It's really quite obvious really.

This time, the role he's moving back into has a promotion with his name on it....

I agree, but we shouldn't be wishing him away whilst still under contract. Happy for us to get a replacement for the new franchise

Fail

Get back behind that curtain you.

They should but we all know they won't!

Opinion




Fact

Everybody is assuming that Harlequins are going to apply for a new licence.

It's been costing David Hughes around a million a year to support the game's expansion in the south. Why should he ask the RFL to give him the opportunity to throw away another sackful of dosh?

If another moneybags doesn't get on board all the agonising in Wakefield, Castleford etc could be unnecessary?

Does anybody know FOR A FACT that a new application will be forthcoming?

Quote ="joeo"Everybody is assuming that Harlequins are going to apply for a new licence. It's been costing David Hughes around a million a year to support the game's expansion in the south. Why should he ask the RFL to give him the opportunity to throw away another sackful of dosh? If another moneybags doesn't get on board all the agonising in Wakefield, Castleford etc could be unnecessary? Does anybody know FOR A FACT that a new application will be forthcoming?'" www.league.quins.co.uk/news/12201.php Last para. Quote "We will now begin the process of appointing a successor who will continue the clubs commitment to fostering and developing local talent to ensure the healthy future of Super League in London."'" Of course, DH could have a change of mind. And it's about £2m. per year.

Quote ="joeo"Everybody is assuming that Harlequins are going to apply for a new licence. It's been costing David Hughes around a million a year to support the game's expansion in the south. Why should he ask the RFL to give him the opportunity to throw away another sackful of dosh? If another moneybags doesn't get on board all the agonising in Wakefield, Castleford etc could be unnecessary? Does anybody know FOR A FACT that a new application will be forthcoming?'" www.league.quins.co.uk/news/12201.php Last para. Quote "We will now begin the process of appointing a successor who will continue the clubs commitment to fostering and developing local talent to ensure the healthy future of Super League in London."'" Of course, DH could have a change of mind. And it's about £2m. per year.

£2M a year, Jeez, that bloke must be minted!

Fair play to him, he’s really committed, but, there must be a point when he says enough is enough.

aye and he's not a Mo & Ron's Ball game player!!!!

DH is as comitted to RL in the Capital now as he ever was. I for one hope is patience and endless pockets get what it deserves one day soon a club winning and having the union lot worried.

I agree the man is a legend and deserves all the success going.

We often hear on these boards the myth of RFL baling out London, when the reality is the opposite - it's David Hughes who maintains a SL presence in London, so important for the Sky support to the game in general - but there must be a limit to even his commitment, as we see with the Danny Orr departure (plus Will Sharp and LMS?) and no new signings.

He needs help and nobody's as yet sighted any cavalry.

This is a tetchy subject (with me anyway).....
DH pumps 1,500,000 a year into the club but has publicly said he wants/needs to scale this down. IL owns the majority of the club and is unable to assist in the funding of the club (and is still owed 2 million I believe, but has said he will not chase this money until the club can comfortably settle this debt and/or someone is willing to take his shares off him. These shares are available to anyone free of charge (just so long as he either gets his 2 mil or at least a guarentee he will get it.

So, Quins RL currently operate with the 1.2 mil from SKY, about 500k from ticket sales and another 500k from residuals such as replica shirts etc....and still manage to lose 30k a week all year round



Now to the crux of the matter. For the club to be able to stand on its own 2 feet and not require between 1 and 1.5 million a year they need to find a new revenue source. I have long suggested that the most sustainable revenue source available to them is on the gate. Since 2002 (when I really became a fan) the club have failed at nearly 99% of the attempts to attract fans.......and apparently (according to the RL world interview with the marketing manager at Quins) there are 1,000,000 people interested in League in the london area.

Now, either there are no funds made available for marketing at the club, or if there are, these funds are being used badly. My opinion on this is well documented on the quins board as I believe a chimp with a piece of wood and a hammer could have done a better job this year than has been done.
2 Examples (I believe there are only about 6 in total this year) would be handing out train pass covers in canary wharf and making a viral video that was seen by less than 5,000 people all year


With the help of a Union forced double header and a dodgy attendance given as 5,200....together with the 30 year double header given as 5,100...the club may just end up with the same average gate as last year......this is not good enough by any stretch of the imagination.
Quins RL were warned when they got their licence and then received a reminder.....about their crowds and yet they do nothing (or may as well). For a business in need of new customers, their plan is flawed in that viral videos are either lucky or the tools of major players and canary wharf is nearly 20 miles from their ground with about 5,000,000 residents between the two places.....


The last few games have seen ham fisted attempts at attracting free attendees through facebook and (if you're lucky) an email campaign....all in all, a pretty shambolic effort.

I am constantly shouted down by aplogists of the club....and told there is nothing we the fans can do, but watching the off-field antics of the club this year is akin to watching your favourite puppy being put in a bag with bricks and your dad saying he's taking it for a "walk" down by the canal.

If the club get a licence next year (and I believe they will) I hope that it comes with a warning.....a final warning at that. Get your crowds up by 100% before 2014 or goodbye! Regardless of if the RFL do this or not, I believe that David Hughes will be long gone before that if they don't start attracting a 5k average and pretty sharpish!

As for everything else the club do...it is exactly what the RFL are looking for......sustainable growth through youth development, playing local lads, nice stadium, expansion area etc......but all of this will be worth 2 tenths of nothing if the club can't learn to stand on its own 2 feet financially.

....and breathe.......

They certainly need more fans. Is part of the problem just how 'fragile' Quins seem to be? They win a few games but they really do take some fearful hammerings at times.

You have some terrific marketing ideas but, to quote you, they are worth 2 tenths of nothing if the other two fundamentals are not in place, viz the product to be marketed and a receptive target market. Marketing is not a magic bullet. It can artificially inflate crowds for a while but, without an attractive winning team AND a population predisposed to the idea of watching the game on a regular basis, marketing can only provide a temporary boost. As we've seen, it can bring in the odd drunken Scottish stag party to a hospitality box but they do not return for more.

As Wigan showed, marketing can get 20,000 into an unpromising quins game, but without the product (the team) and the tradition (the receptive market) to exploit, there would have been no point. Isn't there something in the bible on the futility of casting your seed on barren ground? That god bloke knew a thing or two.

ie There's no prospect at present of making up the Quins shortfall consistently from gate receipts no matter how brilliant the marketing. The cavalry has got to come from somewhere else.

Not mine...but not rocket surgery either



Cracking second half.....thought were very promising myself




If the club were to cut back on the community work, sack the dead wood from the back office (no names here, but previous posts may point you in the direction I am looking), then they would need to get an additional 3,500 on their average to make up the 1,000,000 I believe they would need.
Problem is, the club are terrified to market the game........they have no concept of data collection, or what to do with it and as any MD of a small to medium size business will tell you, direct marketing is the only way to go. The club are sitting in a borough of 250,000 residents who have not the faintest idea that league is played at the stoop. No local marketing.
They would need to find 1.4% of the local population to get another 3,500 in.......and if the greater London survey quoted in RL World in august is correct, there are 8% of the population why have an interest in league..........
I agree....a suf=gar daddy is great, but I would rather the club died trying to fend for itself instead of trying to find someone to prop them up.

www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... quins.html [i"I have met some fellows of integrity in my time and I have met some fellows whom I rate as men. David Hughes is probably up there, he is top drawer. "Without qualm and without fuss he has divvied up an incredible amount of money, almost soccer-style money, to keep this club afloat. "In the last couple of years certain things have happened which have meant he has had to divvy a little bit more up. "It has been tough on him and he can't continue to do that, and nor should he. "That's why I fear for the club. I do have a concern and I hope the people who are making the decisions at the top end make some correct decisions."[/i

www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... quins.html [i"I have met some fellows of integrity in my time and I have met some fellows whom I rate as men. David Hughes is probably up there, he is top drawer. "Without qualm and without fuss he has divvied up an incredible amount of money, almost soccer-style money, to keep this club afloat. "In the last couple of years certain things have happened which have meant he has had to divvy a little bit more up. "It has been tough on him and he can't continue to do that, and nor should he. "That's why I fear for the club. I do have a concern and I hope the people who are making the decisions at the top end make some correct decisions."[/i

Now factor in Stevo on 'Boots 'n All' last night. He rang David Hughes before the programme went on air and asked him if he could guarantee that Quins would be around in 2011. DH said no. This could explain why BM left with a year still to go on his contact to be No. 2 at Leeds, as he's got a family to consider. It also raises other issues. After this the RFL should get a definative statement from the club that they can make it in 2011 and quickly. If they are not prepared to do this, perhaps Quins should be removed now so that Widnes (for example) have time to prepare for SL next year.

Some pretty scary comments in the last two posts, doesn't look good.

Promote the Skolars to SL!!

Adding the Vikings IS NOT expansion

sadly, I agree with you.
Maybe it's time for the Championship. I doubt we'd lose more than half of the 2,500 fans we have and if the Union Lot were ever serious about a partnership, they could look at taking IL's shares for nothing and running the club properly. IL will never see his 2 mil.....so Evans and the union lot could pick up a real bargain. Joint management, marketing, office staff etc.....no problem trimming the 1.5 mil of the op costs....build over the next 6 years and re-apply when the team are winning things in the CH1 or NRC.

Would it not be worth Quins handing in their franchise and look to merge with Skolars, under the banner of London RL or similar, and just starting from scratch? It's surely worth trying something, just to keep the development work going.

Harlequins own them though dont they?

Do they? I genuinely didn't know. Apologies.

No apologies needed. I was just under the impression that when the Broncos nearly went under a couple of years back the Quins bought into them and moved them across the city, giving them thier kit, name, everything.

I may be wrong though.