Mittal story gathering pace...

Get the prayer mats out...

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/248097/QPR-set-for-Indian-summer-

I like the comment about spending what it takes to make us champions

 

If it's true then I'm in two minds. We're stable at the moment and I think having several shareholders helps. Sure Mittal and especially Bhatia have been great for QPR and you can clearly see they have been enjoying themselves. BUT what happens when they lose interest? being the dominant shareholder and the main source of future funding, it could end up with more boardroom unrest and upheaval.

Hope that doesn't sound too negative, above anything, the fact we're in a stable state at the moment is something to treasure - look at West Ham, Cardiff even Man U.

 

I think you have to put it into context, one of the world's richest men, marketing possibilities in India which is one of the world's boom economies and a product with world-wide appeal bought for peanuts in the bigger scheme of things. Why would he have come on board if he was just going to take a back seat? I think many of us suspected that when we finally reached the PL, with the club's potential value soaring, a takeover would be launched. The F1 boys will make their killing and move on...hopefully.

The answer is investment or relegation, 18,000 crowds spell relegation, I think we have to accept we're between a rock and a hard place if he does lose interest but I think he isn't the type to accept second best.

 

Surely too good to be true.

 

Stability at QPR, it will never work!

Clearly this is only newspaper talk at this point, but am I alone in starting to feel uncomfortable? The QPR I love is a small, friendly, family club. Of course I want us to be successful, but I don’t want the club to lose its soul in the process. Should we get to the position where we start to compete financially with Manchester City and constantly buy more and more expensive players, I fear that this will have been lost.

 

The fact is we AREN'T stable at present. The club is making a loss on the balance sheet and the ABC loan is still there under a different less threatening set-up. We need this to be resolved or we will end up like some of the other big failures of recent years. We have to accept that with our current capacity we cannot compete at the top level, Mittal represents something that could move us on and things will never be the same. Alternately, we could go back to playing at Hartlepool, Yeovil and Wycombe...

 

Why cant 18k crowds keep us up?If anything it may help us. It will be harder for the players to play in but that is true for the opposition aswell. Even if the oppo sell out their end they'll only get 3k. It will be alot harder for opposition teams to play at LR than QPR

 

We might stay up with Warnock as boss and battle in the bottom half of the table for one or two seasons but without additional investment we'd struggle to do anything other than survive. All the other clubs that have reached the PL with capacities below 20,000 have ended up relegated after one or two seasons and often worse off as a result, look at Bradford now...

 

They don't seem the type of people to throw unlimited amounts of cash at it. If Mittal takes control, & I for one hopes he does, then part of the long term plan would be to move to a bigger stadium. We'd have to, you can't sustain Premier league or European football for that matter on a capacity of 18,000.
But in the short term, they will need to spend enough money to keep us up each season. And once established we can move forward. I have to say though, all the paper talk of a 50 million "war chest" is taken with a large pinch of salt. It seems to be increasing by 10 million a day!

 

There are 2 main reasons we are a small club. Firstly when the old division 2 north/south was divide into what became division 2 and 3, we lost out and became a 3rd division team. As a result, at a time when footballing was booming, we lost out on more fans who chose Fulham, Brentford or Chelsea.

Secondly we have failed to capitalize whenever we've had success. We've been restricted by the size of Loftus Road and our failure to build a bigger stadium. We all love the closeness and atmosphere at Rangers, but let's face it, apart from those things the ground is shabby at best, with some awful facilities.

If we don't move on to a new and bigger stadium, then we will always be a small club just around the corner from another financial crisis.

Priority number one must be to see the club be able to stand on it's own. This we could never do in the Premiership with gates on 18k. So Mittal can spend like the big boys, but then we'd be just another club spending beyond our means but without a fancy stadium. So if he does take over, I think the logical next step would be to build a nice new stadium, seeing as he owns the worlds biggest steel business. Then hopefully we can attract new fans and become more financially stable.

 

They're building something at Loftus road.The thing is, if we get a big stadium and go down, our ground will look like the Ricoh Arena, half-empty.When Leeds were in the prem, they had a 40k+ ground, then they went down quite suddenly twice, and when they couldnt go back up, they struggled to fill half their ground. Another 5k at the most if were extending the ground.

 

It's never boring supporting QPR is it?!

I guess at least the Mittal's could provide the steel for any new stadium at a very cheap rate

On that note, soon we might have a manager from the steel city and an owner who's made his fortune in steel. Steelers anyone? (Only joking..!)

 

don't think it's true, just The Scum talking ****e...

http://www.thepost.ie/breakingnews/sport/ojauojsngbcw/?

 

That article is the biggest piece of sensationalist nonsense I've ever heard. "A multi-million pound war with City for the Premier League title"!! We're QPR for Christ's sake! Who is this numpty of a journalist?

 

I can see Mittal taking over soon, controlling interest or outright.

He's the owner who knows a bit about the game and has been indicating that he has a plan for the Rs for a few months now. It also shows in the increasing presence and influence of Mittalites, Saksina and Bhatia in the mix. Ecclestone's best shot has been to leave matters football to the seriously incompetent Briatore. Like you all say, Ecclestone and Briatore's main interest at this stage is to make a killing on a grossly inflated valuation.

As Sooperhoop says, Mittal sees opportunities in such a buy out: 'marketing possibilities in India which is one of the world's boom economies and a product with world-wide appeal bought for peanuts in the bigger scheme of things. Why would he have come on board if he was just going to take a back seat?'.

 

Football in India is an untapped commercial gold mine. Also in this country there is a large number of Asians living here who follow the game but there are hardly any professionals ( 1 or 2 that I have seen) . I would say that Mittal sees an opportunity here and us fans could be on for one hell of a ride. I thought most people wanted bernie and flav out and the mittals to take over, I'm suprised by the posts i have just read, posts of concern.

I personally think we need to consolidate in the PL but need a new ground asap ( would say 30k would be sufficient with maybe capacity to extend ). The only good thing about LR is the atmosphere, we need to change. I think its a catch 22 situation , we have low gates at LR , but it does not attract any type of new supporter or 'tourist' as we call them. A new ground would attract a new supporter and there is the potential to grow. Look at Fulham , their crowds before they entered the PL were woeful, now they are packed week in and week out.

Mittals supposedly to make bid tomorrow, cannot wait. Sooner the better for me.

 

As one of those who has voiced concern, I feel I should try to clarify this. I welcome Mittal taking over and I would welcome a new stadium (with leg room), much as I would miss Loftus Road. What I would not welcome would be splashing money around as Manchester City do. Now, there is absolutely no reason to believe this would happen, it is only the newspaper report that suggests it. I do realise that a lot of money would need to be spent to compete with the big teams, I just don’t want to lose the friendly club I love to the world of big business. I guess it is slightly perverse and completely unrealistic, but it is the way I feel.

 

Most of us probably feel the same way Roller. The essence of the Rs has always been in its unassuming charm as a small, local club; and I for one have always preferred what is now the FL's honest to goodness football compared to the speedy, one touch PL stuff with prima donnas feigning injury when caught in the slightest hint of someone's shadow.

But this is a defining sweet and sour moment isn't it? We're currently caught up between a rock and a hard place: rank commercialism or probable oblivion. At least we have a billionaire to carry us forward to where the big money is. How many similar clubs (the Watfords, Swanseas, Cardiffs etc., etc..) would give their eye teeth to be in our position?

It's extremely likely that not only will we lose our charismatic soul (though God's knows it felt pretty soul-less when we went back down to the third tier and few at LR knew the new players - Bignott, Palmer, Thompson, Griffiths et al), we will also probably have to move to a bigger stadium in a new catchment area (probably Wembley or thereabouts), again forfeiting the traditional intimacy of LR.

I'm sure Mittal sees all this as well as he sees the changes that need to be made to the current team. As for Mittal's motives: nothing like the kudos involved in being the reknowned owner and orchestrator of a resurgent football club hellbent on national and international success.

As I say, not my ambitions for the club (though I lost touch with those years ago) but quite possibly Lakshmi Mittal's.

 

Its time for a well overdue change for us QPR fans . We have paid PL prices for **** facilities and underperforming teams. Last season this changed and for us a football club its now or never to get some security, a decent stadium and some value for our money for once. Our gates went down when our prices went up, and rightly so.

I for one want some stability and don't want to be another Pompey or Leeds. I hope we do not go for it like City and that we build a decent PL side at first and have some stability to start with , then see what happens. I've supported QPR for 30 years now and Love the fact we have always been a club that punched above our weight, in the 80s and 90s anyway.

Its one of two paths for us , invest and stay up , or not and we may have one season or two in the prem but we will be back down sooner rather than later and myabe have missed an opportunity.

 

Okay, so it's tomorrow... the day after the big meet.

The papers must have been having a nose - or at least filling the columns by upping the speculation.

Is the Mittal story gathering pace as it needs to if Lakshmi to get to work on setting things including a viable team in place unopposed?

OR is it just another false dawn?