Agree. You should plan to fill your stadium with your own fans, not rely on those with large away followings to keep you going.

Spot on. This is why Wigan do so well crowd wiser.

While I can't agree with your prediction that we will soon see the demise of RL, I can agree with pretty much everything else. I can tell that you and many other fans care deeply about the fortunes of both clubs, but considering some of the posts on this thread and others on similar ones (such as laughing at attendances), it's hard to see past the view that many fans will criticise anything outside of the M62 corridor.

Care to expand on that point, what is it they do that has such a detrimental affect on other clubs or the sport in general?

You might well ask.



Because you get teased at work?





They already have done. It was a full house at Wembley that day. As is entirely the norm on such a day.



A very good post altogether.

This reminds me, though, of my first experience in Perpignan, when we were on a Catalans Sports Tours day trip to the nearby coast. Cas were that weekend's opposition and tb and I were in a minibus with about half a dozen Cas fans.

One part of the conversation went as follows: "Well, it's very nice, but it isn't a [iproper[/i Rugby League town". In other words, it's not a run-down, former industrial stronghold in the north of England.

To an extent, I think that encapsulates part of the problem. It's not vindictiveness, but the game as a while – as opposed to just individual teams – is (for some at least) so utterly and inextricably linked to a general sense of northern identity and culture. That sense of identity/culture is hat's perceived by some outside – to the sport's detriment, I would suggest – but positively by many within.

And as the north continues to struggle (in general) in this post-industrial world, I suspect that can become even more defensive.



Well, we are all Europeans.

And wow – what a fantastic place to go and watch a game.



There is no NEED for any RL club anywhere. Just as there is no NEED for any sports club anywhere.

End of.

Nice selective quote there.

Okay then, whilst many other Super League clubs are doing all they can to get a Super League franchise, London are seen by non RL fans as a gimmick, when they are on TV and there is less than 2,000 there, with no shirt sponsor it makes the sport look bad. They are spending a lot of money on players and never have any success, the fact that their name has changed so many times, and they have moved stadiums so many times just portrays a bad image.

As a RL fan I can see past these issues, but the facts are that anyone with a passing interest in the sport (anyone that I have met anyway) just see London as a gimmick.

I am in no doubt that we WOULD all love to see London RL flourish in Super League, but it hasn't and the signs aren't positive going forward. Like I said before, it's a sticky situation, the cash cow only has so much milk.

leave earlier then



it takes me SIX hours to drive to every Catalans home game FFS !

They are averaging about 5k more than London. Even your own fans are saying you dont deserve a franchise on this thread "Dave" stop getting so defensive.

From a Wakefield fan!!!!! Your as bad as London!!

To anyone who knows anything about travel in London and the south east, this gate should be no surprise. If Sky really do want an SL team in London they have to realise;
WEEKDAY GAMES IN LONDON ARE A WASTE OF TIME.

The roads are gridlocked by mid afternoon until well into the evening.
The public transport system is entirely geared up for travel to and from the central area, travelling between suburbs is ridiculously time consuming.

The crowd on Friday consisted of hardcore fans who are fortunate enough to live round the corner, or have jobs where they can knock off early.

And as for away fans, not many come from the heartland clubs on a weekday night, so how many did anyone think would travel from another country?

We have enough issues with crowd numbers (as done to death elsewhere on here) without Sky compounding the issue by insisting on weekday games.

Sorry Listy, but you're reinforcing prejudices with comments like that. You know full well that if you worked in parts of London like Croyden or Docklands, you would not have been in the pub for 18:30, unless your employer is prepared to let you knock off early. I'm with Tre Cool on this one, weekday games are just a waste of time.

sanjunien, you clearly have no job, or a very understanding boss who lets you leave work early when you need to. Not everyone is so fortunate.

the game (London v Cats ) wasn't shown on SKY, was it ? so what's it to do with SKY ?

shouldn't you be blaming the RFL for scheduling such a game at a ridiculous time ?

I do have a job but don't work weekends nowadays (after 35 odd years of weekends/no holidays etc) which allows me to travel the six hours to Perpignan or the three hours to Toulouse or five hours to Carcassonne etc
the last Toulouse game was on a wednesday evening at Villeneuve with a 2000 KO so I started work an hour early,worked through my dinner break and left at 1600 and drove down the three hours to get to the game - I left at 2130 and got home,managed a few hours kip then up at six as usual for work

I love the game and am prepared to make the effort to see as many games as possible...

I arrange days off around some games like monday evening I stayed in Perpignan and drove back the tuesday and took a days holiday

it's not rocket science but it helps to have a missus who is as RL daft as me !

So what were Wiggy, Stevo, and Wellsy doing there, along with umpteen cameras and a big screen then?
Of course I could be confusing this with the Wakey game. All these evening games are confusing me. You'd think I'd remember when we won, it's not like it happens every week.

Which rather confirms my point, you are fortunate enough to have a job that lets you work flexibly. Some people are still expected to work fixed hours, don't judge them too harshly.

yes,you're right

tolerance never was my strong point i'm afraid .....

Not sure if you missed what I meant. I was agreeing, clubs shouldn't whinge about small away supports coming to their grounds and work on filling them with their own. Smarter business.

He was agreeing with you. Doh!!!!!!!!!

Strangely my boss isn't mad keen on me leaving work before 6.00. If you drive 6 hrs each way to watch Les Cats then you are mental. Is there no Elite team nearer?

nah - my nearest LER team is either Toulouse or Villeneuve both about three hours away

Brive is about an hour away to see Top 14 RU which is ok if i'm desperate.....

Not getting defensive, just highlighting the ignorance of some posts and how people, usually flat cappers, are unable to base their opinions on anything other than attendances, a factor which as pointed out, has no adverse effect on other clubs.

Wigan are probably averaging 10k more than Castleford, therefore there really must be little point in Cas existing.

Dumb isn't it?

It takes 20 minutes to get to Twickenham Station from Waterloo. Even if you were coming from Docklands you would struggle to miss kick off. My mate works in the City and managed to catch a train at 6.20 and joined us in the pub at 7.

The idea behind that game, although poorly executed, is to attract those that work in London and head out after work. Someone on our forum posted saying he was bringing 10 mates from work to the match. I imagine these live all over the South and you wouldn't get them to a match on a weekend. I live in Kent, I do not expect the club to cater for me as I live miles away. Bleating because the club have tried to do something different is incredibly short sighted and selfish.


Organise your life better if this impacts you so much. Just imagine if teams played on a Friday night and away fans had to take a half day minimum to make the 250 mile journey.

Oh, wait...

I don't think the majority of RL fans are anti Broncos or even anti excpansionist

I think they,well me anyway are surprised that with such a large catchment area the game at SL level hasn't caught the imagination of Joe Public

before the Broncos initial SL foray I honestly believed the thousands of ex pat northerners down sarf plus a fair smattering of southerners would have flocked to whichever ground in the London area to watch top flight RL but obviously not !


I just find it sad to see a venture like that going down the pan...

True, and it's dead handy if you're near Waterloo. Trouble is most of London isn't. And a lot of London isn't near a transport link that will get you to Waterloo quickly.
That rather depends on when you're allowed to leave work. Some people in this world work fixed hours.

I hope he did bring them and that they enjoyed themselves. My worry is that they saw a poor team performance, a small lack lustre home crowd, no away support, no banter, no atmosphere. Not a great advert for the game.

Given that they've played weeknight games in every year I've followed them, how does this constitute 'something different'?

I was at the match, heard you gobbing off, east stand block FD I'd estimate. This isn't about me, I'd rather you didn't make it personal.

Like I say, some people work fixed hours, they simply cannot 'organise their life better' without compromising their employment.

This is surely another reason why we should avoid Friday night games.

This is the 17th year I've followed them and I've worked in London all that time.
There are many seasons where the only way I could make a Friday night game would have been to take a days holiday, and in some jobs I didn't have many of those to start with. So my assertion that travel time / logistics are an issue for some people is learned from personal experience.
I am struggling to think of a weekday match I've been to where the crowd wasn't well below the season average.

How many times do we try this before admitting that Friday night games do us no favours?