| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion 12:05 - Jan 4 with 11997 views | extratimeR |
It's been mentioned on here before, but if we don't go up this year then next season looks bloody nigh on impossible.
Newcastle, Burnley, Norwich, plus probably West Brom, a reawakened Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough, and possibly Sheffield United, plus add in a bit of er Sunderland, and it looks like a tricky season, is FFP temporarily suspended?
If it is then it might be time for the club to go for the extra two or three that might get us into play-offs.
( Particularly with the possible effects of AFCON |  | | |  |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:15 - Jan 6 with 1982 views | A40Bosh |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 11:03 - Jan 6 by francisbowles |
'I don’t see any evidence that we would see more fans at a new ground either.'
Well if we can't attract new fans the club will eventually fold. Hoos is always saying that first time visitors to our stadium don't return because the facilities are so poor.
£1.5 million a month into the club is not sustainable. It has to end sometime and we need to make a decision fairly soon on the future of where we play, as building a stadium is a fairly long term project. |
£1.5 million a month into the club is not sustainable. It has to end sometime and we need to make a decision fairly soon on the future of where we play, as building a stadium is a fairly long term project
Good point, some fans need to separate "owner" and "fan" in the real world when it comes to someone having to put their hand in their pockets to the tune of £1mm a month every month.
Since I have been alive I have not been aware of any any actual real life QPR fan who is a multi-multi billionaire who has offered to walk in and buy the club off the current owners and then continue to finance the club year in and year out (where EFL/FIFA regulations allow it) as a pet hobby no matter what the cost. If there was then they could move the club to a new 40K shiny new ground where it lying empty apart from 3-4 times a month is not a concern.
Until then the "owners" are business people who have taken on the clubs ownership and debts and we have to rely on their moral worthiness that they are "in love" with the club and its heritage and fans whilst they try and turn it in to a business that can "stand on its own two feet" or "wash its own face" as Hoos often says. Hoos' dream is to have the club being able to break even for a single year without the board having to put money in every month.
Sensible business people will see that if QPR is to be operating in 100 years time, then either someone has to allow QPR to flatten some of the surrounding houses around LR so that a new stadium can be built on the site of our spiritual home but that will never happen.
Sensible business people will see if they can find an alternate site which they can buy and build on, once they get to that stage then the gamble is whether the marketing of the stadium and its internal and external facilities allows the club to generate non match day/non football revenues so that during the non Premier League years the club can still wash it's face and perhaps in 100 years time the investing owners might start to see some returns on their millions of money pumped in. |  |
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 18:52 - Jan 6 with 1836 views | The_Beast1976 |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 12:53 - Jan 4 by stantheman10 |
The Premiership is a poison chalice. We go up and we'd probably have to spend a fortune to upgrade the ground to PL standards and then we'd need 5 or 6 decent players to avoid humiliation and still get stuffed nearly every week and then get relegated. What is the point? In all reality I'd rather us be just above mid table in the Championship and go all out to try and win the EFL Cup. |
I'd love to win the Championship then be the first club in history to turn down promotion. Would never happen of course, but it would be fantastic if it did. Would like to be competitive in the Championship and have a go at the cups each year. The Premisershit is nothing but a money obsessed wnkfest designed solely for the global 'fan' community watching on tv. No interest in it whatsoever. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 19:20 - Jan 6 with 1802 views | kensalriser |
Virtually every club in recent history that's built a new stadium or significantly improved the existing has seen an uplift in attendances. Because typically they afford a better experience for the fans in nearly every respect. KP is increasingly only for hardcore supporters whose desire to see games outweighs the discomforts. [Post edited 7 Jan 2022 12:18]
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 21:32 - Jan 6 with 1726 views | JamesB1979 |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 15:08 - Jan 4 by Stainrod |
Respectfully, think any fan who is worrying about the Premier League would be better off worrying about how we will deal with he WBA high press in our next league game.
Since pre-season I have thought we would almost certainly make the play-offs and almost certainly fail to gain promotion - nothing fundamentally has happened to change that view. I don't think there are six better side than us in this division but I do think there are probably three better (though possibly not by a huge margin).
Therefore think the more relevant question is: in the close season will we sell several of our five bankable assets (Dickie, Willock, Chair, Dieng, Dykes) for good money and replace them with even better players, while giving the board some money back for running costs?
We are working on the Brentford model (which is a more sophisticated re-working of an earlier QPR model, without the sports science and the stats). In the couple of years before going up Brentford sold three players for more than £20m each, plus a dozen or so players for more than £3/4m. Have we even got the Ollie Watkins to be sold to bring in the dosh to buy the next Ivan Toney?
Anything can happen in football, for sure, and after bad runs neither Fulham or Bournemouth look as all-conquering as they did earlier in the season, but we are at least two years further back in the cycle of where Brentford were when they went up.
Not to say we can't do it and arguably they took longer than they should, but on current budgets we would be punching massively if we went up this season. |
I think this for me is the main issue. Not so much strength of other teams but its going to be difficult to keep hold of Willock, Chair, Dieng and maybe Dickie. You can sell and improve with 1 or 2 sales but 4? I think that's too much. I fear we will be much weaker next season in the championship. Warbs can't continue to work miracles. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 22:49 - Jan 6 with 1648 views | joe90 |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 11:03 - Jan 6 by francisbowles |
'I don’t see any evidence that we would see more fans at a new ground either.'
Well if we can't attract new fans the club will eventually fold. Hoos is always saying that first time visitors to our stadium don't return because the facilities are so poor.
£1.5 million a month into the club is not sustainable. It has to end sometime and we need to make a decision fairly soon on the future of where we play, as building a stadium is a fairly long term project. |
I think we all agree the way most football clubs are run is not sustainable.
The problem with trying to make a football club sustainable is that it depends on the success of the team on the pitch. There is inherent jeopardy in football, which for a small club like QPR negates trying to make a club sustainable based on match day revenue and day trippers. Do you know how many clubs make a profit from match day and other activities outside outside of match day? How much more money do you think we could make from hospitality/corporate boxes to justify building an entire new stadium?
I really believe the only way we can succeed as a club is by investing in the things that will bring that success on the pitch - good recruitment, training facilities, back room staff, trading players etc. The more we win the more games we get on telly, the more money we get from sky, the more attractive we become to sponsors, the more people see/hear about QPR. |  | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 00:09 - Jan 7 with 1603 views | NewBee |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 13:30 - Jan 4 by BrianMcCarthy |
The Championship cliché I love is that "it's the toughest division there is".
Right. Except for the one above it. |
In terms of quality, the PL is miles ahead of the Championship, as Bees and the other promoted clubs are finding out.
But the Championship is much more unfair, and therefore inherently less truly competitive for 3/4's of the teams, because at any one time the other 1/4 have parachute payments which put them far ahead of everyone else.
Whereas the gap in TV/Prize money between the team finishing 1st in the PL and the team finishing 20th is relatively speaking (emphasise) far less than the parachute gap in the Championship.
All of which explains yo-yo clubs like Norwich and WBA triumphing over similarly-sized or bigger clubs like Forest or Boro. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 00:23 - Jan 7 with 1597 views | NewBee |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:06 - Jan 4 by switchingcode |
I have posted touching on this,as far as match day experience it’s strange as after 50 odd years going to GP now going into a new stadium and very new division.I have a great seat in what is a fantastic stadium for us,I’ve been to Spurs new stadium which is unbelievable and so are most in the PL.The trouble is going to a new stadium some of your mates sit with you but many more go to different areas there is also complete change in pre match pub choices and the ones on the river are different gravy.
I’m in the minority I expect but one season will do me. |
Re your last line, whatever else, it HAS to be two seasons in the PL before embracing life back in the Championship again.
For not only does that bring twice the seasonal PL money (obv), but if you last two seasons or more, you get three years parachute money.
Whereas if you go down after one season, you only get one parachute payment. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 01:22 - Jan 7 with 1563 views | NewBee |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 16:00 - Jan 4 by Stainrod |
Interesting question of how closely we are following the Brentford model (apologies to the OP - not deliberately hijacking his thread).
I read that Warbs quit Brentford precisely because he didn't want recruitment to become entirely about statistics.
But also read somewhere that our current head of recruitment is basically a data analyst.
Ideally you prob want a mixture of data and football expertise which I THINK is what we have but tbh if had to choose between the two, would massively tilt towards data.
Brentford and Brighton have taken the statistical analysis used by betting companies and applied it to running football clubs. The results are there for all to see, two clubs who by historical standards are even smaller than us yet now in a higher division. There is a reason why gambling companies tend to make fortunes! While Brentford were following this model we were allowing Mark Hughes's agent to "recommend" eight players (from memory) who he also happened to represent. In any other industry some people probably would have gone to jail for some of the deals done at Rangers over the last decade or so.
Anyway, either way recruitment has certainly improved massively since those dark days of Hughes, Redknapp etc. |
"I read that Warbs quit Brentford precisely because he didn't want recruitment to become entirely about statistics."
Sorry for diverting the thread, but the above is not really what happened.
MW having just taken Bees up from League One, the team then made a good start to their first Championship season in years under him. But by the January window, Benham and his Directors/Analysts reckoned that the team needed reinforcing for the second half of the season.
However MW declined the offer, as was his contractual right, since he preferred a smaller, tighter squad, while also fearing that new signings would disrupt the carefully built harmony of the dressing room.
Which as a strategy has a certain rationale, except that Benham's prediction proved accurate, they started stumbling in March/April (10 points from their last 30?), so that by the time the play-offs came, they were out on their feet.
So at the end of the season, Benham decided to revamp the recruitment process, including that MW would have a say, but not a veto, as previously.
MW wasn't prepared to accept this, as was his right, and they parted ways. (He also appeared to have developed the view that he was better than a little club like Brentford. Tbf, he came late into the game, so understandably was a man in a hurry.)
But I don't think he helped himself by punting himself around for other jobs while still in the post at BFC, or by briefing anonymously against certain people at the club via friendly journalists. Allegedly.
Anyhow, for all that, he's clearly got many talents as a coach, and if he's now found the right club to showcase those talents, then good luck to him. | | | |
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 03:44 - Jan 7 with 1527 views | LadbrokeR |
I have said this a thousand times a small part of me likens the championship to a weight in boxing. Therefore let’s win the the title and stay at that weight and then defend it. I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that promotion is progress and with that comes the risk of getting bashed up sometimes on a weekly basis. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 05:48 - Jan 7 with 1486 views | itsbiga |
The thrill of us winning and getting promoted would be incredible.
I’d rather us stay in the Champ tho.
We’d get butchered week in week out up there.
Best you could hope for each season is not getting relegated. | |
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 12:22 - Jan 7 with 1349 views | PinnerPaul |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 00:09 - Jan 7 by NewBee |
In terms of quality, the PL is miles ahead of the Championship, as Bees and the other promoted clubs are finding out.
But the Championship is much more unfair, and therefore inherently less truly competitive for 3/4's of the teams, because at any one time the other 1/4 have parachute payments which put them far ahead of everyone else.
Whereas the gap in TV/Prize money between the team finishing 1st in the PL and the team finishing 20th is relatively speaking (emphasise) far less than the parachute gap in the Championship.
All of which explains yo-yo clubs like Norwich and WBA triumphing over similarly-sized or bigger clubs like Forest or Boro. |
but doesn't explain why a much higher proportion of relegated teams do NOT get promoted straight back. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:05 - Jan 7 with 1276 views | NewBee |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 12:22 - Jan 7 by PinnerPaul |
but doesn't explain why a much higher proportion of relegated teams do NOT get promoted straight back. |
Perhaps because when they come down they are still competing with several other parachute clubs, who've had a season or two to adapt to the Championship?
For it's not just clubs which came straight back up the season following relegation. I'd be interested to know how relegated clubs performed over the four seasons following relegation (i.e. incl the first season after the final parachute payment), versus clubs which have never had parachute money (or at least not for several seasons).
And for a wider perspective, do you know how many relegated clubs went straight back up again in pre-PL/parachute days? (Genuine question)
Anyhow, Brentford and Leeds have shown how it can be done without parachute money, but if you talk to anyone at those clubs, they'll tell you just how difficult it is. Your club, too. [Post edited 7 Jan 2022 14:35]
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:20 - Jan 7 with 1257 views | NewBee |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 03:44 - Jan 7 by LadbrokeR |
I have said this a thousand times a small part of me likens the championship to a weight in boxing. Therefore let’s win the the title and stay at that weight and then defend it. I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that promotion is progress and with that comes the risk of getting bashed up sometimes on a weekly basis. |
Interesting analogy, but I personally would modify it.
If the PL is the Heavyweight Division, then the the Championship is for Middleweights, except that it also includes a number of Light Heavyweights (i.e. parachute clubs).
As Light Heavyweights they are (or should be) stronger than the rest of the division, but still aren't strong enough to compete when they get promoted back up to the Heavyweights.
Of course it is still possible to "punch above your weight", if only for a period, as eg Burnley are proving, or eg Swansea and Bournemouth proved previously. And while I can understand fans of Championship clubs fearing getting mullered every week if they got up to the PL, I suspect if you asked fans of the above clubs whether they still want to get promoted, I'm sure the great majority would say/have said "Yes".
Certainly as a Bees fan, Im having a whale of a time and don't want it to end (sorry Switching Code), but so long as we get a minimum of two seasons with the Heavyweights for financial reasons, I'll take whatever comes after that. [Post edited 7 Jan 2022 14:40]
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:34 - Jan 7 with 1250 views | loftboy |
For me if I was running things I would give 3 years notice that from then on there will be no promotion or relegation from the PL, scrap FFP for this e3 years so that those teams that want it can go for it, I’d make the national league division 4, the championship would be division 1, no fancy names making any division seem more superior, the clubs in the PL can carry on with their 2-3 horse race every year whilst the rest of us can go back to the way it used to be where anyone and anybody could have a chance of being champions.
Rose tinted? Yes more enjoyable? Absolutely. |  |
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:50 - Jan 7 with 1225 views | NewBee |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:34 - Jan 7 by loftboy |
For me if I was running things I would give 3 years notice that from then on there will be no promotion or relegation from the PL, scrap FFP for this e3 years so that those teams that want it can go for it, I’d make the national league division 4, the championship would be division 1, no fancy names making any division seem more superior, the clubs in the PL can carry on with their 2-3 horse race every year whilst the rest of us can go back to the way it used to be where anyone and anybody could have a chance of being champions.
Rose tinted? Yes more enjoyable? Absolutely. |
So with fan power having successfully seen off the European Super League, you still want to import the principle to this country and convert the PL into an English Super League?
As the fan of a club which just about scraped into the "New ESL" this season, and who would be protected in perpetuity in it, I'd still be dead set against the idea.
As would, I suspect, fans of the other 29 EFL clubs who have been in the PL at one stage or another and who would love to get back there again some day.
For as that great philospher Captain Sensible once sang: "You've got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you going to make your dreams come true?" | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:54 - Jan 7 with 1222 views | PinnerPaul |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:05 - Jan 7 by NewBee |
Perhaps because when they come down they are still competing with several other parachute clubs, who've had a season or two to adapt to the Championship?
For it's not just clubs which came straight back up the season following relegation. I'd be interested to know how relegated clubs performed over the four seasons following relegation (i.e. incl the first season after the final parachute payment), versus clubs which have never had parachute money (or at least not for several seasons).
And for a wider perspective, do you know how many relegated clubs went straight back up again in pre-PL/parachute days? (Genuine question)
Anyhow, Brentford and Leeds have shown how it can be done without parachute money, but if you talk to anyone at those clubs, they'll tell you just how difficult it is. Your club, too. [Post edited 7 Jan 2022 14:35]
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Good point about the average amount of years it takes a club to return to the PL - wonder what that is and more interestingly if it has changed as parachute payments have increased? | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 15:01 - Jan 7 with 1201 views | colinallcars |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 14:50 - Jan 7 by NewBee |
So with fan power having successfully seen off the European Super League, you still want to import the principle to this country and convert the PL into an English Super League?
As the fan of a club which just about scraped into the "New ESL" this season, and who would be protected in perpetuity in it, I'd still be dead set against the idea.
As would, I suspect, fans of the other 29 EFL clubs who have been in the PL at one stage or another and who would love to get back there again some day.
For as that great philospher Captain Sensible once sang: "You've got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you going to make your dreams come true?" |
Captain Sensible ?!! How dare you sir ! Bloody Mary and Joe Cable would be appalled. |  | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 15:45 - Jan 7 with 1153 views | daveB |
fair play to anyone who wants to stay in this league forever playing Birmingham City every year, I do understand it but i'd personally like another crack at the top flight. Palace, Burnley, Southampton, Brighton and now Brentofrd have all shown it can be done with some success and without killing yourself doing it. of course we'll probably come straight back down again but after sitting in 16th place for 4 years I quite like the idea of getting promoted. |  | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 16:20 - Jan 7 with 1105 views | Stainrod |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 01:22 - Jan 7 by NewBee |
"I read that Warbs quit Brentford precisely because he didn't want recruitment to become entirely about statistics."
Sorry for diverting the thread, but the above is not really what happened.
MW having just taken Bees up from League One, the team then made a good start to their first Championship season in years under him. But by the January window, Benham and his Directors/Analysts reckoned that the team needed reinforcing for the second half of the season.
However MW declined the offer, as was his contractual right, since he preferred a smaller, tighter squad, while also fearing that new signings would disrupt the carefully built harmony of the dressing room.
Which as a strategy has a certain rationale, except that Benham's prediction proved accurate, they started stumbling in March/April (10 points from their last 30?), so that by the time the play-offs came, they were out on their feet.
So at the end of the season, Benham decided to revamp the recruitment process, including that MW would have a say, but not a veto, as previously.
MW wasn't prepared to accept this, as was his right, and they parted ways. (He also appeared to have developed the view that he was better than a little club like Brentford. Tbf, he came late into the game, so understandably was a man in a hurry.)
But I don't think he helped himself by punting himself around for other jobs while still in the post at BFC, or by briefing anonymously against certain people at the club via friendly journalists. Allegedly.
Anyhow, for all that, he's clearly got many talents as a coach, and if he's now found the right club to showcase those talents, then good luck to him. |
Interesting, thank you for that NewBee. Very unusual for a manager to turn down money to buy players!
Whilst (from this telling) it doesn't sound as if Warbs behaved entirely brilliantly I am actually relieved that he isn't opposed to data analysis to recruit players.
Someone very close to your owner showed me in some detail how the data is used by Brentford to recruit players back when this was still ground-breaking and I was really, really impressed.
I would hope that we are now employing similar methods, even if it would be playing catch up | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 16:45 - Jan 7 with 1070 views | Stainrod |
To play devil's advocate, I'm not convinced that newly relegated clubs have such an advantage back in the Championship - and QPR have some experience, having both succeeded and failed to bounce back.
The Championship is littered with big clubs who have failed to go back up. And that's because relegation is the footballing equivalent of bereavement or divorce. You think you are going to be out with a beautiful 20-something girl every night but the reality (so I'm told!) can be a little harder. Look at Sheffield United - they prob thought they would smash it but they have only started competing in the last month.
The paradox is the clubs who get promoted and essentially remain like Championship clubs in the Premier League are the ones who find it hardest to stay up - but they are also the ones who most easily bounce back (Norwich). If you have a load of supposed stars who don't take any responsibility for the collective failure of relegation and immediately seek a move (as at QPR), you have to start again - and that takes time. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 16:57 - Jan 7 with 1033 views | stainrods_elbow |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 12:53 - Jan 4 by stantheman10 |
The Premiership is a poison chalice. We go up and we'd probably have to spend a fortune to upgrade the ground to PL standards and then we'd need 5 or 6 decent players to avoid humiliation and still get stuffed nearly every week and then get relegated. What is the point? In all reality I'd rather us be just above mid table in the Championship and go all out to try and win the EFL Cup. |
What's the point of us trying to excel in the Champ (or indeed any team) on that basis? Not sure the players and board would share your feelings either. I genuinely don't understand why one would follow a pro football team with that attitude - you either accept the corporatisation of the game, and all the shit that goes with it, or reject aspiration and promotion-seeking, as I see it, and go off and support Chesham United. |  |
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 17:30 - Jan 7 with 988 views | stainrods_elbow |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 19:20 - Jan 6 by kensalriser |
Virtually every club in recent history that's built a new stadium or significantly improved the existing has seen an uplift in attendances. Because typically they afford a better experience for the fans in nearly every respect. KP is increasingly only for hardcore supporters whose desire to see games outweighs the discomforts. [Post edited 7 Jan 2022 12:18]
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There is absolutely no way our fanbase would magically grow just because we had a shiny new ground with a 30K + capacity - you're living in cuckoo land, sir. Our 'core' support has been around 10-15k for decades, and would stay so. Even in the Championship-tilting side of 1975-76, we averaged around 22-23k, and our mid-week European games were more poorly attended still - Ron Phillips wrote an editorial in the programme about it at the time - 21k vs FC Cologne if memory serves. For that reason alone, as well as others I have severally documented, both fiscal and soulful, we could do a lot worse than staying at HQ. | |
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 17:53 - Jan 7 with 951 views | QPROslo |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 16:57 - Jan 7 by stainrods_elbow |
What's the point of us trying to excel in the Champ (or indeed any team) on that basis? Not sure the players and board would share your feelings either. I genuinely don't understand why one would follow a pro football team with that attitude - you either accept the corporatisation of the game, and all the shit that goes with it, or reject aspiration and promotion-seeking, as I see it, and go off and support Chesham United. |
Agree with that 100%. I have no understanding of why any QPR supporter doesn't want to be back in the PL and watching us like last time beating Chelsea twice, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and giving Man City big frights also twice, plus others. | | | |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 19:25 - Jan 7 with 868 views | stainrods_elbow |
Added to which, in case anyone's forgotten, we were the top team in London in 1992-93, finshing above Liverpool, and playing, if memory serves, at our supposedly washed-up 'unsustainable' stadium LR (as was). To paraphrase Clive, it may not be the mid-1990s anymore, but the football industry, even if the inequities have probably magnified with Sky's filthy lucre, isn't an incomparably different beast today. Football isn't played on balance sheets, the magic carpet of spending power or dressing room chalk boards, it's driven by spirit, skill, teamwork and belief, or Leicester would never have won the Prem, Manure would be neck and neck with their neighbours, and we'd be nuzzling around the bottom six. That's also why players, managers and, dare I say, fans matter much more in football clubs than CEOs, Chief Execs and other over-valued number-crunchers. Managers like Warburton and players like Willock and Chair are difficult to replace, whereas losing a Lee Hoos or even an evil Les is hardly likely to derail a promotion campaign. [Post edited 7 Jan 2022 19:31]
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| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 19:31 - Jan 7 with 865 views | Stainrod |
| Next Season- Nightmare Promotion on 17:30 - Jan 7 by stainrods_elbow |
There is absolutely no way our fanbase would magically grow just because we had a shiny new ground with a 30K + capacity - you're living in cuckoo land, sir. Our 'core' support has been around 10-15k for decades, and would stay so. Even in the Championship-tilting side of 1975-76, we averaged around 22-23k, and our mid-week European games were more poorly attended still - Ron Phillips wrote an editorial in the programme about it at the time - 21k vs FC Cologne if memory serves. For that reason alone, as well as others I have severally documented, both fiscal and soulful, we could do a lot worse than staying at HQ. |
If every business took that attitude, no business would grow.
I'm taking a first timer to the WBA game - how much easier a "sell" to convert that casual punter into a regular if their circulation wasn't cut off by the seat in front, they could get some decent food beforehand and sit in a stadium that wasn't falling down?
As has already been pointed out in this thread, Lee Hoos has already provided stats showing that only a tiny proportion of newbies return - because the customer experience is so poor.
If QPR remains a cosy club for an ageing group of middle aged/ elderly men sooner or later the fanbase and the club will die. Then you won't have a club to support. The status quo doesn't keep things the same - it consigns them to history. | | | |
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