| Lee Hoos — Patreon 09:07 - Sep 8 with 10986 views | Northernr |
Interview now up on the front page in written form, and on the Patreon in audio form - though as ever at Loftus Road we've struggled with the background inteference on the recording so I apologise in advance for the ropey quality of the recording. Hopefully you'll enjoy the nostalgia of AM radio and it won't ruin it for you too much.
I guess the big headline from it all is the secretary of state has signed off on the new training ground.
Tried to raise as many of your points as possible... Apologies if I didn't get to it all.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/55699 |  | | |  |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 16:28 - Sep 8 with 2095 views | Northernr |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 16:26 - Sep 8 by Konk |
I've always thought there should be a percentage of tickets for away games that aren't allocated on a loyalty points basis. I know a few blokes in their 40-50's, who used to do most aways, but don't any more, yet still have more-or-less 100% away attendance on the system, because they book tickets for other people for the matches they can't make - because that's the only way the other person will qualify for a ticket under the loyalty scheme. So, a Man City mate in London, gets to go to OT and all the London aways, even though it's the best part of 10 years since he was going away every week. I can fully understand the case for loyalty points, but it's sad/odd to think that there may well be 20-30 year old season tickets holders at some clubs who've never had the chance to go to an away derby. |
Yeh and the other point that was made to me was if you're a teenager now, and you do what I've done and go to every QPR game for 15 years, then fine in 15 years you'll have the loyalty points I've got now. But I'll have another 15 years on top, so you're never catching up. | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 16:38 - Sep 8 with 2082 views | Konk |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 16:28 - Sep 8 by Northernr |
Yeh and the other point that was made to me was if you're a teenager now, and you do what I've done and go to every QPR game for 15 years, then fine in 15 years you'll have the loyalty points I've got now. But I'll have another 15 years on top, so you're never catching up. |
Fulham do it on a rolling basis, and because it doesn't matter whether you did every away eight years ago, younger fans can catch-up. Hard luck on people who've gone away every week for years, but had to take a break for some reason, but ultimately seems a lot fairer on younger fans. Fulham allocate points in a really wan ky way, though, so you often get more points for buying a ticket for Rotherham at home on a Saturday, than you do for going to Rotherham away on a Tuesday. |  |
| Fulham FC: It's the taking part that counts |
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| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 16:39 - Sep 8 with 2077 views | toboboly |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 16:28 - Sep 8 by Northernr |
Yeh and the other point that was made to me was if you're a teenager now, and you do what I've done and go to every QPR game for 15 years, then fine in 15 years you'll have the loyalty points I've got now. But I'll have another 15 years on top, so you're never catching up. |
It seems to be a more recent issue, I don't remember any issues getting away tickets for the 10/11 season and I was a lapsed ST so had to rely on general sale. Also managed to tick off all the PL away stadiums in the two years.
Has demand changed or are fewer away tickets being made available? [Post edited 8 Sep 2021 16:40]
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| Sexy Asian dwarves wanted. |
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| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 17:14 - Sep 8 with 1999 views | rsonist |
You can apply the issues around loyalty points mentioned above to several others in general. Complaining about no young/new fans while protecting your own arris in the status quo rarely goes together. |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 17:25 - Sep 8 with 1979 views | stevec |
Aside of the rail seat/standing, which effectively is only relevant to stands behind the goal, did you touch on the club introducing less intrusive seat backs in the rest of the ground?
I’m guessing the cost of changing all the 17500 seat backs would be roughly the same as installing say 2000 standing seats in which case the club is letting down 15500 fans for the sake of a couple of thousand who prefer to stand. |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 17:35 - Sep 8 with 1967 views | Northernr |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 17:25 - Sep 8 by stevec |
Aside of the rail seat/standing, which effectively is only relevant to stands behind the goal, did you touch on the club introducing less intrusive seat backs in the rest of the ground?
I’m guessing the cost of changing all the 17500 seat backs would be roughly the same as installing say 2000 standing seats in which case the club is letting down 15500 fans for the sake of a couple of thousand who prefer to stand. |
It was on the list and I skipped it through reading the room.
When he pointed out that even a programme of capital works that was progressing at one block a season went south with the pandemic, that we can't get staff to paint the place, that we had lumps of concrete laying around the joint 24 hours before 2,500 angry Millwall fans turned up, that the floodlights need replacing urgently but because of the cost it's been kicked back a year, I thought "can you look into replacing 18,500 seat backs please" would have been slightly tone deaf. | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 18:01 - Sep 8 with 1919 views | A40Bosh |
Another excellent listen Clive thanks.
I know some of the posters on this thread have pushed back on some of the reasons for the poor provision of food and drink, but working for a hospitality company based in London with hotels and restaurants around the world, I do appreciate what he is saying about the struggle to get hospitality staff since the pandemic struck - we have had to postpone the opening of two sites as we simply cannot get chefs, floor managers, bartenders etc... The sector thrives on young and mainly EU nationals who are over here to study and or earn and many of them have simply left and not come back and even those who have come back want out of hospitality jobs for the foreseeable.
So whilst Hoos has admitted it has to be sorted out the lack of trained staff their suppliers are able to hire to put behind the counter in the stands to serve the customers means this is probably going to be a struggle for a while.
If you think about it, it obviously isn't rocket science flipping a burger and pulling a pint and working a PDQ, but if those staff are only there for a few hours on every other Saturday and perhaps a Saturday/Tues one week, it will probably be harder for the manager/supervisors to weed out those who need additional training and those who are basically phoning it in with their approach to service on the basis that they are getting minimum wage.
(Puts on tin hat) One thing I have always (genuinely) struggled with is this fascination and demanding of alcohol and food for what is essentially only 2 hours in the middle of the day on a Saturday within the ground - especially given the size of the overall stadium and concourses at LR.
Why is it that people want to queue up in a cramped narrow space with people pushing to get in and around you just to get an overpriced bottle of weak beer and a burger (regardless of the quality) and stand there and drink and eat whilst people are pushing past you and bumping in to you. It fascinates me to watch the bunch of 50 something year old blokes who stand up the back beside me legging it down the steps from the back of SAR on 37 mins to get to the bar ahead of the queue to get in another pint in a 15 min window and ram it down them when they only got to their seats on 10 mins after coming from the pub.
Is it because I see going to QPR as "part of" my early Saturday whilst for others it is their entire focus on the day of a game? Don't get me wrong sometimes I will meet a couple of lads or bring my brother and we will have a pint and maybe a bite to eat in a bar in White City but are there a majority or sizeable group of core fans who on the day of a home game will be in the pub from opening time, caning it back until the last possible moment and then head to the ground to get another quick one in before going to their seats? |  |
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| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 18:48 - Sep 8 with 1851 views | daveB |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 17:25 - Sep 8 by stevec |
Aside of the rail seat/standing, which effectively is only relevant to stands behind the goal, did you touch on the club introducing less intrusive seat backs in the rest of the ground?
I’m guessing the cost of changing all the 17500 seat backs would be roughly the same as installing say 2000 standing seats in which case the club is letting down 15500 fans for the sake of a couple of thousand who prefer to stand. |
I actually think Ellerslie would be the best place for the rail seating as you already have the R and X blocks standing for most of the game anyway |  | | |
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| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 18:53 - Sep 8 with 1843 views | daveB |
"Is it because I see going to QPR as "part of" my early Saturday whilst for others it is their entire focus on the day of a game? Don't get me wrong sometimes I will meet a couple of lads or bring my brother and we will have a pint and maybe a bite to eat in a bar in White City but are there a majority or sizeable group of core fans who on the day of a home game will be in the pub from opening time, caning it back until the last possible moment and then head to the ground to get another quick one in before going to their seats?"
That pretty much sounds like my Saturday.
I like a beer at half time and before the game regardless of if it is Carlsberg or not. Ideally they'd have things arranged so you don't need to leave the game with 10 minutes to go till half time to make that possible | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 19:22 - Sep 8 with 1786 views | qprxtc |
Football - fine and dandy.
The other stuff - i blame Thatcher. |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 19:52 - Sep 8 with 1750 views | colinallcars |
A really interesting and also encouraging interview.
I know the 75 year old chap that Lee Hoos says will be a guest of the club in an upcoming match. Sadly he's in hospital at the moment (non-covid) and hasn't attended yet this season.
Hopefully he'll recover soon and avail himself of Lee's very kind offer.
This club has soul now. |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 20:16 - Sep 8 with 1724 views | robith |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 15:24 - Sep 8 by danehoop |
There is a slightly cynical side to me that would point out that it wouldn't be impossible for for a savvy CEO being interviewed by someone from a website to read said website ahead of the interview to review likely areas of questioning. It's what I'd do in the same situation..... |
"CEO does research" - what exactly is cynical about that? |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 20:41 - Sep 8 with 1698 views | GloryHunter |
Great interview, Clive. It was plagiarised by "The 72.co.uk" within about an hour of publication. They'll probably justify it by saying they're only quoting Lee Hoos's words and not yours. |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:00 - Sep 8 with 1671 views | Northernr |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 20:41 - Sep 8 by GloryHunter |
Great interview, Clive. It was plagiarised by "The 72.co.uk" within about an hour of publication. They'll probably justify it by saying they're only quoting Lee Hoos's words and not yours. |
Tbf mate they did credit in the intro, that might actually help grow the site’s reach beyond QPR fans tbh. If you’re QPR you either like or hate me already. | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:36 - Sep 8 with 1610 views | joe90 |
That was an interesting interview, thank you.
One question, what is the 'Burnley model' regarding promotion? |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:44 - Sep 8 with 1584 views | qprxtc |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:00 - Sep 8 by Northernr |
Tbf mate they did credit in the intro, that might actually help grow the site’s reach beyond QPR fans tbh. If you’re QPR you either like or hate me already. |
Clive, you’re a massive c unt which means I would love to shag you senseless but I also have an uncontrollable terror of what vaginas unleashed could do to my manhood.
Back in your cage baby. | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:58 - Sep 8 with 1557 views | CliveWilsonSaid |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:36 - Sep 8 by joe90 |
That was an interesting interview, thank you.
One question, what is the 'Burnley model' regarding promotion? |
Well I guess the Burnley model is less obvious now because it was so successful.
Small good quality squad ✔︎
Medical Science ✔︎
Consistency of system ✔︎
Sustainability ✔︎
That's the heart of it i think. |  |
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| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:13 - Sep 8 with 1520 views | rsonist |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:58 - Sep 8 by CliveWilsonSaid |
Well I guess the Burnley model is less obvious now because it was so successful.
Small good quality squad ✔︎
Medical Science ✔︎
Consistency of system ✔︎
Sustainability ✔︎
That's the heart of it i think. |
Insofar as it pertains specifically to their 14/15 season I believe the Burnley model being referenced is "trouser the money and yo-yo". | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:18 - Sep 8 with 1511 views | derbyhoop |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 18:01 - Sep 8 by A40Bosh |
Another excellent listen Clive thanks.
I know some of the posters on this thread have pushed back on some of the reasons for the poor provision of food and drink, but working for a hospitality company based in London with hotels and restaurants around the world, I do appreciate what he is saying about the struggle to get hospitality staff since the pandemic struck - we have had to postpone the opening of two sites as we simply cannot get chefs, floor managers, bartenders etc... The sector thrives on young and mainly EU nationals who are over here to study and or earn and many of them have simply left and not come back and even those who have come back want out of hospitality jobs for the foreseeable.
So whilst Hoos has admitted it has to be sorted out the lack of trained staff their suppliers are able to hire to put behind the counter in the stands to serve the customers means this is probably going to be a struggle for a while.
If you think about it, it obviously isn't rocket science flipping a burger and pulling a pint and working a PDQ, but if those staff are only there for a few hours on every other Saturday and perhaps a Saturday/Tues one week, it will probably be harder for the manager/supervisors to weed out those who need additional training and those who are basically phoning it in with their approach to service on the basis that they are getting minimum wage.
(Puts on tin hat) One thing I have always (genuinely) struggled with is this fascination and demanding of alcohol and food for what is essentially only 2 hours in the middle of the day on a Saturday within the ground - especially given the size of the overall stadium and concourses at LR.
Why is it that people want to queue up in a cramped narrow space with people pushing to get in and around you just to get an overpriced bottle of weak beer and a burger (regardless of the quality) and stand there and drink and eat whilst people are pushing past you and bumping in to you. It fascinates me to watch the bunch of 50 something year old blokes who stand up the back beside me legging it down the steps from the back of SAR on 37 mins to get to the bar ahead of the queue to get in another pint in a 15 min window and ram it down them when they only got to their seats on 10 mins after coming from the pub.
Is it because I see going to QPR as "part of" my early Saturday whilst for others it is their entire focus on the day of a game? Don't get me wrong sometimes I will meet a couple of lads or bring my brother and we will have a pint and maybe a bite to eat in a bar in White City but are there a majority or sizeable group of core fans who on the day of a home game will be in the pub from opening time, caning it back until the last possible moment and then head to the ground to get another quick one in before going to their seats? |
I'm another who can't see the need for burger & beer @ 15:45 on a Saturday. |  |
| "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)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:25 - Sep 8 with 1500 views | GloryHunter |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:18 - Sep 8 by derbyhoop |
I'm another who can't see the need for burger & beer @ 15:45 on a Saturday. |
Because it would be an easy revenue stream for the club? | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:26 - Sep 8 with 1500 views | joe90 |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 21:58 - Sep 8 by CliveWilsonSaid |
Well I guess the Burnley model is less obvious now because it was so successful.
Small good quality squad ✔︎
Medical Science ✔︎
Consistency of system ✔︎
Sustainability ✔︎
That's the heart of it i think. |
Apologies, down ticked by mistake! | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 23:21 - Sep 8 with 1419 views | CiderwithRsie |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:25 - Sep 8 by GloryHunter |
Because it would be an easy revenue stream for the club? |
Sure, and it's quite right to query poor quality.
But personally I'd no more buy food or drink in a football ground than I'd judge a restaurant on the state of its 5-a-side team. The pub before and after the game is for drinks; home, pub or restaurant is for food, at the ground I want to watch the match, sing and soak up the atmosphere, a plastic cup is in the way. |  | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 23:45 - Sep 8 with 1400 views | Northernr |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 23:21 - Sep 8 by CiderwithRsie |
Sure, and it's quite right to query poor quality.
But personally I'd no more buy food or drink in a football ground than I'd judge a restaurant on the state of its 5-a-side team. The pub before and after the game is for drinks; home, pub or restaurant is for food, at the ground I want to watch the match, sing and soak up the atmosphere, a plastic cup is in the way. |
Ok but that doesn’t apply to everybody, particularly ppl taking kids. And you can’t say “the ground is a millstone, we can’t possibly function here” and then get what few revenue generators the ground has wrong. Get catering right and ppl come earlier (curing another problem at the turnstile) and spend more time and money with you. One of the things that has come up previously is Loftus Road generates zero money outside 2.45pm-5pm once a fortnight. Put on a good food and drink service and you can at least drag that out to 1.45-6pm. Before they converted the members bar in SARS into hospitality that would be full from before 2pm. We used to watch the first half of the lunchtime match in the green, then go in there for the second. Got to know WatfordR and his lad that way.
A theme I’ve been trying to hit on in these interviews is we are not moving out of this ground any time soon. I’d be willing to get we’re there for my lifetime. We have to think of ways to do more with it. Pandemic, Brexit, means it’s just trying to get games on atm. But bigger picture… | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 00:00 - Sep 9 with 1382 views | GloryHunter |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 23:45 - Sep 8 by Northernr |
Ok but that doesn’t apply to everybody, particularly ppl taking kids. And you can’t say “the ground is a millstone, we can’t possibly function here” and then get what few revenue generators the ground has wrong. Get catering right and ppl come earlier (curing another problem at the turnstile) and spend more time and money with you. One of the things that has come up previously is Loftus Road generates zero money outside 2.45pm-5pm once a fortnight. Put on a good food and drink service and you can at least drag that out to 1.45-6pm. Before they converted the members bar in SARS into hospitality that would be full from before 2pm. We used to watch the first half of the lunchtime match in the green, then go in there for the second. Got to know WatfordR and his lad that way.
A theme I’ve been trying to hit on in these interviews is we are not moving out of this ground any time soon. I’d be willing to get we’re there for my lifetime. We have to think of ways to do more with it. Pandemic, Brexit, means it’s just trying to get games on atm. But bigger picture… |
Lee Hoos's explanation was interesting, that catering HAS to be outsourced, because otherwise you'd have to find alternative employment for the staff when they're not serving for three hours at one of the 23 home matches. But I'm not sure that's right. I wonder how Forest Green Rovers do it? Vince Dale was on the World at One this week saying how people visit them specially for their award-winning vegan nosh. That can't be outsourced to some greasy packaged microwaved fast food outlet, can it? | | | |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 03:57 - Sep 9 with 1331 views | SydneyRs |
| Lee Hoos — Patreon on 22:18 - Sep 8 by derbyhoop |
I'm another who can't see the need for burger & beer @ 15:45 on a Saturday. |
Same.
Used to always eat before going to LR to avoid having to buy the awful food in and around the ground. As for drinking, for me that was always something to do later on well after the game. Nothing more annoying than the idiots making the whole row stand so they can get out to the toilet every five minutes.
If you are going to serve alcohol at all, then people should be allowed to take a drink to their seat rather than having to throw it down before being allowed back in.
Here in Aus, most football and rugby league games are played in modern stadiums with big concourse areas and plenty of staff serving so the food and drink lines move quickly. There's also often no alcohol sections if you really want to avoid that.
That said, something was lost when they stopped using the smaller, traditional local stadiums but TV money talks. The olympic stadium with 12k rattling around in it for a rugby league game is a soulless experience. Grand final day is brilliant when its full, but that's the only time it happens. [Post edited 9 Sep 2021 3:59]
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