Queens Park Rangers and Fulham could consider sharing a new stadium Queens Park Rangers visit Craven Cottage on Sunday for a west London derby, but is there a chance that the two Premier League clubs may eventually share a bespoke new stadium? It seems so. Jason Burt: QPR and Fulham could consider sharing a new stadium Thumbs up: Could Tony Fernandes relocate QPR and share with Fulham? They have shared before, of course, with Fulham the tenants at Loftus Road for two seasons between 2002 and 2004 while Craven Cottage was redeveloped after plans for an ambitious new ground had been shelved. Going even further back, in the late 1980s, there was even a scheme by the club’s then owners to sell off the Cottage and merge the two clubs as Fulham Park Rangers and play at Loftus Road. That plan, after understandable hostility, was quickly dropped. However new QPR chairman Tony Fernandes has identified that with a stadium at a capacity of just 18,300 and with limited facilities and no real hope of redeveloping the existing ground, his club have to move. And quickly. It helps that QPR are well located within London with parcels of land available nearby, partly opened up by the BBC’s Salford relocation and the huge Westfield shopping development. Indeed Fernandes has already candidly floated the idea of not just moving but sharing. Some have assumed that this would entail a deal with Chelsea, who have been considering for some time whether to quit Stamford Bridge and have received approaches ever since Roman Abramovich acquired the club. It is believed that QPR would like to examine whether an initial 30,000-capacity stadium would work for them and there has even been the idea of building a slightly larger arena and trying to offer discounted tickets to watch the other team that occupies it, and vice-versa. The attitude of Fulham owner Mohamed Fayed is key, of course, to the possibility of a ground-share. He would encounter opposition to re-developing the Craven Cottage site for commercial use from the local council, as he has found out before, while there is no suggestion that right now he would be even interested in discussing a new stadium. But given the proximity of both clubs, 2.5 miles apart, and given their similar fan-bases and the challenges they face to stay in the Premier League and compete, it would be surprising if, come Sunday, there isn’t even the slightest suggestion of a collaboration in the pre-match hospitality. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ham-could-consider-sharing-a-new-stadium.html
Won't happen. Just old news that has a spin on it. TF said that he would consider a share but since then Amit has said no share on the podcast. its a poor artical.
I can see the logic in having a stadium for the two clubs as per Inter and Ac Milan, and a few other Italian clubs, but I just cannot see this working as fans want separate identities. Plus when Fulham played a Loftus Rd a few years ago, this I don't think went down to well, and, showing my age here but does anyone else remember the concept of a Fulham Park Rangers? This was a great way to irritate two sets of footbal fans.
Could this be somebody flying a kite, or pure story manufacturing which is more likely. There are no quotes, not even of the " a source close to" variety. Looking at it coldly it does make commercial sense but I can't see it happening in the short to medium term.
Interesting article. I saw an interview with Fernandes in the Standard in which he talked about needing a bigger ground and how that might only be possible with a ground share. In principle, I don't see the problem that fans of some English clubs have with sharing a ground. It works perfectly well in Italy so why not here? That said, it would take me a lot of convincing to agree to Fulham ever leaving Craven Cottage. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the Johnny Haynes stand is part of the the nation's sporting heritage - it's the oldest stand in England and even the turnstiles are a listed building. I'd also miss the pre-match walk along the Thames from Putney Bridge. I know plenty of clubs have moved from their original home to new stadia, but for me the Cottage is part of what gives the club its character. We've also fought too many battles over it in the past to leave.
I agree that the British notion that ground-sharing is wrong is bollocks. Sharing all the costs obviously makes sense and there are ways of changing the stadium dependent on who's at home that day like they do in Munich.
Good post. I just spent 5 minutes writing a reply only to lose it all on a bad connection! Anyway it basically said it won't happen and this artical is rubbish.
I think we have comprehensively done the sharing yes or no debate on other threads including a poll. This story looks like a speculative space filler, journo couldn't even be bothered to get a comment from Fulham. But it does raise an interesting question about the value of Loftus Road for redevelopment. Would it be commercial or residential - I can see problems both planning and practical with both.
Ellers - Amit didn't actually say that. All he said when asked if he would consider sharing a stadium with Chelsea was "no". There wasn't any mention of sharing with Fulham at all, so a stadium share hasn't been completely ruled out per se.
Ground sharing as a concept makes a lot of sense, but not for us. Possibly more than most clubs, Fulham's identity is wrapped up in its ground. To a large extent Fulham IS Craven Cottage. Personally, I'd rather see us go back to playing in the lower divisions at the Cottage than stay in the Premier League elsewhere. I don't think we're in any danger of either happening in the short term though.
QPR Could Win The League With ambitious owners and manager, QPR could win the league this year. They could win all their remaining matches and could remain injury free for the rest of the season. The players could also decide to do a Tevez and refuse to play ..... This journo thing is easy, isn't it.
In the end it will be cold hard financial facts that dictate the course both clubs take. To build a new 30,000 seat stadium in London you'll not get much change out of £300 million. The sale of Loftus Road would bring in a small chunk of that so the club would have to find not far off £250 million for a ground which would have to have multi-use to make financial sense. Cut that in half with a 'partner' and it becomes feasible rather than desirable. I, like everyone on here, would love us to have our own new user-friendly stadium to really make us competitive, but even with the multi-billionaires on the board you wonder whether their largesse would extend to such a project. Time will tell...
I think the basic concept of a ground share is not that crazy. Can't see it getting off the ground though. The situation with the merseyside clubs is interesting. Neither Liverpool or Everton can afford to build a new stadium by themselves. The cost of building a new stadium is high and despite what some may say it has to affect investment in the team and squad. The concept of a ground share with Fulham makes sense in so many ways. We both have roughly the same fan base, so a stadium of around 30,000-35,000 would be perfect. Geographically the clubs are very close and if a suitable site was found it could keep the stadium reasonibly central to both current locations. So many costs could be shared it would not place a massive financial burden on either club, ie its affordable. With the current global financial crisis it may never be cheaper to build a capital project. Each club gets a designated home end as in Italy and everything else is shared.
May be a vanity play. The Laksmi Mittal Superdome has a ring to it and £300m will not dent the petty cash too much
How about the Air Asia Arena, commonly known as The Triple AAA! .. Nah, probably not. I have to say though that whilst I agree with those who think that it's unlikely to happen, for me it would all depend on what would be built and where. I totally understand people's stand against the idea in principal, not least those quite eloquently expressed by Fulhamish. However, for me personally it would depend on the proposal, and without there being any actual plans to discuss it's not worth spending too much time worrying about.
When i wrote that i thought someone may bring that up. I wouldn't read too much into it though. Agree the question was about Chelsea and maybe if the question was asked in the correct way "would we consider ground sharing", rather than "would you consider groundsharing with Chelsea"? We would have recieved an answer. I think he would have said no as well. He said we had professional services looking into it and that both he and TF want a new stadium if we remain in the Prem.
Sharing ground with Chelsea or Fulham will be difficult due to policing resources and scheduling of mathes... Simple enough reason that a ground share will not be possible...
Policing resources are paid for and the total number of matches in the borough would be the same so that wouldn't affect the issue...
