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Dear Lee
I should start on congratulating you on making the footballing - and much of the commercial side of the club - so much better run. For the first time in a decade there is a clear strategy that the entire fanbase buys into. It is sensible, sustainable and working.
The co-ordination between the directors and the footballing side of the club has been incredibly good, transforming our team on the pitch but in a way that also makes sense on the balance sheet. Best case scenario, we get promoted on (relatively speaking) very small investment compared to a lot of Championship rivals. And if we don't, we have half a dozen playing assets who could be sold for serious money - and I can't remember the last time we had that.
This is a major transformation that must have taken serious work and deserves major praise.
Now the less good bit.
Lee: why is all the lower level, back office stuff at QPR such a complete sh*t show?
To give you a little story.
I took along a few people along (mixture of family and friends who are not committed supporters).
After the performances last season I figured it would be a good showcase to interest them in our brilliant team and our amazingly atmospheric club.
Naturally I don't blame you, Lee, for the team's slightly insipid performance - those of us who have been going a long time know these things can happen, especially in the first game of the season (I remember sitting there in shock watching us get beaten 5-0 by Swansea with Rob Green letting in goals that your blind granny could save).
But what about the other, non-footballing stuff which you are responsible for?
Firstly getting into the ground. Your team have had 18 months to perfect a ticketing system, but it was a complete shambles.
15 minutes into the game there must have been nearly a thousand of us stuck outside the ground.
Lee, you are the CEO, you should have been out there sorting out these muppets who are completely out of their depth and taken charge yourself - not sitting (I assume) in the director's box.
Having bought tickets online I emailed the box office multiple times during the week saying that the email confirmation I had telling me I had bought tickets didn't actually contain an attachment with said tickets.
Each time I emailed, I got another email back saying they had been sent - and that I should check my spam.
I don't wish to be a dick about this but I am the CEO of a tech company - I understand how emails work. I had checked my spam. There was no email sent to me with tickets.
Eventually I struggled through the QPR website - which seems stuck in about 1997 and has one of the worst UX's I've seen in a decade for a company of QPR's size - and finally got an e-wallet and got the tickets in that.
Except when I produced these at the ground they said I couldn't get in because it had no barcode.
I tried explaining I could see very well there was no barcode, but these were the "tickets" that QPR had themselves sent me.
Hundreds of others were denied admittance because, apparently, even if they did have a barcode, the scanner was not working.
Lee: did you not ask the slightly educationally-challenged person who manages the box office during the week if he was tested it? I can only assume you did because, I hope you would agree, its pretty basic.
There were lots of low level, slightly bored people standing around employed by the club who admitted the whole thing was a complete sh*t show. I wouldn't promote them to the PR dept if I am honest with you, Lee.
But when we asked them if they could actually sort it out, they just shrugged and walked away.
In their defence, they are probably casual staff on the minimum wage. But you are the CEO Lee - why weren't you there sorting it out?
We were told we had to queue up for the box office.
So meekly, we did.
This took another ten/ 15 minutes.
One guy I spoke to in the queue had come all the way from Derby for the match and was missing it.
Another was a lifelong fan who had been looking forward all summer to the first game of the season.
When we finally made it to the box office we met the harassed (and I am sure well meaning) ladies at the kiosks, there were a bank of people sitting behind them just staring at screens, doing nothing very tangible. One was suited and booted and presumably the manager. But he was entirely passive and there was no sense that there was a crisis that he was responsible for and that maybe he should go out there and sort it out.
In appearance and manner he reminded me very much of the tall sidekick to David Brent in The Office. Just less effective.
It doesn't take a genius to realise that a combination of failed tech and - more importantly - failed systems had caused this fiasco. But surely the manager of the box office or some other responsible adult in - I assume - your absence should surely have taken an executive decision. They could see clearly people had bits of paper etc showing their seat numbers etc. Presumably the same seat would not have been allocated twice. These were genuine customers. You had dozens of stewards standing around doing not a huge amount. Why not authorise them to let people in?
Instead 20 mins had gone before we got in the ground (to find us 1-0 down) at which point of course we had to clamber past loads of people in the narrow rows to get to seats.
And Lee, the thing is, this is just the latest manifestation of what amounts to a complete disregard for a) how you should treat your loyal supporters b) how to actually run a business that believes in maximising revenue from its customers.
Take the live stream for the friendlies. Or the quite unbelievably hopeless website to buy tickets (even before the disaster unfolded today). Or the fact that when you pay for a live stream you still have to press about 10 buttons in the most confused, ill-thought out customer journey any half-sober tech person could have devised.
And then you get into the ground.
I am going to make myself unpopular here with some of the traditionalists, because I know a fair number are probably happy with a pint (when not run out) and a Pukka Pie so hot it will give you second degree burns. But having been going to the Rs for decades now I know that we have a very mixed fan base. There are plenty of fans who would love to plough a bit of spend into the club by maybe having lunch beforehand and getting stuff at half time, or staying for a beer afterwards. But the offer is so unbelievably bad most of the fan base spend their money (a lot of it, I suspect) elsewhere.
Naturally I realise a lot of this is structural - the ground is incredibly cramped, investment money is no doubt limited for a ground that might be abandoned (though lets face it, that project seems stalled ever since the club failed to actually but the entire plot of land before putting in for planning permission).
Behind the loft there is a huge amount of wasted space for example. You could easily stick a bar or restaurant in there. Or could the offices be moved elsewhere? There is so much potential. But it literally hasn't moved on since about 1982. The world - and much of its fanbase - has left Loftus Road behind.
But Lee, has the obvious need for a new stadium become a bit of a fig leaf for not actually making things work? Or for recognising that in the modern age people who attend QPR are every bit as much "customers" as shoppers in Westfield? They have other demands for their time and their cash now. It takes real loyalty - and a lot of negotiation if you have a family - to get to Loftus Road. So why are customers/ supporters treated with such disdain?
I am not one of those fans to complains about the owners. They have shown remarkable loyalty in pumping a vast proportion of their fortunes into an "investment" that by balance of probability they will never see back. I really think their heart is in the right place and now with professionals such as yourself on board and with some hard earned experience, they are actually really astute custodians of the club. I get without their subsidy there would be no club for us fans to enjoy.
But the club has so much more potential if it were better run in a more micro way. Lee, I would strongly urge you, Les, Tony and the rest of the gang to attend the game one day as an ordinary punter. Go under cover. The CEO of every business should do this. Just see what its like from the other side. Then tell us if this is honestly how you would like to be treated. And from a business perspective, has the club maximised the potential spend of you as a fan? Or have you actually gone to lunch/ dinner/ drinks somewhere else because everything is so rubbish in the ground? Would you even still continue attending or would you think "you know what, its easier to watch it on a stream via a VPN in the comfort of my own home without this agro"? Have you ever actually bought tickets on that website, or navigated your way around it? Have you ever actually turned up at the box office as an ordinary punter?
I realise the above ended up as a bit of a rant which was not my intention. I remain a huge fan of so much that you, the board, the manager and the players are doing. The turn-around and the implementation of a really well-thought through strategic plan has been a pleasure to cheer on from the sidelines. I for one will be really happy even if we fall short of promotion if we just continue to develop players and are managed in the stable, progressive way we were last season. But Lee, you are the CEO, surely you have to take hold of some of the departments like the box office, the catering department, the website team and frankly start again?
The family and friends I brought along today might just give it one more go. There was just about enough good stuff. But if QPR is to replenish its frankly ageing fanbase and utilise new revenue streams, the revolution we have seen on the pitch now needs to extend off the pitch.
A (hopefully constructive) fan
I should start on congratulating you on making the footballing - and much of the commercial side of the club - so much better run. For the first time in a decade there is a clear strategy that the entire fanbase buys into. It is sensible, sustainable and working.
The co-ordination between the directors and the footballing side of the club has been incredibly good, transforming our team on the pitch but in a way that also makes sense on the balance sheet. Best case scenario, we get promoted on (relatively speaking) very small investment compared to a lot of Championship rivals. And if we don't, we have half a dozen playing assets who could be sold for serious money - and I can't remember the last time we had that.
This is a major transformation that must have taken serious work and deserves major praise.
Now the less good bit.
Lee: why is all the lower level, back office stuff at QPR such a complete sh*t show?
To give you a little story.
I took along a few people along (mixture of family and friends who are not committed supporters).
After the performances last season I figured it would be a good showcase to interest them in our brilliant team and our amazingly atmospheric club.
Naturally I don't blame you, Lee, for the team's slightly insipid performance - those of us who have been going a long time know these things can happen, especially in the first game of the season (I remember sitting there in shock watching us get beaten 5-0 by Swansea with Rob Green letting in goals that your blind granny could save).
But what about the other, non-footballing stuff which you are responsible for?
Firstly getting into the ground. Your team have had 18 months to perfect a ticketing system, but it was a complete shambles.
15 minutes into the game there must have been nearly a thousand of us stuck outside the ground.
Lee, you are the CEO, you should have been out there sorting out these muppets who are completely out of their depth and taken charge yourself - not sitting (I assume) in the director's box.
Having bought tickets online I emailed the box office multiple times during the week saying that the email confirmation I had telling me I had bought tickets didn't actually contain an attachment with said tickets.
Each time I emailed, I got another email back saying they had been sent - and that I should check my spam.
I don't wish to be a dick about this but I am the CEO of a tech company - I understand how emails work. I had checked my spam. There was no email sent to me with tickets.
Eventually I struggled through the QPR website - which seems stuck in about 1997 and has one of the worst UX's I've seen in a decade for a company of QPR's size - and finally got an e-wallet and got the tickets in that.
Except when I produced these at the ground they said I couldn't get in because it had no barcode.
I tried explaining I could see very well there was no barcode, but these were the "tickets" that QPR had themselves sent me.
Hundreds of others were denied admittance because, apparently, even if they did have a barcode, the scanner was not working.
Lee: did you not ask the slightly educationally-challenged person who manages the box office during the week if he was tested it? I can only assume you did because, I hope you would agree, its pretty basic.
There were lots of low level, slightly bored people standing around employed by the club who admitted the whole thing was a complete sh*t show. I wouldn't promote them to the PR dept if I am honest with you, Lee.
But when we asked them if they could actually sort it out, they just shrugged and walked away.
In their defence, they are probably casual staff on the minimum wage. But you are the CEO Lee - why weren't you there sorting it out?
We were told we had to queue up for the box office.
So meekly, we did.
This took another ten/ 15 minutes.
One guy I spoke to in the queue had come all the way from Derby for the match and was missing it.
Another was a lifelong fan who had been looking forward all summer to the first game of the season.
When we finally made it to the box office we met the harassed (and I am sure well meaning) ladies at the kiosks, there were a bank of people sitting behind them just staring at screens, doing nothing very tangible. One was suited and booted and presumably the manager. But he was entirely passive and there was no sense that there was a crisis that he was responsible for and that maybe he should go out there and sort it out.
In appearance and manner he reminded me very much of the tall sidekick to David Brent in The Office. Just less effective.
It doesn't take a genius to realise that a combination of failed tech and - more importantly - failed systems had caused this fiasco. But surely the manager of the box office or some other responsible adult in - I assume - your absence should surely have taken an executive decision. They could see clearly people had bits of paper etc showing their seat numbers etc. Presumably the same seat would not have been allocated twice. These were genuine customers. You had dozens of stewards standing around doing not a huge amount. Why not authorise them to let people in?
Instead 20 mins had gone before we got in the ground (to find us 1-0 down) at which point of course we had to clamber past loads of people in the narrow rows to get to seats.
And Lee, the thing is, this is just the latest manifestation of what amounts to a complete disregard for a) how you should treat your loyal supporters b) how to actually run a business that believes in maximising revenue from its customers.
Take the live stream for the friendlies. Or the quite unbelievably hopeless website to buy tickets (even before the disaster unfolded today). Or the fact that when you pay for a live stream you still have to press about 10 buttons in the most confused, ill-thought out customer journey any half-sober tech person could have devised.
And then you get into the ground.
I am going to make myself unpopular here with some of the traditionalists, because I know a fair number are probably happy with a pint (when not run out) and a Pukka Pie so hot it will give you second degree burns. But having been going to the Rs for decades now I know that we have a very mixed fan base. There are plenty of fans who would love to plough a bit of spend into the club by maybe having lunch beforehand and getting stuff at half time, or staying for a beer afterwards. But the offer is so unbelievably bad most of the fan base spend their money (a lot of it, I suspect) elsewhere.
Naturally I realise a lot of this is structural - the ground is incredibly cramped, investment money is no doubt limited for a ground that might be abandoned (though lets face it, that project seems stalled ever since the club failed to actually but the entire plot of land before putting in for planning permission).
Behind the loft there is a huge amount of wasted space for example. You could easily stick a bar or restaurant in there. Or could the offices be moved elsewhere? There is so much potential. But it literally hasn't moved on since about 1982. The world - and much of its fanbase - has left Loftus Road behind.
But Lee, has the obvious need for a new stadium become a bit of a fig leaf for not actually making things work? Or for recognising that in the modern age people who attend QPR are every bit as much "customers" as shoppers in Westfield? They have other demands for their time and their cash now. It takes real loyalty - and a lot of negotiation if you have a family - to get to Loftus Road. So why are customers/ supporters treated with such disdain?
I am not one of those fans to complains about the owners. They have shown remarkable loyalty in pumping a vast proportion of their fortunes into an "investment" that by balance of probability they will never see back. I really think their heart is in the right place and now with professionals such as yourself on board and with some hard earned experience, they are actually really astute custodians of the club. I get without their subsidy there would be no club for us fans to enjoy.
But the club has so much more potential if it were better run in a more micro way. Lee, I would strongly urge you, Les, Tony and the rest of the gang to attend the game one day as an ordinary punter. Go under cover. The CEO of every business should do this. Just see what its like from the other side. Then tell us if this is honestly how you would like to be treated. And from a business perspective, has the club maximised the potential spend of you as a fan? Or have you actually gone to lunch/ dinner/ drinks somewhere else because everything is so rubbish in the ground? Would you even still continue attending or would you think "you know what, its easier to watch it on a stream via a VPN in the comfort of my own home without this agro"? Have you ever actually bought tickets on that website, or navigated your way around it? Have you ever actually turned up at the box office as an ordinary punter?
I realise the above ended up as a bit of a rant which was not my intention. I remain a huge fan of so much that you, the board, the manager and the players are doing. The turn-around and the implementation of a really well-thought through strategic plan has been a pleasure to cheer on from the sidelines. I for one will be really happy even if we fall short of promotion if we just continue to develop players and are managed in the stable, progressive way we were last season. But Lee, you are the CEO, surely you have to take hold of some of the departments like the box office, the catering department, the website team and frankly start again?
The family and friends I brought along today might just give it one more go. There was just about enough good stuff. But if QPR is to replenish its frankly ageing fanbase and utilise new revenue streams, the revolution we have seen on the pitch now needs to extend off the pitch.
A (hopefully constructive) fan
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