On the other hand, most Londoners that aren't super rich live in those sort of places anyway and take in to account that it is the best part of an hour from the suburbs to central London. Having said that, most Londoners I used to work with had never been further than Watford and crossing the river to South London was a trek of explorational proportions.

The other problem is that the main London paper (the Standard) and the local news channels treat Quins like a local non-league football team and leave the coverage to the local local paper, rather than treat the team as representative of the whole of London.

Personally, what really gets people noticing games and looking at the matches that draw the biggest attendances anywhere in the League are derbies. Rather than one club, what London needs is a second half decent SL club .... The cut down Olympic Stadium would be a perfect venue. London Olympic / Skolars could tap in to the North / East market and Quins could be released on the South / Western end of the capital. Hey presto, instant derby game.

It is also worth considering the crowds that the Union attracts in the captial, given that hardly any 'London' teams actually play there. There seems to be little complaint about travel to watch 'London' RU teams in those well-known London suburbs of Watford, Wycome and Reading.

The RFL are slowly applying the same ethos to France with two teams there and it is a shame that there isn't a second team in Wales somewhere (maybe over Swansea way) to get the derbies going there.

Dont give them ideas

Read the thread...

Of course they'll put it in their catchment area. I live in N London & my nearest SL club is Quins so I dont see why I shouldnt be included in their catchment area. What the RFL have to do when analysing what that means is recognise that in a place like Castleford or St Helens or Hull there will be a different proportion of the catchment area that are likely to go through the club's turnstiles than in a city like London.

Sadly I fear that the task of marketing SL in London might be too big in the long run given all the hurdles they've got to overcome like the long journeys (mine is about 90 minutes), other competing events, limited media exposure in the catchment area, & the (for quite a lot of this season at least) not very great atmosphere when you do make the effort to get there.

That being said, I do think Quins could put a lot more effort into the marketing of the club. I got a cheapo ticket to one of their games this season in exchange for giving them my name & address. But they've not made any use of that. I've not received a single bit of marketing through my letter box to try to get me to go again. Mr Blanchard (?) said when he joined the club the priority was to get bums on seats. I agree, but it would be good to see some evidence that there's an effort going into getting that.

1h30 from my place too (Kilburn), hardly a quick trip. After the great Tube (provided it does work which is not granted) you have to walk 15-20min to get there. Great connection to the Tube indeed.

Clearly, the Stoop is not easy to access for most Londoners. Given the average hourly wage in London and the fact that every body is always running, an overall trip of 3h for a rugby match will only motivate the core fans...

As it has been said, don't look for RL coverage in daily local newspapers, it is quasi inexistant.