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- QPR Report Messageboard
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QPR BIRTHDAYS TODAY: Kevin Gallen, Richard Dunn...and Rowan Vine
- FIVE YEAR FLASHBACK -
ONE-QPR STATEMENT
- ONE-QPR, a coalition of supporters groups, websites and fanzines, would like to make it very clear that the call for action at the game V Derby on the 27th , is one we have all decided on and endorsed for the good name, reputation and future of QPR FC and all that it represents.
- Whilst it has been noted on web sites ect that some statements from various supporters groups to their members have been published, ONE-QPR would like all QPR supporters and the board at QPR FC to understand we are united and stand as one on this issue.
- QPR FC is much more than a football club, it is an institution, a community, it is a family and each and every one of us holds a stake in that. We believe we should also have a voice in our future too."
- SEE: INDIVIDUAL FAN SITE STATEMENTS
Year Ago
From The Times Online/Gary Jacob
What is happening at QPR?
Successful businessmen lose their brains when they walk through the gates of a football ground.
They’ve made their fortune in all sorts of walks of life and perhaps they now think football could be their next fast buck. Or they step forward with a tale about trying to save their beloved boyhood club from financial ruin. Or maybe, it’s about the cheap and easy publicity, the razzmatazz, or koshering themselves up.
The very smart ones look and think, "Nah, too much aggravation and too many things out of my control."
Others think they know better. but the sensible, detailed and methodical principles they have applied to their businesses soon fly out of the window. They are wet behind the ears, gullible, get carried away by winning the adulation of the fans and visiting rival boardrooms and are taken for an easy ride by some players, agents and clubs. And they never learn.
From Mark Goldberg at Crystal Palace, to Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson at West Ham United, to Tom Hicks and George Gillett at Liverpool and to a lesser extent Balram Chainrai at Portsmouth. To who knows next? The Malaysian owners of Queen Park Rangers?
Clearly only QPR know the exact value of their player contracts, but at a guess, the average wage for each of their 16-man matchday squad might be in the region of £50,000 a week. The present wage bill might surpass £60 million with signing-on fees and bonuses. True, it is balanced a little by the club signing many players on free transfers this summer but the maths and logic do not seem to add up.
Average attendance was 17,295 in their first season back in the top flight, turnover was just £16.2 million and they made a £22 million loss in their last set of accounts to May 2011. Even if you take into account the hefty Premier League television income, it is reasonable to ask questions about their judgment, business model and reasoning.
Why would you need to offer Bobby Zamora about £70,000 a week when it was clear he and Fulham wanted to go their separate ways in January? Or reportedly offer Nedum Onuoha wages of up to £80,000 a week? Why would you sign so many players around the age of 30 without a sell-on value? What is the club’s financial model based on?
- Flashback: Chelsea's Lack of Fan Growth