2 things can improve our crowds:

1) money to market the club and pay for a couple of superstars
2) a squad with some genuine home grown international quality players

we finally have 1 of the two so i think our crowds should improve slightly, but i fear that without the second we'll never get near the 7k+ mark of respectability. So we need to win trophies or find a rich benefactor to get some money in.

No, but IMO Quins could literally have only one man and his dog attending SL home games and the RFL would still always grant you a place. Just my opinion.

the negativity of some quin fans is astounding, in the past i have been one of the biggest critics of expansion and quins in particular. but i have been converted by some of the superb rugby they have played over the past 2 seasons, and i have developed quite a soft spot for quins as a result. hopefully more and more people will be converted to admiring the quins like myself.......................

When the football seasons over why not target a different London Premier League club each home game and say their season ticket holders get in free?! i dont think any of them are quaking in their boots about a few fans going to watch the rugby during the off season so im sure theyd help. maybe invite few celebs top footballers to games? raise the profile?

when london became harlequins i heard of quite a few fans turning away as they didnt want to support quins. these were people who followed other london based union clubs and so wouldnt give money to what they saw as one of their rivals.
how much of an effect did this have?

Only soft spot you ever wanted for me was 6 feet under

glad you have seen the light

There are still a few lunatics like you who are refusing to see the light on our forum (although most have no converted to actually realising the club are is in deep trouble).

I've often thought that might be the case. As well as the rivalry, did the club lose some identity by taking the same name as another club?

I was always a fan of the broncos set-up and felt if they got themselves a permanent home, gave it time and worked hard, they'd be one of the best supported league sides in the country. Can't help feeling getting into bed with harlequins has set them right back.

Neligible.

Broncos set up never worked. Continue, and we would have folded, no matter how "nice" it was. The tieup with Harlequins is the best thing that has happened to the club in its history.

Well you're in the know, so I bow to your greater knowledge. I'm very much pro-london rl so I hope the sport and the club's continue to grow.

As do I. I agree with you though, I loved the Broncos too, the numbers just weren't working

IIRC you played at the stoop at first under the broncos name, was there no other option but to take harlequins name and colours when the partnership was established?

No, sorry, I'm crap at anagrams.

Nope that was the deal, free-ish ground rental (the only way we could survive) and use full quins brand and colours. We weren't even allowed to keep 'London' and call ourselves 'London Harlequins'. I think if we'd gone back to the old Broncos colours and quins style squares shirt and been called London Harlequins we'd have a lot more fans right now. The lack of independent RL identity is a big problem for lots of RL fans including me.

you know what they say homer, even the most decadent can be reformed

Well, whilst I find some of the attempts and reasonings for trying to expand the game (seemingly at the expense of small northern traditional clubs) annoying at times, I hope Harlequins and Skolars stay in the game. I'm all for expansion - just not at the expense of smaller northern teams!

First and foremost, London/Southern Rugby League fans are.....RUGBY LEAGUE fans and we would never want another team to go under because of us.
The game itself isn't big enough to have a 30 team 1st division...and what the RFL will try to do is establish a 15 or 16 team premiere division and hopefully filter down some of the cash and experience from these clubs to the lower divisions. What will stop this is the almost fascist attitude of some northern heartland nutters who just blame London/PSG/Crusaders and Catalans for their current situation.
Fact is, before SKY, the game was on its ar5e......and heading even lower. SKY wanted London and France involved and SKY got the French experiment back on after PSG went under and SKY will determine if Scotland, Ireland and Finland get a franchise in future.
If people want to blame London (god, that was a great thread), then carry on, but believe me, you are pointing your finger in the wrong direction as SKY are based in TW8....not TW2

I'm not having a pop at London, as I said I'm all for sensible expansion; it's all this talk of forcing independant clubs, which come from individual communities and draw their support from their locality, having to merge into big clubs on the say-so of some suit who doesn't know or care about the area. Cas and Wakefield for instance are individual towns and if they don't want to merge, who's to say they should? and the same goes for any amount of other clubs.
It annoys me, that's all. Sure, let's expand the game, but realistically. Not through a rigged system and lying to ourselves and the rest of the sporting world about how fast the game is spreading. Once we've got decent crowds in London, maybe look elsewhere...

All what talk?

Just stuff on other threads, about how these clubs ought to combine to make a big club in the area and cobblers like that. I don't think it's an RFL policy or anything!
Also, listening to the stuff on Boots 'n' All about how well the game is doing in it's target expansion areas (not necessarily true), how it's all about SL franchises and so on.
Sorry Eddie and Stevo, but there's many other levels of rugby being played at the moment, SL isn't the be all and end all of RL!

I have never said they should merge.....I have though said for the sake of both clubs and the RL community in the area share a ground. It makes sense, both financially and geographically......but never merge!

I have said clubs should merge. Dont see what Cas and Wakey offer, merge them to form the South Leeds Wild Tigers. Same with Hull KR and Hull, what's the point of wasting two SL licences on one town. Hull Kingston Fisherman.
Warrington and Widnes should form the Chemical Wires, Wire never win a thing and Widnes can get into SL.

Hello Albert.