The Big Queen's Park FC Thread

[Chippyminton]

Maybe the builders are waiting for a skip or are busy laying someone's patio.

[Newbornbairn]

6 hours ago, HIT THE CHANNEL said:

 

Does this mean if QP ever get to the premier league they have the option of doing this every big game they want? 

 

 

At the semi-final I was told by good sources that the deal if they got promoted was Category A games (the bigot sisters, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs) would be played at Hampden, the no-fan oiks would be played at Lesser Hampden. 

[Ben Reilly]

16 minutes ago, BuddyZero said:

Not sure if anyone has brought this up already, but there is still the matter of tests / H&S at Lesser. Definitely there will be an effort to swap as many home fixtures to away as possible, but I would reckon any at Lesser will be behind closed doors. I could see a motivated, quick-moving and diligent organisation getting something put in place for the 600+Royal Box by the start of the season, but I don't see this regime being sufficiently blessed in any of those departments to make it happen. 

A couple of pre season friendlies would tick the box for test events, so I don't see that being an issue.

(Quite prepared to have this spectacularly blow up in my face if/when the next disappointing announcement comes along)

[Salvo Montalbano]

1 hour ago, Ben Reilly said:

Lesser Hampden will be suitable to play games at this season, but not with a capacity that would be acceptable for either home or away supports.

That's the problem though, isn't it. Meadowbank is nowhere near suitable for League One football (and was even worse before they allowed fans to stand and then eventually behind the goal on the high jump area). If Lesser is just too wee then I'm afraid it means sucking it up for a year until it has a capacity big enough for your needs. If it's suitable in August, why isn't is suitable in September? If the intention is just to sack off Lesser and move back into the big stadium then the club should just say so IMO. I don't think it's a good idea, and a well built (i.e. proper stands and not the big Royal Box) Lesser could and should be a fantastic facility but if the only issue is that you're not going to accommodate enough fans then you won't be the only team who's ever had to limit the number of spectators or have a waiting list for season tickets etc.

[tolka]

7 hours ago, HIT THE CHANNEL said:

Next time the Rovers draw one of the Bigots at home in the cup, shall we just 'rent' Hampden (or better yet, Celtic park) for the day and cash in 50/60k ticket sales?

Isn't reversing cup fixtures an actually semi-common occurence?

[AyrshireTon]

1 minute ago, tolka said:

Isn't reversing cup fixtures an actually semi-common occurence?

No - definitely not allowed by the SFA. The nearest convenient ground would be used if a ground were unsuitable.

When former chairman H*** Sc*** was running us into the ground, we got Rangers in the cup at home. The Cowshed terracing had been ripped up in preparation for a non-existent seated area being put in. Hs suggested switching the tie to Ibrox (seeing the windfall) and the SFA told him to do one. The game was played at Love Street. I believe our share of the gate money was seized to cover some unpaid police bills.

Keith had a tie with Rangers switched to Pittodrie. We had another at Gretna switched to Palmerston. Ayr even played Raith Rovers (or somebody) at Cappielow in one of the cups.

[tolka]

Ah my mistake! It is allowed over here in the LoI without real issue but is only used by the non-league teams with smaller grounds, in part because some of the better (Dublin) Junior & Intermediate teams play in council parks.

[craigkillie]

3 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

No.2. This was changed when Glasgow Rangers played at Murrayfield for a while.

Rangers certainly did not play at Murrayfield. Hearts did so, but that was in a bit more of an emergency situation where their ground was expected to be ready in time for the season but then wasn't. I'd consider that very different to a scenario like this where a club have actively built an unsuitable ground.

[Bring Your Own Socks]

Just remembered this is actually the QP Club forum…so, now that we know where our two home games will be played, I’m taking a long shot here but thinking Murrawell and the other Queenies away, and about 30 seats for the other two if they can be bothered travelling. On the upside, beer should be available.

Group G
Motherwell
Queen's Park
Queen of the South
East Fife
Elgin City

Edited June 8, 2023 by Bring Your Own Socks

[mcjameos]

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

 If Lesser is just too wee then I'm afraid it means sucking it up for a year until it has a capacity big enough for your needs. If it's suitable in August, why isn't is suitable in September? 

The logical answer is (as per earlier posts) that Lesser needs to be closed to the public (for H&S reasons) to enable the works to be completed. I would expect the works won't be started till we have switched to Hampden. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by mcjameos

[Zanetti]

10 minutes ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Just remembered this is actually the QP Club forum…so, now that we know where our two home games will be played, I’m taking a long shot here but thinking Murrawell and the other Queenies away, and about 30 seats for the other two if they can be bothered travelling. On the upside, beer should be available.

Group G
Motherwell
Queen's Park
Queen of the South
East Fife
Elgin City

My understanding is that the fixtures are predetermined, or at least that was the case last year anyway. At the second seeds, we'll be at home to QotS and Elgin.

[an86]

11 minutes ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Just remembered this is actually the QP Club forum…so, now that we know where our two home games will be played, I’m taking a long shot here but thinking Murrawell and the other Queenies away, and about 30 seats for the other two if they can be bothered travelling. On the upside, beer should be available.

Group G
Motherwell
Queen's Park
Queen of the South
East Fife
Elgin City

Going be the previous years seedings, I think we’re looking at Motherwell and East Fife away, with QOS and Elgin at home.

[CapitalDiamond]

7 hours ago, Zanetti said:

Out of curiosity, how would the supporters of other teams who are upset about this feel if we moved back in to Hampden permanently?

Not if you were paying Market rates….

I don’t understand how Thistle can be in such a bad way financially meanwhile QP can do so much with presumably a fraction of the gate receipts and 3 seasons of renting grounds. I know you got £5million for Hampden and that Willie H is minted, but is he just writing cheques? 

[Zanetti]

17 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Not if you were paying Market rates….

I don’t understand how Thistle can be in such a bad way financially meanwhile QP can do so much with presumably a fraction of the gate receipts and 3 seasons of renting grounds. I know you got £5million for Hampden and that Willie H is minted, but is he just writing cheques? 

The SFA hardly paid market rate for the stadium in the first place, so now that the relationship between both parties has improved I'm hopeful a fair arrangement has been made/could carry on in the future if we choose or need to extend our stay.

Regarding your second point, I'm not sure what you mean exactly. Fairly certain that Thistle's wage budget for their playing squad would definitely have been higher than ours last season, although we're obviously investing more off the pitch than them. Not close enough to the detail to say for sure though.

[spiders4ever]

Season tickets on sale tomorrow but at what price?

[Spider1975]

6 hours ago, par-adise said:

The lack of joined up, strategic thinking is baffling to me. The investment you were making in football terms meant you were always going to reach the championship (you've maybe come further, faster than was anticipated but it was inevitable and presumably the aim), and from there you would naturally be looking at a further promotion. And now you've effectively outgrown Lesser without ever having played there.

Even if you put the construction issues to one side it is either a complete failure in terms of future planning from the board, or there was always an understanding that you could use Hampden if needed. Hence the cake and eat it analogy. 

The rise to the Championship has been far more rapid than anyone anticipated; personally I also take with a massive dose of salt the 'aim' of becoming an established SPL team too as I really don't see that as feasible.  I don't think we've outgrown Lesser Hampden, more like we've outgrown the initial design embarked on.....exhibit A being that white black elephant of a VIP enclosure......if that makes sense

[Bring Your Own Socks]

40 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Not if you were paying Market rates….

I don’t understand how Thistle can be in such a bad way financially meanwhile QP can do so much with presumably a fraction of the gate receipts and 3 seasons of renting grounds. I know you got £5million for Hampden and that Willie H is minted, but is he just writing cheques? 

In a second obvious attempt to divert attention, just how did Thistle get in their mess and a semi-derelict stadium with all the money Colin Weir invested?

[CapitalDiamond]

9 minutes ago, Zanetti said:

The SFA hardly paid market rate for the stadium in the first place, so now that the relationship between both parties has improved I'm hopeful a fair arrangement has been made/could carry on in the future if we choose or need to extend our stay.

Regarding your second point, I'm not sure what you mean exactly. Fairly certain that Thistle's wage budget for their playing squad would definitely have been higher than ours last season, although we're obviously investing more off the pitch than them. Not close enough to the detail to say for sure though.

That’s nonsense. If the SFA’s bid was below market rate, then why didn’t you sell it to someone else for more?

if the alternative was the SFA moving to Murrayfield then you’d have been left with a 52,000 seater stadium to maintain which you couldn’t afford unless you come up with a better business model.

It’s not unique to Hampden. Our 10,000 seater stadium is worth nothing unless someone else could come up with a business model to make it work.

 

it might cost £100 million to build Hampden as it is these days, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth more than £5million to anyone else.

[Zanetti]

9 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

That’s nonsense. If the SFA’s bid was below market rate, then why didn’t you sell it to someone else for more?

if the alternative was the SFA moving to Murrayfield then you’d have been left with a 52,000 seater stadium to maintain which you couldn’t afford unless you come up with a better business model.

It’s not unique to Hampden. Our 10,000 seater stadium is worth nothing unless someone else could come up with a business model to make it work.

 

it might cost £100 million to build Hampden as it is these days, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth more than £5million to anyone else.

It's not nonsense at all, and I say that without disagreeing with any of your points.

They got a good deal, and both organisations are apparently on much better terms with each other now so given the club's historic relationship with the stadium, the national team, and the SFA in general I'd like to imagine any price would be reasonable.

Knowing what they're like though, there's also a very good chance they're keen to rip us off but we have few alternatives at this point!

Edited June 8, 2023 by Zanetti

[an86]

18 minutes ago, spiders4ever said:

Season tickets on sale tomorrow but at what price?