| Loftus Road. 10:21 - Jan 22 with 43301 views | Esox_Lucius |
IF, and it's a big if. the club were forced away from H&F to build a stadium which could provide income 360+ days a years to generate the revenue to make us competitive as a team again would you be for or against it. Yes or No will suffice, there's no need for comments like "knowing QPR they'd fück it up" etc. Just Yes or No. |  |
| The grass is always greener. |
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| Loftus Road. on 09:25 - Jan 25 with 2535 views | TheChef |
| Loftus Road. on 09:21 - Jan 25 by switchingcode |
Brentford’s new stadium apart from the ticket office is basically a lock up and go.The clubs offices are sited in an office block overlooking the ground and club shop is a separate building nearby.Apart from London Irish who are currently renting and that could end this season there is no other income apart from match days.You basically have to make it work on the pitch. |
I assume then Brentford didn't entertain the idea of moving the new stadium too far away from Griffin Park? |  |
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| Loftus Road. on 09:29 - Jan 25 with 2527 views | Sonofpugwash |
Funny how attitudes change.When LR was "updated" to a stadium just about fit for Premier Leagus status Alan Parry commentated on a fixture v Newcastle railing against "modern" stadiums and LR in particular. Why Newcastle fans are used to queuing half an hour for a pie he wailed.Henceforth he has always been known as "meat pie Parry". [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 9:30]
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| Loftus Road. on 09:37 - Jan 25 with 2473 views | wombat |
| Loftus Road. on 09:03 - Jan 25 by toboboly |
Many thanks. Hoos is often mentioning the non-matchdays lack of income but going back to my previous post I do not see why people would choose Loftus Road over the umpteen thousand venues already out there for anything non-matchday.
That brochure says we are losing out on 'potentially' millions but doesn't give a hint to what those activities are and how we would prize away people from proper event space/larger and more iconic sporting venues. |
there is also i think the restricted covenents in place on the ground use. think its 28 events per year can be held there , but this might have run out ,
to get extra cahs coming in think they are talking , concerts, weddings you name it , non can be done at LR id be supprised if we was to put the presnt plans in for the present stadium it would even be allowed these days with changes to H@S etc ,
shame chris wright didnt buy the school when he had chance it would have given us some extra room and was for sale for pennies at the time .
lets be honest the ship has sailed in the local area we had chances we blew them and we are ow looking at the last poss venue the LC which isnt a great option anyway ,
the boards kept us going no doubt but they are also responsible for keeping us at LR as well due to cocking up with car giant and not taking advantage of land aval all being at a cost to them at the time , shame but we are pretty much fecked now with staying local now. |  |
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| Loftus Road. on 09:54 - Jan 25 with 2415 views | TK1 |
| Loftus Road. on 09:21 - Jan 25 by switchingcode |
Brentford’s new stadium apart from the ticket office is basically a lock up and go.The clubs offices are sited in an office block overlooking the ground and club shop is a separate building nearby.Apart from London Irish who are currently renting and that could end this season there is no other income apart from match days.You basically have to make it work on the pitch. |
Entirely this. One season in the Premier League is worth about fifty years of occasional conference use on a Thursday. It's a red herring, a cop out. The stadium does not dictate success on the pitch apart from at the very top - just look at the leagues.Bundles of non-match day potential and executive boxes at the Select Car Leasing Stadium: Reading have been under a transfer embargo for best part of a year. Bournemouth and Brentford are in the Premier League, insulated with parachute payments.
We blew all that. This board blew it. Not the stadium. Not the fans. QPR need a Matthew Benham or Tony Bloom much much much more than a new stadium, have done for since Gregory, |  | | |
| Loftus Road. on 10:09 - Jan 25 with 2368 views | Wegerles_Stairs |
| Loftus Road. on 08:47 - Jan 25 by R_from_afar |
An alternative might be to redevelop the existing stadium but move some of the elements which are currently in it into a new, separate building round the corner, to free up space for legroom and areas which can generate revenue on non match days, and/or more corporate boxes.
It’s not ideal to move them but do the ticket office and club shop, for example, really have to be at the ground? There are shop units just round the corner, we could try to buy one or more of them. They are only a few hundred yards away. |
Wouldn't have minded them moving the pitch round the corner a few times this season. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 11:39 - Jan 25 with 2250 views | derbyhoop |
| Loftus Road. on 08:38 - Jan 24 by toboboly |
Can I just ask what the "extra revenue opportunities" we are currently missing out on are? And has the club actually done a review of what they could fetch?
Off the top of my head I can think of the following for people to use as an event; Arsenal, Spurs, Chelscum, Twickenham, The Oval, Lords, Wimbledon tennis and presumbaly West Ham and the Copper Box on the same site. Those are just high level sports venues, then you have designed event space; the Excel, Olympia and a whole host of others that are smaller.
What market of event are we actually aiming for? Cos unless you are already a fan I don't see why you would be choosing us over anything else in London? |
A few years back I helped organise some conferences while trying to sell software packages. Using sports stadiums was a more attractive location than any hotel.
Pride park, Derby is used well over 200 days per year. With income from room rental and catering. Hoos would probably know about the possibilities. |  |
| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
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| Loftus Road. on 11:44 - Jan 25 with 2230 views | dmm |
| Loftus Road. on 11:39 - Jan 25 by derbyhoop |
A few years back I helped organise some conferences while trying to sell software packages. Using sports stadiums was a more attractive location than any hotel.
Pride park, Derby is used well over 200 days per year. With income from room rental and catering. Hoos would probably know about the possibilities. |
Would that be the case in London though where there's a huge choice of venues for conferences and everything else?
Being able to use a stadium to create income outside of football events is obviously a great thing, but I can understand the argument that it might not work for us. |  | | |
| Loftus Road. on 11:48 - Jan 25 with 2219 views | toboboly |
| Loftus Road. on 11:39 - Jan 25 by derbyhoop |
A few years back I helped organise some conferences while trying to sell software packages. Using sports stadiums was a more attractive location than any hotel.
Pride park, Derby is used well over 200 days per year. With income from room rental and catering. Hoos would probably know about the possibilities. |
I can imagine, I once had to attend an event at the Oval and it made the drudgery of the day worthwhile to look out over the ground.
However my point is that Pride Park probably has bugger all nearby and the whole city will be Derby fans. There is a limited choice for them to choose from.
We are in London, there are already a load of top level sporting venues catering for events; football, rugby, cricket, tennis etc. There are also lots of event specific sites that people will be choosing (Excel, Olympia), and if it is gigs then there are again far, far better venues for these to be held in.
We would be the last dog at the bowl and an unfashionable dog at that. I am querying whether this idea of £££'s as soon as we have a nice convention centre is misleading, will it actually be used as much as they think? I think that if I was not a QPR fan I wouldn't choose an event at a small/mid championship club with all the other possibilities available. [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 11:50]
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| Loftus Road. on 11:54 - Jan 25 with 2193 views | HuckerMOTM |
| Loftus Road. on 09:57 - Jan 24 by Esox_Lucius |
In the best case scenario; one day there will be a post "there's not a person alive who saw us play at Loftus Road". QPR, and varieties thereof, hold the record for the team that has had the most home grounds so is it the ground you support or the football club? Once we have shuffled off, your opinion, and mine won't hold any sway with the direction of QPR and it is my wish that for generations to come, there will be a professional football club called Queens Park Rangers. |
I did support QPR but now consider myself as someone who attends matches at the ground occupied by an entity who call themselves 'Queens Park Rangers' but who, to me, have no connection to the club I started to support as that died.
So, yes, I do, I suppose , support the ground more than the club.
You are right, of course, there will come a time when no-one alive will ever have stepped foot in Loftus Road if we do move but your opening question was aimed at establishing whether or not we would, individually, support the move.
My answer is a clear no because the ground is the only thing that keeps me going to watch this tribute act. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:05 - Jan 25 with 2141 views | Lanhoop |
| Loftus Road. on 09:21 - Jan 25 by switchingcode |
Brentford’s new stadium apart from the ticket office is basically a lock up and go.The clubs offices are sited in an office block overlooking the ground and club shop is a separate building nearby.Apart from London Irish who are currently renting and that could end this season there is no other income apart from match days.You basically have to make it work on the pitch. |
I am sure that the day to day running costs of that new stadium are considerably less than Loftus Road. Not just from less maintenance and other efficiencies but also the rates and taxes paid out.
If LR could be rebuilt using modern design and materials, maybe gaining a few seats and without trying to be truly multi-use then it would be more cost effective in some aspects but it will always cost more than many stadiums just because it's in W12. It'll never "pay for itself" so why try?
Grounds are a cost of doing business, which is why they aren't in FFP and the ground selling schemes should never have been allowed to be reflected in FFP. A windfall or two from player development or a couple of years of PL pain resulting in funds to rebuild would be my preferred option. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:14 - Jan 25 with 2111 views | Benny_the_Ball |
| Loftus Road. on 17:08 - Jan 23 by Juzzie |
They got the training ground up and running after a 7 year delay (at which they could have just decided to jump ship but they persevered) caused mainly by SWF, who inadvertently meant we ended up with a better deal, so at least that's something.
Part of the problem is that we are located in a part of the country where it's just so difficult to find a nice lovely 10-15 acre site that close to LR's roots, has good private & public transport infrastructure and won't pi$$ off the locals.
It's not an easy task and gets harder each year. |
That's a myth. Brentford, Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, and Millwall all managed it. |  | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:23 - Jan 25 with 2080 views | Monkey_Roots |
| Loftus Road. on 12:14 - Jan 25 by Benny_the_Ball |
That's a myth. Brentford, Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, and Millwall all managed it. |
Yeah, but are they happy? |  | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:24 - Jan 25 with 2076 views | Benny_the_Ball |
| Loftus Road. on 16:42 - Jan 23 by TK1 |
It’s not the stadium that “takes you to the next level”. It’s the board. The owners. The decision makers. It’s getting football decisions right consistently right over a number of years, it’s being in tune with your fans (it’s being of the fans, too - there was a brief moment of that at QPR between admin and Paladini, when Jim Frailing, Mark Devlin, Bill Power etc were running the show, but we blew that). It’s having forward momentum over a long period throughout the club, on and off the field.
Then, when you have that over a number of packed-out seasons, you can talk about a new stadium taking you to the next level in consultation with your fans.
Brentford have that. Their stadium is the manifestation of their long-term good governance, not the kick-start. Bolton, Coventry, Derby, Reading have stadiums that are manifestations of the reverse, of bad boards, absentee decision makers, shysters. Brighton, on the other hand, have that ownership and an all-round holistic approach that means they shine in their newish ground.
QPR’s board bought a newly promoted, debt-free Premier League club. A decade later they have a mid-table Championship team labouring under a world record FFP fine. That didn’t happen to them. They did it. To even discuss allowing them to sell the club’s only asset, QPR need to have several seasons of forward, feel-good momentum. A new stadium doesn’t provide that any more than Harry Redknapp and Joey Barton do. Good management does.
The one thing QPR has is its location and the fact it owns very valuable land (and a famous old ground). It's the only thing that holds the club together. It doesn't prevent success - it's been the venue of two squandered recent promotions from this league after all - rather, it prevents the whole thing falling apart. Don't let someone passing through take that away on a maybe. Ask Charlton or Wimbledon. |
This. The stadium itself may be decrepit and unfit for purpose but location and ownership are what has kept QPR afloat during turbulent times. Whilst ultimately I'm not averse to a change, it depends on who's leading it, the location of the new stadium, the plan, and a guarantee that the club owns it (perhaps with some partial fan ownership thrown in to provide an extra layer of protection). | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:25 - Jan 25 with 2059 views | NewBee |
| Loftus Road. on 09:54 - Jan 25 by TK1 |
Entirely this. One season in the Premier League is worth about fifty years of occasional conference use on a Thursday. It's a red herring, a cop out. The stadium does not dictate success on the pitch apart from at the very top - just look at the leagues.Bundles of non-match day potential and executive boxes at the Select Car Leasing Stadium: Reading have been under a transfer embargo for best part of a year. Bournemouth and Brentford are in the Premier League, insulated with parachute payments.
We blew all that. This board blew it. Not the stadium. Not the fans. QPR need a Matthew Benham or Tony Bloom much much much more than a new stadium, have done for since Gregory, |
When Bees new stadium was being planned initially, it was designed to incorporate Conferencing facilities. But while the build was being delayed, they had a rethink and concluded that not only is London already very well served for comferencing facilities, but no-one at Brentford actually has any experience in that (spercialised) field, so might be as likely to lose money on conferencing as make it - we're a football club after all, not an events company.
Beyonf that, how many of the numerous new/refurbished/expanded football stadia are now operating on a 360+ days a year basis? Very few is my guess, which cannot be coincidence. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:38 - Jan 25 with 2003 views | NewBee |
| Loftus Road. on 09:25 - Jan 25 by TheChef |
I assume then Brentford didn't entertain the idea of moving the new stadium too far away from Griffin Park? |
Absolutely! It would almost certainly have been quicker, simpler and cheaper to build a 30k stadium eg in Feltham, or at Western International Market, but the owner was determined that Brentfortd should stay in Btrntford, even if the only feasible site meant a capacity of 17.5k.
I've not heard of a single Bees fan who thinks he got it wrong - quite the contrary, in fact.
QPR may be in a different position mind, in that there may not be even a 17.5k site available anywhere near LR/W12, never mind an affordable one, while refurbishing your present stadium is surely simply impractical.
It should also be noted that the GTech is not financially viable if hosting Championship football. I suspect Benham's plan is to survive long enough in the PL to build up a "war chest" to cover should we get relegated (minimum), if not become a permanent fixture in the PL (ideal).
Either way, were I QPR's owners, my strategy would be to do everyting possible to get into the PL, then throw money at the Council to be permitted to build a stadium at the Linford Christie/Wormwood Scrubs site, that surely being the only feasible site anywhere near LR. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:47 - Jan 25 with 1980 views | Benny_the_Ball |
| Loftus Road. on 12:23 - Jan 25 by Monkey_Roots |
Yeah, but are they happy? |
A proportion of West Ham fans aside, yes, they are.
The point is that the myth that QPR can't find a site within a reasonable distance of LR is exactly that, a myth. There have been plenty of options in recent years but QPR's owners appear to think that they have a divine right to cheap land in the borough, even privately owned. Their attitude over, first, the Car Giant site and, now, the LCS is lamentable. [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 14:24]
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| Loftus Road. on 12:54 - Jan 25 with 1946 views | Juzzie |
| Loftus Road. on 12:14 - Jan 25 by Benny_the_Ball |
That's a myth. Brentford, Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, and Millwall all managed it. |
Managed it, yes, but was it really what they wanted?
Brentford - took years and I think another site was preferred. Now sandwiched into a triangle of railway tracks with a 17k capacity and little room for expansion (20k max?) and no scope it seems for non match day income.
Spurs - Big, big club.... makes things 'easier'. Took years to get off the ground, wanted the Olympic stadium., didn't get it. WHL not as central to London as LR (equivalent to us being between Ealing and Hanger Lane). New stadium on site adjacent to WHL tainted with rumours of arson (not saying committed by the club) to get small business out of the way.
That said, amazing stadium by all accounts.
Arsenal - Big, big club.... makes things 'easier'. Actually quite a success but also took years in order to clear businesses off of the industrial site they needed.
West Ham - where to start.... Boleyn Ground perfectly adequate. Capacity could have been increased to over 40k but the club (and a lot of fans) felt that was not big enough. The move to the Olympic stadium is well documented and full of controversies, not least the owners absolutely getting it for a song from the Olympic Legacy and taxpayer. Sell tickets for 2' 6d in order to fill it and claim what a big club they are. Nightmare to get in and out of, horrible atmosphere in the sense of their being none due to acoustics and then when things aren't going the way of the cheeky east enders it gets very toxic.
Millwall - flat-pack stadium built on an industrial site next to a railway track. Awful to get in and out of. Nothing of note nearby. At least it's two-tiered so makes it better than the single tiered identi-kit stadiums that sprung up since.
Bit of a mixed bag of results I think. |  | | |
| Loftus Road. on 12:55 - Jan 25 with 1937 views | Juzzie |
| Loftus Road. on 12:47 - Jan 25 by Benny_the_Ball |
A proportion of West Ham fans aside, yes, they are.
The point is that the myth that QPR can't find a site within a reasonable distance of LR is exactly that, a myth. There have been plenty of options in recent years but QPR's owners appear to think that they have a divine right to cheap land in the borough, even privately owned. Their attitude over, first, the Car Giant site and, now, the LCS is lamentable. [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 14:24]
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Where do you suggest please? | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 13:28 - Jan 25 with 1799 views | NewBee |
| Loftus Road. on 12:14 - Jan 25 by Benny_the_Ball |
That's a myth. Brentford, Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, and Millwall all managed it. |
Brenhtford got incredibly lucky in Lionel Road being just about feasible, but even then it took 10 years and £82m(?) of the owners money to fund it before seeing any return. And even then, it is not financially feasible if dependant on Championship football.
Spurs rebuilt ojn their own site, which was not constrained on all sides by housing.
Arsenal got in 17 years ago i.e. before ever increasing development pressures reached their present levels. (And it cost them £320m, 2006 prices)
WHU were gifted a government-built stadium which desperately needed a tenant.
While the New Den was opened almost 30 years ago, on a brownfield site in a pretty derelict area of London where property was widely available and cheap i.e. nothing like W12 in 2023. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 13:40 - Jan 25 with 1715 views | NewBee |
| Loftus Road. on 09:54 - Jan 25 by TK1 |
Entirely this. One season in the Premier League is worth about fifty years of occasional conference use on a Thursday. It's a red herring, a cop out. The stadium does not dictate success on the pitch apart from at the very top - just look at the leagues.Bundles of non-match day potential and executive boxes at the Select Car Leasing Stadium: Reading have been under a transfer embargo for best part of a year. Bournemouth and Brentford are in the Premier League, insulated with parachute payments.
We blew all that. This board blew it. Not the stadium. Not the fans. QPR need a Matthew Benham or Tony Bloom much much much more than a new stadium, have done for since Gregory, |
Agree with all of that, but would qualify one point:
"QPR need a Matthew Benham or Tony Bloom much much much more than a new stadium"
I'm pretty sure Benham would not have plunged his millions into BFC had there been no hope of building a new stadium. And I strongly suspect Bloom wouldn't have taken over BHA in 2009 had the Amex* not already been under construction by then.
* - Eventually opened in 2011, after a final injection of £33m from Bloom. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 13:46 - Jan 25 with 1701 views | QPR_Jim |
| Loftus Road. on 11:48 - Jan 25 by toboboly |
I can imagine, I once had to attend an event at the Oval and it made the drudgery of the day worthwhile to look out over the ground.
However my point is that Pride Park probably has bugger all nearby and the whole city will be Derby fans. There is a limited choice for them to choose from.
We are in London, there are already a load of top level sporting venues catering for events; football, rugby, cricket, tennis etc. There are also lots of event specific sites that people will be choosing (Excel, Olympia), and if it is gigs then there are again far, far better venues for these to be held in.
We would be the last dog at the bowl and an unfashionable dog at that. I am querying whether this idea of £££'s as soon as we have a nice convention centre is misleading, will it actually be used as much as they think? I think that if I was not a QPR fan I wouldn't choose an event at a small/mid championship club with all the other possibilities available. [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 11:50]
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I get your point but I would say that really the competition for conferencing facilities would be mainly Hotels. We also have our own end of year awards or fan meetings which could be held there. It is incredibly well linked, so would be better for that stuff than the training ground.
I guess the point is that having a newer stadium with more space would give you options, conference facilities not working, how about using the space as a wework, probably be quite attractive to people with flexible working arrangements who want to attend evening games. |  | | |
| Loftus Road. on 13:55 - Jan 25 with 1671 views | Wegerles_Stairs |
| Loftus Road. on 13:40 - Jan 25 by NewBee |
Agree with all of that, but would qualify one point:
"QPR need a Matthew Benham or Tony Bloom much much much more than a new stadium"
I'm pretty sure Benham would not have plunged his millions into BFC had there been no hope of building a new stadium. And I strongly suspect Bloom wouldn't have taken over BHA in 2009 had the Amex* not already been under construction by then.
* - Eventually opened in 2011, after a final injection of £33m from Bloom. |
Yes, but the point is that they'd have both found a way to make it happen regardless.
I do think people have raised a good point about the non-matchday income being a red herring in a post-COVID world, but we still need a new stadium. I love Loftus Road but it's hardly the most comfortable experience, particularly if you want new people to come. It is much more comfortable watching it from the safe standing than my seat. By 2200 people will be seven-feet tall and we'll probably still be there suffering shin injuries on matchdays. [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 13:56]
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| Loftus Road. on 14:00 - Jan 25 with 1638 views | NewBee |
| Loftus Road. on 13:46 - Jan 25 by QPR_Jim |
I get your point but I would say that really the competition for conferencing facilities would be mainly Hotels. We also have our own end of year awards or fan meetings which could be held there. It is incredibly well linked, so would be better for that stuff than the training ground.
I guess the point is that having a newer stadium with more space would give you options, conference facilities not working, how about using the space as a wework, probably be quite attractive to people with flexible working arrangements who want to attend evening games. |
How much revenue do you imagine would be generated by 50? 500? even 5,000? fans using WeWork at LR for four hours on 10 or 15 midweeks a season?
While taking up space on a site which is otherwise incredibly valuable for development purposes. | | | |
| Loftus Road. on 14:08 - Jan 25 with 1617 views | Benny_the_Ball |
| Loftus Road. on 12:54 - Jan 25 by Juzzie |
Managed it, yes, but was it really what they wanted?
Brentford - took years and I think another site was preferred. Now sandwiched into a triangle of railway tracks with a 17k capacity and little room for expansion (20k max?) and no scope it seems for non match day income.
Spurs - Big, big club.... makes things 'easier'. Took years to get off the ground, wanted the Olympic stadium., didn't get it. WHL not as central to London as LR (equivalent to us being between Ealing and Hanger Lane). New stadium on site adjacent to WHL tainted with rumours of arson (not saying committed by the club) to get small business out of the way.
That said, amazing stadium by all accounts.
Arsenal - Big, big club.... makes things 'easier'. Actually quite a success but also took years in order to clear businesses off of the industrial site they needed.
West Ham - where to start.... Boleyn Ground perfectly adequate. Capacity could have been increased to over 40k but the club (and a lot of fans) felt that was not big enough. The move to the Olympic stadium is well documented and full of controversies, not least the owners absolutely getting it for a song from the Olympic Legacy and taxpayer. Sell tickets for 2' 6d in order to fill it and claim what a big club they are. Nightmare to get in and out of, horrible atmosphere in the sense of their being none due to acoustics and then when things aren't going the way of the cheeky east enders it gets very toxic.
Millwall - flat-pack stadium built on an industrial site next to a railway track. Awful to get in and out of. Nothing of note nearby. At least it's two-tiered so makes it better than the single tiered identi-kit stadiums that sprung up since.
Bit of a mixed bag of results I think. |
That's your assessment which I reject because it's based on your limited measures of success. Success should be judged on a number of key criteria, many of which you've overlooked.
Brentford - Hands down a better stadium than Griffin Park. The capacity meets their needs and can be increased if required. Being located close to the Great West Road, the club has attracted sponsorship from local businesses. The site is at the heart of the area’s regeneration as a bustling residential and commercial neighbourhood, with the 4-acre Sega building the latest to be acquired for redevelopment. Now based by Kew Bridge, the area offers fans a far superior matchday experience compared to White City. I'd much rather take my family for a pre-match lunch by the river than watch a punch up in Smuts or tramps peeing into litter bins on Shepherds Bush Green.
Spurs - Roundly acknowledged as one of the best stadiums in Europe, offering an excellent matchday experience such as the pitch-length bar. It generates significant income from outside events, such as boxing and NFL.
Arsenal - Again a vast improvement on the old stadium (which are now lovely apartments) with significantly bigger capacity generating additional income. Whether it took years to happen is irrelevant and, indeed, to be expected. Do you really expect new 60k stadiums in London to just pop up in a few weeks?
West Ham - I agree that the old stadium was perfectly adequate from a footballing perspective but the opportunity to move into an already built London stadium offering 20k larger capacity for peppercorn rent was one not to be missed and the right decision for the future sustainability and prosperity of the football club. The capacity was further increased to 62.5k last year, which they fill, despite the wistful, nostalgic yearning for the Boleyn Ground from a minority of fans. UK Athletics are looking to terminate their tenancy, which would leave West Ham free to convert the venue into a football-specific facility. A crucial clause in West Ham's tenancy expires next year so don't be surprised to see them buy the stadium outright. If that happens and they can stay in the PL, they'll be a very attractive proposition for the next wave of multi-billionaires.
Millwall - Granted the New Den is not located in the loveliest of areas but neither was the Old Den. Besides, looking at White City, who are we to judge? Yes, it's somewhat difficult for us to access but when was it Millwall FC's responsibility to make QPR fans happy? Ultimately, Millwall fans have a decent stadium close to their previous home that's PL ready. That's what counts, not our convenience.
Overall, decent results I'd say.
Remember, a new stadium is where the team goes to work only once a week/fortnight. This is why the board has, rightly, chosen to focus its infrastructure investment on training facilities first. Should the desire to build a new stadium ever materialise, the business case has to look at more than just whether there's a decent chippy and pub nearby. Fan engagement will be important, but ultimately the move has to make business sense for the club and those putting their hands in their pockets to finance the project. [Post edited 25 Jan 2023 14:28]
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| Loftus Road. on 14:14 - Jan 25 with 1590 views | Juzzie |
All fair comments Benny. Back to my other question.... what site close to LR should QPR be on? | | | |
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