QPR Finances

[DonnyNoel]

Multiple twitter posts so just going to link the one, but basically they lost £20m last year and have made a loss every year for the last 27 years. The wages alone are more than their revenue.

Just how?


https://twitter.com/christoph_21/status/1759848014653387235

[GazLaz]

Director loans/ funding?

[DonnyNoel]

Assume it has to be although it will cover multiple owners. Don't think they're the only ones though - Bristol City spring to mind as losing £10m+ a season. Just can't think of many/any other industries where an entity can operate like this. I know football clubs get good credit based on loyalty of fans but seems bonkers that the only way so many clubs in the championship can make a proft is to get promoted.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Weren't they supposed to have loads of foreign investment coming in 15 years back?

[rover-n-out]

Just read that Rochdale could be liquidated by the end of March if new investors are not secured.

[Campsall rover]

QPR have been a basket case club for many years now.
Been living way beyond their means in pursuit of the promised land of the Premier League.
They have spent more time in the bottom half of the Championship than they have in the top half.
Can only end one way unless they get a seriously wealthy benefactor who has genuine motives.
Seems to me they have had a few cowboys owning that club in the last 15/20 yrs.

[normal rules]

Whilst not a championship club anymore , I think reading would top any table for spending beyond their means . They currently lie 16th in lge 1. Quite a fall from grace for an ex prem club. In 06/07 they finished 8th in the top flight .

[drfchound]

QPR have been a basket case club for many years now.
Been living way beyond their means in pursuit of the promised land of the Premier League.
They have spent more time in the bottom half of the Championship than they have in the top half.
Can only end one way unless they get a seriously wealthy benefactor who has genuine motives.
Seems to me they have had a few cowboys owning that club in the last 15/20 yrs.

Maybe they should be called Texas Rangers then Camps.

[One_Matty_Lucas]

Talking of QPR I watched the 4 year plan documentary again last week, brilliant viewing.

[silent majority]

These kinds of losses are extremely common in the EFL, its the major reason that fans groups have pushed for an independent regulator all these years. The EPL hold the EFL clubs to ransom every season by drip feeding revenues to those lower down the pyramid therefore any ambitious club has to go into serious debt, or find somebody prepared to lose millions every year.

Just to stay in the Championship costs millions. As I've mentioned on here before Preston are a classic example, their owners inject £12m every year just to stand still.

[graingrover]

We should not be surprised at the QPR accounts . Most clubs rely on Owners propping them up with loans that are converted to equity on the balance sheet so in theory recoverable upon the sale of the club.

[normal rules]

It’s hard to comprehend that in the 60’s, players wages were in line with the wages of the working man. How times have changed. It is players wages that are killing clubs financially .and their parasitic agents .

[jmt23]

WE rely on cash injections of 1-2 million quid and look where we are - the game is a mess

[vaya]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68372224

[welloffside]

BST,

There was,10-15 years ago. I remember reading an article that suggested that QPR, if you took the private resources of the board, were in fact the most wealthy club in the UK. Blowing the Chelsea and Man. City types out of the water.

I believe that the owner of TATA steel (Billions!) was involved. So were several of his 'mates' obviously it never came to anything but there was something of this nature I recall.

[Muttley]

We should not be surprised at the QPR accounts . Most clubs rely on Owners propping them up with loans that are converted to equity on the balance sheet so in theory recoverable upon the sale of the club.

If a loan is converted to equity, it is less likely for the owner to recover the value when the club is sold.

The problem is when the owner holds loans as these are legal instruments that under their terms are required to be repaid on change of ownership.

[scawsby steve]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68372224

Absolute tragedy.

[BillyStubbsTears]

BST,

There was,10-15 years ago. I remember reading an article that suggested that QPR, if you took the private resources of the board, were in fact the most wealthy club in the UK. Blowing the Chelsea and Man. City types out of the water.

I believe that the owner of TATA steel (Billions!) was involved. So were several of his 'mates' obviously it never came to anything but there was something of this nature I recall.

That sounds right.

A mate of mine from up North who was living in the Home Counties bought a QPR shirt at the time, just to rule the Arsenal/Chelsea/Man Utd lot and claim that QPR were going to be bigger than all of them. For a few months, it did seem like it might happen.

[normal rules]

Imagine a situation where gate receipts covered players wages.
That’s how it should work shouldn’t it?
Or at least it would have I. The glory years of football.
I wonder what sort of gate receipts rovers would need every home game  just to pay the players wages?

[MachoMadness]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68372224

Saw this earlier. Another one of our old rivals, not geographically but in terms of being a lower league club who we ran into fairly often, on the brink.

They're in freefall down the national league south and Gary Johnson has just left after 5 years. Not looking good for them.

[richtherover]

Terrible news. I can remember many top of the table clashes with them in the late 60's. Their Saturday games were always late kick offs, probably due to the travel distance. They had a striker called Robin Stubbs who scored goals for fun, and nearly always against us.

[roversdude]

Alongside the news about Torquay, Rochdale are looking at liquidation and the Accrington chairman is putting up prices to fill a £1m shortfall. Accrington have been up for sale for a while apparently with no takers. Really hope the numpties who were telling TB to go are taking note

[ncRover]

Rochdale went to a fan-ownership model in August 2022. They have had losses of £1m a year and need a £2m investment to survive.

[NickDRFC]

BST,

There was,10-15 years ago. I remember reading an article that suggested that QPR, if you took the private resources of the board, were in fact the most wealthy club in the UK. Blowing the Chelsea and Man. City types out of the water.

I believe that the owner of TATA steel (Billions!) was involved. So were several of his 'mates' obviously it never came to anything but there was something of this nature I recall.

That sounds right.

A mate of mine from up North who was living in the Home Counties bought a QPR shirt at the time, just to rule the Arsenal/Chelsea/Man Utd lot and claim that QPR were going to be bigger than all of them. For a few months, it did seem like it might happen.

Tony Fernandes bought them in the early 2010s and Lakshmi Mittal bought a stake (maybe still holds it?) but I don’t think it ever really seemed like they were going to challenge at the top table. They had a season or two where they signed a lot of high profile players but they were generally past their best and on free transfers, it’s not as though they signed players that any club challenging for the Champions League would have been interested in.

Just had a look on transfermarkt and their biggest season in terms of transfers was 2012/13, when they spent about €50m on 7 players as well as Julio Cesar and Jose Bosingwa on free transfers. That season Man City & Manu Utd both spent the same amount on just 3 players and Chelsea spent about €65m on Eden Hazard & Oscar. Even though they might have had the potential (with Mittal) to go big, there wasn’t much activity to suggest it would materialise.

[One_Matty_Lucas]

I wonder if these articles about Torquay, Rochdale, Accrington etc. make our fans (Netto lot) realise that things could be a hell of a lot worse.

I still don't think we as a collective fan base realise how tough Covid was for the club. I think the club has been badly managed in football operations but off the field we have done well to get through what we have.

[ForsolongaRover]

What I could never understand about QPR was that there never seemed any talk of the moving to a better stadium. Loftus Rd holds 18,200 and I’ve experienced the away end as well as one of the side stands and the seats and legroom (as well as the playing area) are more cramped than any others I’ve known. Given the indisputable fact that the club has been a magnet for investment, you would have thought that a new stadium would be a priority, if not THE priority.

[Beerseller]

What I could never understand about QPR was that there never seemed any talk of the moving to a better stadium. Loftus Rd holds 18,200 and I’ve experienced the away end as well as one of the side stands and the seats and legroom (as well as the playing area) are more cramped than any others I’ve known. Given the indisputable fact that the club has been a magnet for investment, you would have thought that a new stadium would be a priority, if not THE priority.

As I remember, Loftus Road was one of the first, if not the first, of the all seater stadiums.  I'm sure it was seating only in around 1980 when I made my first visit.  Attendances across the board were lower than now and I don't think they were filling the place so the decision to go seating only and reduce the capacity was probably a very sound one at the time.  I suspect that would have been enough of an improvement to last them many years but I'd agree that major improvement is now well overdue.

I'm sure they tried moving to the old White City Stadium at one time but then moved back to Loftus Road.  On my first visit, we actually drove past White City Stadium and for while in those pre-Satnav days were confused as to which ground we'd passed.  That old stadium is now demolished and redeveloped as housing but would have been a good site for a new ground with what seemed at the time like decent transport links.

[IDM]

I remember standing at loftus road in the late 80s..

Coventry went all seater early I think.?

[silent majority]

Finances of all football clubs are a complete mess.

My sources tell me that there's a meeting this week between the EFL and EPL that will see substantial funds given to the EFL as long as they agree to abandon support for the Independent Regulator. I hope that doesn't happen!

[MachoMadness]

The fact that the PL clubs are effectively trying to bribe the EFL into abandoning support for the regulator is exactly why we need the regulator.