Wow. This is beyond exciting. It gets 3 pages in today's Times. Serious respect to TF and his partners.
Good piece by David M, answers quiet a few questions. http://www.westlondonsport.com/features-comment/the-old-oak-project-that-would-transform-the-face-of-qpr-wls-football9473222
Fair points there 3W. But I think you will find that he has trebled the debt of the club (not Fernandes) in the two and a half years he has been there. Plus the club (not Fernandes) secured a loan of £15 million on Loftus Rd at the beginning of this season. Not bad considering a while back we were being told by Fernandes and Bhatia that the club were debt free. What happened to the 80 million pay out from the two disasterous seasons under his leadership in the Premiership? Now that is being astute. Who are the good footballing businessmen? Anyway the new stadium is going to happen and I will be there God willing to see it happen, just like I have been going for the past 54 years.
Read David M piece, he's even more skeptical about Rangers and it's owners than you, but he seems to dismiss every single one of your 'doomsday' forecasts.
No "Doomsday" forcasts Lone, just questions. Fernandes has not said where he is going to find the extra 22,000 to fill the stadium, has he ? because he doesn't know. This whole rebranding is based on the club being in the Premiership and he has already proved he can not guarantee that on a permanent basis, know one can.
Fantastic news, if not unexpected, it has come at a very good time. Not been on the internet for 48 hours so to find this news is beyond great In this project we have kept the two most important aspects of a QPR stadium, location and atmosphere. Can't really ask for more than that. And to see that the owners have gone for my favourite design like the St Jakob Park in Basel with a three tier side and the rest two tiers just blows me away! Couldn't be happier! My prayers have been answered please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Interesting article with one sentence which has given me a paradigm change "...and a stadium offering Premier League football in London could be a haven for fans visiting the UK" I thought I was out on a limb here trying to support QPR from deep central Europe. Suddenly I see that I among the pioneers of the future fashionable supporter from overseas club. I am not sure that it will be a desired or welcomed clique in the future.
David M reckons we could be there for the 18/19 season!! I feel like I've won the lottery (well, almost).
Bush, I respect you for your tireless search for anything and everything QPR. But as such a fountain of knowledge surely you should remember the amount of fans we took to the cup finals, the play-off finals. Just because we don't fill LR each week isn't testament to how many fans we actually have. I know nobody who goes week in week out likes the idea of fair weather fans, but we have many. Some stay away cause they only like it when we're at the top, some because they just can't hack the facilities, view (behind a post) and being kneecapped. But this is a vision for taking the club forward, without that vision we would be stuck where we are today, or more likely continue to slide as teams in league 1 and 2 slowly come up in stature. The reason we are still a small club is because we've never capitalized on an period of success. This is the first time we've had owners prepared to back the team, as well as invest in a new stadium. But what is preferable, no investment, no success, 'but at least we'll have our Rangers, LR is the only place to be' attitude? Or grab the opportunity to move on and hopefully see some success at the club? We all remember the days that made this club what it is, we all love LR and the tight spirit of our fans, but is change such a bad thing? Yes it will mean we gain our share of plastic fans, but it also means a new generation of fans who will be able to get a ticket to a big game, to see the new legends in the making, and us fans who are old enough can prattle on about the good old days at LR. But we wont get that chance to tell them if we are still there, because no one will want to come.
He set up an airline with 2 planes at seemingly the worst possible time, now he has 150 planes. He knows how to, as he puts it, 'get bums on seats'. The stadium will be part of QPR Holdings, as is the club. Bushman, you are entirely entitled to your views and skepticism, but I'm interested to know what your preference would be - stay at LR, forget dreams of being an established premiership team, go for a Norwich style ownership/spending policy?
It was pretty obvious we would be going for this site when the Old Oak regeneration project was announced back in the summer and it already included the option for a football stadium. My assumption is that this was no coincidence and TF/Beard already had been working closely with the authorities to make room for us as part of the development. As I said at the time I can't really imagine a better placed option for QPR: it's as close as we could reasonably hope for to LR and almost equidistant between it and our spiritual home of Queens Park; it will allow us to be the centre of a much bigger natural catchment area (i.e. no other big clubs in NW London and further away from our West London neighbours); and its going to have the best transport links in the entire country. If people really must look for a downside on this momentous day its the fact that the stadium is probably still 6 years away and even once built will be the middle of a building site for 10 years.
With anything like this there are bound to be doubters and doomsayers out there. But letâs just get one thing absolutely clear: There is NO reason why we shouldnât be able to fill this new stadium. Iâm going to say something which I know Iâve said before, but I honestly donât think that itâs significance can be easily overstated: When the transport links are completed, the stadium will be THE best connected destination in the Country. If you donât believe me take a look at the journey times for the proposed new Old Oak Crossrail and HS2 hub in the below; http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/TR138887%20Old%20Oak_doc_web_0.pdf Itâs a hefty read, so to save you the headache here are the proposed journey times from what will be station next door when Crossrail and HS2 are complete: ⢠Central London and Heathrow (approx 10 mins) ⢠Canary Wharf (approx 20 mins) ⢠Birmingham (approx 40 mins) ⢠Paris (approx 2 1/4 hours) If we canât fill a stadium here, someone needs shooting.
QPR's ticket income 2011-12 with avg gate of 17,300 was £7.7m according to club accounts. Everton by comparison, avg 33k was £16.8m. We would have to find another 15,000 bums on seats to make £8million more, which is a spit in the ocean of the Premiership. It's where you finish in the Premiership that brings in the money, not a shiny new venue. Still proof is in the pudding and if we do end up becoming an established Premiership side because of the move I will be more than happy to have been wrong. I will still go and watch them week in, week out, where ever they play. Anyway, stuff to do now, early start for Blackpool in the morning
Great post, I agree totally. I truely love LR, and will no doubt shed a tear or two at the last game to be played there, but a move is ineviatable. Indeed I believe that by NOT moving the clubs long term viability and future would be in doubt. Lets remember and celebrate our past, whilst at the same time look forward to a brighter future. For me I want the club to be around for my kids and grandkids (when we get them) to support when they're my age.
Of course the future will be in doubt if we dont move, we will go back to buckets outside the ground and playing the likes Port Vale and Crawley every week. We have a L1 or L2 ground and would end up there if we tried to survive at LR.
This clears up the ownership issue. Will QPR still own its own stadium? This is another potentially key issue. The club know they could could face some backlash from even an overwhelmingly pro-Fernandes fan-base if their answer on this isn’t seen as satisfactory. Their current position is that the stadium will indeed be owned by QPR Holdings, the company which owns the club. QPR Holdings is owned by the club’s shareholders. I believe lots of clubs do this, remember Saints going into admin and they tried to argue it wasnt them but the holding company. I assume its done for tax reasons.
