In several of our lectures and tours, we learned that London is the city with the second most football clubs in the world behind only Buenos Aires, Argentina. From the Gunners of Arsenal to the Spurs of Tottenham, London is home to some of the world’s best-known brands.
As famous as some of London’s clubs are, ask anyone in Sport in England, and they’d likely rather travel to South Africa Road in White City rather than Stamford Bridge in Chelsea. That’s because in West London lies Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, home of the Queens Park Rangers (QPR).
As I explained in my Wembley post, English football is defined by its promotion and relegation. QPR, a club that has spent many years in the Premier League, currently sits in the Championship League, the second tier of English football. So why would a class from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas be desperate to visit the home of a Championship League club?
QPR actually did a wonderful story on it (link here), but basically our professor, Dr. Jacob Tingle, became a massive QPR fan after attending a game during the inaugural Sport in England course in 2014. Since then, the blue and white stripes can be seen on any game-day in San Antonio, and there’s even a Vamos QPR fan club based in San Antonio thanks to Dr. Tingle. Also thanks to Dr. Tingle, most of us are QPR fans.
In the spring, we all got assigned a venue to present on and create a podcast about. After learning about each venue from the each respective group, the entire class got to then actually visit the venue. Wembley didn’t have an attached group to it, making QPR the first venue we would learn about from classmates before attending.
The Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium group did a wonderful job teaching the class about Kiyan Prince, a tremendous player who was in the QPR academy before he was killed at a young age. Since his death, the Kiyan Prince Foundation developed a mission to help youth in memory of Kiyan Prince. A couple of years ago, QPR decided to change the name of their stadium from Loftus Road Stadium to Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium as a way to garner even more attention to the foundation. This was a temporary change, as the name has actually reverted back to Loftus Road in the two weeks since we visited, but Kiyan Prince remains a vital part of QPR’s past, present and future.
With a firm understanding of the Kiyan Prince Foundation along with a fandom of QPR, all of us were thrilled to finally visit the home of QPR. The class took the tube to White City before beginning our walk in the West London neighborhood. As we passed homes and apartments before the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium suddenly popped up, I noted to those around me that I enjoyed how nestled in the community the stadium was. It felt as though QPR just belonged here, and we learned that they really do.
Our time with QPR began with a great lecture from the QPR in the Community Trust, which is the charitable arm of QPR. This was especially interesting after taking another one of Dr. Tingle’s classes, Sport Philanthropy, with fellow Sport in England member Emily Ellis in which we worked with Spurs Give, the charitable arm of the San Antonio Spurs. We gained insight on what the Trust values most, such as helping vulnerable young people, and how they work within their community beyond the pitch.
After this lecture we received a full-on tour of the stadium. In the executive suite we learned that “foosball” is called “table football” in England, which makes so much more sense. We again heard how alcohol cannot be consumed in the stands, but we were also given more information on why that is along with why football stadiums are required to be all seater stadiums with no standing allowed. In 1989, the “Hillsborough Disaster” resulted in 97 deaths as people were crushed in tightly packed stands, so since then all English football stadiums have only seats to try and prevent similar disasters. Only now are teams starting to be allowed to introduce safe-standing areas, something QPR will attempt next year and Manchester United introduced this past season.
In the locker rooms we discovered that most teams make the visiting locker rooms as uncomfortable as possible. After complying with the few standard rules, such as having hooks and benches and have an area that is 30 meters squared, everything else can be pretty bad. That includes cold showers, toilets in the middle of the locker rooms and even for a time at QPR pink walls after an American study found that the color pink calmed teams before the games. You’ve gotta love the psychological warfare.
Next came everyone’s shining moment. As we walked from the locker rooms out to the pitch, we were allowed to kick the ball around for a few minutes! Our resident football players, Bella Ferruzzi and Philip Dueñez, shined of course, but everyone had their fair share of fun. I’ve got to say, I had a pretty perfect pass to the “Blonde Bullet,” aka Amelia Powell, that she hammered in for a goal. It was so beautiful to see everyone just have fun for a few minutes and pretend that nothing else existed other than a game. Moments like these are the ones I’ll continue to feel and see forever.
Unfortunately our pitch perfect moment couldn’t last forever, but our wonderful tour did continue before our group split a bit. Most of the class went back to one of the suites to hear from other members of the Community Trust, but myself and the four other present Communication majors (COMMies… :)) got an incredible opportunity to meet Andy Watkins, QPR’s Social Media Manager.
This was a wonderful hour-long conversation in which we got to ask Andy tons of questions about his job. He showed us how he runs QPR’s Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, played examples of some content he’s created and answered everything we threw at him. All of us in the meeting aspire to work in communication and in sport in some capacity, so this was a remarkable chance to learn from someone directly in the field.
By the time we finished with Andy the rest of the class had left, but we couldn’t leave without a lengthy visit to the gift shop. I obtained my second scarf of the trip and of course got a QPR shirt, so the Tingles will no longer be the only Alamo Heights Mules to support the Rangers.
Every part of our visit to QPR was magical, especially getting to experience the stadium with Dr. Tingle, Niko and Finnegan, America’s biggest QPR fans! From the start it felt like we were home. It is unreal how a Championship League club in West London can feel like the neighborhood team of Trinity University, but that’s just what QPR has become. Next year, I just know they’ll be joining Nottingham Forest in the Premier League!