Queens Park Rangers

Big improvements in facilities for away wheelchair users since we last visited in 2015

Away wheelchair fans are now accommodated on the lower (pitch) level of away stand, nearest the away entrance on Ellerslie Road. 10 wheelchair spaces with adjoining carer seats in twos. Lovely wide space with excellent viewing. New looking very clean accessible loo through a door on the right as you enter. (Right hand transfer, hot water, liquid hand soap & full length alarm cord). I noticed that it was less good for ambulent disabled as there are no step free seats at the away end apart from the wheelchair spaces. Wheelchair fans and their carers exist the ground on Ellersile Road (where all the away fans enter) but away fans in the upper stand exist via South Africa Road which did cause some difficulty with people meeting up after the game that it is worth noting. No parking at all in Ellersile Road and official away coaches drop off and pick up on the opposite side of the ground. Headset commentary for visually impaired fans is via Radio London (fair and helpful) and needs to be booked with QPR the preceeding week as all the headsets do get booked. Stewards happy to collect this and return when asked as Alton House where you collect the headsets from is not at the away end. Well done to QPR for improving the facilities for away wheelchair fans as previously it was poor. I will email QPR to acknowledge this improvement.

Our 3rd visit to Loftus Road as away fans travelling in a wheelchair accessible mini-bus that is part of our Club’s official away travel. This is just an update to our 2 earlier reviews.

Access to the Ground

As the arrangements our Club made with QPR for our mini-bus had not been passed on to the stewards, myself and the other disabled fans from our Club were left to “fend for ourselves” and not provided with any concessions. For ambulant disabled this meant a long, painful walk and things got worse after the match. See below. The problem is there is no provision for disabled fans to park near to where they access the ground on South Africa Road, a problem exaggerated by the road outside the stadium being closed to vehicles pre and post match.

Away wheelchair fans enter the ground to the right of the main entrance on South Africa Road.

Facilities in the Ground for Away Wheelchair Fans

Viewing Areas

There are only 3 spaces for away wheelchair fans in the home stand adjacent to the away end. The other two wheelchair spaces in this area (I understand) are for non-season ticket home fans. The spaces are at pitch level by the corner flag behind the electronic advertising boards. There is sufficient room to pass in front without needing to move other wheelchair users. Absurdly, however, there is insufficient room for 2 ordinary sized wheelchairs to fit in the space allocated to them between 2 sets of carer seats, so one wheelchair user has to sit stuck out! There are about 4 rows of home fans seated behind. Unlike on previous occasions we had no instances of these fans being abusive towards any of the away fans. Before the game and during half-time, 3 stood in front of us which prevented us watching our players during the warm-up as we always do. I asked the Steward if this was ok, he spoke to them but they dismissed the request and continued to ensure that my view was of their behinds. Unlike when we have previously visited, passing officials during the match was not a problem on this occasion for which we were grateful.

On the two previous occasions we have sat in this location, the away fans were just to our right in the adjacent stand, as good as it can be to minimise the isolation of being in the home stand as an away fan. On this occasion, as apart from the 6 of us all the other away fans were in the upper tier of the adjacent stand, we could not see the rest of the away fans at all. I did ask the stewards why we were sat with the home fans, separated from our own. Apart from one young steward who clearly got what I was asking, it seemed the others were deliberately avoiding the real issue, saying I wasn’t isolated as I was sat with another 5 away fans!

Refreshments

Refreshment counter was on the right as you entered the stand. I am sure there was no lowered counter. I am unsure if there was flat access to the refreshment counter as we took our own refreshments.

Accessible Toilets

QPR, I believe, win the award for the most unlikely items in an accessible toilet. A bottle fridge (no bottles present and not plugged-in) and a power washer! Possibly amusing but in the context of the overall day I just viewed such dumping as symptomatic of QPR’s poor attitude towards visiting away disabled fans. Particularly as the toilet roll holder had come off the wall and was lying on top of the fridge, beyond arm’s reach when you most needed it.

Headset Commentaries for Visually Impaired Fans

In fairness to QPR this worked well, despite us forgetting to request it earlier in the week as we always do. We rang on the morning of the match and a set was waiting for my husband as on previous occasions. A good commentary which he is always pleased to receive.

Attitude of Club Officials

Based on our experiences, I would describe the stewards as motivated by a desire to “have a quiet life” rather than be helpful.

After the Match

Our mini-bus driver was not allowed to pick us up near to our exit as they had been allowed to on our two previous visits. This meant that the 6 of us had to find our way (in the home crowd) down South Africa Road. (Had this been the following week when it would have been dark, my husband would have had no sight and found this extremely difficult. As it was, one of the 6 of us who has recently had surgery found the walk extremely painful and difficult.) When we got to the bottom of South Africa Road, the cordon across the road was so good there was no space for me to exit in my powerchair and no flat kerbs to get on the pavement, there were also no stewards to help. After moving barriers to get me through, I then had the frightening experience of a car nearly reversing into the side of me as they jostled for position to leave and I tried to get back to our mini-bus.

Will We go Again?

Part of me thinks we should boycott those Clubs that sit away wheelchair users with home fans (if I was an able bodied away fan and sat with home fans I would be ejected!) and then I think this would be giving in. So we will go again but I will ensure I have the name of the person at QPR who the dropping-off/collecting arrangements have been made with. Besides, I want to go and check if there has been any new items added to the collection in the accessible toilet!

I found every member of staff very helpful. The only drawback for someone in a wheelchair is that they have to leave a couple of minutes before the end of the gameto save them from being crushed by the crowd.But, apart from that,people very helpful and, even though it is an old ground,it is a ground with a good atmosphere and a ground I wouldnot hesitate about travelling back to.I discovered the ground hadnoparking, but that wasn’t a problem as we found somewhere to park.

This review is effectively an update to the review I wrote after we visited Loftus Road as away fans last season.

We approached the ground in our club’s wheelchair accessible mini-bus from the end nearest the BBC building (opposite end to last time). We were initially told that we would not be allowed into the road where the ground’s entrance was, even for dropping off, as it was closed to vehicles. When we persisted that we had done so last time, we were directed to the opposite end and the Club allowed the bus to stay there during the match for to return to at the end.

My husband who is visually impaired had requested a head-set commentary prior to the game. For the first time ever he was asked to provide documentary proof of his visual impairment. The head-set was ready for him at the Holt Building as he had been informed (we now always take a printed copy of the email booking with us) but it was difficult to find the building in the crowds, particularly as some of the stewards had not heard of it! He reported that he could not hear the commentary during the lst half (as stated by another reviewer) but for the second half for some unbeknown reason, it was excellent (informative and impartial). Given the problems we had last time with high numbers of club staff walking past us, interrupting my husband’s view, he asked the stewards at the beginning if this could be avoided. They took his request seriously and did try, particularly the female supervisor, who was excellent.

I was disappointed to discover that some of my fellow wheelchair fans were unable to get tickets for the game, as QPR only supplied 3 away wheelchair user tickets. Given QPR are a Premiership club, I think this is unacceptable, as is having no provision for away wheelchair fans to sit in the away end, regardless of the age the ground. Whilst due to this, we again suffered some verbal abuse from home fans who we were sat near, but overall once again, we found QPR fans and stewards very friendly.

Knowing the lay-out helps and we would of course go again if our club were playing at Loftus Road but as other reviewers have said, definitely room for improvement at Loftus Road.

Parking is available- book early as spaces are limited. Arrived 2 and half hours before the game, managed to squeeze into a street parking space. Otherwise its Westfields a 15/20 min walk. Headset: collected from Holt Building next to ticket office. Good response from stewards. Walked us through side entrance taking us to our seat. Unfortunately the headset didn’t work. Commentary was intermittent. Was it the headset or poor reception in the area of our seats? I don’t know. Michael used his own radio with Radio 5 having live commentary.

have just emailed the DLO at QPR re disabled parking at the ground (your write up on them says 6 away fans disabled spaces) – there are none! only on street parking. Best update your site so others don’t waste time contacting the club.

Really appreciate the site and all it is doing for diabled fans. Will post again after the game!

Very few tickets available for away supporters (club are nowhere near meeting minimum guidelines on seating). No segregation so away fans sit amongst and near home fans – this is very intimidating as the crowd surges forward and blocks the view down the touchline for much of the game. Parking is very difficult and involves quite a walk/push. Of the grounds i’ve visted (> 60), this is in the bottom 2 of clubs in the country as far as i’m concerned re disabled facilities for away fans (tie with Portsmouth).

I had heard mixed things about Loftus Road but on the whole the stadium from an ambulant point of view was good as we were on the lower tier of the away fans stand (sorry forgot the name) steps werent step and the toilets were within a reasonable distance from our seats.

However the downside to this ground is were it is situated as we were dropped off in the wrong location and it was some walk to get to any pubs. also when we had to leave the bus was a fair walk away for someone with walking dificulties as myself so i think sooner they move grounds the better as it is stuck smack bang in a residental area.

However on the whole it was ok just a shame we got hammered 4-0 and of course its a long journey home when that happens.

I am an ambulant supporter with walking difficulties thus the reason I am registered with Reading FC as an ambulant supporter and on going to away matches I purchase ambulant ticket and I go to nearly all the away matches. The matches I miss are those on television.

I purchased ambulant ticket for the above match but to my surprise entering the ground to find the number of stairs I had to climb and descend and then getting into the bowl I then found I had more steps to go down to get to my seat (G55). I needed to go to the loo and because of my disability I need the space provided by disabled toilet.

This was more climbing to find a steward to locate a disabled toilet, when I found a steward that understood English and what I require he was helpful and took me to the only disabled toilet available near the away supporters and again this was up and down stair behind the home supporters stand that was quite a walk from my seat.

When the match started the supporters did not sit down but stood up and this made it impossible for me to see. A steward did come and get them to sit down but after he had gone they stood up again and we never saw a steward again. I saw very little of the game due to the fact that I cannot stand for long.

I can only say that my experience going to QPR was disaster and I shall never go again. QPR I rate as the worst ground in the league for visiting disabled/ambulant away supporters.

Like other people who have written about QPR we found a mixture of good and bad as away fans visiting QPR. Firstly being limited to only 5 wheelchair fans when there was no limits on tickets for non-wheelchair fans felt rather discriminatory. Stewards outside the ground had no idea on where away wheelchair fans entered the ground, initially getting it right and then sending us round the other side where there were steps, only for us having to be sent back to the correct side! Access from the correct entrance was easy and the disabled toilet was the largest I have ever seen at a football ground, complete with a changing table but I could not see any way of assisting anyone on to it and it was high. Away wheelchair fans are not seated in the same stand as the away fans but are at right angles to the away stand – better than some grounds, but I was aware that some away fans were reporting unfriendly comments from the QPR fans seated behind them. QPR informed me that they do have headset commentaries for visually impaired fans but had no volunteers for the match we were attending as it was an un-scheduled cup re-play. On the night this was a major short-coming for my partially sighted husband sat with me in the wheelchair spaces. In the last 30 minutes of the lst half, 22 officials walked past us (I deliberately counted them). The significance of this for my husband who was relying on his spy glass to watch the match was that every time an official walked past us he had to re-find the ball in the 1 cm space he has to watch the ball. He was exhausted. I did complain at half time to the supervisor who said he would ask the stewards to hold people until there was a break in play. I heard him do this but it didn’t happen. In the 2nd half there were less officials walking past but still an unacceptable amount for even fully sighted fans. Were it not for the constant stream of officials walking past the view from the away wheelchair spaces was good – pitch level adjacent to the corner flag. I cannot finish this review without mentioning the numerous brilliant QPR fans who came to speak to us whilst we waited outside for our mini-bus to collect us after the game. A number came up to us to tell us how well they thought our team had played and one donated his QPR scarf to us.