I wonder if a club like Brentford or Fulham would be interested in buying us out??

[brightonr]

Please stop making Brisbane and I look bad. Luongos doing a good enough job of that as it is.

[Ginger Ninja]

What's age got to do with it? If you have a point to make then make it but you have just posted more drivel. You have the IQ of a cucumber

What a stupid OP.

[bushkangaroo]

Back in 1967 (3 years before I started going to Rangers) we almost did 'takeover' Brentford. In effect, that is what happened as far as I understand it. In retrospect had that gone through, that would have left one club only in West London, which I think would probably have been best for us. A selfish point of view, true, as I don't think an AFC Brentford as a serious challenger to us would have emerged.

Now, although I didn't have strong feelings either way about the proposed merger with Fulham, I felt it could well work. A lot of people strongly felt otherwise of course, which was absolutely their right. But the fact is at the time we were by far the stronger party and I suspect the QPR part of the equation would have been much stronger than the Fulham part. I think we would have quickly come to see it as our club, at least the vast majority of us and a good number of Fulham fans and their kids. New support, in time, would have been attracted. For the record I was strongly opposed to the briefly proposed merger with Wimbledon largely for geographical reasons (very different parts of London).

Of course I'd have loved to see us become a 'big' club on our own. A kind of West London version of West Ham. The kind of club that could reasonably expect to pick up points from the like of Chelsea (the only club I have detested all my life). But it never really happened (except for a short period). My comments on Brentford and Fulham in my original post were a cynical, angry response to how far our beloved club has fallen. I want to see us mixing it with Chelsea before I die.

BTW, I really can't afford to come from Australia at the moment. But I'm going into debt (for my 60th birthday) to try to make Huddersfield and Burton games, if they are not postponed that is.

[bushkangaroo]

Differing opinions are welcome. Childish insults from those incapable of thinking things through are not.

[Ginger Ninja]

If any sort of merger with Fulham, Brentford or any other club for that matter happened, I'd stop supporting. Full stop. It wouldn't be my QPR any more. I'd go and watch my local non league side.

[bushkangaroo]

Fair enough. As long as you don't assume that automatically makes you a 'better' Rs fan than me. You might or might not be. As I said, differing views welcome, and at least it wasn't an insult!

[Fraggy]

Fair play for clarifying your OP.
It did seem a bit strange.
I respect your views, but like Ginger, I don't think I would be able to continue supporting a Queens Park Brentford or a Fulham Park Rangers.
My team has always been Queens Park Rangers and hopefully always will.
One of the things I dislike about North American sports is the franchise system where they can move a whole team to a different part of the country.
Respect for putting yourself in debt to get back for a couple of games; as of next month, I would of been away for 11 years and going to Rangers is the main thing I miss.

[jmelanie]

Fair play for clarifying your OP.
It did seem a bit strange.
I respect your views, but like Ginger, I don't think I would be able to continue supporting a Queens Park Brentford or a Fulham Park Rangers.
My team has always been Queens Park Rangers and hopefully always will.
One of the things I dislike about North American sports is the franchise system where they can move a whole team to a different part of the country.
Respect for putting yourself in debt to get back for a couple of games; as of next month, I would of been away for 11 years and going to Rangers is the main thing I miss.

Didn't somebody try to combine Brentford and Rangers at one time and there was an enormous outcry against it.

My husband's family all supported the Brooklyn Dodgers (my husband even went to see them at Ebbets Field). They left Brooklyn overnight and moved to Los Angeles. My father-in-law was so upset he never forgave them and started supporting the ####ees

[Tarbie]

Back in 1967 (3 years before I started going to Rangers) we almost did 'takeover' Brentford. In effect, that is what happened as far as I understand it. In retrospect had that gone through, that would have left one club only in West London, which I think would probably have been best for us. A selfish point of view, true, as I don't think an AFC Brentford as a serious challenger to us would have emerged.

Now, although I didn't have strong feelings either way about the proposed merger with Fulham, I felt it could well work. A lot of people strongly felt otherwise of course, which was absolutely their right. But the fact is at the time we were by far the stronger party and I suspect the QPR part of the equation would have been much stronger than the Fulham part. I think we would have quickly come to see it as our club, at least the vast majority of us and a good number of Fulham fans and their kids. New support, in time, would have been attracted. For the record I was strongly opposed to the briefly proposed merger with Wimbledon largely for geographical reasons (very different parts of London).

Of course I'd have loved to see us become a 'big' club on our own. A kind of West London version of West Ham. The kind of club that could reasonably expect to pick up points from the like of Chelsea (the only club I have detested all my life). But it never really happened (except for a short period). My comments on Brentford and Fulham in my original post were a cynical, angry response to how far our beloved club has fallen. I want to see us mixing it with Chelsea before I die.

BTW, I really can't afford to come from Australia at the moment. But I'm going into debt (for my 60th birthday) to try to make Huddersfield and Burton games, if they are not postponed that is.

When you give it context like that, it's actually quite an interesting argument.

In any other line of business you'd have quite a compelling argument for it. Combining 2 companies with identical business models but are effectively both loss making. The idea would be to benefit from the increased customer base (i.e the fans) it would bring, whilst at the same time the reduced operating costs.

However, the same rules really don't apply to football clubs. The fans are tribal, we hate our rivals and we believe in our history. I think a lot of fans would get over it with time, but a hell of a lot wouldn't!

It has happened in football in recent years however. Inverness Caledonian Thistle were formed in 1994 when Caledonian and Inverness Thistle merged. I think it was really a case of merge or go out of business though, so needs must I guess!