And win some games.

I don't think we are in a position to bag a club that has worked so hard to get the punters in.

Really does cast doubt upon your opinion , your lack of knowledge of the sport below SL

But if I was a season ticket holder down the 'Moon' and then the club started giving freebies away when I'd paid for my seat I would be pretty snaky about it.

The free tickets at Huddersfield have been for children though, looking to attract and keep the next generation of fans. I'm sure you wouldn't find too many season ticket holders complaining if the implementing of such a policy meant that they could then take their kids for free or next to nothing. The desire for cheaper kids tickets is something that many fans at my club Wigan have been asking for. Quins if they attempted such a scheme even for a few games would provide an afternoon's or evening's entertainment for a family for a lot less than other attractions in the area. They need to try anything they can to get the people through the turnstiles. If no-one takes up the free kids tickets Quins lose nothing, if people do go for it then they have the opportunity to gain new long term support.

As someone said though they have to be winning to keep any new spectators interested. I still think that a step down to the Championship would allow the club to compete whilst maintaining their policy of bringing through their own youth players and is the best way to proceed for the continuation of Quins and their role in the development in London as well as giving a more competitive team on the park to give crowds a better chance of growing. If Quins are to be kept in SL then I think that new clubs in towns near to but not in London have to be set up in Championship 1 (as I outlined in an earlier post) to allow for the continuation of a player pathway should Quins fold.

It isn't really hard, just needs some thought and commitment from Quins. Ok here's a simple low cost way for starters:

Identify the primary schools in a 50 mile radius. Offer free tickets for kids and parents to one game plus a free coaching clinic and education session on physical health the week before the game. Players go along to the school, coach the kids give them a lesson on keeping fit, kids get excited come along to the game, maybe come back in the future.

or:

Identify the pubs in london with a large antipodean element. Offer free transport to and from the game for patrons of said pubs. Offer some prizes, free 1/2 time beer etc to people who take up the offer. Form a partnership with the pubs where they advertise the game, offer happy hour before kick off to members of the deal and special price drinks to celebrate wins after the game and they get free advertising at the ground in return (plus benefit from patronage before and after the game)

not rocket science!

Your not though...so stop commenting on what you know nothing about. In fact, you haven't even troubled the ticket office at the stoop once...yet you live down the road and drink in the bush......but as a principled RL fan, you refuse to visit the stoop.
Bazza, get your auzzie butt down to the stoop this summer. What's the worst thing that could happen?

stupid argument

when 2 clubs get so much less than the rest their place in the elite league should be under threat

if both were averaging say 5000 - 6000 i wouldnt be making the argument

gates of 3000 or less are shameful for top level rl.

still i notice salford got 6000 for wigan game so its promising

He might enjoy it...

So is the argument that a clubs criteria to be in the elite league shouuld be based on gates alone.

You do realise what Quins (or a london based SL side) bring to the game (apart from poor gates)?

I find posts like this highly amusing because they make claims like it's "not rocket science" and then they regurgitate the same old ideas that have been tried and had limited impact on crowds in the past (or in some cases are completely ignorant of reality - do people know how many primary schools are within a 50 mile radius, and more importantly do they realise how long it takes to travel such distances in greater London?). Yes, "it really isn't hard" if all we have to do is keep doing stuff that doesn't work because some halfwit on a message board says so!

maybe the RFL should make crowds one of the criteria for entry into SL.

that would be a good idea.

One of the claims made for including Salford was the fact that Media City is on the doorstep and BBC Sport is moving there. Quins RL doesn't seem to directly affect the level of coverage the game gets in the print press does it?

Besides the deficit that the club is running at, currently covered by david Hughes, there is also the ownership issue. Ian Lenagan was supposed to have sold his majority shareholding by last October. There hasn't been any announcement that this has happened. If not the RFL is allowing a breach of it's own operational rules.

There was an announcement last year as the deadline for the shares to be sold approached. Due to the economic climate it had not proved possible to attract any willing investment to take on Ian Lenegan's shares. Due to this factor that is out of anyone's control Ian Lenegan was given a special dispensation to retain ownership of the shares until the economy has recovered sufficiently for a sale to occur but can have no involvement with the club. IL still owns 65% of Quins but has no involvement with the Quins club as per the operational rules.

This at present is probably one of the biggest problems hampering the growth of the Quins as they are in the unfortunate situation whereby their majority shareholder is not allowed to help run or to fund the club due to competition rules. They are as a result left in a situation where the minority shareholder is having to bankroll the club. They also face the possibilty that if David Hughes decided that he was no longer willing to/ was no longer able to afford to continue doing so that they would end up suffering liquidation in the same manner that Gateshead did (albeit with mitigating circumstances). That I would assume is one of the main reasons behind us feeling the need to debate the question that started this thread "If Quins fail?".

Very erudite but you could just of easily put:

No one goes to watch London Harlequins RL because they are terrible and there is no atmosphere down 'The Moon'.

You might as well flush your £20 ticket money down the nearest dunny and sit in an empty room looking at a patch of freshly painted wall for 80 minutes as go there.

Why dont you put this on the bottom of you template(signature). It will save you the bother of typing it each time you have something to say.

And just because you keep calling our ground “The Moon” doesn't mean it will ever catch on.

You should have been there last Saturday, the place was rocking. Oh well, “Barry_McKenzie's” loss…

The Moon can't rock.

That's the point. As much as a knob jockey as he is, he obviously has spoken to other like minded people who also have an interest in league but don't venture to darkest middlesex to watch quins. Whilst it is bazzas loss....it is also the clubs loss due to a failure to attract fans (and by fans I mean "the criminal element"icon_wink.gif to the stoop.
There is undoubtedly an audience for league in the south east region.......it just has to be marketed to them correctly.
To answer the OP.....quins won't fail. They have established league as a sporting option in the London area and for that reason alone will probably get a licence.

I don't see it as my 'loss' Gutters.

I see it as a positive thing that I havent forked out £20 or whatever a ticket to the 'Moon' costs these days.

I've spoken at length with people who have been and they have all said the same thing, Antip or Englishman.

The standard of footy is shocking.

The atmosphere is non existant.

The ground is a bit of a pain to get to when you think of other venues in London.


In short if you pay to watch a game of live footy you expect to be entertained.


It doesnt happen at the stoop

Did any of them say how they contributed to the atmosphere?

I think the snoring they made as they fell into a sound sleep sounded a little like the usual 3 people chanting 'Harlerquins harlerquins harlerquins' over and over again for the first 15 mins

Barry can You do Us Quins fans a favour and wear a west Ham footy shirt in Bermondsey saturday Night, The locals will give You plenty of atmosphere You crave.

There are now 5 sides playing in Oxford, 4 university ones and an amateur side, the Oxford Cavaliers (amateur club of Giants prop Darrell Griffin). The game is growing there and there is scope ofr it to do so more.

That's very good news for the sport and is part of the development from the grass roots up that is happening all over the country at the moment. Those 5 clubs are a part of the development that needs to continue regardless of what the future holds for the Quins. The two or three clubs I proposed be set up would be separate from those existing ones and would be in Championship 1 (as the South Wales Scorpions are) and would draw their squads primarily from the existing clubs like those you mentioned that were near to their particular town (this is what Scorpions did taking RLC Wales and RU players on via an open trial).

I think an important part of the process I suggested is to leave the grass roots clubs to do what they are already doing, be they in the RLC or smaller scale amateur clubs as their continued presence is vital so that the whole multi level RL chain is maintained. That way there is not a need to try to form a new community club to replace one that had been bought out and made to step up. The continued existence of the local clubs at amateur, university and schools levels then gives the new semi pro club a firmer base that in the past has all too often not been present for new expansion clubs.