An interesting article in Rugby League World, by new scientist writer Michael O’Hare, on rugby league in London. Firstly a few facts that will have flat cappers choking on their corn flakes, 300 schools in London are to play in the 2011 Carnegie Schools Champion competition, with a total of 30,000 kids playing Rugby League in the capital across more than 100 clubs. No London rugby league club has ever received any additional funding from the RFL, despite the claims from Cas, Wakey and Leigh fans. The number of sky viewing figures watching RL in London matches the figures for the number of people watching in Northern England, although due to London’s size and population they are far more spread out than those up north (although worth the same, if not more, in terms of £’s in the sky TV contract.)

So what is the problem with RL in London? Well of course that is already well documented by the flat cappers, Harlequins, London’s leading RL club, have low attendances. O’Hare claims London RL has never been tried, with no marketing, plonking a club in various locations around the capital has had 0% chance of working.

His suggestion, the club to be based in a non union clubbed region of London, having their own identity, given extra assistance (RFL£’s) to market the club to the local people, as has already been successfully done in the NRL and Rugby Unions Super 15’s.

Makes sense to me, lets do it.

I agree completely , let's do it , anybody got a spare twenty million in the bank ?

What's most shocking about this to me is the fact the RL press have apparently collared someone decent to start writing interesting articles about the game.

I'll have to find a copy.

Maybe Michael O'Hare just read the VT and said what most sensible posters have been saying on here for eons!

i live in london, and try to get to see as many super league games on a fraiday night, where ever i am. pubs often have games on. i have watched super league in such diverse places as the city, oval, the strand and the east end. there is always a passing interest, and a lot of knowledge about the game. the word is spreading among the tv audience, which is why it is essential that there is a london entity. as everyone knows, its getting the tv audience, and the youth who are playing down to watch the game live. what rl in london certainly isn't doing is failing.

And there we have it folks.

In approximately 3 lines this bloke has summed up why Harlequins are in the situation they are.

No one from London actually pays to go along and watch them.


If a genuine rugby league fan who actually lives in London can't be bothered going along then the club have go no chance of attracting anyone with passing interest

You do realise that for the piece you underlined the poster was talking about the live Sky games on Friday evening and not the Quins home games which are usually scheduled for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon kick off (less than 25% of Quins home games are Friday evening fixtures)?

FFS, haven't they been given enough already?!!





Just simply never going to work there unfortunately, never has been an RL city and never will be.

A team from OUTSIDE the wastelands trying to succeed by trying new things? Perish the thought.....BAh HUMBUIG even!

We've tried expansionism, which as every parochial flatcapper knows, does not work.

Why not try contractionism? Ban the game from everywhere outside a 4 mile wide corridor centred on the M62. To further encourage the contraction of the game, every fan of the greatest game should pi55 and moan and b1tch at anyone who lives more than 5 miles away from them and expresses an interest in the sport. What???? Doing that already?????
Umm reduce the sport further by banning all teams with attendances regularly below 5000? So that would leave just 'Ull, Leeds and Saints.

THAT'LL make Yorks and Lincs the top countries in the game surely.

Obv Lancs not Lincs. Not that it makes any diff to me. You northerners all look the same anyway.

I'd take the million quid they give Quins a year and spend it on Jnr and amateur RL in the whole area. It would be far more effective in our main goal of spreading the game and creating a bigger Jnr base. The Quins are clearly not the reason kids start playing RL in London, spend the money better, kick the failure that is Quins RL into touch and spend the money where it actually makes most difference. Unless of course someone can provide empirical evidence that having Quins in SL actually makes a difference to Sky viewing figures.

JB you lummox. Kids play the sport in the hope of reaching the heights. CLEARLY they already do this in large numbers in Lahndahn.
What das kapital is short of is spectators / viewers / supporters.

The problem is all tastes and kinks are well catered for in Cockney headquarters. 26 excessively tattoed, gimlet eyed northerners and colonials running into each other in converging straight lines over and over again is of limited interest to the spoiled pearly kings and queens.

To get stabby cockneys though the turnstiles you would have to give away free knives at half time or something.

Depends where you are. Especially considering where Twickenham is. Otherwise it's like slagging off Scousers for failing to turn up regularly at the Galpharm.

Of course he didn't realise, he's too busy shouting about his opinions to actually read what people say.

I know and he even underlined the bit he didn't understand

As Mark Twain said "It's better to keep quiet and have people think you stupid, than to talk and confirm it"

exactly...i am saying the more casual observer is enjoying the product on the telly. what quins need to do is encourage them down to the stoop on a saturday or a sunday. but, having more kids and amateurs playing, and more tv observers, then there is the potential for it to happen. quins need to tap into it, and this is the problem area, as they don't seem to be able to

Since professional RL was re-introduced to London in the 80s the team has found homes (in no particular order) at:
Craven Cottage
Brentford
Chiswick
The Stoop
Hendon
Crystal Palace
The Valley

Why would anyone think the answer to the poor support is yet another move?

One day, and it may be a long long time away, the penny will drop that Superleague , along with quite a few other sports is about EYES ON THE BOX and sod all with who goes through the turnstiles.

Sky couldn't care less simply because they don't anything from it.

What they do get is a big wad of cash from advertisers, and subscribers the length and breadth of the country who watch and are very interested in the game (contrary to misheld BBC beliefs).

If Sky were not making money from SL then they wouldn't pay for it.

The largest "market " is London so if they are getting the figures for viewing there and the subscriptions that they want, is it a failure?

Looking on the website the cheapest ticket to go and watch Harlequins is £15.

Thats £15 for a poorer quality seat (the most expensive ones are £30 so the website says)

This will be similar to your view (probably with the same amount of spectators there too)




If you want to save money (and you have a laptop) why not open the image above, go outside in your garden (alone), sit on an uncomfortable plastic garden chair and look at the above photo for 80 mins whilst drinking a warm can of Morrisons 3% proof lager and getting your neighbours 3 small children to shout 'We are quins RL' over the fence at you once every 10 mins. Thats about as exciting as a trip to the stoop on Quins RL day is.


Why fork out £15 (not including bus/train/tube fares if you live in London) to sit in an empty stadium where you can hear a pin drop (in an uncovered seat thats not on the halfway line) watching poor quality rugby league when you can watch games on Sky (dare I say ones that involve better and more interesting sides than Quins to watch) for the price of a couple of pints in a pub?


Its a vicious circle. No one goes because the atmosphere is so poor and the atmosphere is so poor because no one goes. And the reason no one goes is because 1. The team are useless and 2. There is no atmosphere.

Sorry but those are the facts.



Quins RU are playing Leicester Tigers today at 5:30.

You look and see how many people turn up for that.....despite the game also being shown live on Skysports 2 (Coverage starts at 5pm)


They will get more fans for one game than Quins RL will get for 4....at least

l know they have moved, and again, and again, but what was the deal that posessed them to put a RL club in the epi of Union, the sooner they move again the better.
A post on their board some time ago, mutted Leyton Orient, Eastenders,
a bit more down to earth than "good old Twickers" what what.

This argument that RL needs a London club because of Sky's advertising revenue is oft quoted but never substantiated. Are you saying that Quins have a massive armchair following and were they to disappear the number of people watching RL on Sky would crash with the resulting withdrawal of Sky's coverage and their cash? Do people in the South only watch RL on Sky because there is a London club involved? Is there a jump in the viewing figures when Quins are on?
Living in the South I have as great a wish as anyone for RL to succeed outside the heartlands but I'd say the value of Quins is over-hyped.
Incidentally I only know one born and bred Southern RL fan where I live & he supports Leeds despite the fact that he's never been to Headingly.

Presumably the same logic that was used to put Crusaders in a country where the national game is RU.

But again, those Taffs are pretty similar to us flatcappers, EX miners etc. those Toffs down Richmond way, when ever l,ve been there, seem very picky. better off darn the old Eastend

Shepherds Bush seems the logical choice for RL due to all of the antipods living in the area. Q.P.R. are rumoured to be looking for a new stadium, why not jump in bed with them, get in their current ground and move with them?

Otherwise, the Olympic Stadium won't be being used in the summer either.

Either way, I think London Broncos has the best identity for the club.

Over 14,000.