A study concluded that the creation of a new home for League Championship side Queens Park Rangers at the Linford Christie Athletics Stadium site would generate almost £60M ($77M) a year for the local economy, according to Jonathan Prynn of the London EVENING STANDARD. The report said that a new 30,000-seat ground -- combined with a redevelopment of the Loftus Road site -- "could bring huge benefits" and secure the club's long-term future in the W12 area. QPR Chair Amit Bhatia and former co-Chair Tony Fernandes are "desperate to move the club to the proposed new location next to Wormwood Scrubs," just over a mile from Loftus Road. The report from consultant Hatch Regeneris suggested the redevelopment of the "dilapidated athletics track" could cost up to £265M ($339.5M), but generate the equivalent of 490 full-time jobs. It estimates that the three-year construction of the stadium and new sports hub "would create up to 780 temporary jobs." Once built, "a larger, more welcoming home" would bring in higher attendances of almost 650,000 a season, twice the current total, "pumping more money into the area" (EVENING STANDARD, 11/20). WEST LONDON SPORT's David McIntyre reported the study "reiterates the club's claim that staying put is unsustainable" and that being unable to secure a move to the Linford Christie Stadium site "could result in QPR moving outside the area." However, the report also states that a redevelopment of Loftus Road to build a 30,000-capacity stadium "is not impossible" but would require the demolition of around 100 homes and that this would be "prohibitively expensive and unacceptable" given the current demand for housing in west London. The would-be cost is said to be in excess of £100M ($128M) (WEST LONDON SPORT, 11/20).
