Joint Fan Group Reps Meeting with New QPR CEO, Lee Hoos
Report prepared and produced by Loft For Words' Clive Whittingham with minutes taken by Neil Dejyothin.
This is being posted on the various QPR Messageboards
Present from QPR: Lee Hoos, CEO (LH)
Ian Taylor, head of media and communications (IT)
Paul Morrissey, press and media manager (PM)
From the sites:Steve Sayce, IndyRs (SS)
Paul Finney, QPR Podcast (PF)
Bethan Lang, Not606 (BL)
Saffa Michail, Dot.Org (SM)
Hud Saunders, WATRBs (HS)
Clive Whittingham, LFW (CW)
Eusebio, QPR Report (EQR)
Minutes:
Neil Dejyothin (ND)
1 - IntroductionLH began the meeting by running through his background prior to arriving at QPR.
-
Been in the UK for 19 years, originally from Maryland in the US with a
background in legal and HR. Starting to understand cricket.
- Started
at Fulham when Mohammed Al Fayed had taken over and was given a remit
to build the infrastructure of the club one-step ahead of its progress
on the field so that when it got to the Premier League the set up was of
sufficient standard for the highest level. Looked at the way major
clubs in other sports in the UK, US and Australia operated and
incorporated it into a blueprint he has used at the clubs he’s worked
at. LH said, when he first started in football, oddly, he found in the
UK a lot of the innovation, creativity and dynamism was coming from
clubs lower down the chain because they had to, and the higher up you
went the more static and stuck in their ways they were.
- Spent a
shorter period at Southampton post relegation from the Premier League
and after their parachute payments had ended. Regretted not being able
to stay there longer and have more effect. Said the board situation was
complex at the time and that made it difficult to make progress.
-
Milan Mandaric called him a week after he left Southampton and took him
up to Leicester just after their relegation from the Championship.
Integral to taking Nigel Pearson there following his departure from
Southampton. Mandaric subsequently sold the club to current Thai owners
after promotion back to the Championship and LH departed.
- Attracted
by the stable board and presence of Eddie Howe at Burnley. Subsequently
Howe went back to Bournemouth and Sean Dyche came in. Hoos, Dyche and
the board focused on crafting a “one club mentality” which had key
messages and aims – number one of which was ‘be financially
sustainable’. Dyche bought into this and worked within it very
successfully. Planning permission just granted for a training ground
development which will enable them to move up from category 3 academy to
category 2.
- Says the QPR owners are brilliant people, desperate
for success, who have learnt some expensive lessons. Rather than spend
big to get back to the Premier League the aim is to run the club more
rationally and that is LH’s remit – build a solid platform from which to
grow in a sustainable manner . Not a short term thinker.
2 - Club values, strengths and weaknessesLH
said he is keen to get a broad cross section of opinions, not just hear
from one specific interest group. He wants to hear from people from all
over the ground, season ticket holders and casual attenders, people who
work for the club and play for it so he can get to grips with the DNA
and the fabric of the club and build a blueprint from there.
LH
asked those in attendance to say what the club meant to them, what they
felt it should be and where they thought it was at the moment. From that
a list of strengths and weaknesses/opportunities was produced which, by
and large, tallied with what he’d been told by other QPR supporters
he’s spoken to so far.
Strengths:- The stadium, the location, the proximity to the pitch
- Colours/kit
- History, the flair and style of the 1970s team
- An active and pro-active fanbase, which has previously fought off mergers and collected money in hard times.
- The current media output from the club, behind the scenes access, reconnecting with supporters.
- The Community Trust
- Feels like we are moving now in the right direction.
Weaknesses:- Loss of loyalty. The club used to be known for its long serving players and staff.
- The lack of legacy that was left owing to a couple of seasons of spending in the Premier League
- Naivety. Past decisions were not informed decisions. Heart ruling the head.
- False promises, often through the chairman’s social media.
- The debt, and lack of clarity on who holds the debt, who’s responsible for it, what happens if the backing is withdrawn.
- The bad press we attract.
- Lack of consultation, often not realising a decision being taken really matters to supporters.
-
Lack of consistency in messaging has resulted in good ideas being
poorly executed (Family Stand). Skewed expectation levels as a result.
3 - Question and Answer
New Stadium/Training Ground:LH
said he’s here to make the club sustainable. He said that even standing
still would be falling behind, because other clubs are moving forwards
all the time. The new stadium was a long term aspiration, but it is
important to do it in a staged way. The first stage of that is to grow
the fanbase to demonstrate there is a need for it, because it was
difficult going from 10,500 season ticket holders and suddenly having a
35,000 seater stadium. LH says the training ground and infrastructure is
– in his view – a key priority because improving the football is the
best way to grow the fanbase.
“I would urge if it comes down to a
choice, which isn’t what I am suggesting is the case at the moment,
between investing in the training ground or investing in the stadium, do
the training ground because that’s where the players spend all their
time and that’s what will help make the difference on the pitch on
Saturday at three o’clock.”
FFPThe club remains in
dialogue with the Football League and whilst this issue is ongoing, the
club is not in a position to comment publicly.
How the roles divide up between Les Ferdinand and LH
LH
says he does not “try and play FIFA or Football Manager in real life,
it’s not my role.” LH says he knows the market but the model he wanted
at Burnley was the one we have now at QPR with a DoF with a CEO as a
back-up and support. Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey calls the shots, he
and Chris Ramsey are the football experts. LH says he works to enable
them to do their job. He has no input on the players coming in other
than how it affects the budget. They’re trying to integrate the whole
operation into the ‘one club’ mentality.
Les is in charge of the
playing side. LH says Les knows what financial position we have to get
to on the playing side and it’s everyone’s jobs to help Les to get us
there in a balanced manner.
“My job is to enable experts in their jobs and make sure they have everything they need to be successful.”
Family Stand/Lower LoftLH
asked about the potential take up for selling season tickets in the
Lower School End, trying to build a regular following there and
partially addressing that lack of vocal support behind the goals. The
group agreed there was potential for it to be ‘occupied’ and made our
own.
LH said from what he understood the idea of the Family Stand was
a very good one, but poorly executed due to the lack of consultation.
Stats-based approachLH
said he saw it as part of a wider picture. He likes managers who are
into their ProZone and Opta stats but doesn’t believe football works in
the same way as Baseball and the famous Moneyball example. There is a
place for it, it doesn’t replace the eyes and ears of a guy going out
and watching a player but can raise interesting players to watch and
target. Can also help reinforce what you think you saw.
SandroOur
licence to sponsor foreign employees has been restored having initially
been suspended after the Sandro situation transpired. Sandro has
applied for his permit to return and the club is confident he will
return before the close of the transfer window. But he has conditioning
work to do having missed pre-season and will not be able to return
straight to the first team.
ViagogoLH said the
official relationship with Viagogo will not continue. That’s not to say
we won’t use them to occasionally sell tickets in the future, but the
current relationship is discontinued. The only way we’d consider using
them is to fill the Lower School End for certain matches. We want to
fill the stadium for every match, we want to move casual attenders up to
members and embers up to season ticket holders. We want to market to
the supporters we have data on ourselves.
LH says the club is looking
into other ticket re-sale options, possibly in-house. He says there
were 2,600 “no-shows” in the Premier League (people who have bought
tickets but don’t turn up) on average at QPR home games. Says that the
family stand rules affecting midweek attendances may skew that average.
Barcoded tickets it makes it very easy to manage and it’s one of the
first things LH is looking at.
CommunicationLH has
previously operated a ‘Supporters’ Consultation Committee’ at other
clubs with a cross representation of supporters from different stands,
supporter associations, disability associations and so on to meet
regularly and provide feedback and get answers to key issues. The
websites were asked to nominate one individual, or run it on a rotation
basis, to meet with LH as part of that. First meeting early September.
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