Report on the Public meeting
April 4th 2002
Hammersmith Town Hall
Kindly provided by David Barton

Last Thursday night saw the anniversary of QPR 1st being set up exactly a year on from the last public meeting, QPR fans again met up at Hammersmith Town Hall for an interesting evening.

Around 500 Rangers fans were in attendance and on the top table waiting to speak was the familiar face of Ian Holloway along with QPR 1st committee members David Price, Justin Piers and Tracy Stent. Andrew Slaughter Counselor Andrew Slaughter, the Mayor of Hammersmith & Fulham and Brian Lomax from Supporters Direct were also on the top table.

The meeting began with David Price speaking to the QPR fans in attendance. David's speech was an update of what has happened over the last twelve months. The Wimbledon merger, a move to Milton Keynes and several other bids were mentioned in a round up of news we have seen on the web site of what QPR 1st have been up to.

The most important news David had to give us was the update of the current bid to buy the club. We were told that the bid was a re financing of Loftus Road which involved a £10million loan against the ground. This would pay off Chris Wright and all other creditors and give QPR enough finance for three years.

David said the deal was expected to go through but David Davies would not tell QPR 1st who was behind the £10million loan, which of course brings about concerns. David explained that the club have a good business relationship with Chief Executive David Davies and he said although the club and QPR 1st have disagreed on many things over the last year they feel they have a good relationship from which we can build on.

The next speaker was local Mayor Andrew Slaughter. Andrew is a Fulham fan but gave an interesting speech about how the council are desperate for three clubs to remain in Hammersmith and Fulham. He went on to talk about how the council have worried alongside QPR 1st over the last year and offered help when they can.

He went into detail about last years motion by the council to do all they can to keep QPR at Loftus Road and stated that the council would make it very difficult for anyone trying to move QPR away from the Borough or buy Loftus Road for property development. Andrew then had to leave for a council meeting so he was no longer involved in the meeting.

Brian Lomax from supporters direct spoke a lot of sense praising the work of QPR 1st and speaking about how small clubs have to survive nowadays. He spoke a lot about the recent collapse of the television deal with ITV.

He compared the situation facing football to what happened to snooker since the 1980's. He explained that in the 190's Snooker was a huge game watched by millions on television and attracting big sponsorship deals but now the bubble has burst and they have cut the number of tournaments a year and struggle to find sponsors for the remaining events. The same could happen to football if television money dries up but he painted a brighter picture for the future if clubs learn to run the business properly and involve the fans a lot more working in the community.

Like last year Brian spoke a lot of sense but the majority of people in attendance seemed keen to hear what David Davies and Ian Holloway had to say.

Tracy Stent from the QPR 1st committee read out some messages of support from other supporters trusts. It was interesting to hear some of the messages especially ones from Swansea and Wimbledon who are club we have shared several crisis with over the last twelve months.

Two of the most interesting messages came from former Rangers player Simon Barker and local MP Clive Soley. Barker mentioned how he wishes the club well and hopes we come out of administration soon, he also praised Ian Holloway who of course is a former teammate of Barker.

Clive Soley said many similar things as to what Andrew Slaughter had said but the most important piece from his message was a plea for new owners to listen to the fans and involve them much more in bringing the club into the local community. This was something many in the town hall seemed to agree with.

David Davies spoke a lot of sense when it came to his turn to speak and I thought he was very brave to face the fans in public. He explained how the bid for the club was being financed with a £10million loan against the ground it would mean re payments of 8% per year and they fell confident they would be able to pay it off.

He wouldn't reveal whom the money was coming from but said it was normal business practice to keep this quiet until the deal is done. He said that an EGM would not be required but he felt the club would hold an AGM to reveal where the money is coming from and explain the shareholders what is happening.

David spoke about his worry that you can't buy a QPR shirt in Shepherds Bush and said he didn't care if you can't buy a QPR shirt in Bond Street but we should be the main club in our patch. He wants non-English speaking people to recognise that QPR are the biggest club in West London and he feels we will become that again.

In hindsight I would have liked to ask what the situation was with Ian Holloway and his contract but the way David spoke it would seem that Holloway would still be manager next season, which is good news. David spoke a lot about the last year and his time at the club.

He explained what he had learnt about the club and how he feels that the club including himself have made many mistakes but have turned a corner. He mentioned some highlights that make him proud which include the Celtic friendly when the team met each other for the first time the day before and he met fans afterwards who showed more pride and happiness over that performance than any in the previous twelve months.

He also mentioned the Northampton game where home fans had to be moved which brought a few laughs and the Reading game where took so many fans away. David agreed to answer any questions at the end of the meeting so more on that later on.

Fanzine editor Dave Thomas spoke next and spoke very well. Dave Thomas expressed his disappointment on how fans have been split and argued amongst themselves over the last year. He seemed to not only refer to the Internet, where fans seem to accuse each other of working for different bids all the time, but also fans group who have fallen out.

QPR 1st and the LSA seem to have had a falling out in recent months but it was good to hear later on that this problem is being sorted out. Dave Thomas spoke a lot about what it's been like to be a fan during this year and summed up what the fans have gone through and how frustrating it is to be kept in the dark.

I felt he showed a lot of bottle in attacking the current board in the way he did and a lot of what he said was very true. He said he's sorry if he doesn't immediately trust a man (Ross Jones) who compares the running of QPR to Marks and Spencer's and a man who was heavily involved in the proposed merger with Wimbledon.

Dave went on to say that this does not mean he is against the bid but he feels the next owners need to be more open with supporters as we are the ones who put the money into the club and the club wouldn't survive without us.

Another committee member Justin Pieris also spoke reading out several emails from the last year which basically explained that QPR 1st have met everyone who has put a bid in for the club along with meeting the club on several occasions and the administrators, Chris Wright etc. he showed how busy they have been when some seem to think they have done very little in the last twelve months.

Juzza then showed a graph on the big screen and did his best Peter Snow impression as he pointed out the rise and fall of crowds at Loftus Road but it all made sense and I think his point came over really well. The basic point he was making was that during the 80's and 90's the crowds dropped from that they were in the 70's. Do during one of our best periods in the clubs history we didn't take advantage of brining in more fans.

But over the last few years despite the team going down the pan the crowds have stuck with the club and crowds are starting to go up again.

He ended his speech by saying that QPR 1st was all about good management and at this time of year most people hand out awards for player of the year etc. but QPR 1st wanted to give an award for outstanding management.

The award went to Ian Holloway and the Rangers manager looked close to tears as he was handed the award to a standing ovation from those in attendance. It was now Holloway's turn to speak and it was the most sense spoken by a manager I have ever heard, he was superb and I wish more people could have heard what he had to say especially those who moan at players and Holloway.

He started by saying how he was lost for words at receiving this award to which someone shouted out he deserves it and Holloway looked a very proud man. He said that he wanted to talk about himself rather than the team etc. He said that when he was nine years old he was scouted by both Bristol clubs and had to choose which club to join.

His Dad told him to interview both clubs and make his mind up so he did. Bristol City came in and told him they would make him a star giving him loads of money and a promise of first team football. They told him that he would never have to buy football boots again which to a nine-year-old boy is something you want to hear.

Then Bristol Rovers came in and bluntly said he was an alright player but would have to work really hard to make it and there are no guarantees. Rovers told him that with work and effort he might become a professional footballer one day. Holloway obviously choose Rovers and said the reason was that Rovers didn't bullshit him and offer him things that just wouldn't happen.

He went on to talk about his playing career and said how he was never the best player but he always worked hard and gave the ball to better players, he felt his enthusiasm wore off on other players and that was a big factor in him doing so well at QPR.

He couldn't speak highly enough of Gerry Francis but seemed to criticise him for going away from his principals last season. He said that Francis taught him the zonal 4-4-2 system but when the came back to QPR he was used to working with Premiership players and tried something different which failed.

Holloway also had strong words about Chris Wright saying that he has no confidence and that he hoped he could keep the club up last season and give Wright the chance to come back but that didn't happen. He also pointed the finger at Nick Blackburn for the Wimbledon mess but said that the current board had learnt from their mistake and could now be trusted.

Ian Holloway was full of some cracking lines, which are well known on the Internet now as ollyisms. One new one, which I thought was great, was when he said he wanted him and David Davies to be known as the Men in Black. They were going to save our club from the scum of the universe. He went on to say (sorry this is from memory I can't remember the exact quote) "We might have to zap you every now and then to make you forget what's happening because believe me if you knew how close we were to going out of business on a few occasion you wouldn't sleep at night."

Holloway was speaking with so much passion and went on to talk about this season and how he thinks we have done well considering the problems we've had. He complained about Ron Noades and the embargo but said it's not an excuse and we have to make sure we learn from our mistakes. He praised the attitude of the players including Danny Shittu who apparently apologised to the manager for making a mistake in the 3-2 win over Notts County.I very much doubt many of last year's team would have apologised for some of their disgraceful performances.

He explained that Askar has had a lot of injury problems and is having trouble with his wife as they can't go out together, they need a French speaking baby-sitter and can't find one and he was saying that's just one of the problems we don't hear about.

He revealed that our youth team wage bill when he arrived was £1million, which is £200,000 less than the entire squad at Bristol Rovers was on! Players like Michael Currie and Richard Graham were on 2 grand a week from when they were 14 years old!

He seems quite disgusted with how the club were acting and called us Bristol City in relation to his earlier story about when he was scouted as a player. He said he wants players to want to play for him due to his honesty, as young players don't care about money they just want to play football.

He spoke about the squad last summer explaining we had nine players who were good enough for the first team. Two of those were Langley and Carlisle who were injured and we had no goalkeeper. It just goes to show that ten months on and sitting in eighth place is some achievement by the club and it was almost so much better. He spoke with so much pride and passion it was hard not to feel delighted we have a manager like this in charge and I hope he stays for many years to come.

He spoke about next season and how the fans needed to be optimistic and not expect to win every game. His long term aim seems to be that we have a Richard Langley type player in the team and three or four young players of real quality pushing him all the way so that we choose when we sell players and when we do we have someone to step in his shoes. It was the way we used to do things but somewhere along the line we forgot this and find ourselves in the position we are today.

He spoke about so many things it's hard to remember them all but the standing ovation he received when he finished talking went on for a good few minutes and was thoroughly deserved.

The Q &A brought up several interesting points. David Davies said the Twyford sale would get us 10% of any further sale. The 33% deal, which QPR 1ST tried to get, was turned down the same day as the EGM. He spelt out his bid for the club, which again we have heard before but it was all very sensible and he seems to have some good ideas to take us forward and said that in no way was Ron Noades involved in this bid for the club.

Coley asked about interviewing players for the Rangers till I die web site and didn't really get an answer.

Then a shock as a man stood up to ask a question and it turned out to be David Barnard who has been linked with the JR deal. He spoke for five minutes and was very interesting. He explained his involvement with football how he helped stop the Fulham/QPR merger in 1987 when he was on the board there and at Wimbledon he was against the merger and move to Milton Keynes and was thrown off the board due to his views.

He has been a regular at Loftus Road this season and stated that if Ian Holloway wasn't made manager of the year then something is seriously wrong with football. He praised David Davies and hoped his bid was successful. He mentioned that he was approached last year by JR but didn't feel the bid was good enough and he still didn't seem to convinced but it seems that if David Davies fails then David Barnard wants to help and make sure we still have a club to run. It was very brave of him to get up and speak and he came across very well.

All in all a very good night, I felt proud again to be a QPR fan as I did last year after the meeting and I am very positive about the future now after hearing what Holloway and Davies had to say. Well done and thanks to all who organised it as someone said last night it was a breath of fresh air to see something like this.