QPR bosses say a new stadium in the Hammersmith and Fulham borough is ‘unlikely’

By Jacob Phillips, local democracy reporter

QPR bosses have said it is unlikely they will be able to build a new stadium in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

The club says the council has not supported plans to move to the Linford Christie Stadium and now the Rangers may have to move to another London borough.

The Hoops have been based at Loftus Road for 104 years but QPR bosses are keen to move somewhere new.

QPR majority shareholder Ruben Gnanalingam said: “It’s not easy to deal with this borough. We might need to look elsewhere to find other spaces which are more viable – and that’s what we are actively looking at right now.

“We don’t have a clear path towards any one of them.

“But I think in this borough it’s just way too hard to convince the people involved that this is something they want to do, even though we think we can create a lot more jobs from it and income for the borough.

“We can’t really go south, so north and west we’re trying to figure out what we can find.”

It is likely the team could move to Ealing or Brent instead.

The club claim it could have brought £60 million-a-year to Hammersmith and Fulham if they moved to the Linford Christie Stadium.

The club claim it is worth £39.3 million-a-year to the local Hammersmith and Fulham economy.

However, Hammersmith and Fulham Council have continued to resist the idea.

A Hammersmith and Fulham Council spokesperson said: “We are huge supporters of QPR and are willing to bend over backwards to help them as we have done with Fulham FC and Chelsea FC.

“However, QPR have not been in touch with the council on any plans of substance for over two years.

“At our last meeting with their CEO, we asked him about why they were apparently struggling to find even the £20m funds to build the Warren Farm training ground.

“We’ve told QPR we cannot gift hundreds of millions of pounds worth of public land to QPR’s multi-millionaire overseas owners.

“We have suggested that if QPR are serious about any site in the borough which they need financial help with that they look into a new fan-based ownership scheme for the club so we can guarantee it is the club that benefits and not their owners.”

The club is looking to move within two miles of their historic home and has begun discussions to find another destination.

But the move is unlikely to come in the next 10 years.