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Queen’s Park 21/22


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10 minutes ago, CathcartSkins said:

So, let's say within the next two or three seasons the plan is to have a stand on each side of the ground? Do we know what capacity that would provide?

The East stand is just shy of a thousand. South stand around 500. West stand is still under review. Currently, only the Directors stand has approval with 44. North stand not on the drawing board yet.

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6 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Some generalised feedback for QP fans unable to attend last night’s meeting. The meeting opened with respectful tones from The President that this was the members meeting. The other speakers also stressed that this was our club. Big improvement on last summer’s meeting.

CEO Leanne Dempster updated us on club development, largely about the stadium redevelopment and the plans for the Pollok Park campus. It’s still planned to open the stadium for our first “league game” which I took to mean our first game of the season. The East stand will be first with away sharing initially. The pitch is being laid in a couple of weeks. Confirmed it’s hybrid with built-in drainage and service ducts beneath. Some form of hospitality will be available but not yet the west stand and catering building. Revamped Pavillion most likely. She was a bit fuzzy on timings. Unclear on whether the south stand will be built within next season or in time for 23-24. North stand on hold pending completion of the rest.

The Lochinch development has significant investment plans and the club expects to sign a very long term lease this summer. This is subject to current legal negotiations and thereby no further info at this time. The Nether Pollok part is a pipeline project at the moment, subject to Lochinch being settled.

DoF Marijn Beuker gave an excellent presentation on how his development programme works. Way too much detail for here but suffice to say everyone in the room was spellbound. It’ll be a quantum leap for QPFC. We’re lucky to have him. We have time for this whereas other teams driven by just this week’s results don’t. Unlike some other clubs I know of, the Community programme won’t just be about revenue, it’ll actually form the first stage of player recruitment. The Dutch approach will attract the quality of youngster who normally ends up at Lenzie or Murray Park.

New head coach/manager (his words) Owen Coyle gave an impromptu speech and made it clear that the club’s ambition this year is still to get promoted. The immediate task is to consolidate our play-off position and then, in his words, go toe-to-toe with whoever. We have a winner at our club! More importantly, he and Beuker are on the same track, albeit at different parts of the journey, and acknowledge each others skills are complimentary.  The President separately confirmed we are still going for promotion.

Very positive evening, respectful to the audience, professionally delivered. Good times to be a QP fan.

An excellent summary of a very positive meeting. I came away very impressed by all the speakers, President included, and excited and encouraged by their obvious passion and enthusiasm for the plans going forward. They all seem to be pulling in the same direction and I hope that last night is the start of continued improved communication and sharing with the members (and hopefully the wider fanbase going forward) so that they take us along on the journey.

A few other points that were mentioned last night included;

*The aim to drive revenue from Lesser and the Mcalpine building along with the goal of becoming self sufficient financially

*Plans to tap into our history more by supporting and building links with Hampden Bowling Club and exploiting our archives for peices that can raise interest and awareness of our place in the community locally and within Scottish (and world?) football.

*The long term nature of the plans for the youth academy, with short term results, while important and being evident, being secondary to longer term improvement, and everything being focused towards how it will ultimately lead to first team success.

 

After a few years of some negativity with poor communication, lockdowns and far too many draws, I for one came away from last night very excited again about the future of the club.

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Can only echo what’s been said by others. Very positive stuff all round. Loved the enthusiasm of Coyle and Beuker was really impressive. There’s been a lot of justified criticism on communication, but most of the main topics were covered in decent detail. We just need to get back home now for it all to really begin.

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5 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

The East stand is just shy of a thousand. South stand around 500. West stand is still under review. Currently, only the Directors stand has approval with 44. North stand not on the drawing board yet.

Any menton with regards to the social club?

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22 minutes ago, Dooflick said:

Any menton with regards to the social club?

The question was asked by a member of the QPSA on behalf of all. Again a vague response but there was an intent to have something in place for fans by the first game. I’d hope the QPSA members locally will keep the heat on for this. Badly missed during the last 2 years.

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13 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Some generalised feedback for QP fans unable to attend last night’s meeting. The meeting opened with respectful tones from The President that this was the members meeting. The other speakers also stressed that this was our club. Big improvement on last summer’s meeting.

CEO Leanne Dempster updated us on club development, largely about the stadium redevelopment and the plans for the Pollok Park campus. It’s still planned to open the stadium for our first “league game” which I took to mean our first game of the season. The East stand will be first with away sharing initially. The pitch is being laid in a couple of weeks. Confirmed it’s hybrid with built-in drainage and service ducts beneath. Some form of hospitality will be available but not yet the west stand and catering building. Revamped Pavillion most likely. She was a bit fuzzy on timings. Unclear on whether the south stand will be built within next season or in time for 23-24. North stand on hold pending completion of the rest.

The Lochinch development has significant investment plans and the club expects to sign a very long term lease this summer. This is subject to current legal negotiations and thereby no further info at this time. The Nether Pollok part is a pipeline project at the moment, subject to Lochinch being settled.

DoF Marijn Beuker gave an excellent presentation on how his development programme works. Way too much detail for here but suffice to say everyone in the room was spellbound. It’ll be a quantum leap for QPFC. We’re lucky to have him. We have time for this whereas other teams driven by just this week’s results don’t. Unlike some other clubs I know of, the Community programme won’t just be about revenue, it’ll actually form the first stage of player recruitment. The Dutch approach will attract the quality of youngster who normally ends up at Lenzie or Murray Park.

New head coach/manager (his words) Owen Coyle gave an impromptu speech and made it clear that the club’s ambition this year is still to get promoted. The immediate task is to consolidate our play-off position and then, in his words, go toe-to-toe with whoever. We have a winner at our club! More importantly, he and Beuker are on the same track, albeit at different parts of the journey, and acknowledge each others skills are complimentary.  The President separately confirmed we are still going for promotion.

Very positive evening, respectful to the audience, professionally delivered. Good times to be a QP fan.

Thanks BYOS. Anything mentioned re stadium standing?

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9 minutes ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Yes. The two rows along the back of the stand have been replaced with standard seating.

Standing might be introduced at a later date but yeah seating to start with. 

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16 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

The question was asked by a member of the QPSA on behalf of all. Again a vague response but there was an intent to have something in place for fans by the first game. I’d hope the QPSA members locally will keep the heat on for this. Badly missed during the last 2 years.

Yeah totally. We need a proper place for everyone to mix pre and post games. Even coming off the bus after away games. This is also how camaraderie and bonds have been forged in the past between fans, club officials and players (even just to have a chat over a beer with a committee member to find out info) Something that's not really been possible since we went pro. I got the impression that it wouldn't be ready for the start of the season as they are prioritising everything else, including the hospitality facilities upstairs. A few decent pubs near Hampden but still not the same

Edited by Mick1867
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21 hours ago, Ben Reilly said:

*Plans to tap into our history more by supporting and building links with Hampden Bowling Club and exploiting our archives for peices that can raise interest and awareness of our place in the community locally and within Scottish (and world?) football.

 

The vibe I got from Dempster was that we need to get all this stuff out of storage and on display. I know we have loaned some of it to the SFA museum but maybe we should have some sort of plan to develop a space at Lesser in the future to house all our memorabilia for fans and visitors to view

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15 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Yes. The two rows along the back of the stand have been replaced with standard seating.

A shame but the usual suspects will probably just end up standing there anyway, like we do at Firhill and away grounds

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2 hours ago, Mick1867 said:

A shame but the usual suspects will probably just end up standing there anyway, like we do at Firhill and away grounds

Personally thought a single section would have been better rather than two long lines along the back. With only a thou in the East stand it’ll be fullish every game. So families etc mixed with riff-raff. Always thought that’s why it was generally quiet at section P.

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3 hours ago, Mick1867 said:

The vibe I got from Dempster was that we need to get all this stuff out of storage and on display. I know we have loaned some of it to the SFA museum but maybe we should have some sort of plan to develop a space at Lesser in the future to house all our memorabilia for fans and visitors to view

It’ll be a missed opportunity not to have a pukka club shop built in. South stand, street facing just next to the Pavillion. Something along the lines of Ayr’s shop at Somerset. Proper retail unit, not just a hole in the wall. A nice display in there, rotating the items through the season for regular visitors. Maybe an interactive tablet to help learning and gain some kind of loyalty point leading to a membership?

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3 hours ago, Mick1867 said:

Yeah totally. We need a proper place for everyone to mix pre and post games. Even coming off the bus after away games. This is also how camaraderie and bonds have been forged in the past between fans, club officials and players (even just to have a chat over a beer with a committee member to find out info) Something that's not really been possible since we went pro. I got the impression that it wouldn't be ready for the start of the season as they are prioritising everything else, including the hospitality facilities upstairs. A few decent pubs near Hampden but still not the same

We had a lot of comment on Wednesday about “all in it together”. It would be a big step forward to open a virtual ideas box, allow fans to express themselves and maybe come up with a few workable options that might not have been considered already. Acorns, oaks etc.

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3 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

Personally thought a single section would have been better rather than two long lines along the back. With only a thou in the East stand it’ll be fullish every game. So families etc mixed with riff-raff. Always thought that’s why it was generally quiet at section P.

A single section was considered but those sitting to the side of it wouldn't be able to see part of the pitch.

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Agree with the generally positive response to Wednesday's meeting, but I am disappointed that we are going to open with a capacity under 1,000.

We got a 2,000+ attendance in our first game back after the Commonwealth Games (in the middle of winter), and with the amount of engagement with local schools and community groups recently you would hope there's a lot of potential fans out there who would want to watch us at Lesser when we return. 

I'm concerned that if we turn people away once they might not bother to come back.

We all want to be back at Lesser asap but I would rather wait until we have a larger capacity and we can have as many people as possible getting into the habit of coming to every home game right from the off.

Think we are being a bit unambitious to open with a sub 1,000 capacity - even if we got it up to around 2,000 somehow it would be a lot better for our return.

Edited by JT1867
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7 minutes ago, JT1867 said:

Agree with the generally positive response to Wednesday's meeting, but I am disappointed that we are going to open with a capacity under 1,000.

We got a 2,000+ attendance in our first game back after the Commonwealth Games (in the middle of winter), and with the amount of engagement with local schools and community groups recently you would hope there's a lot of potential fans out there who would want to watch us at Lesser when we return. 

I'm concerned that if we turn people away once they might not bother to come back.

We all want to be back at Lesser asap but I would rather wait until we have a larger capacity and we can have as many people as possible getting into the habit of coming to every home game right from the off.

Think we are being a bit unambitious to open with a sub 1,000 capacity - even if we got it up to around 2,000 somehow would be a lot better for our return.

100% correct

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2 hours ago, JT1867 said:

Agree with the generally positive response to Wednesday's meeting, but I am disappointed that we are going to open with a capacity under 1,000.

We got a 2,000+ attendance in our first game back after the Commonwealth Games (in the middle of winter), and with the amount of engagement with local schools and community groups recently you would hope there's a lot of potential fans out there who would want to watch us at Lesser when we return. 

I'm concerned that if we turn people away once they might not bother to come back.

We all want to be back at Lesser asap but I would rather wait until we have a larger capacity and we can have as many people as possible getting into the habit of coming to every home game right from the off.

Think we are being a bit unambitious to open with a sub 1,000 capacity - even if we got it up to around 2,000 somehow it would be a lot better for our return.

When Celtic Park was built they used a temporary stand. That would be the only viable solution between now and July/August. However, there would be a cost. There was indeed a single game with a couple of thousand as you mention but it was a Derby against Clyde when people were still on the festive holiday. Ne’erday derbies normally have higher than normal gates. Pretty certain the rest of that season reverted quickly to 5-600 gates.

If we knew when the south stand was due to be ready, and if it was close to the season start, I'd be inclined to have a soft launch on our return and then use both south and east for predominantly QP fans for a whizz-bang event around early September.

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We need to get back to Lesser ASAP, I think everyone accepts that, and if the initial capacity is 1000, we'll just need to make that work. I can't see many wanting to put off the return until the capacity is upped.  I just want back to our ain hoose.

The temporary seating shout is a good one, but remember some of the place may well be a building site so it might not be possible. 

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On the meeting, it was upbeat and just what everyone wanted to hear. I was pleased to hear Leeann's enthusiasm about the Club memorabilia. Hopefully our rich history will be given the prominence that it deserves.

So much to be optimistic about. The whole youth development ideas and the almost-frightening enthusiasm made me think about trying to stay alive a few more years to see how it all pans out.

Halcyon days ahead? Could well be. We certainly have an impressive staffing structure behind us that can make that happen. In days when so many clubs are struggling to keep where they are, we have almost endless potential. Bloody marvellous.

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