supporting rangers has been about not wanting to be one of the so called "big boys" who expect to win something every year. For me that's not what its about. I just want my "little old QPR" to be stable, financially safe and have the odd bit of success now and again. Anything more than that and it becomes someone else's club, not ours. Just my sentimental thoughts.
I so understand where your coming from as I've always disliked the big clubs for the way they bully the FA with much help from the premier league. It's not helped by the lack of balls at the FA. Football has always been cutthroat and the setting up of the prem has magnified that. Still, in modern terms it now about evolve or die. Look at the importance placed on getting out the championship, the play off final being touted the richest single game in the world. I don't like it but just see it as a part of the modern game, so accept it as such.
I think a lot of us feel like that Sussex but the change is inevitable so we need to hope we at least retain some of our heritage.
I think relevance of ticket sales is massively overstated. To build a new stadium on a brown field site like we would, costs you at a low estimate £250,000,000. We would go to say 40,000. So an extra 21,500 seats when it is eventually built years down the line. So 21,500 extra seats over a 19 game season, presuming you are lucky enough to sell out and bearing in mind a proportion of these will be OAP, Student and Child Tickets. Say £30 a seat is £12,255,000 a year. So 1 Shane Long excluding wages. Donât really see it as crucial. Added to this people often misunderstand the importance of average pricing. All these crappy northern clubs who slags us off because there average gate is about 10,000 bigger than ours but in the next breadth moan about our expensive ticket prices. They donât understand that even if a club were to have an attendance twice the size of ours but only charged half the price then there is no difference!!! Now unlike most clubs should we get this project off the ground then we are going to be clever enough and perfectly located to turn it into a multi purpose venue and bring in another £10-£15m a year in revenue. However you need to realise Imaz that considering it will cost us north off £250m a many years to build it is going to be many years before an increase in stadium size truly makes a difference. This is especially so when you compare it to TV money. This season would be a success is we mimicked Villa and finished 15th. They reportedly earned £73m in TV and prize money for that last year.
That's a very sanguine view but I suppose that is what has happened to more clubs than the number who have hit the big(ger) time.
I can't really imagine what I'd hope for beyond the next 4. In that time, a new stadium, remaining in the Prem and a new training ground / upgraded youth academy status would be an amazing result and all would give us a great platform to move on from. Well, in all honesty, I can barely see past the next game against Manure - I am the Mr Magoo of long term visions.
Three factors in play here: 1. Retaining our PL status this season - we were incredibly lucky to bounce back last season but no matter how much TF talks about being in it for the long term it is clear that he and his fellow owners do not want a second tier club. 2. The whim of the Mittals. The scum and City have been able to break into the European elite by making pretty much unlimited funds available. TF can't do that but the Mittals could. They also want to be part of a success story I believe. 3. FFP - the European elite have now set things up so that it will be virtually impossible for smaller clubs to challenge for top honours. Someone will need to challenge that in the courts.
I think theres only one thing important to this club this season and that is to survive. If we stay up this year then better things will start to happen but there will be wariness of total committed untill it is certain we will stay up.
I think you only have to look at pictures of Tony and partners at our games to see they have real passion for the team and club in general, you don't see that from many owners. But as much as they love the club, the real money lies within the building of the new stadium and entertainments centre, it's the only reason I can see Mittal being on board. As for the OP I think its a sliding scale, obviously security comes first, then mid table and then challenging for Europa league spots. After that who knows, I feel with the passion the board have any kind of success would push them on to wanting more. They got burned by trying to sign too high profile players in order to secure our league position, they've learned from that, but I don't think that will stop them from doing the same in the future but now they know there's the right sort and wrong sort. But everything comes back to the stadium, our survival, the boards ambitions and our ability to progress as a club. Financially just staying in the Premiership will make any club financially secure within 2-3 years.
This is the crux of the matter - without this stability all dreams of anything apart from yoyo-ing between lower reaches of PL and Championship are mute. Once we have established ourselves as a solid mid-table PL league then we can start to look upwards towards Europa League or a cup run - it's no co-incidence that the majority of PL teams treat both cups with the disdain that they do as the security blanket of the PL is too precious to risk. Hopefully within the 7 year time frame the OP stated we will be somewhere between scenario 2 and 3, with a rocking 40k stadium - there will be a lot of new "plastic" fans, but this is only inevitable the more successful the club becomes, but at least old dinosaurs like us will be able to say we were there when we were just "Little Old QPR"!
But I presume that the £0.25bn cost of the stadium is not paid up front in one go? Much like a house, I would have thought you pay it back over a long-term (35 years) at an affordable rate each year? Further to that, I wonder how much the luxury flats on the current Loftus Road site would sell for? I think you're right in as much as the TV/Prize money is far more important, but the stadium should help in the long-run, and may also help attract better players.
Survival until a new stadium is built is the key, three to five years will not be easy on 18,000 gates and that's assuming the project actually comes to fruition. Personally, I think it may take ten years and may possibly be further out if the Old Oak project stalls. The key question is - can we establish ourselves and survive for up to ten years? Again, personally, I don't think we can at Loftus Road and meet FFP regulations. Well-run smaller clubs inevitably return to their natural position in the pecking order, look at Charlton and Fulham in London alone. The Championship is full of ex-PL clubs which makes it all the harder to escape from and year on year these relegated clubs will be picking up greater sums in parachute payments. I think eventually there will be such a clamour from the ex-PL clubs that there will be a PL2 which would be a logical extension of the top division probably secured at further benefit to the top PL clubs. I wish the future could be more certain but our history suggests we will only enjoy a brief flirtation rather than anything long-term...
All expectations have vanished after last season in Prem. No doubt we are wiser, but unless we pour in incredible money I think it is a bit of a lottery. Relatively optimistic about premier league survival this season, just hope Austin stays fit as without him up front we are in the ****.
" ....Financially just staying in the Premiership will make any club financially secure within 2-3 years." I think that's not realistic. Imaz has a point in what he says. It depends on the income and outgoings. The bigger the club, the more they spend. Tell it to all the clubs that have stayed in the PL in excess of two years got relegated and then failed to get back up within 2 years. We played many of them last season. They're all broke. Look at Bolton, Boro and Blackburn and a few are playing in Leagues 1 and 2. You are only financially secure for as long as you spend within your means. Things may change for the better if FFP is taken seriously. However I suspect the real reason behind it is that it is intended to preserve the riches for the wealthiest few clubs and force the rest into feeder and academy status. To the PL, open competition is secondary to the need to show Man Utd and Chelsea playing the likes of Real and Barca three times a year on the nights when Sky isn't televising Grimsby vs Gateshead.
