Low crowds at Loftus Road..... 13:16 - Aug 2 with 17083 views | thehat | Still loads and loads of tickets for the Millwall game which is a real shame. I was disappointed with the crowd on Saturday too, playing a Champions League Team at home with the best squad we have had in years and tickets at very sensible prices and thousands and thousands of empty seats. It's got me thinking as to why...... Our support base is ageing just look around you at matches when I was a lad watching in the eighties and nineties from the terraces in the Loft or Paddock there used to be loads of groups of young lads (17 - 25 year olds) from all the local areas Hayes, Greenford, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Uxbridge etc all there for day out. You just don't see that anymore maybe there are better things to do nowadays better cinemas, better bowling alleys, better shopping centres, better gyms etc that give this age group more options but what I do know is that as more of us oldies head of to that "great gig in the sky" we are not being replaced as quickly by the younger generation. The floating football supporter who is probably not a big QPR fan but likes to watch a game every so often: are they being tempted away by better offers at Brentford, Fulham or Watford. Habit - I know loads and loads of QPR fans who don't go anymore and have just lost the habit and do other stuff now. Location - Has our traditional West London fanbase moved much further out and travel has become much more of a challenge. Our ground is in one of the most diverse parts of the country and I don't think our fanbase represents that as much as it should. Does the club need to be doing more here?? And last but not least of course the Pandemic we don't yet know what effect that will have on our crowds but I'm sure it won't be a positive one. We took the best part of 45k to Wembley so we know they are out there maybe its time for the hardcore of around 8k to re-engage with the dormant fans and encourage them back W12. This season could be special and we want the place rocking -The Board have done their bit now lets do ours - Nothing like a packed Loftus Road!! | | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:27 - Aug 2 with 7671 views | PinnerPaul | As someone said on another thread, August is holiday season, even more so this year as the first time many have been able to get away. Top 6 Sept/Oct and the place WILL be rocking, don't worry about that! | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:28 - Aug 2 with 7673 views | AberystwythR | Warbs mentioned the empty seats in both Utd & Leicester post match interviews, seems the club may be just as surprised at the lack of takeup | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:29 - Aug 2 with 7661 views | simmo | That support base of groups of young lads still exists on awaydays, apart from the usual there's always plenty of them travelling together. I do though think the average age of supporters is older, more through cost than anything else. As for Leicester game and this Saturday, it's the beginning of August, people are on summer holidays, there's always a dip at the beginning. Plus there's multiple away trips in August and the cost of travelling/eating/drinking/attending games means that most will likely pick and choose, especially when they have gotten used to not having these outgoings in the last 18months. The cost of a QPR game for most of last season was £10 and an internet connection, going from that to happily commiting to hundreds and hundreds this month with holidays, kids home full time, social plans happening again. I think it's perfectly understandable. I just hope there's the usual 12k plus there and the occasion brings the noise - Millwall will also do well this year IMO, so will be a very competitive game! | |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:50 - Aug 2 with 7510 views | 80s_Boy | It's still holiday season and although families are unlikely to be spending time overseas this year, it is still an expensive time for parents, Those 'cheap' tickets soon add up when you need to buy a few of them and take into account travel, food and drink. You're still looking at over £50 for a family to attend a glorified training session and a lot of people can't afford/justify that. With Millwall you have a double whammy. Holiday season and the possibility of crowd trouble before and after the match. It was never going to be a 19,000 sell out. The support base has an older average age but that's due to a number of reasons: * Older people tend to have more disposable income. * Supporting trends shift and regular match attendance isn't as widely adopted as it was when we were young. * There are far more activities youngsters could, and often will, spend their money on in close proximity to Loftus Road. * The is a growing trend among younger football fans to 'follow' successful teams from their armchair/bedroom on laptops rather than support an average/poor local side. [Post edited 2 Aug 2021 13:51]
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:55 - Aug 2 with 7468 views | terryb | I have watched very few pre season games over the past 50 plus years & I certainly wasn't going to risk attending them this year no matter who we were playing against. My priority is to be in the Upper Loft this week & I wasn't risking being pinged & having to self isolate instead! Hence, no going to pubs this week either! Using Greater Anglia, The Underground, pub pre match & then being in the crowd was a risk I wasn't prepared to take. I will be quite surprised if we go through three home games in August without receiving a ping. Perhaps my age prevents me from acting pre Covid yet, but I will be there when Millwall visit. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:56 - Aug 2 with 7465 views | Rs_Holy | Warburton suggested some fans may still be concerned about the Covid situation. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:02 - Aug 2 with 7431 views | ted_hendrix |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:56 - Aug 2 by Rs_Holy | Warburton suggested some fans may still be concerned about the Covid situation. |
Well I for one am concerned about Covid and to that end I wont be going near any crowds for the foreseeable future. | |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:04 - Aug 2 with 7413 views | slmrstid | I thought it was a decent crowd for a pre-season friendly actually. They might be in Europe but Leicester aren't really a big draw for us. I thought football crowds might be heaving when competitive games came back but I'm not so sure now actually. I know from organising and being involved with running events that entries are well down on what they usually would be - people have either fallen out of the habit, are still concerned about Covid risks, or have just moved onto other things with their lives. I think the same will apply to football. A Leicester supporting friend told me there's still over 10,000 tickets spare for their Community Shield game on Sunday. So its not unique to QPR, and it might well take longer than we all thought til crowds are back up. That being said we could have a flurry this week and I end up being completely wrong come Saturday! | | | | Login to get fewer ads
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:07 - Aug 2 with 7395 views | Rangersw12 | It's only Monday and we have always been a supporter base who seem to buy tickets late so I fully expect 15k plus by Saturday As for the friendlies I thought the crowds were very good. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:12 - Aug 2 with 7365 views | boysfromthebush | Very strange post. There's not 'loads and loads' left at all when you look around the ground on the virtual map. Away attendances were the best they've been for years pre covid & 10,000+ for two pre season friendlies when we've struggled to get 3k+ in previous years, then 900 at Cambridge? The game will be a near sell out. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:17 - Aug 2 with 7324 views | californiahoop | They will be there don’t worry about that, once the holiday season is over, queues will be twice is long for the flat Carlsberg, lol. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:23 - Aug 2 with 7287 views | RBlock | I was quite pleased to see they had Carlsberg Pilsner there. Still not great, but not quite as bad as the usual 3.8% pish they usually serve up. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:24 - Aug 2 with 7263 views | queensparker | Pandemic a definite issue for a lot of our older fans. I know a few that won’t be coming back yet. Will be interesting to see if we’ve shed a few of the regulars after almost two years of no crowds, not going to football saves you a lot of money when times are tight as they are now for many. I can’t fkin wait myself, but I reckon crowds are going to be down across the board. A good season near the top will help. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:38 - Aug 2 with 7184 views | CliveWilsonSaid |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:28 - Aug 2 by AberystwythR | Warbs mentioned the empty seats in both Utd & Leicester post match interviews, seems the club may be just as surprised at the lack of takeup |
I think the fact that they had the whole ground open for both fixtures tells you that. Normally for a crowd of that size they'd have only opened 3 sides of the ground. I never thought that there would be a very big gate at the Leicester match. | |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:40 - Aug 2 with 7160 views | CliveWilsonSaid |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:12 - Aug 2 by boysfromthebush | Very strange post. There's not 'loads and loads' left at all when you look around the ground on the virtual map. Away attendances were the best they've been for years pre covid & 10,000+ for two pre season friendlies when we've struggled to get 3k+ in previous years, then 900 at Cambridge? The game will be a near sell out. |
Agreed most of the ground looks 2/3rds to 3/4 full already for Millwall. [Post edited 2 Aug 2021 14:43]
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:42 - Aug 2 with 7143 views | bosh67 |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 13:56 - Aug 2 by Rs_Holy | Warburton suggested some fans may still be concerned about the Covid situation. |
This. People are still nervous. | |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:50 - Aug 2 with 7074 views | Northernr | I'd very much like to buy some Orient, Hull and Middlesbrough tickets if they'd like to sell them to me at some point. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:05 - Aug 2 with 7006 views | toboboly |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:50 - Aug 2 by Northernr | I'd very much like to buy some Orient, Hull and Middlesbrough tickets if they'd like to sell them to me at some point. |
Considering that pre-covid I picked up a Charlton ticket about 3+ weeks in advance and yet post-covid it seems that info on away tickets is only released a week in advance is strange. | |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:10 - Aug 2 with 6986 views | Boston | Some fans are nervous of getting pinged….by Millwall. | |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:14 - Aug 2 with 6957 views | DavieQPR | Got my tickets for Millwall. Didn't go to Friendlies because at my age and with a dodgy ticker I didn't think it was worth the risk, especially as the matches were free on YouTube. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:19 - Aug 2 with 6918 views | SheffieldHoop |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:10 - Aug 2 by Boston | Some fans are nervous of getting pinged….by Millwall. |
I didn't go to the Leicester game because 1) Was out Friday night 2) Was raining when I woke up 3) Watching the Olympics in bed seemed a better option Must admit I thought tickets for Millwall would be sold out by the time the box office closed on Saturday, so got my +1 last week. Still anticipating 16k+ | |
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Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:23 - Aug 2 with 6897 views | PinnerPaul |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 14:12 - Aug 2 by boysfromthebush | Very strange post. There's not 'loads and loads' left at all when you look around the ground on the virtual map. Away attendances were the best they've been for years pre covid & 10,000+ for two pre season friendlies when we've struggled to get 3k+ in previous years, then 900 at Cambridge? The game will be a near sell out. |
Agree. R , S and T block availability is 2%, 7% and 7% Most other blocks have about 20 - 30% availability. Don't panic Mr Mainwaring! | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:24 - Aug 2 with 6897 views | Northernr |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:05 - Aug 2 by toboboly | Considering that pre-covid I picked up a Charlton ticket about 3+ weeks in advance and yet post-covid it seems that info on away tickets is only released a week in advance is strange. |
It would help if they explained why. I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons - waiting in case government advice changes, waiting to hear from local authorities, not wanting to be in for 2000 tickets and then have to call the game off etc. But they don't say any of this, there's just complete silence, so I've gone ahead and booked trains for Hull and Boro just hoping that it's ok, and I presume we're at Orient next Wednesday but I don't know. A little note, Tweet, something on the offish to say 'we appreciate it's frustrating but these tickets aren't on sale yet because a, b, c and we anticipate being able to sell them from August 5th" or whatever would help, rather than whacking them out with no notice a week before the game on a ticketing website that's buggy as fck and then having everybody scratch their heads about why the crowds are low. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:29 - Aug 2 with 6844 views | PinnerPaul |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:24 - Aug 2 by Northernr | It would help if they explained why. I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons - waiting in case government advice changes, waiting to hear from local authorities, not wanting to be in for 2000 tickets and then have to call the game off etc. But they don't say any of this, there's just complete silence, so I've gone ahead and booked trains for Hull and Boro just hoping that it's ok, and I presume we're at Orient next Wednesday but I don't know. A little note, Tweet, something on the offish to say 'we appreciate it's frustrating but these tickets aren't on sale yet because a, b, c and we anticipate being able to sell them from August 5th" or whatever would help, rather than whacking them out with no notice a week before the game on a ticketing website that's buggy as fck and then having everybody scratch their heads about why the crowds are low. |
Yes very good point. Communication, communication, communication is what it should be all about. Nothing further about the 'technical issues' affecting Cambridge and Leicester streams either, which id disappointing. As I've said previously I've always found individual staff members very helpful and prompt to reply, but just occasionally the club does suffer the odd communication failure. | | | |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:31 - Aug 2 with 6821 views | Rog |
Low crowds at Loftus Road..... on 15:23 - Aug 2 by PinnerPaul | Agree. R , S and T block availability is 2%, 7% and 7% Most other blocks have about 20 - 30% availability. Don't panic Mr Mainwaring! |
This. My quick calculation says Paddocks are 90% sold, Ellerslie 87%, SAR 79%, Lower Loft 78% and UL 71%. That's not bad with all this week to go. | | | |
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