Does the rugby union club that play at the stoop gather its support off the doorstep or do they come from all over?

That's all well and good, and I agree if expansion is the Holy Grail then we need a successful team in the South East - but London? Over my many, many visits to the capital and with many family and friends living there I've never felt a sense of identity from one area to another, even less for some huge overbearing entity called 'London' that no-one has any particular affinity with. Despite the boroughs, towns, villages, etc, the entire place is perceived as (and not far from) one huge urban sprawl, nothing more. How many sports teams are 'London xxxxxx'? I remember the Yankee Futbol team but that too died a death.

Further, football and RU are too deepy ingrained in the psyche for a London team to make an impact over the metropolitan area of London, as appears to be the goal. We need to be targeting urban areas with minimal influence from football and RU. Hemel, whilst holding a fairly small a population, is the perfect example - build slowly and establish yourself over many years. I absolutely love the fact Hemel Stags have been admitted to Championship 1 for 2013 - they've gone about it the right way. I have extended family in the area (only recently discovered, mind), and I'm looking to take in a few games during future visits.

If I were looking at expansion in the SE I'd aim for areas people are more affiliated with. I dunno, 'Surrey Titans', 'Essex Saxons', 'Kent Kants' if we want to appeal to larger, widespread populations, or carry out market research on towns and cities in the SE and pick the most likely target. 'London' just isn't working. People tend to be proud of their counties, whereas most people I know in the South talk about 'London' almost apologetically.

At the same time the game needs to be strong at home before diverting much-needed cash and man-hours elsewhere. Get the current SL teams running viable operations and a few strong tiers below, then you can think about ploughing millions elsewhere. Even once you picked your area it's not a case of simply forming a team and giving it a nice name, you need to make contacts in the local media, get RFL development officers into local schools and colleges, market the team successfully around the area, perhaps form youth teams a few years before launching any open-age or high-level teams, work social media in the correct way, get volunteers involved behind the scenes, find year-round training and playing facilities, etc, etc, etc.
[size=70(I'm basically telling mmp's (he posts on here) life story over the last few years!)[/size

I'm full of admiration for London's hardcore fans, but at the moment I just don't see the point, or where it's going.

Fair Post, but in the real world, the club need to stay exactly where they are and start to MARKET themselves. Believe me when I say that up until 2009 there was little or no marketing of the club and since then, it has been farcical to say the least.
By no means, unless the club managed to find 30 million to fund a new stadium, move from the stoop. West London is where the Broncos have been in ESL with the exception of a spell at Charlton.......I even suggested that if the club insisted on the stupid rebranding (a total waste of time BTW) then West London should have been used.....

...to suggest a move to a village or borough just smacks of exactly the same mistake being made again. At Griffin Park the club left in 2005 with more fans than it had when it arrived in 2002. They should never have moved back to twickenham, but at the time, Evans at the Union lot and Lenegan thought it a good move....they were wrong and neither are still in the roles they were then.

If the club moves agin, it truly will die and I can only hope the Skolars are there to pick up some of the fans and players that will otherwise be lost to the game.
IMO that is.

That's a very thought-provoking post sir. Thanks.

I've no idea but given that they've been in the twickers area for over a 100 years I'd say a fair portion do.

Harlequins RU has been going for a dogs age (1866 to be precise) whereas London rugby league in its various guises has been here there and everywhere in a relatively short period of history comparatively.. Not particularly condusive to attracting a local loyal fan base. Of those fans that have chosen to continue to follow the club (albeit in small numbers) some come from all parts of the capital and a few from the home counties (I know of a couple of season ticket holders from near St.Albans)
The point I was making is that for some a journey across London is for the most part more tedious and lengthy than a 50 mile hike across the M62 to see your team, that that is a home game is one of many reasons London do not get decent support. That some fans do travel that far should be applauded.

I worked in Twickenham in the mid to late eighties, and the locals hated the club and wanted it out because of the match-day hassle and this was in the days when RU gates were still measured in the hundreds.

I remember the locals whining about the big house across the way as well.....especially when pavarotti or someone was due to have a concert there.
Always puzzled me that these people failed to see the fking massive stadium across the road when they bought their houses



Harlequins Rugby have a history of attracting fans from "the city" and were for a long time in the "amateur era" considered the richest club in the world. Surrey stock brokers et al seem to still make up a fair chunk of their fan base, but they have really started to connect with the locals in the last couple of years and followed the Leagues lead into the schools....

So what was the actual attendance against Wakefield in the end then?

Just had a look on the official Broncos website Gutterfax, 2268 - reckon it's time to call it a day.

1829 at The Stoop tonight.

yeah....cos 1,800 fans at the stoop is the reason bradford are buggered


6 years since bradfors were WCC......let's say London brought 1,000 to each away game since then...there's 60k of the 1 MILLION POUNDS they need.
1,800 is the responsibility of the club and its owner....it has nothing to do with knuckledraggers........

It's got everything to do with fans of Rugby League - if they choose. It's topical. Just because it's a bad statistic doesn't mean that people shouldn't debate it. Get over yersen lad.

London Rugby League is in intensive care - because of the move to The Stoop. Griffin Park was a lovely, homely ground, and it was so perfect for the Broncos - because there they could have build a fan base, but they had to move. They're in a strange situation, if they move, I'm afraid it'll be like pulling the plug.

I like London, I want it to stay, but it's simply a case now, of how do we rescue it? [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/1519147.stmClick Here[/url and you'll see when London really were in the sh*t, before DH bought the club - where would we be if we'd have let York come into Super League?

The day David Whelan put Wigan up for sale was the beginging of the end for the London ESL club. Ian Lenegan can't be faulted for buying his home town club, but it left a massive financial hole that has never been filled.

I wonder if in hindsight, the RFL regret insisting on IL cutting ties with us......?

The RFL and SLY TV need to man up and take over a controlling interest in the set up in London......or the club will not be around after the next round of franchising...IMO that is.

absolute joke - get 'em out and let someone more deserving in

I don't think that should happen, or is required. Why should either take a controlling interest? Apart from the lack of proper marketing are the London Broncos being badly run? Rather than taking control, they should enter into a partnership with the RFL and Sky purely on a marketing JV. At least then David Hughes wouldn't feel so alone in his quest to get the Broncos the exposure that they deserve.

Read the papers. The RFL never "REGRET" anything.

1,829 hahahaha

What a farce!

Have you seen the cr*p they are serving up

Thur night, in London against Catalans with a sh*ite side-what did you expect

no excuses, this is the elite league

We'll be ok, prob move stadium next year, crowds and hope will increase a bit and the whole process will start again.

utter joke - where do you propose moving to which will bring in 5K + crowds ?

kick them out and let someone like Fev,Fax,Leigh,Sheffield et al in who can at least provide some kind of serious fan base

All who will attract 2 k crowds. Thats improvement for you.

Get beck to the working mens club and talk sh*t there

How can London Broncos survive as a business?