I guess this thread has had a major drift, if it has suddenly been turned into a today's results thread.

Disappointing to see more of the fans that turned up for the cup game vs Saints didn't come back this week.

Be nice if the clubs outside super league got a few million pound to spend eh?


Celtic clowns long may they last...well hopefully until the guy gets fed up and moves onto something else...how come when they wrote up their cv they failed to mention they relied on the money of one fella, which was aimed at leigh and widnes last time


Ah well one rule for one a million rules for the rest

What?

It must have been some creative writing if Leighton Samuels backed the club with his money for 3 years before Super League and they managed to convince the rfl he wasn't the major backer for the application to SL?

Exactly my point,those nice franchise fellas made a point of saying to Leigh that there reliance on one major backer was very worrying and a handicap,so like I said one rule for one a million rules for others


Ah well can't wait for the next round of the franchise farce...do clubs have to submit new proposals or will the sketch of the new ground on the back of a beer mat suffice again?


Looking forward to it

Me too.

If the Brewery Field does not come off we'll no doubt make a deal with the Liberty Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park or Rodney Parade so that will be the stadium sorted in one swoop. Bring it on.

I assume you mean the "expansionist" team in the traditional RL heartland of Catalonia?

Catalans the Traditional M62 Heartland club ?

E15 heartland club

Catalans the team from the area that's been playing rugby league for 70 years.

IMHO you should be in one of those places anyway. It's not like Bridgend has any more RL history that the much bigger population centres up the road.

playing in a super competitive and financially superior league to our own no doubt ?

And the locals don't exactly seem bowled over by a SL club on their doorstep.

Part of the under-appreciated difficulty in developing crowds in 'London' is just how far apart, in terms of travel time, different bits of 'London' are from one another.

The London Pro team has gone from (excuse me if I miss any) Fulham to Chiswick to Crystal Palace to Barnet to Brentford to Twickenham to Charlton to Twickenham to Brentford to Twickenham....

...now, Brentford to Charlton is, I'd guess, well over an hour on public transport... Brentford to Twickenham is probably an hour at least... ...when I lived in the East End, a mate from Warrington came to stay because he was on a course in Crystal Palace, and it took him nearly 2 hours each way to get there... like he said, if he'd been on a course in Manchester, it would be like staying with a mate in Newcastle.

...lots of great work has been done in London, but it's not quite so easy as to say that should be the basis for big crowds at Quins yet. If they'd been in Fulham for 30 years they'd probably be getting much bigger crowds, but as it is there are 'bushfires' of support in places that can't necessarily get to the Stoop regularly.

no, playing in a league capable of justifying and supporting one SL franchise, very much like the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL.

Nice to see another rule relaxed for you


Now was it not a few years back we applied to play games at the reebok, bolton wanderers ground only to be told you can't do that ,you have to have your own ground aye that rule got whizzed out


Then the best one richard branson wanted to dump london move the franchise to leigh as he said it would be the only financial outcome possible to make money out of it,only to be told no...so he walked away from the game


Ah well one rule for one a million for other teams

Wasn't he talking about a future ground for CC, didn't you apply to play games at the reebok for only certain times, individual matchs, etc(iirc). The branson thing is completely different unless i'm getting the wrong end of the stick here?

We now have a relatively stable core of home support, so I'm not convinced we would lose most of that if we played in the lower leagues. We'd certainly lose the casuals and the away support, I think that's the big problem. To me it looks like many of the potential SL clubs in the lower leagues simply hope that they can get more casuals and away fans to follow them if they were in SL, in some cases they may be right (if they're playing the SL team next door it makes it easier), but they may also be wrong.



This is one of the strangest statements I've ever seen on these boards, and I've seen some strange sh[size=9.[/sizeit. I don't despise tradition, but I understand that there is a difference between tradition and mythical or largely imagined history. It is traditional in RL to adopt change for commercial reasons, it is traditional that some clubs fail and some come back from the dead etc.



Answer to which question? The faux-concerned obsession with certain attendences to the exclusion of more rounded analysis doesn't really go anwhere, it's a dead end. Just as the demand that it should be raised up above all the other equally important issues simply because it's a convenient stick with which to attack expansion (and protect parochial interests) is always going to be challenged by people smart enough to see it for what it is.

The crowd at the stoop on Saturday was a disgrace. I have defended the Club for years on these boards and in person at grounds around the UK, but no more.
I am sick and tired of being told it will get better and we will attract fans, but this season we are nearly 500 down a game and almost 1,000 down since our last season at Brentford.
I will continue to defend the club on other issues, but until I see a poster in a Twickenham Pub, an advert in the London Press or see any other form of PROPER marketing, then I will not defend the club of Attendance issues.
Shocking

If we're serious about RL in London then the RFL should also lead the drive to promote the game. Have a joint marketing venture (to include funding) to produce those adverts and press campaigns.

The problem is that the RFL marketed the Manly game and we got 6,000+ for that. It showed Harlequins Rugby League what could be achieved with a bit of effort, but the Club don't seem to have taken that on board. The management at the club appear to be living in a parrallel universe and think that fans will flock to the Stoop without prompting......
As I have pointed out here and to the club, the nearest pub to the ground has various signed Rugby Union shirts and even a Southampton FC one, but no mention of us at all. The residents of TW2 don't even know we exist and if the locals don't know about us, how the hell are the rest of Londons sports fans supposed to know


With the Leeds game being on SKY and visits from Salford and the Giants to come, I think you might see an average of less that 3,000 at the stoop for the season.

Why should the RFL put money into promoting Harlequins in the London area? Surely that is the clubs responsibilty.
I'm sure Gateshead, Sheffield and a host of other clubs would love their upcoming fixtures and club events plastered all over billboards, in local newspapers and on radio but that's is the club's job.
The fact that locals aren't aware of the club shows Harelquins RL have plenty of work to do, and good luck to them.

You would lose any away support and a good chunk of your home support. Your profile would take a nosedive and I doubt you would be allowed the support of the Harlequins RU. There is little doubt in my mind that your club would cease to exist at a pro level without SL. All that could be done is a complete reformation and re-brand somewhere else, in the hope that you could one day get to where the Skolars are now. Your club would not survive without the continued investment of rich backers; almost all Heartland clubs can. You are kidding yourself if you think otherwise.




I’ve seen some of the comments you have made recently about RL history. You clearly hold it in contempt. You where not part of it, so you throw the toys out of the pram and insult it with a negative spin.

I’m not denying that RL has had to change and adapt, and that a London club is all part of that. What I meant was that the long traditions of RL in the heartlands may not be able to garner SL size crowds, but they will keep a club going one way or another. Probably all could muster the kind of attendances Harlequins get in SL, several could do a lot better. That’s why Les Catalans came from nothing to crowds of 8,000/9,000. That’s why Widnes can get 1,650 in the NRC and yet double Harlequins attendances when in SL.

To be honest I’m not really interested in who gets what level of support in SL. I don’t care what Halequins or Celtic get. It has no bearing at all on my club. We have our own issues to deal with. The only thing that spiked my interest in this thread was when my club was mentioned. I actually hope RL takes off in London and South Wales



That’ll be the question I asked at the very beginning of my reply to you.

Here I’ll help you out:

And there in lies the problem. There is no budget available to spend on advertising and therefore, their will be no marked improvement in crowds.
A recent example would be the bring two mates for free offer to ST holders, with a planned follow up campaign to the 2 guests with discounted tickets for the next 2 games. Part 1 happened, but there was no follow up.
Shambolic, amateur and incompetent are terms that could be used when describing the "marketing" at the club. I do not blame any of the back office staff for this, only the senior management.
The recent debacle of the Catalans Game being moved because someone at the club told the RFL "we don't bring many fans" is just another example of the inability to manage simple day to day functions, let alone grow the clubs fan base.
Thank god attendance only counts for 2 points in the franchise application...........