'Huge benefit' if QPR redevelop Linford Christie athletics stadium site - report

The creation of a new home for QPR at the Linford Christie athletics stadium site would generate almost £60million a year for the local economy, a study commissioned by the club concludes today.

The report says that a new 30,000 seater ground — combined with the redevelopment of Loftus Road site — could bring huge benefits and secure the Championship club’s long-term future in the W12 area.

QPR chairman Amit Bhatia and former co-chairman Tony Fernandes are desperate to move the club to the proposed new location next to Wormwood Scrubs, just over a mile from Loftus Road.

They have warned that the Linford Christie Stadium option is the last chance to stay close to the club’s historic base, where it has had its stadium for more than a century.

The report from consultants Hatch Regeneris suggests that the redevelopment of the dilapidated athletics track could cost up to £265m, 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.

The report assumes that that land freed up by the demolition of the Loftus Road stadium — which has the third-smallest capacity in the Championship — could make way for up to 550 new homes and 18,500 sq ft of shops in an estimated £175m investment.

The homes would have the potential to house around 1,200 residents, spending around £6.9m a year in local stores and other businesses.

It calculates that, overall, the combined project could support around 1,285 full-time jobs and pump £59.7m into the local economy — £20m more than the current Loftus Road ground — and generate £26.2m in taxes for the Treasury.

But the report goes on to warn that a relocation outside the W12 postcode “would go beyond the loss of an anchor institution from the borough, the direct employment it supports and the wider benefits... generated. This move would expect to have a negative effect on the social value and associated cost savings generated through the club’s work with its local community.”