In attendance: Reps for Club – David Davies and Jim Frayling
Reps for QPR 1st – David Price; Justin Pieris, Tracy Stent; David Anderson;
Leon Stent and William Wall
The agenda for the night is set out below:
1. Fulham Situation
a) Groundshare. What’s the latest?
b) Permanent groundshare, either at LR or a new stadium. What talks have the board had regarding the various rumours flying around?
c) The Council. What is their stance and what communication have the club had with them lately?
d) Our survey. Can we possibly include our survey to go out with the next batch of away season tickets? Do the club wish us to add anything further?
2. Club Finances
a) What’s the current situation regarding the club finances?
b) Staffing levels.
c) Audited Accounts. Why are they late?
d) AGM. What’s the latest?
d) Fundraising venture/Share acquisition
3. Community Scheme.
What’s the latest?
4. Board & Buyout Situation update.
a) Who’s who?
b) What kind of shareholding does each new board member hold etc?
c) Chris Wright’s shareholding.
d) Who are the interested parties currently discussing a possible purchase of Chris Wright’s shares?
5. Members queries.
6. AOB.
a) A possible room at the club for the benefit of ourselves and our members on specific matchdays
b) The wall
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When we set up the meeting a few weeks ago, it was the continuation of our regular 6-8 weekly meets with David Davies and Nick Blackburn. Unfortunately Mr Blackburn was unwell and so was unable to attend last night’s meeting, so Jim Frayling attended in order to help out with any queries he might have been able to help with.
We were also informed that David would not be able to stay for longer than 8pm because he had an early flight to catch the next day to the States, so with the meeting beginning at 6.30pm, and with us having a full agenda, we pressed on straightaway.
Fulham Situation
David began by explaining that a couple of weeks ago he met with the Fulham board to talk about a number of things, including the Fulham River Holdings project and further options regarding the temporary groundshare at Loftus Road. He said that he expects Fulham to be here for next season, as per the agreement, and that he expects them to notify us of their decision by the end of this season.
And a permanent groundshare? David’s answer to this was that he doubts very much it will happen for two reasons. 1) The Council and 2) The Premier league. He said that Sky TV have problems with the ground, for example lack of parking and other issues. But when we mentioned that there is a likelihood that Fulham could well drop into the first division for next season, and if one of the main reasons being cited against permanent groundsharing at Loftus Road is because of issues to do with the FA and Sky TV, how would this then affect the prospects of Fulham staying longer? David admitted he didn’t know because Fulham are banking on staying up.
As regards the council, he has been in contact/having talks with them over the Fulham situation and there seemed to be a conflict over interpretation of the council’s view over letting Fulham FC build a site next to QPR.
When we brought the subject up of a joint stadium shared between QPR and Fulham, David insisted that he has not had one conversation with Fulham regarding this matter.
When we asked if the club could survive financially without the Fulham groundshare money the reply was yes – and he went onto mention that there are 3 other possible parties interested in groundsharing at Loftus Road. When we asked if these parties were Brentford, Wasps and London Irish he was non-committal in his reply.
We spoke a little about Craven Cottage and David admitted honestly that he had to look at the issue without emotion unlike ourselves, who as fans, sympathise with Fulham supporters over the Craven Cottage situation.
We also brought up the subject of the actual deal surrounding the groundshare and how we have heard various rumours that QPR are having to pay for Fulham’s matchday stewarding and policing costs. David informed us that basically there are two types of deals when it comes to groundsharing. Inside and Outside. Inside being a higher rent with certain things included, whilst outside being just the rent. Ours is inside. Whilst we don’t know the terms and conditions of the contract, and the club will not divulge this info, David told us that QPR are not losing out.
We then moved onto the subject of the Fulham survey that we have been working on and asked David, as a way of getting it out to as many of the QPR public as possible, if the club could possibly send it out with a batch of away season tickets very soon. He asked if he could see the questions first but in the main was happy to help and suggested that we maybe have it stapled into the centre pages of a forthcoming programme.
We handed to Jim, for the club’s interest, the results of the last survey we did, which was a general one, which will now very shortly be published on our website.
Finances
When we asked the question on the situation regarding the club finances David admitted that it’s very tough. The cup loss cost us hard. The collapse of ITV digital and the Chapter 11 filed on NTL has basically meant the NTL deal died, leaving a quarter of a million shortfall to the club. Under the new deal the revenues are way lower with a 20/80 percentage revenue share in favour of the clubs, but even so, the loss does leave a gap, and even if we do go up to the first division, with the tv money going up to £800,000, there will always be other losses to make up for. The upshot of it is that the club is looking to put an increase on both matchday tickets and season tickets. The club are currently discussing this matter and will consult with the Liaison Group over this.
We asked about play-off revenue and were told that a quarter of all the first round games goes into a pot. This is then split equally between the clubs involved. There is no prize money as such for the finalists though it’s estimated that it could be worth around £300,000 in reaching the final.
David informed us that there are no outstanding debts to the lender of the loan and that the repayments are made once a month.
We then moved on to talk about the audited accounts and asked why they are late.
The 2000-01 accounts have been finalised, but Rothmans (the auditors) asked for them to be restated in order for them to be scrutinised with the next years’ accounts at the one time. They are now being scrutinised and should be sent to Company’s House next week, with the following years’ accounts (2001-02) to follow the next week. We asked the question that due to them being resubmitted was there a possibility some of it could be lost to Chris Wright’s money and were told no that is not the case.
And are there any tax implications? No Corporation tax was the reply.
We next spoke about staffing levels at the club and informed David that due to the various rumours and speculation regarding the club being over staffed for a club its size, we did some research (courtesy of some of our members who kindly took details from the various 2nd division club websites and entered their findings onto spreadsheets) on Staffing levels, World Rates, and Playing staff levels. A brief discussion on this matter took place with David taking the papers on the staffing levels, whilst Jim was interested in the world Rates spreadsheet. Jim pointed out that there are various products on offer that explains the different rates, and that QPR World itself is doing very well in comparison to some of the other versions. He also mentioned how discussions regarding a package with Broadband are under way.
Going back to the staffing levels, because time was of the essence, this subject was one we couldn’t discuss at length, though the appointment of the new Operations Director, Jerry Lonsdale, was brought up. We explained how we had heard varying rumours that his appointment had taken place purely for the benefit of Fulham’s matchday activities and asked David if he could elaborate. He explained that after the departure of Alan Hedges, some 3 or 4 years ago, who was QPR’s operational director at that time, the club never brought in a replacement for him. There are various operational matters at the club, which need to be addressed, and Jerry’s appointment was not one as being taken on specifically for Fulham.
When we made the suggestion of why the club then did not make a welcoming type of message to him, explaining his role etc, in the matchday programme and on the website David felt this unnecessary. At this point a disagreement occurred with us attempting to point out to him where the club were going wrong in terms of communication, and how rumours and speculation start, and tried citing the new appointments to the board as examples also of where they are failing in this respect, but David was adamant that in his view there is no need for announcements on these type of appointments.
We agreed to disagree on this point (for the time being) and moved onto discuss the forthcoming AGM. David said he was hopeful of it taking place in March but the venue has yet to be decided upon. There’s a question mark over venue suitability regarding the numbers of shareholders who attend. The blue and white club was felt to be too small. Sudbury’s clubhouse is a good venue but again, if large numbers turn up would it be big enough? The EGM that took place at Loftus Road a couple of years ago was mentioned, but it was agreed that sitting outside in the South Africa Road Stand wasn’t ideal, plus it costs money to have things like the platform and microphones etc installed. Twyford Avenue was brought up and David seemed to feel that though it would be a good venue, he felt it unlikely that we would be given permission to use it for this event. We asked him if he would like us to contact Chris Wright (as owner) to ask if he would give permission and he agreed there was no harm in us asking, though he did mention that equipment etc there (if granted permission) would still have to be moved and that would cost money.
The venue is to be decided once he gets back from the States. We did ask about a user-friendly time and he did say he would bear it in mind.
Community Scheme
We asked for a brief update on the status of the community scheme. David informed us that having the scheme as a charitable status is still the club’s objective. One of David Anderson’s colleague’s, whose professional expertise includes information on charitable organisations, is setting up a meeting between himself and the club to talk about the structure in a couple of week’s time.
Board and Buy-out Situation
We firstly spoke about Chris Wright’s shareholding. He has retained just less than 25% in the Company. Then there are the shares that have been allocated to QPR Nominees, which amounts to 28%. Any interested parties who are interested in acquiring the shares that are in the QPR Nominees trust will all be taken into consideration just as long as they can provide proof of funds, for the good of the club etc.
There have recently been four separate parties interested in a takeover of this particular shareholding. An American group was mentioned as being further forward than the rest but when we asked for further details on all parties we were met with a “no comment” remark from David.
As he’s making a trip to the States, we asked him if he was meeting with our possible suitors whilst out there. We gained the impression that he will be but he did say that he wasn’t getting his hopes up too much at the moment because of previous disappointments.
He was once again insistent that if any party came along with a takeover proposal for the main shareholding currently on offer, that would offer fresh and real investment into the company for the good of QPR, then the board would stand down.
Any transaction of this kind would be a straightforward share sell.
There was then a brief discussion on the subject of a pre-emption for a new shares issue – there are currently 75m shares in total, with around 60m in circulation and he mentioned how further shares could be issued in the future.
We asked him about the criteria for a sale of the shares and his answer was an honest one – cash!
Members Questions
By now, time was getting on, and as we had already agreed to leave the subject of a fundraising venture/share acquisition proposal until the end of the meeting, we didn’t have much time to ask all of the questions that had been submitted to us by some members. We did have time for a couple, which are below, but the others we agreed to leave with Jim and await for his responses to them. We apologise to all of those who sent in questions and ask for your patience in getting the answers for you. We will push to get the club response as soon as possible.
The questions that were posed, and David’s answers, are below.
Q. What have Messrs Blackburn/Jones/Fuller/Mcgrath actually done QPRwise over the last 6 months?
A. Ross, Lyndon and Kevin have all put in money to the club whilst Nick has helped the Company and continues to do so.
Q. Regarding Lyndon Fuller. What money has he put into the club apart from the commission on the sales of his services? And do QPR financial services pay a commercial rate for the massive amount of advertising they get?
A. He’s put cash into the club and pays for advertising separately. He is on the QPR board, not the plc board.
Q. What money has been paid by the club for Dou Dou and Shittu and also Marc Bircham? And also what liabilities there might still be in this regard?
A. DD replied he would sidestep this question because he felt it unfair to ask about player’s wages/money etc.
AOB
With many other supporters trusts being given rooms at their clubs for the benefit of their trust committee and members’ use (mainly for any queries, concerns that come up and this therefore allows for a general meeting point for fans to address these issues), we asked about the possibility of the club giving us a room on specific matchdays for this purpose. David informed us that with two other fan groups this would not be possible because the club could not give one room to one organization without the others.
We then brought up the subject of the wall adjacent to the Upper Loft gate on South Africa Road and told the club how we had made enquiries with the council as to who actually owns this part of wall. The council did various checks for us on land registry records and according to their findings this piece of wall belongs to QPR FC. We wanted to find out who owns it because of an idea that had begun to take shape some time ago regarding this wall becoming a memorial one, incorporating with it a possible fund raising venture.
We explained that we were looking to turn it into a memorial wall with plaques/inscriptions of various QPR players/fans from the past. This venture, if it comes off, could also be a fundraising venture in which any monies raised after the cost of the plaques etc had been decided, would go to the club.
We asked David if he would be agreeable to handing it over to the trust for this venture and he replied that he was certainly agreeable and if we could go back to him with a more defined plan then he would certainly look towards it.
Fundraising venture/Share Acquisition
This was the last thing that we discussed. We explained how concerned we have been during the course of the previous months regarding the finances of the club and how a couple of weeks ago we met with Harold and Matthew Winton in order to discuss our concerns and a possible fundraising venture that we (the committee) have been mooting amongst ourselves for some time now. At that meeting it was agreed that a fundraising venture on a large scale would be required, and that we were all also agreed that for the good of QPR, it would need the endorsement and backing of all the QPR supporter parties. We explained that our own concern has been so great that we have documented the extremity of our concerns in a David Price written 4-page article. We handed a copy of this article to David Davies yesterday and we’ll be publishing it soon.
We explained that in return for any monies raised we would be looking to acquire a shareholding, which would ensure that the supporters have a democratic say in the way the club is run. David’s response was that he felt the board would take a positive attitude to this fundraising venture and asked us if we could provide him with a sound basis to it in time for the next board meeting which takes place in the middle of this month, or if not, then the middle of next month, in order for him to bring it up with the rest of the board then.
The meeting finished at 8.12pm and we felt that it had proved to be a fruitful, if rather pushed one. We’d like to thank both David and Jim for their time.
Our own action points are now:
” Timescale for replies to the member’s queries
” Contact Chris Wright to ask about possibility of using Twyford for AGM venue
” Arrange a meeting with Sam Taylor and Jerry Lonsdale to talk about resuming our operational meets
” Begin work straightaway on the general proposal for the fundraising venture, including talking with the Winton family and LSA asap.
After this meeting, Justin and William dashed over to Hammersmith in order to attend the tail end of Fulham’s Back to the Cottage committee meeting in which they discussed a number of things, with the most important being a joint agreement for both sides to arrange a meeting with the council to talk about the general QPR/Fulham situation.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading this report.
Tracy