Friday 8 September 2017

LOFTUS ROAD, A GROUND OF MANY USES

Having celebrated White Hart Lane yesterday why not get excited with Tony Incenzo whose beloved QPR have their own 100 years anniversary. Loftus Road is the home of QPR located at South Africa Road, Shepherd's Bush W12. The Shepherd's Bush FC team first played at Loftus Road on 11th October 1904 and in September 1917 QPR made its home there.

Tomorrow the club hosts the anniversary game against Ipswich at the ground, which still has a capacity of only 18,500. In the past the club record for attendance reached over 35,000.
Time for a move maybe?

The club played at Park Royal until the Army commandeered their ground during the First World War. Unsure of their location at Loftus Road, the club moved to the White City athletic's stadium between 1931-8 and they had another season there in the 1960s, when there was some development at Loftus Road and during the 1970s and 1980s substantial improvements were made to the stadium, although the capacity has not been enlarged.

In 1981-8 the pitch was turned into an artificial surface, which proved controversial and it became an all seater stadium in the 1990s having relied on the Ellerslie Stand only from 1919 as seated accommodation.

The Wasps rugby club played there from 1996-2002. Fulham "shared" the pitch between 2002-4 whilst Craven Cottage was redeveloped.


Most recently the ground has hosted American Football games, internationals between two foreign nations, the Cambridge-Oxford University annual Blues' match, Testimonials for the great Rodney Marsh and the Grenfell Tower Charity, which is visible from the stadium.

Always regarded as a "people's club", Tony Fernandes, the club's chairman has paid for 83 year old Mike Montague to fly from Australia to the ground to watch a match. The last time Mike saw his beloved club play was on 26th March 1966 when Rodney Marsh scored a hat trick in a 6-1 win over Millwall. The next day he emigrated to Oz.
The club has visions of moving to a larger capacity stadium in the Old Oak area of west London. Recognise it?

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