Apart from last night’s traditional first round League Cup exit, Rangers’ solid start to the season has pushed the on-going sale of the club to the back of many minds. Members who visit the QPR 1st website regularly will have long since realised that we only put up news as and when it happens. Better this, we believe, than trying to spin out a story for the sake of it – which experience has shown merely leads to idle speculation and false rumour.
It doesn’t mean that we aren’t working away, busy as ever, though. Further on you can read a report of our Monday night meeting with David Davies and Ian Holloway. Tomorrow, subject to confirmation, we will be meeting with members of Brian Melzack’s consortium.
But first a few other things.
Last night’s debacle with the ticketing at Northampton is something we are already addressing with QPR. We were dismayed to learn that QPR had advised Northampton that only 4-500 Rangers fans would travel to the game, when it was clear to us that the figure would be much higher. We are also writing to Northampton Town FC to register a complaint over the ticketing arrangements and the decision not to put the game back 15 minutes, which would have taken a lot of the tension out of the situation outside the ground, where hundreds of Rangers fans were still queueing for tickets long after kick-off. For some, getting their hands on a ticket wasn’t the end of the story. Many were still denied access to the ground until well after 8.20pm – until Northampton fans had been moved to accomodate the overflow of QPR.
This is simply not good enough, and we will be taking up the issue with both clubs and offering to provide advice and guidance in future. We will also be asking Northampton Town to reduce the ticket prices for the league match to compensate for last night’s fiasco, as well as suggesting that game is made all-ticket.
On a more positive note… we are now officially QPR 1st Supporters Society Ltd and registered on the registry of friendly societies. For those interested, our number is 29265R. We hope shortly to have a PDF file of the Constitution available to members.
Finally, if you are a registered member and have not received your voting form in the post, please contact us with your name and address details.
And so on to the recent meeting at Loftus Road:
Seven of the QPR1st interim committee met up with David Davies and Ian Holloway on Monday night to talk further with David about bids and behind-the-scenes goings-on and with Ian about playing matters – frankly something we all enjoy more.
The subject of Bury was brought up first and this helped everyone to relax. We discussed the fans’ appreciation of what Ian has achieved in such a short timescale and with restricted finances. Ian spoke first about Chris Wright, saying that despite his unpopularity with Rangers supporters at the moment, he has always been very fair with him. He feels that Wright has been treated harshly and believes people need to know “the truth” about him. Ian stated that the ex-chairman has always been very fair with him personally, phoning to offer thanks for the results pre-season and in the opening two games – a gratitude, Ian said, which was something in short supply during his four and a half years at Bristol Rovers, where having made them a five-million pound profit, he received not one word of thanks from the board.
Olly spoke at some length about his experiences since he arrived at QPR and the way he likes to do the job. Soon after arriving at the club, we went into administration and he had to make a lot of difficult decisions about who could stay and who couldn’t. Basically anyone on a large contract which had expired could not stay because of the acute financial situation. Ian told of a very busy summer building a new team and of the type of player he wants – those who will give their all and have the desire to learn and be good team players. He said that Clarke Carlisle and Richard Langley fit into this category; that both are in good spirits, despite their terrible injuries, and it is hoped we may see both of them back in the hoops early in the new year. It appears there is no pressure to sell either of them.
Ian also spoke about how he is a long-termist. He wants to work with the youth coaches and young players to let them know that they have a chance of first team football at QPR. The new scouting network is run by Mel Johnston, who came from Watford, and it will be highly active in the local area. Moreover, with our current financial situation, we have little choice but to pursue this policy. Any player who comes to Rangers now is going to be on a short contract, with wages to match our current position. He spoke about how the fans have been excellent to him since he got back and he is very grateful that they recognise his efforts. He is also very impressed by the offers of help from fans, such as the Winton brothers with the M’Bombo deal.
The subject of a scouting network consisting of fans was broached. Olly was very receptive to this and stated that any players recommended by fans WILL be looked at by the scouting team.
This then paved the way to talk about the Supporters Trust, and its ultimate aims. Ian only had a vague knowledge of the Trust, so we gave him the lowdown and impressed on him that we are here to generate ideas that help QPR as a whole. He is very interested in the community aspects of the club and said that both he and the players will make every effort to get out amongst our fans at events.
That won’t include an Open Day this year, of course, as QPR’s annual event was cancelled – in contrast to Wasps, whose own Open Day got the green light from Chris Wright.
And that’s the truth.
We provided both David and Ian with copies of some of the ideas generated from within the committee itself, and through the website. We spoke briefly about the elections and Ian asked how many would be on the committee. We emphasised how the Trust is intended to be representative of all QPR fans/supporter groups. We spoke about football in the community, the academy and schoolboy football, with Ian agreeing that greater emphasis needs to go into kids from an early age, right through the ranks.
He spoke of how things have been on the slippery slope at this club for a long time. He also talked about his concerns with players and their feelings. Sammy Koejoe was mentioned, and it sounds as if he is definitely on the way out once someone comes in for him. Ian reckons we have a good squad of around 18 players for the first team. After this, the players’ ability level drops drastically. He told how it hurts to have to let players go. At one stage we had 66 players on the books – a good chunk of those on very healthy wages. By the end of the season they hope to have around 42 players on the books.
Dou Dou was talked about and Olly said how he does feel a different kind of pressure about Dou Dou succeeding because the money that’s enable him to come to the club is from a private source. Ben Askar is sponsored for three months (his accommodation, etc). We discussed how QPR 1st members could possibly help with a Ben Askar appeal – or some other player. Both Ian and David were receptive to this suggestion. There was also a good reaction when we mentioned about possible financial help (maybe some kind of sponsorship) as regards the youth/academy side of things. As ever, we would welcome YOUR views on this.
Ian left, and we spoke with David Davies about the current status of bids. The two main players at the moment – nobody will be surprised to know – are the consortiums led by Maurice Fitzgerald and Brian Melzack. Negotiations are at a delicate stage. Although we’d love to be able to know more – let alone report more – frankly, that is as much as we know at present. A new owner will involve fear of the unknown for the current employees at Loftus Road, but David stated that, nevertheless, he would like it to happen as soon as possible to help the general running of the club – something which definitely holds QPR back at present.
Chris Wright and Maurice FitzGerald were meeting this same evening, although Wright isn’t officially back in his office until Sept 5. The shareholders’ aspect, along with the takeover panel and stock market was touched on with regards the sale. David Davies mentioned that the club were still receiving enquiries, although none of any great substance. He asked how we saw the two deals – Maurice FitzGerald’s and Brian Melzack’s – but we reiterated that QPR 1st are in no position to make any kind of favourable noise towards either bid until we know details of backers and the structure of the bid.
Presently QPR are not allowed to spend a penny on stadium maintenance apart from essential work to mantain safety standards. The club can’t pay bonuses or do anything except the most basic marketing, a situation that means that maintaining morale is a huge job. Some people didn’t get a programme v Stoke as the club can only budget for an estimated crowd, and were surprised at the size of the support at that game. A print run for an expected 15,000 is in place for the Reading game. A seemingly trivial example of our problems, but something which highlights the extent, is the need to replace seats when they get broken (usually at reserve games, from the pitch!) or worn out – which is something the administrators will not release company funds for. At £15 a time, the spares are soon running out.
That £15 represents a tidy sponsorship idea and we told David about some other sponsorship and fund-raising initiatives we felt could help QPR, and through our membership hopefully we will come up with many more for the future. In the same vein QPR need to lease the school site to ease parking problems and provide some much needed revenue. We have provided our contacts in the council to get this ball moving.
The rest of the discussion consisted of general matters, including the need to get more fans into Loftus Road rather than move; Wycombe Wanderers (not sold our full allocation yet); Ellerslie turnstiles (not enough folk manning them near to kick-off time); queues at the blue and white bar; the showing of previous away match/goals in the bars prior to games; Brighton tickets (number of books allowed, game to be screened?, stewarding of the queue on Saturday morning); BBC car park (QPR have usage until end of month); and the closure of South Africa Road on matchdays (the council have reduced the cost to enable this to happen).
The meeting with Ian Holloway was without doubt the most enjoyable meeting we have had to date. He talks openly, and his aims are so in tune with the aims of all our supporters, that it’s impossible not to get caught up in the mood. Ian Holloway’s enthusiasm, eagerness for success, and love for QPR shines through. He’s warm, a good talker, shrewd, and able to differentiate between reality and fiction. It’s hard to imagine any of the players not wanting to give one hundred per cent for him. David Davies, too, continues to impress with his openness and integrity. All in all, a positive evening all round.