| Who WANTS to leave Loftus Rd? 10:32 - Nov 9 with 8473 views | BrisbaneR |
I've no wish to distract from the discussion of our recent improvement in form, and this shouldn't at all - I'm just keen to hear your views given the volume of support I heard from the other side of the planet last night.
The City game in particular made me think of the old 'extra man in the stands' cliché, and the look of wonder/terror on the faces of visiting superstars who haven't played in a pokey little ground like Loftus Rd before was a joy to behold.
TF wants Rangers to be a 'global' brand - well perhaps our selling point, the differentiator, should be that we're the club where football looks and sounds like it used to? Rather than just being spectators, the intimacy of Loftus Rd means the pitch is surrounded by 18000 participants. Can we be the West London team that people think of when they imagine the atmosphere of a football match as it used to be....rather than sitting in a 'library' like that mob in SW6, waiting for an 'inevitable' win and being bored because of that inevitability?
I know and understand the arguments for a move to a new ground, but we need to be careful what we wish for. I'd happily stay small and intimate rather than growing but losing what I saw and heard against City. BTW, the support at Chelsea brought a lump to my throat even at this distance - you lot make me proud...COYR's.... |  | | |  |
| Who WANTS to leave Loftus Rd? on 13:29 - Nov 11 with 1198 views | TacticalR |
Plus we could get sponsorship from the prison. |  |
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| Who WANTS to leave Loftus Rd? on 16:31 - Nov 11 with 1146 views | Ingham |
Yes,but we don't know that even the stadium is inevitable, let alone QPR moving there. And Fernandes's explanation of why and how isn't even intelligible. Bhatia tells us we're debt-free, Fernandes we're £178 million in debt. But even though the £178 million is gone on players, the losses are 'stadium-related'.
How? There isn't a stadium, so the debt can't be secured against it. The money is gone, squandered on some of the worst players and performances we've ever seen in the top flight - so the £200 million Beard thinks they need to build it has gone down the drain already has it? £80 million from the Premier League, £120 million borrowed - and nothing to show for it.
If the debt is stadium-related, how can it be in QPR's accounts, when it doesn't exist, and the Club won't even own it when it does.
We moved out in the early sixties and returned. Soon after, Gregory wanted to move us out again in 1967, but we didn't go. He and Marler tried closing us down in 1987 to get their hands on Craven Cottage, and that didn't happen. Wright wanted us to go to Milton Keynes but THAT didn't happen. And Paladini and others have mooted moves to just about everywhere including Hammersmith Park, Unigate, White City.
Build support through brilliance on the pitch and, like Arsenal, we'll know how many supporters we have and the size of ground we need, from ticket sales and whatever size waiting list we have now.
The only explanation for not doing it that way is that they don't know how. Any number of people know how to put up a building. VIrtually nobody knows how to succeed in football.
And the number of people who know how to transform a Club the size of QPR to a 'world class football' outfit (Bhatia/Fernandes) is, as far as I can make out, zero. They could learn the game, find out what it takes, find out whether it is possible for us to do this, and build on that.
Clubs with smaller Grounds than the giants are more successful at the moment. Clubs with bigger grounds than ours fill the second tier below us.
All they have to do is play superbly enough for long enough to get 22,000 on the waiting list, and 40,000 will look reasonable.
The problem will remain the same for a new LR-type ground of 30,000, although it will be less empty if we don't have the support.
And developers and chairmen, judging by the grounds round the country, and the lack of atmosphere reported at the Bridge, Arsenal's, Newcastle's, are not interested in the qualities supporters value. | | | |
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