Chelsea & QPR to compete for BBC site

I spoke to a senior BBC producer the other week who told me that in his view the Corporation was bitterly regretting ever, as he put it, "offering up on a plate" their West London base. He derided the politics that Labour had promoted, that of regionalisation of the programming output, pointing out that they were simply swapping one region - London - for another -  Salford. He asked whether someone in Newcastle would really care whether their programmes were being produced in London or the North West - given the regional rivalry on either side of the Penines, he guessed if the Geordie viewer cared at all, they'd have opted for London!

But the die is cast and we already hear rumblings from Chelsea about how they really ought to move out of Stamford Bridge, and of course QPR who long ago outgrew Loftus Road. According to this report, sent to me by a reader, the White City building itself (the white one up the road from TV Centre near the A40 bridge) is also set to be put on the market, creating a rather substantial patch of land. Just the sort of place you might construct a football stadium!

You've got to assume such a project would be years in the making but it seems there is a good chance of one of them succeeding - in the current economy only a football club owned by some of the richest men in the world would be able to buy it anyway. And you have to assume that QPR should be awarded first go, this being, er, Shepherd's Bush and all.