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QPR chief executive Philip Beard admits the club cannot afford to build a new stadium without incorporating a cinema, restaurant or casino - or even ground share with a team from another sport.
Rangers are looking to move out of Loftus Road, which is the smallest ground in the Premier League, and are attempting to identify a site near their current west London home.
But Beard admits the club has to have a bigger fanbase before they can even consider moving - and says that a football-only stadium would not work.
And the man who oversaw the transformation of the Millenium Dome into the 02 has refused to rule out other clubs playing at the stadium, with Fulham and London Wasps both having called Loftus Road home in the past.
"To have a stand-alone football stadium that only hosts 19 home domestic matches a season would probably not make the numbers work," he said.
"What is important is that it is the home of QPR but it will need to have facilities to do other things as well. If we are serious about building a new stadium we need to grow our fanbase and engage with young people and the community– Philip Beard
"A full-on ground-share is more challenging, but I am hoping to emulate an entertainment destination model where you roll the pitch away and use it for other things.
"Look at the Emirates hosting Coldplay for three nights - that is the sort of activity you need to host to generate the revenues to make the club sustainable and ultimately invest in the team going forward.
"But the criteria is that we need to find somewhere that hopefully isn't too far from Loftus Road.
"Our fanbase is a very passionate, loyal and local fanbase. We need to stay in the area if we can and that is almost a must."
But Beard first wants to make the club a force both in the Premier League and Europe so that more supporters are attracted to the terraces.
Rangers survived on the final day last season but Beard knows an average attendance of 17,295 needs to be improved significantly.
He added: "We need to build our fanbase. We have a capacity of 18,500 at Loftus Road and I think we could fill a significantly higher number of seats here.
"If we are serious about building a new stadium we need to grow our fanbase and engage with young people and the community and become a club that is not just known in London and around Europe but further afield.
"That takes time but it is exciting and is a challenge building a brand, growing a fanbase. That is something I am hoping I can challenge the guys off the pitch to help us with.
"QPR stands for so many good things that if we can get the messages out there we will start to see the blue and white Hoops further afield than west London."
QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 10:11 - Jun 7 by Konk
Loftus Road is terrible in terms of legroom, views and facilities, and it’s not exactly a work of architectural wonder from the outside, but it’s a very individual sort of a place and I think it’ll be a real loss if you leave. There’s nothing beats wandering down a street, turning a corner and finding a football ground in front of you — as a romantic old bas tard, I think a football club should be in the middle of the community, and in the country that invented football, I love our grounds being surrounded by 100 year old + streets. You can’t avoid the history, the sense of continuity and the ghosts. I'm not sure that trudging across the car park on your way to the game at some out of town ground ever compares with walking down terraced streets on your way from the pub. Sadly, you’re restricted in what you can do at LR due to the surrounding environment, but it’ll be a real shame to lose those transport links, all those pubs etc if you do move further out — it’s a pretty decent spot for a ground as things go, but I guess something has to give if you want to progress.
Morning Konk, brought a tear to my eye that did! ;)
It Is What It Is !!
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 12:11 - Jun 7 with 1208 views
QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 10:53 - Jun 7 by blacky200
I think adding the amount of seats they are talking about is not feasable at LR even if they were able to buy all the houses surrounding the ground. Wouldn't there also be height issues for other residents etc. As much as I love LR if we are to progress as the owners want us to then moving seems to be the only option. One other thing though is the cost of the new ground when taken into context with the increase in revenue. If we were to add 10,000 to our gates then that would equate to approx £7.5 million per year extra in turnstile revenue if we were to sell all the 10,000 seats. This is not a massive figure in real terms. I realise that with those extra supporters then revenue from programme sales, food and merchandise would also increase but purely from the football side it would take along time to pay off a new ground.
do the math on a new ground and its even worse taking into account the buying of land planning issues etc etc thats why multi use is what we need to be aiming for and a joint deal with a hotel etc would make that deal very sweet indeed
It would not make sense to share with another football club. How can we increase our fan base if we share with another club? If we must share, let it be with a rugby team and incorporate other facilities such as a casino, gym etc into the site.
People always mention the Milan, Roma and Turin clubs as examples of two clubs sharing a ground. It's ok for them because they are the two major clubs in those particular cities or regions. We now have got 6 Premiership clubs in London (3 in one Borough) and more in the lower tiers. In London you have to have a specific area for yourselves and then work on attracting fans from other areas and abroad.
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 13:00 - Jun 7 with 1180 views
QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 10:53 - Jun 7 by blacky200
I think adding the amount of seats they are talking about is not feasable at LR even if they were able to buy all the houses surrounding the ground. Wouldn't there also be height issues for other residents etc. As much as I love LR if we are to progress as the owners want us to then moving seems to be the only option. One other thing though is the cost of the new ground when taken into context with the increase in revenue. If we were to add 10,000 to our gates then that would equate to approx £7.5 million per year extra in turnstile revenue if we were to sell all the 10,000 seats. This is not a massive figure in real terms. I realise that with those extra supporters then revenue from programme sales, food and merchandise would also increase but purely from the football side it would take along time to pay off a new ground.
That is the reality an extra 10,000 seats is nothing in terms of revenue, but vitally important when increasing the fanbase and growing the club. The only way you will pay for a new ground is if it has another purpose such as events casino's etc. But if you want to host major events or have a large casino then location and transport links are key, so we'd be better of staying local which as we all know will be more expensive. It all depends on how much the owners are willing to gamble on the club and how long they can wait to see a return.
As for Fulham, perhaps tickets are too expensive in general but Fulham is trying to take the position of the cheaper option for premier league football in London and are quite aggressive in their marketing to attract fans. So we won't benefit from a ground share as Fulham would undercut us and take the tourist trade. Other clubs like Norwich and Swansea have a monopoly over their towns and cities but we don't have that luxury, so unfortunately we will be looking to tourism to make up for that fact in the future until we grow a larger fanbase. Also I don't want a statue of Michael Jackson anywhere near our new ground!
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 13:08 - Jun 7 with 1167 views
People keep mentioning rugby teams but who? Wasps are on the verge of bankruptcy Saracens' crowds have actually shrunk over the last few years (despite heavy spending and big crowds to cheap, on-off events at Wembley) and are building a small, 10,000 seat stadium in Barnet. Harlequins are perfectly placed with their own ground and Twickenham next door for one-off events. London Irish seem happy enough out in Reading.
So there are no clubs looking for a stadium the size of Loftus Rd, never mind the 40,000 being mooted by Fernandes.
Football clubs? Well the problems of sharing with another PL club have already been listed. That leaves Brentford, who hate us and have no need for the capacity they have.
There is no ground share that realistically works. The only option is a roof to stage concerts and other events. And there's no point doing that out in the sticks, you need to be in West London, especially with Earls Court being demolished for flats. All of which takes us back to Phillip Beard being appointed in the first place.
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 13:20 - Jun 7 with 1158 views
QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 13:00 - Jun 7 by QPR_Jim
That is the reality an extra 10,000 seats is nothing in terms of revenue, but vitally important when increasing the fanbase and growing the club. The only way you will pay for a new ground is if it has another purpose such as events casino's etc. But if you want to host major events or have a large casino then location and transport links are key, so we'd be better of staying local which as we all know will be more expensive. It all depends on how much the owners are willing to gamble on the club and how long they can wait to see a return.
As for Fulham, perhaps tickets are too expensive in general but Fulham is trying to take the position of the cheaper option for premier league football in London and are quite aggressive in their marketing to attract fans. So we won't benefit from a ground share as Fulham would undercut us and take the tourist trade. Other clubs like Norwich and Swansea have a monopoly over their towns and cities but we don't have that luxury, so unfortunately we will be looking to tourism to make up for that fact in the future until we grow a larger fanbase. Also I don't want a statue of Michael Jackson anywhere near our new ground!
I'm 99% certain that a groundshare wouldn't be on the cards for Fulham and QPR unless something happened to Al Fayed in the interim and we got a new owner who didn't understand the club or our support. I just can't see any real benefits to us moving from The Cottage or away from our support - especially if it was to move into another club's traditional catchment area. Even a move across Fulham to the Bridge wouldn't make much sense when compared to the number of fans it would alienate.
Regarding our ticket prices - like most clubs, I think the club charge what they think they can get away with - if there were tens of thousands of punters out there desperate to see us, you can bet it wouldn't be £30 for someone like Norwich at home. We have decent value season-tickets, but I'd hardly call £49+ for Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, QPR and West Ham, the bargain of the century. Having watched most of my football in a half-full or near-empty ground, whilst wondering why the club didn't drop prices to get more punters in, I'm happy to have a board who recognise the common sense in taking £35 for a ticket rather than having an empty seat at £42. In my experience, the £5/10 promotions are a great way of allowing people who have been priced-out to get along to one or two games a season. Also, don't you lot do free season-tickets for kids under eight or something?
Oh, and you'll be pleased to know that there's no reference to the MJ statue in the planning documentation for the Riverside redevelopment, so we're hoping it'll find it's way into a skip/the river, when no-one's looking.
Fulham FC: It's the taking part that counts
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 16:47 - Jun 7 with 1124 views
Wonder if the London Broncos could be sounded out for a share.
Would mean that the stadium is used all year round given Rugby league takes place in the summer and their are big Aussie, kiwi and South African communities in West London who love their Rugby League and therefore an immediate market to tap into
QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 13:20 - Jun 7 by Konk
I'm 99% certain that a groundshare wouldn't be on the cards for Fulham and QPR unless something happened to Al Fayed in the interim and we got a new owner who didn't understand the club or our support. I just can't see any real benefits to us moving from The Cottage or away from our support - especially if it was to move into another club's traditional catchment area. Even a move across Fulham to the Bridge wouldn't make much sense when compared to the number of fans it would alienate.
Regarding our ticket prices - like most clubs, I think the club charge what they think they can get away with - if there were tens of thousands of punters out there desperate to see us, you can bet it wouldn't be £30 for someone like Norwich at home. We have decent value season-tickets, but I'd hardly call £49+ for Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, QPR and West Ham, the bargain of the century. Having watched most of my football in a half-full or near-empty ground, whilst wondering why the club didn't drop prices to get more punters in, I'm happy to have a board who recognise the common sense in taking £35 for a ticket rather than having an empty seat at £42. In my experience, the £5/10 promotions are a great way of allowing people who have been priced-out to get along to one or two games a season. Also, don't you lot do free season-tickets for kids under eight or something?
Oh, and you'll be pleased to know that there's no reference to the MJ statue in the planning documentation for the Riverside redevelopment, so we're hoping it'll find it's way into a skip/the river, when no-one's looking.
It's about bums on seats. More people in the ground means more money spent on programmes, food & drink, merchandise etc.
This is something that Briatore couldn't (or wouldn't) see. He wouldn't have given a s**t if we had just 5,000 fans paying £100 a game even if it generated the same income as 18,500 fans paying £27. To him, the idea of someone paying £100 a ticket gave a notion of exclusivity. So blinkered he probably then couldn't see the money lost from the other income streams by having 13,500 people missing.
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 22:40 - Jun 7 with 1067 views
Wasps problems relate in part to the failure of Steve Hayes to get permission to build a new ground in High Wycombe area as he earmarked an area and the council refused, subsequently he's trying to sell the club as Adams Park is not considered big enough anymore and at the bottom of a Industrial park is screwed in a different way as there is only one way in (and no decent transport)
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 22:46 - Jun 7 with 1065 views
I may be in the minority, but I would not want to ground share with another football club. I like Loftus Road and would rather we were in the championship there than sharing a ground with Foolham or some other team in Southall.
Not that I'm against a new stadium, but think we need to take the time to grow our fan base to make it viable. If its decided the club cannot sustain the level we have reached without large losses, then the decision will be difficult, but for me sharing our ground with another football team would be the worst thing we could do.
The problem with a multi-purpose development i.e. football ground with casino, hotel and cinema is that these ancillaries are normally sold off to finance the build so do not yield ongoing income and unless we fill the new bigger stadium then we would be no better off. Of course our existing site has value, but I doubt it is enough to fund the new site and building cost and there is a limit to the investment we can expect from our owners
The thing to do now we are back to building a club we can be proud of is to encourage new fans and those who have fallen away to come to QPR and join us in building the best club in West London - I know we already are that, but we need to convince more people of it.
Who's Next?
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 23:07 - Jun 7 with 1058 views
we used to use our ground for concerts , boxing matches etc .
i agree with a new ground that is bigger but do not share the argument we need one to use for other venues because we used to use loftus road anyway in the past as mentioned above.
does anyone know why we stopped using our ground for other purposes other than football.
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 11:35 - Jun 8 with 999 views
QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 10:52 - Jun 8 by tom007
we used to use our ground for concerts , boxing matches etc .
i agree with a new ground that is bigger but do not share the argument we need one to use for other venues because we used to use loftus road anyway in the past as mentioned above.
does anyone know why we stopped using our ground for other purposes other than football.
local residents kicked up a fuss with the extra traffic etc on those days
I'm all for concerts at LR if they make money for the club. This was pretty good in its day, but think what we could do now with Phil Beard organising it.
Who's Next?
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QPR chief raises prospect of ground share on 13:01 - Jun 8 with 959 views
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