On Thursday night, QPR 1st held its first meeting with the club since QPR came out of administration. This was largely intended to refresh the dialogue between the the club and QPR 1st.
A wide range of issues was discussed, with QPR1st anxious to gain further insight into the presentation of the accounts, to learn more about the planned extraordinary general meeting and to press for more information about the agreement concerning the sale of the Twyford Avenue training ground to Chris Wright.
* Chief executive David Davies took us through the accounts that were presented to the administrator, giving us the following explanation of “sundries”. The £2.6m was broken down to:
Matchday costs, including policing, stewards, medical facilities for both Wasps and QPR – £1.3m.
Support for the academy and school of excellence – £0.4m
Stadium costs – £0.5m
Shop stock – £0.4m
QPR1st thanks the club for its openness and co-operation on this issue.
* On Twyford Avenue, the club acknowledges the pledge that was made by Chris Wright to QPR1st’s Bill Butler at the last AGM, that the profit from any onward sale would be distributed evenly between QPR, Wasps and Wright himself. However, it provided QPR 1st with information that made it clear that Wright made this promise without ever intending to honour it, since the shareholder votes at the meeting – where Wright was the majority shareholder – went against our resolution.
Our proposed amendment to the Loftus Road plc’s resolution, that a minimum of one third of the profit of a sale be paid to QPR, was in fact defeated by a shareholder poll, by 34m votes to 270,000. The resolution to sell was then passed by 39m votes to 600,000. Consequently, Wright will gain the lion’s share of any sale and QPR 10% of the profit.
* The EGM is planned for September, on a date yet to be finalised, the club has to give 21 days notice of the meeting. We will be spending substantial amounts on canvassing shareholders for their votes. Consequently, we need cash. Any donations
towards this expense will be received gratefully.
One of the things shareholders will be asked to approve at the EGM will be the refinancing deal which is going through at the moment. QPR1st has promised to keep digging for information on the identity of our mystery lender.
Thursday night’s meeting was very constructive, but short. QPR1st has asked for further meetings, at which we hope to present our ideas for promoting the club both to the wider QPR community and to the City. The subject of fan representation was touched upon briefly last night, but it was clear that
David Davies is not yet in any position to to make concrete offers. We will return to this topic at a later meeting.