‘Financially unsustainable’ QPR needs a new home

Article by Coliseum, published October 1, 2018

Image: Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers (QPR) is “not financially sustainable” at their current Loftus Road home and therefore needs to move to a new stadium to increase revenues, the White City, London-based club’s chief executive has said, according to several media reports.

“One of my remits when I came here was to try to create a sustainable business case for the club and we really can’t do that at Loftus Road,” QPR chief executive Lee Hoos told BBC Sport.

“In order for us to compete I have to be able to get the revenue streams in,” he said, adding “We will have to move at some point in the future to make this a sustainable club. Where we move to is a separate question.”

Earlier in an interview to Evening Standard Hoos had said that a proposed move to the Linford Christie athletics stadium represents a last chance to stay in the Shepherds Bush area.

“The idea of a QPR community stadium — with a new athletics track and community sport facility next door — on the Linford Christie Stadium site represents the only chance of staying in W12,” Hoos told the Standard.

“If we get the go-ahead to pursue this option we will consult with fans about how any new stadium would work and, crucially, how we retain the best characteristics of Loftus Road,” he added.

Hoos, who joined QPR in 2015 following spells at Southampton, Leicester and Burnley, says redevelopment of Loftus Road is a “non-starter” because of the lack of available land around the stadium.

In December 2013, Rangers announced plans to build a 40,000-seater stadium at Old Oak Common, in conjunction with a proposal for the construction of up to 24,000 new homes and a railway station.

However, that project stalled because land in the area is owned by car dealership Cargiant, and Hoos cannot see those plans progressing.

Rangers are now looking at the logistics of a possible redevelopment of the Linford Christie Stadium athletics venue, about a mile north of Loftus Road, which is currently run by the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.

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