Yes, it does embarrass our sport. Work in an office with a few rugby union fans and you will find that they love pointing out the crowd.

London should not be in super league and as a Hull fan travelling to matches the atmosphere at somewhere like Castleford, which last week was fantastic, can win over people to follow the sport, but seeing an empty ground like at London on Sky last week makes people think the game is a joke and of no interest to anybody. Unfortunately the morons who run our game would probably sooner get rid of Cas than London.

attendances for all the London sides playing outside of London (wasps, saracens and london irish) are pretty mediocre at best. i don't think it's the right way to go

dunno ?

I reckon a 7K home average (10K capacity) for a bottom of the table side is excellent - just shows the committment of the Wasps faithful even when the team is on it's knees



I bet the Broncos would cream themselves to get anywhere near that average !



bit worried about signing Stephen Jones though - watched him at Brive a few days ago and he seemed clueless....

I'm just loading some ammo clips on the 2-pounder pom-pom




It's fair to say that the 'out-of-town' experience for British sports clubs has been mixed at best. If you have really good road and public transport links (and you need both) it can work well, but there are several instances where it was near disasterous.

I've always thought it a mistake for London to try and appeal to the whole metropolis and surrounding area, precisely because the transport system isn't well geared to anything other than travel toward the centre. The supreme irony is that having moved around so much what few supporters we do have come from all over! So wherever we play is going to be difficult for most of our current fans.

Also the "don't rely on away fans" argument shouldn't mean that you ignore them or treat them as unimportant. I doubt the smaller clubs in the heartlands don't welcome the bigger teams boosting the gate when they visit.

In short, there's no magic location, but I'm not convinced out of town is the way forward unless it's to the north of London.

Brentford 2002. Average attendance 3,803
Brentford 2005. Average attendance 3,918

The Stoop 2006. Average 4,238
The Stoop 2012, Average 2,642.

The only time in the clubs 17 year ESL history that it left a "home" with more fans than it arrived with was at Griffin Park. This was down to Play-offs in '03 and '05, as well as a sense of community that was starting to build. The only football stadium in England with a pub on every corner, fans mixing in all of them before and after games, players as well..... and despite the whining of some, only a short hop off the M4, a 10 minute walk from the Train station and served by 5 bus routes (10 mins from Ealing Broadway, 5 mins from South Ealing), the ground lacked the "corporate sheen" of some of the new stadiums or even the Stoop, but it was starting to feel more like home after a couple of years than The Valley or the Stoop ever could IMO.

If London move again (and let's face it, the current regime will try everything to attract fans except F()(kING MARKETING) then I believe a move back to GP or a similar ground would be the best way forward......

guuterfax, that's probably the best researched post on here, and you have some points.

The downside of GP was having to go 'on-the-road' for 8 weeks (although we don't seem to get regular home games at the Stoop) and the fact that all the profit from beer sales before the game went to the publican/pubco/brewery.

But as we aren't getting the numbers that last point is moot.