Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock believes that the club has enough fans to make the move to a new stadium a success.
QPR boss confident of increasing fanbase
Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock believes that the club has enough fans to make the move to a new stadium a success.
QPR's Malaysian owner, Tony Fernandes, has said that he plans to have his team play in a new stadium that will have a bigger capacity than their current 20,000-seater home, Loftus Road.
However, there have been doubts whether the London side would be able to fill their prospective new ground with enough supporters, but Warnock is positive that they will be able to do so.
"I think we would be able to fill a bigger stadium," he said. "When I was at Huddersfield, we got something like 4,000 average at the old Leeds Road and then we moved to the McAlpine, a fantastic new complex at that time, and we had 12,500 from day one so it trebled."
Tony's not daft
QPR welcome Chelsea to Loftus Road in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, with the home side currently 14th in the table with nine points from eight matches.
Warnock is relishing the London derby but tempers suggestions that Fernandes should invest in QPR like Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has done at Chelsea.
"The only thing is that Loftus Road for games like we have tomorrow against Chelsea, it's a fantastic place to be stood on the bench and it's a great atmosphere - I would miss that personally," he explained.
"Roman is a little bit different to most people. Financially he dwarfs everything.
"Tony is not daft. He hasn't got where he has today without knowing what he's doing.
"I think he wants to do well, without necessarily spending billions. He'd like to do it an organised way and get the facilities and the staff in to take the club forward and obviously if you can get stability in the Premier League it doesn't take many years to fund itself."
Buzz
"You know what you're going to get with Chelsea and you just have to hope they have an off day," added the 62-year-old.
"They're such a good team. We just have to get the atmosphere and enjoy it, give them a good game if we can.
"Playing against top teams, getting points is a bonus. I can sense on the training ground they are up for it, though.
"There's that sense of buzz because it's Chelsea and the first derby we've had for many years. Some of the kids that support QPR now have never seen any Chelsea players in the flesh. It's a great day for them."
