QPR blogger Roller returns to LFW, concerned about the shifting dynamics of the club he loves and its support base.

One short, simple sentence I read during the pre-season has left me feeling very uneasy ever since.

I was watching our friendly match against Wycombe Wanderers on a website which also featured a comment stream enabling all those on-line to chat with each other. At the end of the match Gareth Ainsworth grabbed Hogan Ephraim’s shirt, stretched it across his chest and advanced towards the QPR supporters thumping his heart and the Rangers’ faithful roared their appreciation of the gesture from a much loved ex-player. A comment appeared in the stream asking: “Who is Wycombe’s number seven?” I was too stunned to comment at the time and am still trying to come to terms with the ramifications of it. Am I overreacting? Probably, but it does highlight my concerns regarding the changing fan base at my club.

I’ve supported QPR since 197whenever and so proudly bear the scars of many galling disappointments alongside a few cherished memories of magnificent days. I love QPR, I have placed certain former idols on ridiculously high pedestals and I completely understand the heritage of the club. I was on the pitch at Loftus Road protesting against David Bulstrode’s proposed Fulham Park Rangers and when Ecclestone and Briatore were strangling the club I started a futile online petition to restore Bhatia and Saksena. When John Gregory decided that there wasn’t a player at the club who was skilful enough to wear the number 10 shirt I applauded him and when Gerry Francis resigned because Richard Thompson was looking to appoint Rodney Marsh as director of football I shook my head in disbelief.

However, throughout these and countless other events, far too many to even attempt to catalogue, I felt secure in the knowledge that it was just another day at QPR, the rollercoaster would race on unchecked and we all understood this, indeed many of us revelling in it. We, the QPR supporters, were members of an exclusive fellowship. Not many wanted to join, only the fully paid up members actually had any idea of what being a QPR supporter was really about, and, like the Eagles’ Hotel California, no one ever checked out. Because of the constant trials and tribulations we all suffered our bond to each other and with the club was rock solid.

As much as I love the buzz emanating from Loftus Road, the calm assurance exhibited by both the current board and management and the new professional outlook, I am concerned; I fear that my vision of QPR, my ideal, is slowly but surely getting dismantled. In my mind, QPR is a friendly, family club. We have strong roots in West London but universal appeal, the uniqueness of the club’s name and the famous hooped shirts never fail to grab attention. We can boast of a succession of outlandishly talented players who have thrilled in the number ten shirt, and constantly admire the passion and solidarity of the diehard supporters who, undaunted by the disappointment which constantly ambushes their hopes of success, continue to belt out Pigbag in a ramshackle but strangely glorious stadium, a stadium that screams of amateurism and chaos. We are definitely not an anodyne club with an identikit stadium and greedy supporters demanding success at any cost.

Of these, the tightness of the supporters is the most laudable. For a small club in London that has seen precious little success at any time in its existence to maintain such a loyal and fervent support is incredible. Generation after generation of parents have taken their children to Loftus Road from an early age and got them hooked on the atmosphere and the passion. These children have resisted the teasing and tormenting in their school playgrounds from their friends who “support” Chelsea or Arsenal or Spurs or Manchester United even though they have never, and will never, go to see them play. We all understand the exquisite pain of supporting QPR, we all have tasted the same defeats, suffered the same torment, we all understand.

QPR’s “going global” plan is a determined effort to increase our fan base, an attempt to bust wide open our exclusive members only fellowship. I fully understand that this is of the utmost importance, that a new generation of supporters is essential, that the merchandise sales this will generate will generate vital revenue and that when we finally have our new stadium it will need filling. However unless the new fans emotionally buy-in to QPR in the way that we all have those bonds will be weakened. I fear that soon we won’t be stopping to talk to complete strangers just because they are sporting a blue and white hooped top, worried that their knowledge of QPR only encompasses the Fernandes years.

Loftus Road will remain a bastion for my QPR ideal. Our faithful, long suffering season ticket holders, ably backed up by the members, will ensure this; their unremitting desire to back the team will ensure that very few tickets are available for general sale. The warm welcome that Kaspars Gorkss received on his return to our ground with his Reading team mates and the muted, but genuine, applause for his headed goal was just the latest example of our understanding of the club’s history and appreciation of those who have played a major role in it. Would the guy who didn’t know who Wild Thing was be any the wiser regarding Gorkss? These supporters are the heart and soul of the club and must not be ignored nor taken for granted while the drive for global awareness powers forwards. Every effort must be made to ensure that not a single one of these supporters is disenfranchised as the club forge their relentless path forwards.

As soon as we leave Loftus Road this situation will inevitably change, the increased capacity of the new stadium will make it imperative that we have another 20,000 supporters passing through the turnstiles and this is where my worries are centred. Do we have another 20,000 supporters desperate to go to the every home match or will this void be filled by temporary supporters curious to see Ji-Sung Park, Julio Cesar or whoever the latest marquee signing is? Will there start to be quieter areas in the ground, or heaven forbid a “neutrals” stand?

The internet, on the other hand, has an infinite capacity and could give us a clear indication of what the future holds. Forums and social media welcome the whole world and grant everyone the freedom to express their views in relative anonymity and it is this fertile breeding ground that will initially bear the brunt of the unwanted side effects of “going global”. While we all love to argue about events and dissect them down to the nth degree, we all do so from a common standpoint, our shared passion is unquestionable. As more and more new supporters join it is likely that the levels of understanding and insight will decrease, banality will increase and the more knowledgeable posters will quietly slip into the background. Even among current QPR supporters the level of ignorance surrounding John Terry’s racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand was staggering. Going forwards I can see this getting worse, but regardless of how informed or uninformed anyone is everyone will have the same level of access to many platforms from which to assert their views. Twitter, Tony Fernandes’ and Amit Bhatia’s preferred method of communicating with the fans, will be swamped, the amount of trivia and misinformation potentially soaring to pandemic proportions.

I stated on my introduction page of my blog that I regard myself as remarkably lucky to have stumbled across a club whose glory is encapsulated by the passionate characters associated with it not simply recorded by trophies won. How many of our new supporters will share this view or even understand it? New supporters attracted because of certain players or any ill-advised glory hunters will only be interested results and trophies. I don’t want QPR to become a soulless club like Chelsea. I asked a few Chelsea supporters I know if they ever had any equivalent qualms when Abramovich took over, none did, nor did they even begin to comprehend my fears. Maybe because Chelsea was always a bigger club with many, many more supporters they didn’t ever have that feeling of kinship with their fellow supporters or any feeling of ownership of their club. As we seek to expand our fan base around the world, possible with people who have never heard of Queens Park Rangers, I fear that things that I hold dear about QPR will get trampled underfoot.

I keep coming back to the conclusion that the problem here is me; I’m probably just overly sentimental, viewing our history through rose tinted glasses. I’m undoubtedly over reacting to necessary change, but I’m not one to idly sit by and watch. Maybe I need to expand my horizons to keep pace with the club, maybe I need to forget my ideal and the past and just look towards the future? We were of course all new supporters once, maybe these new fans will ultimately become just as passionate, they just won’t have the same scars. It is up to us to ensure that our fellowship does not get diluted, our forums do not get swamped and our stadium stays passionate. Am I just apprehensive of change? I don’t think so, I think just part of me will miss what we all are moving on from. The French poet and novelist Anatole France summed it up perfectly many years ago:

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”

Visit the RollercoasterRanger blog by clicking on the banner above for more of Roller's thoughts on all things QPR.

Tweet @RollerRanger, @loftforwords

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thisismyengland added 11:07 - Oct 13 Any large influx of new supporters would not be without precedent. Those of us whose dads used to go to Loftus Road in the 50s will have heard stories of much, much smaller crowds than the ones the club has known from the late 60s onwards. QPR got better, went up the divisions and brought new supporters on board. Possibly something like that is in progress again. Still, relegation would put the brakes on it...

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smegma added 11:10 - Oct 13 We're singing from the same hymn sheet. I too share your fears of what we are to become. Just standing and speaking to Dave Thomas before kick off (home or away) will tell you about our new fanbase when about twenty people wearing our colours will ask him 'is that the programme?'. Sometimes they'll ask so what is A Kick Up The Rs.If you don't know after 25 years, you'll never know.

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RBlock added 11:18 - Oct 13 Good read Roller, I think we all fear the dilution of the fanbase but you gotta take the good with the bad i guess. Just try and educate the new generation of fans!
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QPR_10 added 11:40 - Oct 13 Really enjoyed reading that, great write up x
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30yarder added 11:44 - Oct 13 Are you ok mate? I think we just need to win a game and then everything will be alright. Ive been supporting the hoops since 1967 (we lost 1-0 at home to Blackpool) and have almost seen everything.When we came so close to winning the 1st division back in the seventies, a lot of people thought the same thing back then. Just hold on to your teeth and grip your hat as my Grandad used to say...when we beat Everton

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ade_qpr added 11:47 - Oct 13 Yes I would like to see QPR viewed by the world and increase our fan base and thus more revenue into the club so make it more competitive. The key is sorting thro the wheat from the chaff and it will take time. Meaning 10 year supporters with the passion not 10 game supporters looking for a name. In time a new stadium with 30,000 or so regulars with that passion will be better than 18,000 as of now.

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Toast_R added 11:58 - Oct 13 Well written piece and interesting read. For a pennies worth, I think we can dwell on things too much and place too big an emphasis on sentimental values that at the end of day in the real world, mean very little or do any good. If someone new don’t know their sh*t, don’t get annoyed and high horse about it, see it as an opportunity to educate them. There is a fine line between religion and football, the way many supporters see things as sacred and take offense to miniscule miss observations is uncanny to that of a religious extremist. And DT selling a Kick Up the R’s outside the ground. Whilst I appreciate the fact he’s been doing that for years and years and is a valued and well respected supporter and great guy with a host of regular customers, myself included once upon a time, I think the attitude should be different. Here’s an opportunity to pitch his sale to new customers and make more money. He should be glad their asking if it’s a programme so he can tell them its not, it’s a much better publication with real opinions and great articles, a must have for any new supporter or football fan QPR or otherwise. When it all goes to sh*t.. and it will one day hopefully not soon, we’ll look back on this as a golden age. All of us need to realise we need to make the most of it now.

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N12Hoop added 12:03 - Oct 13 Excellent read. I too was on the pitch protesting and at the launch of AKUTRs but things were very different back then. Sky, the internet and the globalisation of football means we are now in a very different world with foreign owners, glamorous WAGS and intensive wall to wall coverage of trivia. As a result we must adapt or die so we have to embrace the wider interest but hope we can educate the 'new' fans on why they are becoming part of a special club. Maybe its unrealistic but i'd prefer that future than one languishing in the lower divisions, with Wycombe for example.

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Irish_Hoop added 12:12 - Oct 13 The question is how many of the new fans will "grow" to become like the "old" fans? There are many of us, as thisismyengland alluded to above, who have no roots in west london but became attracted to QPR as the club became more successful (in my case, as an east London boy, through a rejection of West Ham and a love of Stan Bowles that was nurtured by Brian Moore and the Big Match). We need to bring these fans with us on our journey so that they can become part of us.

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SmartRs added 12:44 - Oct 13 Excellent post and something I agree with. Been supporting QPR since the 60's so I've seen it all happen since then. I think the problem with the new "supporters" is that they will be no more than curious. A group of 4 Koreans (all wearing J-S Park No:7 QPR tops) at the West Ham game left their seats when he was substituted after about 70 mins. I noticed them as they were only a few rows away from me in the Upper Loft. Did anyone else see them leave? They were there to support J-S Park, not QPR, and had no interest in the game once he was substituted. How do you make them long term fans? I have no idea. QPR will just be a curiosity to them as long as J-S Park or another of their countrymen is there. I saw another Korean at an earlier game with a Man Utd J-S Park top on and he just didn't get it when some fans gave him a bit of stick. I think that many of these "supporters" will change their allegiances as soon as their heroes join another team. Their culture is different to ours and I suspect that many of them will have supported a number of different teams over the years. For the rest of us, supporting QPR is something we'll do till we die.

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thehat added 12:55 - Oct 13 All these new fans and we still can't sell out our ground!!!
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Eltham_Ranger added 16:06 - Oct 13 Fascinating and I regularly think about this myself. I actually think I loved travelling up and down the country watching Holloway's Rangers despite watching players like Bonnot, Ben Askar and Doudou. I still remember watching the R's away at Chesterfield. Freezing cold day, you wee to the wall but over 1000 Rangers fans packed into the away terrace cheering goals from (i think) thomson, rose and shittu. Danny taking his shirt off and swinging it around his head in the cold! Rangers may have been regulary poor but the 13000 at HQ every week loved them just as much as they do now. For this to happen again and for us to have fans who are aware of our history we need to be relegated probably twice. The choice for us is premier league with some proper idiots watching us who are unaware of any Rangers history or the alternative of a relegated and I'm sure in financial ruin again Rangers. The final thing I struggle with is I really believe I loved: Day, Shittu, Rose, Carlisle, Padula, Ainsworth, Rowlands, Bircham, Cook, Gallen, Furlong, Thomson and the rest more than I currently love Cesar, Bosingwa, Ferdinand, Nelson, Traore, Taarabt, Granero, Faurlin, Diakite, Hoilett, Cisse, Zamora and the rest. My conclusion is I love Rangers less now than I did 10-15 years ago travelling the length of the country with my dad.

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Roller added 16:17 - Oct 13 It's not just me then, there are a few of us in this boat, although I do still accept that it is me that is the problem and yes you are probably right Toast, we may well look back on this as a Golden Age. Time to embrace not only the here and now, but the future. It will take some getting used to.
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izlingtonhoop added 17:15 - Oct 13 Ah, that beautiful disappointment. I'll always almost fondly remember that moment inthe millennium, six minutes from time (was it?) When 33000 of us slumped in our seats and sighed, 'ugh'... We knew that it would end that way, didn't we...?
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bosh67 added 17:21 - Oct 13 Great article but overall I think it is football in general that is changing and not just our beloved club. My dad and I have been going for 40 years now and even though TF and co have genuinely, we think, tried to reestablish harmony, it's the game and the money that is detaching us as fans, and not so much our own club. It's a victim of it's own recent success. That may sound weird but we were a club just ours from going out of business and now we are an established relegation favourite in the top level of football. TF has to build us as a global brand for us to survive long term, that's kind of bigger picture than us simple fans can take in. Is the perm all that? I'm not sure. Are QPR really a top level team long term? Again, I'm not sure we really have the power or cash to accelerate like Man City. Do we want to do that, not really. The problem is that if we didn't get the backing of TF and the mad Italians and F1 man before, we probably would have continued to slide down the divisions. At which point we were very weak, as a business and as a voice fan wise. Personally I think we could be a global brand as it were in the next level down, if it came to it, because football is about aspiration at more levels than being thumped every week by clubs with more money. We haven't given enough of our young players a stage, not the ones we have had at the club for some time, and that for me is the concern. Kids watching highly paid players who may or may not be on a last career switch pay day is one thing, kids watching players coming through the ranks and aspiring to be like them and connect with them, that is I think a problem now at QPR. Is it Hughes fault? Not really, he can't win, it's just another part of the way football is. Will the academy work here? Not sure, not if the policy is to never really play the players you grow. We, as fans keep saying x y and z is not good enough at this level and perhaps that's because they aren't as hungry as players we've had in the past. I loved watching Ainsworth because he gave absolutely everything. He wasn't the best player we ever had but he was extremely special because he was 'one of us' in our hearts and minds. He sweated blood for us. That as fans is all we ask. No, Clint Hill perhaps is starting to look his age at this level, but again, he gives everything. many other players just don't. The thing is we do have the Hogan Ephraim's etc here who also sweat blood but they never get a look in. Would I rather watch a team that gives everything every week at a lower level and wins more than it loses, and entertains in the process, yes. Is that a world class brand? If kids watching around the world see players getting a chance and giving everything, at whatever level it is, that inspires, and even at a lower level, that's 'world class'.

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izlingtonhoop added 17:25 - Oct 13 As for Gorkss, it was his almost palpable refusal to celebrate his goal that made me put my hands together. Although I heard one R in the Springbock afterwards berating anyone who applauded "however great a servant to the club he was!"
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thewhitemonkey added 19:21 - Oct 13 Very good article and some interesting debate. I agree very much with Toast_R that we should be welcoming new fans, educating them and encouraging them to become attached to the club. I know of several foreign fans who came to QPR just to see some English football - not any particular player - but are now fans. Yes, it is very likely that a lot of Korean fans will follow us only so long as Park plays for us, but if we welcome them into our community then perhaps some will take the club itself to heart. As for the person who commented online at the Wycombe game asking "who is Wycombe's number 7?" - did anyone give him an answer, or did he just get abuse? That's an example of a potential fellow Ranger expressly asking to be educated on the club's history, and we really should be encouraging this. At the end of the day the club needs to build revenue to grow and bring success, but we shouldn't see new fans simply in these terms. They may not share our knowledge and experience of the club now, but show them kindness and empathy and they can become a part of the QPR family for years to come. I don't think it's in anyones interests to try and make QPR some kind of exclusive members club where outsiders arn't welcomed.

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cheeseydane added 19:47 - Oct 13 Understand your fears Roller. Bosh, pretty much sums up my views and aspirations of Rangers and football in general.
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Trom added 20:10 - Oct 13 Reality is there can't be too many new fans at the ground on a match day as the capacity of Loftus Rd prevents this. When did Ainsworth last play for us? 3 or 4 years ago. If that fan you mentioned is a youngster then they wouldn't have seen him play which would make the comment understandable. Same old face were I sit that there has been for 20 odd years. So basically I don't subscribe to your point of view Northern. I've seen about 4 Asian faces at Loftus Rd since Parks arrival - hardly endemic proportions. On the flip side I can't honestly say I've enjoyed our Premiership adventure more than other leagues but I can imagine for most of us the match day experience goes beyond what happens on the pitch. Always a roller coaster - that's the one fact we can truly say about our club.

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Northernr added 20:22 - Oct 13 Trom - not my point of view. The introduction should make it pretty obvious! Two points on your comment though - I've seen scores of South Korean fans at our games, both home and away. South Africa Road has loads of them on matchdays and our train back from West Brom last week had a good dozen in new Park shirts. And secondly, I'll forgive you if you're eight years old but anybody older than that claiming to be a QPR fan should know who Gareth Ainsworth is.

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CJD added 21:10 - Oct 13 I wrote a piece in A Kick Up The R's a few years ago along the lines of 'I followed the Rangers when when were shit you know'. We aren't anywhere near to what chelsea fans said to everyone as soon as they started winning trophies, but you never know with the new 'supporters'!!!
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Roller added 21:36 - Oct 13 Trom, I do make the point about Loftus Road's capacity working in our favour here. I think that you will find that the "invasion" of new supporters will happen in the areas that are not filled with season ticker holders, but yes, not endemic while we remain at LR. I was apprehensive about sending this blog to Clive. I'd been exchanging PMs with QPRski since my previous blog and he rightly assured me that this would be well received, he clearly knows this forum well. I am very pleased and impressed by your responses, but then I should know better than to underestimate QPR supporters. By the way, the person who asked who the Wycombe No 7 was completely ignored.

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Beds_Ranger added 22:02 - Oct 13 I'm sure you mean we'll, but I got bored half way through. The world's moved on from 1976 and you've got to accept it. Unless you want a life time swapping from league 1 to 2, we'll take whoever pays to turn up and fund the future. It's up to us old feckers to impart the passion to the next generation of supporters.
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Red_Ranger added 22:29 - Oct 13 Great read Roller. A few points: 1.I was dreading going up because of lots of what you say but am really enjoying the ride. That day at the Etihad was one of my best ever. It is the 'top table'and to be sitting at it and tucking in every week feels great. 2. Took my 7 year old to football training this morning - more Rangers tops than any other team. Genuine local kids not preferring other London teams. 3. This Prem show is only going to get bigger and more money coming in. If we do want to stay there IMHO, TF and Co are going about it in a very good way except for results. 4. We collectively need to remember our history and incorporate it in the future. Lobby and keep articles like this going.

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QPRski added 22:32 - Oct 13 Roller, very good article clearly written from the heart. I feel like I have looked into the mirror and have made a confession.
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