Fans Forum 11.11.19

[deadendjob]

Hey all,

Just transcribed the most important stuff of the Fans Forum recently.
There were five main topics covered - I've tried to keep anything that's relevant under these.
Most of this is a take on what I've heard, so hopefully it gives you some insight - less the waffling.

New Stadium & Training Ground
1. Linford Christie – Council project. Looking at business plans – expected update around this in June 2020.
2. Want to stay in Borough – Nothing currently available if LFC doesn’t go forward
3. Club wants to own Stadium – may consider lease, but has to be right deal for the club
4. Warren Farm – Opposition Group still active – Lawyer Richard Buxton from Cambridge – Represents client but won’t say who client is – has filed appeal. Club can’t provide details on what’s happening.
5. Les – Important for young players to see First Team squad training. Currently they’re on split sites.
6. Mark W– Better training ground and chance of developing players makes getting better loans more attractive to other clubs
7. Hoo’s – not supportive of 35k stadium. Thinks between 20-30k is better.
8. LFC can define what they want in terms of stadium size. The club will put themselves first before deciding if it’s worth moving there.

Transfers
1. Chances of keeping on loan players – all have clauses in their contracts which means they can’t be recalled until Jan. All want to stay currently.
2. Room in the budget under FFP to bring in players in January
3. Les – every player is available for the right price. Don’t want to necessarily sell, but they are.
4. Previously we had to PAY players to leave the club
5. Hoos – When deal comes through for player (even if it appears small for the club) – it’s often a monster deal for the player. If the club turn it down, it can affect the players mentality – so club has to weigh up not only the price of the deal, but also the impact it has on the player if they reject it
6. Les – If it’s a good player that comes in, the Manager gets praised. If it’s a poor player, DOF gets the flack.
7. Bringing players in is the decision of several parties – Not just Les or Mark
8. Mark - Even though a player is good on paper, they have to have the right mentality for the club. This is why we don’t sign/look at certain players.
9. Versatile players like Geoff Cameron, Ball etc are very attractive for the club as it means they have cover for several positions – which allows them to focus on specific positions.
10. Nahki Wells wants to stay at the club – but may get sold by Burnley, that risk is always there. Burnley will listen to offers for the player – purchasing him is something QPR may consider.

Finances
1. FFP fine is separate to club/team budget – Shareholders have made that clear.
2. We are accruing debt as a club – the only way to offset that is money from player sales – we can’t generate enough money from an operational standpoint to pay the bills
3. Hoos - Some clubs are selling their stadium’s and leasing it back – but this is the only tangible asset the club has and doesn’t want QPR to do this. There’s also the risk of who you’re leasing it from selling it.
4. Season tickets are sent out early so they can forecast their budget early
5. Gone are the days where the Shareholders are going to write cheques for everything.
6. Hoos – will confirm with Sky if he can say how much money is provided from Sky for Televised matches
7. Sky moving dates etc (Brentford / West Brom games for example) means the club are down 10k from last year
8. Working hard with retail etc to try and generate further income for the club (said Monopoly Board was a good idea).

First Team
1. Mark - Lots of young players – they’re competing against some clubs with Premier league set ups.
2. Mark - Appreciates support team has been shown even when they have bad days
3. Mark – Darnel – Good price came in, Darnel was happy with the transfer and got a Free Transfer player. Good business sense for the club.
4. Statistical data – players are tested every day (heart rate, running, drug test etc) and that data is benchmarked. Even data on free kicks etc is used. The focus on the right data for the team – not every single piece of data.
5. Happy to be where they are, but feel they dropped some points and are disappointed they aren’t higher
6. Eustace works on attacking set pieces – Glen & Neil on Defensive
7. Les – we have scouts in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland – teams in North West originally used to get those types of players which is why they continue to get them.
8. Mark – Manning’s a versatile player who’s doing well at LB, which is why he’s not playing Mid.
9. Experienced players are making a big difference in helping the young players. Lee Wallace, Geoff Cameron, Mark Pugh, Angel been helping massively.
10. There’s a lot of unity currently in the dressing room
11. Mark- Money no object what championship player would you like in your team? - Romaine Sawyers
12. Shodipo – close to a return to the first team after injury (after 9 weeks out). Hard for him to get back in when players who’ve replaced him are doing a good job.
13. Mark – we’ll continue to play out from the back. We made a mistake on Saturday – but it’s how we learn.
14. Les / Mark/ Hoo’s – Club feels hard done by some of the choices from officials and that it doesn’t seem like it has been ironed out over the course of the season. Frustrated there’s no consequences for the refs.
15. Mark – Ryan Manning – Lee Wallace’s arrival has been seen as a challenge to him, so he’s worked really hard to ensure he’s the one in the team. Lee’s also been very influential to Ryan.

Atmosphere
1. Board & Family were pleased with Fans embracing the stadium renaming
2. Emphasis on the work Mark Prince has done for the foundation and suggests donating if/where you can
3. Attendances are higher than expected – thinks it’s based on the style of football
4. A lot of first time visitors to Loftus Rd, but poor retention. Number one reason they don’t return is lack of facilities – leg room most complained about.
5. Hoos – feels some of the vocal supporters have been diluted. Ideas have been put forward to help the atmosphere – looking to have consultation with fans
6. Tried cheaper student entry nights etc, but this didn’t increase the number of people coming to the ground
7. Number of No-Show’s significantly less this season (was 30% at one point). People are actually buying the ticket and coming to the game.
8. Hoos – believes racism in football is global issue. FIFA/UEFA shifting blame – no-one taking ownership. In addition to being complicit in racism – they’re liars. Football Authority finally look like they’re looking into recent instance.
9. Les – Touches on his frustration with Racism in Football.
10. Kiyan Prince Stadium – isn’t a permanent name change. It’s a temporary name change until the club decide to change it, the charity need it further or update the club decide to update it fulltime. It’ll be reviewed in future – ie maybe another charity, maybe change to Loftus Rd, may get investors.

[dm]

That's very good of you, dej.

I watched it last night too. One thing from your notes, regarding the loan players contracts, Ferdinand said they all can be recalled in January but all want to stay.

[222gers]

Thanks for laying that out dej, it's an encouraging read.

[Mika]

Horrible lack of vision and ambition by Hoos regarding the new stadium. Cannot wait till next June when nothing is likely to happen anyway and the capacity should be planned with the next 50 years in mind (so a paltry 2k - 7k addition is quite meaningless). Hopefully those actually making the strategic decisions at the club have bigger and better ideas.

[dm]

Horrible lack of vision and ambition by Hoos regarding the new stadium. Cannot wait till next June when nothing is likely to happen anyway and the capacity should be planned with the next 50 years in mind (so a paltry 2k - 7k addition is quite meaningless). Hopefully those actually making the strategic decisions at the club have bigger and better ideas.

What do you suggest he does regarding the LCS?

I would prefer to see us move into a new stadium with a capacity toward the higher 30k end he quoted, but increased capacity is only one of a number of requirements.

[222gers]

Yes, the LCS appears to be our only hope of staying in the saintly borough of Hammersmith & Fulham so it's all contingent upon the council “ getting its arse into gear “

As for capacity I can't see us ever getting huge crowds, so a lower capacity would suit. As has been stated before, we don't want 11k fans sitting in a 35k capacity stadium.

[Systemsguy]

dej,

thank you so much for this....

I really cant be arsed to watch a meeting like this but this neatly summerises everything important....

Enjoyed the world domination post (we must think BIGGER) when we finally have guys in charge who are cutting the clubs cloth accordingly, Uncle Tony was an absolute disaster with the all the BIG plans and we've had a horrible couple of years thanks to it....

As pointed out all the loanees can be recalled which is disappointing as both strikers are finding the onion bag on a regular basis....

[UxbridgeR]

Horrible lack of vision and ambition by Hoos regarding the new stadium. Cannot wait till next June when nothing is likely to happen anyway and the capacity should be planned with the next 50 years in mind (so a paltry 2k - 7k addition is quite meaningless). Hopefully those actually making the strategic decisions at the club have bigger and better ideas.

Hoos is in his fifth season at the club. it seems reasonable to assume that the views expressed are those of the board overall rather than his own personal vision. He did explain why he was in favour of a smaller capacity in more detail -see Clive Whittingham's report on LFW.

Thanks to DEJ for posting his detailed take on the forum here.

[deadendjob]

That's very good of you, dej.

I watched it last night too. One thing from your notes, regarding the loan players contracts, Ferdinand said they all can be recalled in January but all want to stay.

Whoops cheers mate! I got distracted a few times through listening

[dm]

That's very good of you, dej.

I watched it last night too. One thing from your notes, regarding the loan players contracts, Ferdinand said they all can be recalled in January but all want to stay.

Whoops cheers mate! I got distracted a few times through listening

No problem, dej. As you will have read, we really appreciate you taking the trouble to record the salient points for the dotorg.

[Esox Lucius]

There is nothing to prevent the stadium being built in a modular style; a lower tier of approx 20k, corporate tier above that and a further 10k+ built above that but only opened when required. That way the crowd and the atmosphere would still be retained with smaller gates.

[jimjams]

Go to games in Korea occasionally and it's depressing to be in the World Cup stadiums with 40,000 or whatever capacity and less than 10,000 attendance. Actually, the Korean fans are pretty good at creating an atmosphere, so it's not quiet, but you look across at empty seats (often they try and put you all on the same side so it looks better for the TV). Anyway, so I get that a 25,000 might be better for us. It's also in a park, not surrounded by terraced housing, so it might well be possible to make it a bit bigger if things start looking up.

How would the ownership work? Would we own the stadium but not the land? Anyone know?

[222gers]

Whenever Sky take away one of our 3pm Saturday kickoffs, I always console myself by thinking at least the club will make a few bob out of it. LH seems to suggest we in fact lose money in these cases. Surely, as rubbish as the EFL are, they wouldn't negotiate a deal whereby their clubs lose out in this way ?
Of course the long term effect is harder to judge, as fans may grow tired of the constant disruption and discontinue their season tickets.

[deadendjob]

How would the ownership work? Would we own the stadium but not the land? Anyone know?

Hoos didn't say anything about the land. I'd imagine they'd try to get both?

[Greyhound]

I don't think the Council are planning to give away ownership of the land, so I expect their starting position will be to lease the stadium for a decent period. They would presumably want to involve the club in the design and capacity of the stadium, if they were going to be the main tenant. However it seems like there is a deficit of good-will and co-operation which threatens to continue to drag the whole thing out. Essentially, the Council seem to be a bunch of arses.

I think there is an opportunity for our various supporters groups to influence the Council more directly on this issue, and I'm surprised there hasn't already been an initiative to do this. Councillor majorities are slim, and even a small amount of canvassing by supporters could swing the vote, assuming that the electorate contains a respectable number of Rs fans.