Let me first make it clear that I have never been more positive about the future of this great football club. The owners we have, and the ambitions for the future make this the most exciting time to be an R that I can remember in the 30 odd years Iâve been going to Loftus Road. Talk of a brand new 45K stadium have made me giddy with excitement, drunk with the possibilities the future holds. So, I realise that it might seem odd for me to try to shift our attention to the potential risks and pitfalls which lie ahead. But as is always the case after getting a little drunk and over excited, the next day itâs time to sober up and take a clear headed overview of where we are at, warts and all. That includes looking at the potential risks as well as the potential opportunities. I donât want to rain on the parade, but I do have a few worries which I wanted to air, and get your take on. Am I right to be a little concerned? Hopefully you can convince me that I am not... Basically there are 2 areas I am apprehensive about: Stadium capacity â We currently have the 48th âbiggestâ stadium in the Country. To put that in perspective, if football clubs were ranked in order of stadium capacity we would currently be 8th in League One. Plainly thatâs too small for a Premier League club. But weâre talking about building a stadium of 45K, which under the same ranking would make us 7th in the Premiership. Bigger than Chelsea, Villa and Spurs (not to mention âmassiveâ Leeds!), and virtually equal to Liverpool. Thatâs a huge jump. How confident are we of filling it?? Remember, weâre in the only borough in the land to boast of 3 Premier League teams. Sure, West London is a big place, but competition for fans could not be any more challenging. Stadium as a âmulti-purposeâ venue â Much of the talk of making us a self sufficient, profitable operation in the long term seems to be premised on the idea that any new stadium would be used for lots of other things than just football, such as hosting gigs and others entertainment events. How viable is this really? Iâm no businessman, so I canât say, but as a regular punter it doesnât seem to me that West London suffers from a chronic lack of such venues. Close to LR there is the Shepherds Bush Empire, Olympia and the Hammersmith Apollo. Slightly further afield is Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena and Earls Court. In an economy that is flat-lining and showing no sign of imminent recovery, how confident as we that there is a demand for an additional venue such as this? Especially if the stadium gets build further out west (e.g. Southall Gasworks has been mentioned as a possible site)? Anyway, as I say, these are just thoughts. Iâm not trying to being negative for the sake of it, far from it. And I remain eager to be convinced that my fears are unfounded. But this is just a discussion that I feel is worth having.. Thoughts?
I think your concerns are valid......I believe the 45K was decided based on the later question you have.....the place being used as a venue for other events and that you will need a good size for this to happen. I did read that we would have sold 20K season tickets this season if we had the stadium to do so, so it shows that people want to come watch the new QPR. We are attracting top players now and the club is growing and you will find that people want to come watch that happen.....loyal fans and plastics alike. 45k wont be filled straight away.....but as we grow and hopefully become more successful im sure 45k isnt unrealistic in a city that houses 8 million......1.6 of which live in West London. I think the whole venue being used for events is a great idea and trust me....it will be used a lot.....this is London remember, one of the busiest, craziest cities in the world...recession wont stop events...imo.
Excellent post, TIMK. Thought provoking to put the other side of the argument. On 1. there are a lot of closet QPR fans out there (remember the numbers at the play off final at the Millenium Stadium?) who haven't attended many matches pre the Mittals/Warnock era because they didn't want to depress themselves! Premership and a new stadium with good, unrestricted view and good facilities for families (decent food, toilets that aren't out of the Elizabethan era etc) will encourage many to come back, but the biggest draw for them and for new fans will be players that excite. Park, Adel Taraabt, Cisse are current examples. I, and many others, became QPR fans because I was mesmerised by Rodney Marsh. Bring in such players and you'll get bums on seats . On 2, the only answer I have is that perhaps our stadium, at 45,000 seats and with great facilites, closing roof etc will fill the gap between Hammersmith Apollo and Wembley
TIMK You are right to voice concerns but I think you are worrying to much. Stadium Capacity. Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool are looking to up their capacity so we wont be 7th for long. We also dont know if the 45,000 is for football or gigs bearing in mind the pitch is used for gigs. Multi Purpose. Ignore the Apollo and the Empire as they are low capacity. there is a likelyhood that Olympia and Earls Court will be redevelpoed for housing so I think our timing could be just right. As for stadium position Southall would be a disaster. Terrible road links close to the site and surrounded by houses from memory. It has to be as close to W12.
Good post. 1) I suspect will be modular and 45k or more will be optional add on to a 30 to 35k for starters. 2) Fernandes', Amit and Mr Mittal must have some serious business connections that would help promote the new LR as a good venue for conferences etc.
I think the point about us not filling the stadium is very valid and that could potentially lose atmosphere. Expect lots of promotional offers for families etc once it does appear. The venue thing doesn't worry me in the slightest. It's not about the number of venues locally or the sizes of them, moreso the ability to convince the promoters to stage each suitably sized event at our humble abode. In that, we have Phil Beard who must be as qualified to make this a success as anyone.
Agree with the modular concept mentioned above, 30K with a possibility to go to 45K with an added upper tier. As the new site could apparently be in Hanwell it's very much a question of wait and see as to how attendences grow in a new catchment area.
Thanks guys. All good, well reasoned responses IMO. I think with any big change there are always pitfalls and dangers. However, the business acumen of Tony and Amit, coupled with the experience and professionalism of Beard does give me comfort that everything has been well researched and thought through⦠I still get a little nervous though. Espanacol â Totally agree that moving Southall could be a disaster for both the club, and the stadium as a venue. I really hope that the Unigate site somehow comes to fruition. With its proximity to both Loftus Road, and, crucially to Westfield, I can see a stadium there being a real success.
Great post mate. Think that we all have that little niggle in the back of our minds. Can this really be happening to us? I also have some concerns, as i have heard nobody from the club talk about how we are going to find the 200 odd million needed to build this stadium. Is this debt going to cripple us going forward and how will we continue to grow and invest in decent players with that debt hanging over us for the next 20 years. I am sure they have developed a business plan, but would like to see it. Where are we also getting the millions that we are currently spending on players and wages. Just look at Barton's contract alone, with his 11=12 million contract. I have serious concerns that we are perhaps growing to fast. I know we have Amit, TF and PB all working on this, but where is the money coming from. Is the club building up huge debts in the background that we will only find out about in five or ten years time?
TIMK, you've got the fear. I had it yesterday and posted about it on another thread. It's under control now, I'm riding the wave. These blokes have a plan. For this to work, I think QPR needs to be more than a mid table club with the odd foray into the Europa League. They want to win things! Scary stuff. You either trust their vision and business nous or.........actually there is no alternative. Safety belts on!
I do know what you mean Nuts. I am pretty certain that we can get half the stadium paid for by partners/commercial ventures but do see that any break even point is disappearing further into the future. I'm just hoping Mittal is seeing the new stadium as merely being the price of building a granny annex and will bank role it.
When it comes to the new stadium, you have to look at the bigger picture. We have come a long way in 10 years, but for us to progress we have to move to a bigger stadium. Thanks to the board we are now debt free, but our revenue is still very small compared to others due to our current too small for purpose stadium. In order to generate more money we have to increase in size, but that will happen slowly, too slowly to pay for the new stadium sensibly. So we get others to pay for it, by making it available for concerts, boxing and other non-football events. As mentioned London has an abundance of concert venues, but there is very little range in size. At the top end you have Wembly and Twickenham at 70k+, and at the other end you have many such as the 02, olympia and Earls Court all below 20k. Which basically dictates that for us, building a Stadium in the middle of that range will give us a niche in the market. Why else do you think the board appointed Phil Beard as CEO, Mr O2 himself. I know we shall take some stick from other fans when the stadium isn't full, but when it is people will be able to see where it is we're going. It might seem a tad over realistic to us now, but that's what Chelsea thought 15 years ago when they rebuilt the bridge with flats and hotels around the ground, so now they can't expand and have to find a new home. Do we want to make that same mistake? The board are being cautious but optimistic, we should be too. According to Tony on Talksport last night we should be running at a profit next year, and the the likes of Ji-Sung Park our merchandise will be sold worldwide, more and more revenue, more and more fans. Soon enough we will be filling the stadium, but unlike any other team in the country, our stadium will slowly be paying for itself thanks to our wise owners.
Ha! Yeah, perhaps it is a dose of the fear FFS. Maybe I should ease off with those Camberwell carrots. In terms of the upfront stadium costs, what about all extra TV money? Between Sky and BT wasn't it £3 billion to be shared out between the clubs for the next 3 years of TV rights or something? Perhaps the board intend to frontload this money to cover the bulk of it??
Have to agree. Most sensible approach would be to start with 30k-35k with potential to expand by a further 10k.
Watched TF on qpr player earlier, interesting to hear him say his good friends bought battersea. He wants to stuff the scum as much as we do.
No point in getting concerned over heresay - let hear the proposals first, we don't know the size or location yet! Don't think it'll be Hanwell or Southall though - isn't that Berkshire anyway - as its London that's the attraction for alternate uses I'd have thought.
TF was on Talk sport last night - during the interview he put a big emphasis on the club being self sustaining and hopefully profitable within the next 2 years. The interview is on the website - about 10 mins long and a good listen. http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/transfer-rumours/120709/exclusive-fernandes-qpr-will-try-sign-two-or-three-more-play I think our future under this current mangement only looks bright for the future - long may it continue
Thanks for the link Matlow. As usual our Tone clear, relaxed and positive, answers a few of your points TIMK. The thing I like best was his several references to the advantages of Central and West London for a new stadium. He almost had me believing it was a good thing we didn't sack Joey as well..... Now need to check the Crossrail route as he specifically mentioned that........ Hmmm has stations at Harlington, Southall and Hanwell, nearest one to W12 Acton.......
As a couple of you have already mentioned, Phil Beard is the reason this won't go tits up. Smart operator.
