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Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Warren Farm Fight on!...Flashback Bhatia on #QPR...Getting QPR Fans to Buy Season Tickets...#Bournemouth Ref....75 Years Supporting QPR... QPR Win 5-a-sides... Flashback: Sousa "I Won't Get Fired"..Gordon Hill Turns 60...Old Videos

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- Two Ex-QPR Birthdays Today: Andy Thompson Turns 43..Gordon Hill Turns 60
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- From the 1880s and on! - The Bushman QPR Photo Archives (including the above)

- QPR Report Messageboard

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Follow QPR REPORT on TWITTER!
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- Ref for QPR's Game at Bournemouth is Jonathan Moss: 97 Yellow and 3 Red (including 6 Yellow in QPR-Derby Game)

- Video Flashback: QPR Win the London Evening Standard Five-a-side Competition - 1985


- Other old Video: QPR of  1923, 1948,  1958, 1962,


- 75 Years of Supporting QPR: John "Gramps" Clifford


- Flashback 5 Years: Sousa - I won't Get Fired by QPR


- Comprehensive, Explaining Financial Fair Play (FFP)





Ealing Today - Warren Farm Decision - Fight Not Over

Oral hearing granted to campaigners


Campaigners have been given another chance to fight plans to build on Warren Farm.
They've been granted an Oral Hearing to determine whether there is a need for a judicial review of Ealing Council's decision to allow QPR to build an elite training centre and academy on the open land.

Ealing Council say it will provide a base for the club’s training academy as well as give local people access to high-quality community and sports facilities.

Improvements will include enhanced football and cricket pitches, a new artificial turf pitch and multi-use games areas suitable for sports such as netball and tennis. There will be a new changing facilities catering for disabled users, as well as bookable community space in the new clubhouse.

However, campaigners have questioned the Council’s process and decision-making around the application for the development on 61 acres of publicly-owned land, designated Metropolitan Open Land and community open space.

Just under two weeks ago, the High Court rejected an application for a Judicial Review and the judge confirmed that the council acted appropriately and awarded QPR’s costs of £5,000 against Hanwell Community Forum.

Undeterred, campaigners sought an oral hearing which will take place on Tuesday 24 June at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand.

Carolyn Brown, Chair of Hanwell Community Forum, the group bringing the case on behalf of the Save Warren Farm Campaign, said:

''The Council intends to lease our land for 200 years, the equivalent of seven generations, at no rental income; QPR will take two thirds of the land for their own benefit, leaving the community with only a third of the land, no adult full size pitches, and insufficient smaller pitches to be able to run the major sports tournaments for schools and clubs which have been held there for the last 10+ years.

“In addition to this, the Council has disregarded national, London’s and their own planning policies enabling the development of buildings far too high, intrusive and poorly designed for open green space which, in theory, is protected from commercial developments such as this. And the previously open space, accessible to all at any time, would be enclosed within an 8 foot high opaque security fence with access to even the community areas controlled by QPR.

''Probably most shockingly, the Council has valued this land, all 61 acres of it, at £1.8-2.25M – the equivalent in value to a single large house in central Ealing. Questions have to be asked as to how this has been deemed acceptable.''

Campaigners say anyone can support the campaign by contributing to the fund for legal costs, and/or by signing the petition opposing this development, by going onto the website at www.savewarrenfarm.com Ealing Today




How QPR Will Get you to buy Season Tickets...



FC Business - Sports Alliance retained to deliver award winning PURL package at QPR

Mon 31st Mar 2014 | Marketing & PR

The ability to deliver unique real time data options means Sports Alliance has been retained to be at the heart of this year’s season ticket campaign for Queens Park Rangers Football Club.

Last season, Rangers produced record sales with an award-wining Personalised URL (PURL) campaign which was acknowledged as the; ‘Best/Most innovative use of technology in football’ at the annual Football Business Awards in November. The campaign was executed by the club at just over half the cost of previous campaigns and the approach, despite relegation from The Premier League, resulted in an e-commerce conversion rate of over 17% compared to a site average of just over 10%.

Sports Alliance data management software was an integral part of a campaign which used highly personalised and relevant messaging to the QPR database and now the club is ready to implement the same approach.

CRM & Digital Marketing Manager, Jon Davies said: “At QPR, we pride ourselves on being at the sharp end of new technology options and we were delighted with the outcome of the Sports Alliance PURL approach, so it makes perfect sense to have them involved again.”

The Sports Alliance PURL package offers clubs up-to-the-minute data on supporter purchasing behaviour to maximise the relationship understanding between supporter and club and Managing Director, Anthony Khan said: “Our investment into real time PURLs was vindicated by QPR’s tremendously effective and award winning campaign. Highly personalised communications are an integral part of any modern day customer relationship but the emotional loyalty of football fans is unique and the personalised approach was key to the tremendous success of last year’s campaign.

“Our ability to tailor a message that is relevant to individual supporters within our real time PURL offering, makes the journey so much easier for fans to navigate. It also means the supporter is more comfortable and confident with their club’s renewal process.”

Davies added: “The Sports Alliance approach to PURLs means the personalised webpages and the communications messages we present, are an accurate reflection of an individual’s commercial relationship with us at any given moment. ‘Real time’ means we can recognise exactly what a supporter wants or importantly, doesn’t want at any point in time. That is an incredibly valuable addition to the process because it delivers confidence and trust into a supporter’s lifelong and emotive association with their club.”

Sports Alliance has also been engaged by Premier League football club Stoke City and Premiership rugby club Saracens to provide a PURL platform for their respective season ticket campaigns. Sports Alliance is also involved in active partnerships with clubs across football, rugby and cricket in the UK and Europe.

Image: Action Images / Jed Leicester Livepic

www.fcbusiness.co.uk/news/article/newsitem=3037/title=sports+alliance+retained+to+deliver+award+winning+purl+package+at+qpr




Bump/Edit - Six Years ago


Amit Bhatia speaking....
"..."Shareholders should not determine what a club looks like. QPR have a great history and a great tradition and for us to maintain that is of prime importance. "Consequently, there are no plans to change the logo, club colours or stadium name...


Mail/This is London - April 1, 2008: We are nothing like Chelsea, says QPR vice-chairman Bhatia as he reveals Rangers' masterplan

Amit Bhatia has outlined the Mittal family?'s masterplan to usher in a new era of success at Queens Park Rangers.

The Rangers vice-chairman, and son-in-law of billionaire owner Lakshmi Mittal, claimed that last week?'s �20million shirt sponsorship deal with Lotto Sport Italia is a signal of the club?'s intent to stop at nothing in their bid to become a Premier League powerhouse.

The key points include:

* No plans to move from Loftus Road "for now".

* The club will not "lose control?" over spending because "we are nothing like Chelsea".

* QPR will remain "quintessentially English?" and no names or badges will change. Lakshmi will stay "as a fan rather than an owner?" otherwise "he will not get involved unless it is necessary?". � Missing out on promotion next season "would not be a failure?".

Bhatia is the public face of the Mittal family's interest in QPR and is keen to allay fears among fans that the London-born Indian businessman will change the identity of the club and move away from their present ground.

"One of the most attractive things about this club is the stadium, so we have no desire to move from here at all,?" he said.

"If the day came where a move was warranted - and I guess that would be when the results were great, we get promoted and we need a 35,000-seat stadium ?- then, yes, maybe we?'d explore it. But we don?'t need it today.

"Shareholders should not determine what a club looks like. QPR have a great history and a great tradition and for us to maintain that is of prime importance.

"Consequently, there are no plans to change the logo, club colours or stadium name.

"There is a need to ensure things are kept fundamentally English. If you look through the roster, there are mostly English players here and we like it that way.?"

Comparisons with Chelsea are inevitable. Mittal?'s estimated �26billion fortune dwarfs that of their more illustrious neighbour?'s owner and should they one day decide to move, the club could outbid Roman Abramovich for potential sites at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, White City or Earls Court.
Mittal, the fourth-richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine, has lavish tendencies ?- Bhatia?'s wedding to Vanisha Mittal in June 2004 was reported to be the most expensive in history at a cost of ?�30m ?- but fans should not expect a similar approach to the club?'s finances.

"We are nothing like Chelsea and we will not lose control over spending,?" said Bhatia. ?"The expenses involved with QPR are far smaller. The ?�20m deal will go a long way to making us profitable, as would promotion.

"My father-in-law?'s involvement on an emotional level is already known. He is involved firstly as a fan. If and when something warrants his involvement with the media, he will get involved but, for now, he believes the best way to be involved is as a fan and not an owner."

With money comes expectation, but the club's officials insist the team are not under pressure to deliver immediate results.

"We started off by setting a three-year target for promotion," Bhatia added. "If we didn't get promoted in three years, I don?'t think it would be a failure. We would be disappointed, of course, but I am sure we are going to get there.

"I don't think any of us has got into this to be second best. We have a specific plan and we will do anything it requires to get the club where we want them to be.?"

Workmen are at present relaying South Africa Road leading up to Rangers?' stadium. Given Bhatia's confident blueprint for success, fans could be forgiven for thinking they will be paving it with gold.
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