Really? I'm pretty sure no club has the budget that it would need to do it any other way than steadily build a fan base.



Well that is one person who gets it.

spot on max. The body language of the players was painful.
Great set of fans the quins guys, a credit to rugby league. Two things: i apologise for my foul language (i was the gobby plymouth boy amongst you guys swearing at the ref and booing your kickers (worked once) and i'll see you all at the stoop for the second leg of the biggest derby in superleague!

Attendance figures at Professional London Rugby League matches would be my chosen topic if I was ever to go on Mastermind. The reasons why London clubs have never managed to average more than 5,000 are many and well documented already, but in short.
The Media: They don't give a flying one...simple as that really.
The Name Changes: FulhamCrusaderBronquins.......
The Change of Addresses: The club probably spend more on re-directing mail than they do on Marketing.
Competition from other sports: Soccer and Union are the games that control most attention down here and that will always be the way.
Perception: Flat cap wearing whippet racing pigeon fanciers play League (and the BBC continue to enhance this perception with the commentary team on CC games)
...
There are many more reasons, but I can't be bothered listing them. What I will say, is that there seems to be little or no marketing activity coming out of the club this year and that is very worrying. Yes, we are now seeing the fruits of many years labour with more cockneys in the squad and we are getting more competitive. We also have a great Game Day experience and the bands in the bars after the game are brilliant, but what we are not doing is letting anyone know about it.
The poster who earlier said that no resident of TW would be able to name 3 players was nearly right......they wouldn't even be able to name 1 and that's if they even knew we existed.
I don't know what the solution is, but I do fear for Harlequins Rugby League in 2015 if we still average less than 5,000 a game.

Did the club of the league dictate that though?

It was a huge battle getting through the traffic on the A1, M1 and M25 (worth though for the result!).

The match day programme indicated that lots was going on within the community so I can't understand why no-one would be going.

To be fair the atmosphere was better than 2,500 fans would suggest.

One of the few times during the season the Union club ask us to arrange a fixture around them (happens more at the business end of each codes season), they had a home Heineken cup fixture on the Sunday and wanted to maximise pitch recovery time.

Truth hurts

can't really be avoided then unless they could have changed the Celtic fixture round to have been away first.

dunno mate but till you quote the truth i cant comment!

are you really that out of touch that you dont realise about Huddersfield's crowds - or are you just trying to stir it ?

like i said, fool

It was good to see RL in one of those London Free rags on Thursday shame it was the Saints team news for the Wigan match?

BBC London do a very good job. there must be more than 3,000 that listen to the Rugby League show. So where are they.

I really think the Harlequins deal for RL really hasn't worked with regards to attendances. I went to Griffen Park a few times (I started going 2002, so I haven't counted any attendances before that if you played Griffen Park before then) and you seemed to get bigger crowds there than at the Stoop.

looked bigger cuz the ground was more compact.

I'm not talking about looks. Iirc, crowds were around 4-5k at Griffen Park when we played down there. Since the move they have been 3k+. Not checked my facts yet though so may go have a look now in case I'm wrong



Edit: Just checked, and from 2003 every crowd at Griffan Park was bigger than the crowds at Harlquins when we played there. In 2002, one crowd was the lowest out the lot, the second was only beaten by one crowd from the Stoop.

(it was a bit tricky, I had to try and remember which of the games were played in Bridgend and Leicester

(

pretty static crowd wide, although we are a bit down a minimal amount (150) on those figures from GP.
Harlequins RL is just the same as any other brand. I can understand some people bitchin' about the Union tie in, but that's not the problem. The problem is.....nobody knows we exist.

I personally don't care about the fact you are tied in with a Union club. And I'm only commenting on attendances as its the only thing that Quins RL have a big problem with at the moment. I know some Quins fans talking about % increases etc but I think that is a silly estimation to use at that level of attendance. I feel that they are getting left behind by most other teams. Wakey don't seem to get crowds that low any more, neither do Huddersfield. The promotion of Hull KR and inclusion of the Catalans has also meant that Quins are further getting left behind. The inclusion of Salford takes the edge off things although I have never been a fan of Salford been given a franchise anyway tbh. Celtic seem to be getting some O.K crowds but they are a new club. What they have going for them is the fact they have their own identity and a ground that is seen as their home and I think over the next 5-10 years they have the ability to really grow.
Personally, I think its a shame that the London based club didnt get their own ground in the early days as I think this has effected them now. Either that or managed to get a really long lease on a ground

I think the slight fall has been down to reduced away followings since Les Catalans joined SL. Otherwise fairly stable crowd wise and something to build on now we've got some seriously good local boys in the first 17 every week.

And then you bring your points down by doing the opposite of what the last poster did.

Why just West London? Surely it should be the whole of London. The facts remain the crowd was better than that at Quins-Hudds with less away support and at a club that is a lot younger than quins. I think given the right marketing we can bypass quins.

I am very happy that the Wales-England game looks to be getting staged at Newport. With what should be a team of mostly Crusaders it will open the eyes of the South Wales public to the East of Bridgend.

Oh, right. So this isn't the case, then?



Do tell because to the unblinkered masses, it certainly looks to be the case.

I don't know what's funnier, the fact you're so wrong or you referring to yourself as unblinkered!

you show me where Huddersfield still have had to rely on away fans to make up a decent crowds and i will apologise and call myself a fat yorkshire fool - it wont happen cos you are talking absolute rubbish !

Instead of dancing round the issue and coming up with a range of well worn excuses for 8 pages, why dont we just be honest with ourselves and admit that there are not many people in London who would pay regularly to watch RL.

It's nothing to be ashamed of.

IMO the one main reason is that rugby league just isn't a big enough attraction in the city of London. Not saying it's the club's fault (London must be one of the entertainment capitals of the world afterall and so to say it has a lot of competition is an understatement), it's just the way it's always been, and to be honest I can't see them changing that.

I know it's a decade ago, but their turnout out Wembley in '99 must have been on of the lowest for years and years, and their support has only dropped since then. In other words, even a competitive SL team and Challenge Cup Final couldn't boost support for the club. To me they'll always be an NL-level club being kept in SL by the powers-that-be who refuse to accept the fact that RL will never be bigger in the south then football or RU. Just my view.

Actually we're kept in SL by poor sides that keep losing to us.

Should have been booted out when Broncos went under IMO.

What a principled fellow you are.....wrong, but principled.


The City of London is actually a little bit of land west of the City of Westminster, where all the stuffed shirts work.
Greater London on the other hand has loads to offer.
As for 1999 and the crowd, it was actually well attended.....but that had nothing to do with us....still if you dig a little (google it)you will understand why that cup final was well attended compared to the previous ones....
If you're going to fish roofs....use decent bait


I take it you won't be in TW2 on Sunday then.........

I was actually defending you about having lots of rival entertainment to compete with in London.



IIRC, wasn't the crowd something like:

72,000 (approx)
30,000 Rhinos
9,000 Broncos
33,000 other (e.g. fans of other clubs, corporate guests, etc)

Nah won't be there on Sunday. To be honest I couldn't really afford it anyway, + there's the principles of course.