Like they did with the Olympic Stadium and development? If there is the top-level backing it will be bulldozed through, but this isn't the Olympics and Boris may have bigger fish to fry in a couple of years time...
Looks like I'm in a minority over Car Giant. I accept he has to do his best for the business and I hope my post reflected that. However, to me he comes over as obstructive. I get the feeling he / they are thinking 'New Queens Park' sounds like a great idea, we'll have a bit of that. Surely they had that chance and should now bow out gracefully. From the way some have written, I get the feeling you may know the CG owner (or may even be him!) In which case no offence intended.
Just so glad we've got A CE with a track record of big projects like the O2 Which Phil Beard built single handed own his own with no help from anyone at all. Certainly didn't find an abandoned white elephant and simply renamed it. Given the training ground was a nailed on certainty, I would get prepared for Tony & Phil to twist and turn like a twisty turny thing. Much Talk. More Trousers.
My opinion was based on the article. Because I happen to see his point of view doesn't mean I know him or indeed am him.
On the topic of stadiums and crowd capacities, League 1 Coventry City returned to the Ricoh Stadium this evening with an attendance of 27,306 to watch the Sky Blues beat Gillingham 1-0 with Antonio German coming on as an 85th min sub for Gillingham. Last season most home fans boycotted travelling to Northampton Town to watch their home fixtures due to the ongoing dispute over the Ricoh, which turned out to be lose / lose situation for all parties concerned. Two long brown patches on the Ricoh turf were apparently due to a recent gaming convention, so as a multi-purpose stadium it generates additional revenue streams, which is good for the bottom line.
I agree. While I can share in the disappointment at the scale of the problem posed by CG it doesn't seem unreasonable to me for him to hold out for a fair deal. Place yourself in his shoes. Would you allow the football club you support to demolish or evict you from your place of business for peanuts? How about your home? No I didn't think so. Apparently we have a skilled team working on it and the board seems pretty convinced the project will happen. It's early days yet and there's still quite a bit of work and haggling to do before you start burning effigies and sticking pins into dolls of CG's MD.
I would take what the car giant guy says with a pinch of salt. I read one article less than two weeks ago, where he said QPR hadn't been in contact at all and car giant were going to develop the site blah blah, yet on the day before we are due to launch are campaign, he's suddenly in the paper again but now his story's changed and now it's we have made bids and we have been in negotiation blah blah. He changed his tune very quickly! I can't see that in the space of a week we'd contacted them, negotiated and been looking for a new site for them?!
This is a statement from QPR1st with regard to this meeting. http://www.qpr1st.com/news/stadium-consultation-meeting/ QPR1st Supporters’ Trust, welcomed the club’s decision to hold a meeting on Wednesday (3 September) with supporter groups and websites to discuss progress towards moving to a new stadium. We welcome the club sharing information with supporters and that the club is holding consultation meetings over the next few weeks at Loftus Road, Acton and Kensal Rise. We hope the club takes note of and acts on comments coming from supporters, local residents and businesses – including those at Wednesday’s meeting to name streets around the stadium after former QPR players and managers. The club expects to submit a planning application for the Old Oak area, covering housing, space for businesses and a stadium next year. We look forward to further, more detailed updates on the proposals and greater involvement for supporters and supporter groups. Supporters need to be more fully involved in developing the plans and given more information on the on proposals if they are to effectively support the club in achieving a new QPR stadium. Supporters also want clear and unequivocal assurances that the stadium will be directly owned by the club, rather than any arrangement that sees, for example, the current major shareholders establishing separable companies for the club, and for property including the stadium. We believe that any arrangement regarding ownership of the stadium needs to be based on the best interests of Queens Park Rangers Football Club in being the stadium’s primary occupant for years to come. We strongly encourage all fans to visit the website www.new-queens-park.co.uk to find out how they can become involved in the consultation process. It is essential that fans take this opportunity to ensure that their views and opinions are clearly stated and acted upon -------------------------- While I totally agree the the section I've emboldened, it was clearly stated in the meeting that the new stadium would be owned by the current shareholders not the club. Perhaps there are working on the same basis as my wife does, keep asking the same question until I get worn down.
I believe it was the same sort of company arrangement that led to the Coventry debacle, if we're going to actually build a stadium it has to be ours...
Considering it has been announced several times that the ground will be owned by the current shareholders and not by the club, in what way do you think we will be scammed?
Club doesn't need to own the ground, just have an agreement to play there rent free for perpetuity and keep all match day receipts. As the owners of the stadium will also own all of QPR and all of its debt, they have no incentive to make anything worse. In fact, the 'club' doesn't own Loftus Road, the Club's owners do, so no real change. Coventry's owners never had a stake in the Ricoh, its at least partly owned by the city council. A football club is just like any other company, everything about it is owned by its shareholders. What would be interesting would be if the entire development is done under the umbrella of the club, and the undoubted massive profits shown on our balance sheet. Bye bye FFP.
