Championship 23/24

[Greacen2000]

Very strange indeed.  Details on the bbc news story and in the press release from the club are sketchy.  It seems to only be a temporary thing for next season, but cannot start until after the pitch has been relaid (hence them starting the season at lesser before moving to hampden in September).

I would be very interested to hear the terms of their lease agreement with the SFA.  Reading between the lines, the chat about “as part of the deal the Scottish national team can train using our world class facilities at lesser” makes me suspicious that QP will be paying well below the going rate (if any money is changing hands at all).  The SFA shouldn’t be doing any favours to member clubs - regardless of their history and ownership.

[GiGi]

2 hours ago, bob_the_builder said:

Just been reading this on their P&B thread.  Unbelievable lack of self awareness as to why the rest of us fans are clearly pissed off about this.

This is clearly what they've been building towards the entire time.  Who goes full time expressing a desire to play at the top league and builds a tiny 2K capacity stadium unsuitable from the word go?!

QP are quickly becoming my least liked non OF team.

Or doesn't actually build it, conveniently.

Fucking chancers.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

2 hours ago, bob_the_builder said:

 QP are quickly becoming my least liked non OF team.

Take your point, but surely there's still a long way to go before they catch up with plucky wee cash-strapped Partick and Falkirk. And St Mirren, obviously.

[bob_the_builder]

27 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Take your point, but surely there's still a long way to go before they catch up with plucky wee cash-strapped Partick and Falkirk. And St Mirren, obviously.

With St Mirren my dislike of them is simply down to them being our rivals, they don’t really do anything to piss me off.

Partick don’t really piss me off, I usually just roll my eyes at their antics, anyway they are going down the tubes so are more than likely to provide a laugh next season than anything. As for Falkirk they’re not really relevant anymore they’re where they should be.

However, taking over 2 seasons to build a tiny useless stadium (even with the pandemic) which when finally ready they then turn around and wangle a deal to move back into a 52k stadium they sold after getting lottery and government money to redevelop is beyond a joke!
Then their fans have the cheek to basically say to the rest of us “everyone else has stadiums they can’t fill every week so it’s fine, nothing to see here”.

They’ve pulled a fast one and if they get an old firm draw in either or both cups it’s got the potential to open a can of worms for the SFA if they’ve not been clever with this deal.
 

[TRVMP]

If QP can't have prime tenancy of a stadium for the duration of a season they should be papped out. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

21 minutes ago, bob_the_builder said:

 They’ve pulled a fast one and if they get an old firm draw in either or both cups it’s got the potential to open a can of worms for the SFA if they’ve not been clever with this deal.
 

That's actually a very good point I'd never thought of. The financial reward they'd get from that would give them an unfair financial advantage over all other teams in the league.

[SassenachTon]

Maybe they've built Lesser so that it looks falsely hoaching with their last-season average attendance of around 700 people in it.

Edited June 8, 2023 by SassenachTon

[Ton in Shawlands]

Queens Park have, in the last 2-3 years become my least favourite Scottish club outside the old firm. (Genuinely worse than Falkirk, St Mirren & these days at least - Airdrie). Delusional - 400 fans on average a couple of years back and poaching top flight CEO's the other year, to do what, exactly? They're a glorified pub team with a backer & without that they'd have about as much of a future as 3rd Lanark.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Ton in Shawlands
Correction

[Albundy]

Maybe they struck a deal with the SFA thinking they would get promoted 

[Ton in Shawlands]

That's a possibility. Did you know the Lesser Hampden scheme that building work started on after Covid (before being halted) had something like twice the capacity of the current scheme. I'll check the figures, I priced elements of the original lesser hampden work in 2020 & probably still have drawings saved somewhere. It is possible that the capacity for the scheme they are actually (finally, maybe) finishing was cut based on getting a sympathetic hearing should it suit them  to move back into the bigger stadium.

[TRVMP]

Some of the stuff from their fans on P&B is wild. They're trying to sell this as just a common-sense solution to ensure that away fans can get tickets for the games.

Novel approach, that. Let's just stop maintaining Cappielow except for the absolute bare minimum, get the ground closed to a capacity of 500 or so, then extort the rest of the division into letting us play at Murrayfield or something.

[Ton in Shawlands]

They built the original stadium many,  many years back to cement their then already fading if not gone position in the Scottish game. Later they contributed bugger all to the complete rebuild, moved out for a 7 figure fee (× 5), squandered the money,  made a balls up of the rebuild next door & have just waltzed back in again. What' s wrong, it's our old home!!  Can someone pkease tell them it was previously rebuilt by others after being utterly derelict under their watch & in any case they sold it, Jesus wept.

[Toby]

Much as I don’t want them anywhere near Hampden though, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Willie Haughey contributed £2.5 million to the SFA’s £5 million purchase of the stadium.

Until he gets bored and fucks off, Queen’s Park will likely have the SFA by the baws.

[Ton in Shawlands]

It's all a bit Gretna with an added sense of entitlement

[bob_the_builder]

6 hours ago, TRVMP said:

Some of the stuff from their fans on P&B is wild. They're trying to sell this as just a common-sense solution to ensure that away fans can get tickets for the games.

Novel approach, that. Let's just stop maintaining Cappielow except for the absolute bare minimum, get the ground closed to a capacity of 500 or so, then extort the rest of the division into letting us play at Murrayfield or something.

Aye that’s what’s really winding me up, it’s like they’re doing us a favour by moving back into Hampen lol! Deluded as fuck!

[Drew Busby's Moustache]

Honestly... who gives a flying furcoat.

We're MORTON.

[Toby]

10 hours ago, Drew Busby's Moustache said:

Honestly... who gives a flying furcoat.

We're MORTON.

I do. There’s a precedent being set here- Queen’s Park have serious ambitions about playing Premiership football and taking advantage of the rewards that entails, as do Morton.

Morton have a capacity of around 11,500, which would probably be reduced to around 9,000 for a televised game, whilst Queen’s Park’s ground (if it is ever completed) will stand to have a capacity of around 2,000.

By setting the precedent of allowing them to use a neighbouring ground that doesn’t belong to them, a whole new set of revenue streams is opening up to Queen’s Park that isn’t available to clubs such as Morton, Ayr United or Raith Rovers.

We’re past the stage of blaming COVID for any delays in the opening of Lesser Hampden now- it’s been a shit show from start to finish and it’s down to Queen’s Park to deal with it, not for the SFA/SPFL to reward them with the opportunity to bring in massive crowds  when clubs like ourselves are a restricted to what we’ve got.

When Queen’s Park last played Rangers in league fixtures at Hampden, the attendances were 30,117 and 11,492 for Third Division games. That would be something like eleven times what they could bring in if they used the capacity they’d built for. This would be rewarding the folly of the Queen’s Park board for failing to get their house in order, and indirectly punishing their peers.

Fuck them- they’ve made their bed, they should lie in it.

[Ton in Shawlands]

Their main delay wasn't Covid. They appointed a builder in autumn 2020 or so when sites had reopened (with precautions). Work started before a dispute arose between QPFC & the builder. That went to arbitration where I understand QPFC lost. Later they revised their plans & appointed another builder & they still haven't finished. Covid had nothing to do with it.

[Toby]

2 hours ago, Ton in Shawlands said:

Their main delay wasn't Covid. They appointed a builder in autumn 2020 or so when sites had reopened (with precautions). Work started before a dispute arose between QPFC & the builder. That went to arbitration where I understand QPFC lost. Later they revised their plans & appointed another builder & they still haven't finished. Covid had nothing to do with it.

Bit of a contradiction, there.

[Ton in Shawlands]

I admit that was badly worded. The basic point stands. I saw documents for pricing while homeworking in summer 2020, so thats the tender period & covid didn't stop that. QPFC then appointed a builder within months, (they were on site in autumn 2020). QPFC then fell out with them, went legal, changed design & found another builder. The tender documents had this down for delivery in @ a year & it wasn't a complex build. Building sites have now been reopened (with safeguards) for @ 3 years. They've had plenty of time to sort this since Covid had sites closed.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Ton in Shawlands
Punctuation