Do we need a new stadium?

[Yousef]

I've noticed recently that there still have been available tickets even on match days at Loftus Road. Chelsea wasn't sold out at least a day before the match was it? I can see today's DERBY v West Ham is also not sold out yet. I know it is televised but I question why? It's shocking when you cannot sell all your home tickets in the Premier League when your capacity is 18,000. How can Fulham have more attendance when we all know they have very poor followers away? How did Wigan have more average attendance than us last season?

How many QPR fans are there?

Do we really need a bigget stadium of 40,000 capacity when we aren't selling all tickets?

[MattyRangers]

I was always of the opinion that we would attract plenty of new fans with this whole "new era" thing we have going on under Tony, but in all honesty in recent weeks I have found myself changing this opinion. I dont think we will ever be able to sell out anything near a 40k stadium. Yes we may attract a few more thousand fans and be able to sell out a, tops, 25k stadium. But as you point out Yousef, the fact we had tickets for sale vs Chelski (arguebaly our biggest home game of the season) the day before, tells me we dont quite have the pulling power I previously thought/imagined we had. We have our small core of fans and a few thousand more that will fluctuate depending on how we're doing.
I would be lovely to get a nice shiney new stadium, yes, (provided it was of a similar mould to LR in that its tight to the pitch & holds an atmosphere of course), and as a "business" it would be good to be able to hold other events there to generate increased revenue, but speaking purely as a selfish football fan here, I would absolutley hate to move into a 40k seater and only sell 25k and have every oppo fan mugging us off with chants of "you're grounds too big for you".

So, no, I dont think we "need" a new stadium at all. Teams like Spuds, that have a 20k waiting list for STs, "need" a new stadium.

What is the maximum average attendance at home anybody feels we could accomplish in the next 5 years or so? I, personally, dont think it would be anymore than 25k at the absolute max and I think even thats abit ambitious.

[TRING-RANGER]

IMO a new stadium would not be for the new fans we would attract ( build and they will come ,dont think so)

but for concerts and the like, which would probably fill it no problem,

[Yousef]

But we still don't like to see our half of the new stadium empty like Coventry.

[MattyRangers]

But we still don't like to see our half of the new stadium empty like Coventry.

My point exactly.

[dpmd]

Charge £25-30 per game and we would sell 25K easily. Still think our ticket prices are too expensive. Who wants to pay £40 plus per game for the next three home games especially when you can watch them all on the box?

[MattyRangers]

Charge £25-30 per game and we would sell 25K easily. Still think our ticket prices are too expensive. Who wants to pay £40 plus per game for the next three home games especially when you can watch them all on the box?

Do you actually think that the extra £10 for a ticket is stopping thousands upon thousands of fans coming?

Not meana sound like Im having a pop btw, genuinally wondering as, IMO, I dont think reducing it by a 10er will bring too many more fans in. Some, yes, but not to the tune of 7 or 8k fans.

[Yousef]

Do you actually think that the extra £10 for a ticket is stopping thousands upon thousands of fans coming?

Not meana sound like Im having a pop btw, genuinally wondering as, IMO, I dont think reducing it by a 10er will bring too many more fans in. Some, yes, but not to the tune of 7 or 8k fans.

Agree with Matty. Let's face it, we do not have a big fan base compaired to other London based Premier League clubs.

[QPR_NW10]

i wouldn't mind a stadium whereby i could fit in my own seat....we can get a new stadium - but it doesn't have to be 50k seater...why not just a nice 25k?

[QPR Richard]

Here's an idea. Why don't all you people who object to a new stadium get a petition going and send it to Mr T Fernandes London W12? You all obviously know a bit more that he does about future growth projections of the club etc.

He is on record as saying that we could've sold twice the number of season tickets this season, and they're currently sold out are they not? Do you guys honestly believe he would build a new stadium without having some kind of plan about how the club is going to develop? Bearing in mind a new stadium will take many years to complete, don't you trust him to have the right plan for future expansion? Some of you have little faith in our owners.

If you placed clubs in the right division according to ground capacity, we're a League 1 club. Is a League 1 ground the right sort for the biggest football league in the world? Stop thinking little, and start thinking global because that's where he's taking our club, like it or not. I'm backing the owners on this one.

[TRING-RANGER]

Here's an idea. Why don't all you people who object to a new stadium get a petition going and send it to Mr T Fernandes London W12? You all obviously know a bit more that he does about future growth projections of the club etc.

He is on record as saying that we could've sold twice the number of season tickets this season, and they're currently sold out are they not? Do you guys honestly believe he would build a new stadium without having some kind of plan about how the club is going to develop? Bearing in mind a new stadium will take many years to complete, don't you trust him to have the right plan for future expansion? Some of you have little faith in our owners.

If you placed clubs in the right division according to ground capacity, we're a League 1 club. Is a League 1 ground the right sort for the biggest football league in the world? Stop thinking little, and start thinking global because that's where he's taking our club, like it or not. I'm backing the owners on this one.

Good post richard,

Ive got great faith in our owners but not sure of where we will get our future support from .............

[MattyRangers]

Here's an idea. Why don't all you people who object to a new stadium get a petition going and send it to Mr T Fernandes London W12? You all obviously know a bit more that he does about future growth projections of the club etc.

He is on record as saying that we could've sold twice the number of season tickets this season, and they're currently sold out are they not? Do you guys honestly believe he would build a new stadium without having some kind of plan about how the club is going to develop? Bearing in mind a new stadium will take many years to complete, don't you trust him to have the right plan for future expansion? Some of you have little faith in our owners.

If you placed clubs in the right division according to ground capacity, we're a League 1 club. Is a League 1 ground the right sort for the biggest football league in the world? Stop thinking little, and start thinking global because that's where he's taking our club, like it or not. I'm backing the owners on this one.

As it goes I have every faith in our owners and have always declared so. I have no doubt they know what theyre doing, and their idea of a new stadium will obviously have been based upon plenty of indepth research and financial forecasts to calculate future revenue that could be brought in. However, all I'm saying is this revenue will be coming from sources other than QPR matchdays - it'll be music concerts etc. This is fine by me, I want the best for QPR. But as I said, speaking purely as a selfish football fan, if the stadium we eventually build & move into is 30 or 40k seater, our matchdays have the potential to be abit embarasing as we are showing this year we dont have that kind of fanbase. There isnt going to be 15k extra people crawl out of the woodwork because we have a shiney new stadium. Yes, some people will jump on our bandwagon, but no way that amount.

[Johnnykc]

Modern stadia can be erected with room for future expansion so I don't think we would ever move to some vast stadium where we would all rattle around and hear echos......The capacity could be gently increased as the club settles into the premier league.

Loftus Road.....as fantastic as it is, is NOT the way forward for any modern football club let alone a premier league club that is getting the infrastructure and investment that we are....

Trust Tony.

[Busheyboy]

Interesting debate here. Agree wth Matty but can also see the bigger picture.
On the football side, we'd easily get 30k + for the big games, but that would mean away fans getting a very big chunk of tickets.
Let me promise you all one thing.
TICKET PRICES IN THE FUTURE WILL NOT GO DOWN AND CONTRARY TO THE MUMBO JUMBO POLITICANS TALK, THE ECONOMY IS NOT IMPROVING AND WON'T FOR THE FORESEEABLE
The so called average games 20 - 25 max. Do we want a 40k stadium that we rattle around in. The atmosphere at Loftus Road with the compact nature of the ground is in my mind, one of the best features and some of the bigger boys don't like it, as we saw last season. We'll lose that with a 40k stadium, for starters.
Commercially, a big ground opens up lots of other revenues streams. I was at Loftus Road in 1985 to see Barry Mcguigan beat Eusebio Pedroza. What a night and what an atmosphere. In the world of business, a ground that is used 20 odd tmes a year is not viable either.

[Brian Wilson]

seems like a lot of you guys think we wouldnt be able to match Fulhams crowds. They got 25,698 at the weekend. Lots of tourists and so on but with a similar plan we could surely get 30k. Southampton got 30,713 at home last week. What were their Dell crowds like? 10 or 11k? Reading at Elm Pk? Swansea at the Vetch? Its not like there is not precedent for this. Coventry would get 25k in the premier league. Have we not had this thread multiple times by now?