Can someone please tell me apart from a good day out why are they in Super League? Attracting just over a thousand every home game and they keep getting hammered week in week out. Surely they will take the 1st relegation place this season.

There was a point in time in which London played in a CC final, there was a point on time London stuck 60 on us with Tony Smith in charge.

London have been let down badly, they were going great, they were making great strides under Leneghan and then he went to Wigan and was forced to severe ties by thr RFL.
The amateur scene in London is huge, the people behind the scenes work very hard and the only thing that let it down was the owner and the CEO. You're judging a whole Metropolitan County, the largest in terms of population in the whole of the UK based on 2 people who have let the club down very badly, they are at constant loggerheads with the amateur scene, they don't endear themselves to the fans and because of this the crowds dropped off, this as had a knock on effect and now we are where we are.

Cutting ties with London is silly, the game is on the verge of somethong good here, it's slowly caught on and because of 80 minutes of gash rugby you're writing off the whole London RL dream.

Living here over a decade I've seen it go from "What? There's two types of rugby?" ignorance to people turning themselves away from union and taking up league.

If all these things are true, that the amateur scene is flourishing, that people are getting switched onto the game and a genuine bedrock for the future of RL in London is being established, then all this will continue when (not if) they drop out of SL.

If it doesn't, then the interest was never there in the first place.

You need a presence of a local team as a hub for something to aspire too, preferably in the top division.

All the talent may stil be here but will be hoovered up by the M62 corridor and it will weaken the game without London in the top division.

People go on about the hotbed that us Cumbria. .. the population of a WHOLE COUNTY is only 100k bigger than Barnet. Barnet is one borough out of 33, just one borough is almost as big as Cumbria and we have another 32 to go.

I actually think the improvements in the amateur game would be fine without the Broncos.

Given how many more players there are now than there were a few years ago, why aren't the Broncos crowds going up.....those new league converts especially the teenagers, are not becoming Broncos fans they are just playing league because they like it. Maybe they have Sky and support other teams as armchair fans.

But I just don't buy the argument that if the Broncos get relegated, then a load of amateur RL players in London, who never go to watch the Broncos anyway, will stop playing rugby because there's no more Broncos....

I'm not saying they'll stop playing, but they could see their pathways as limited and not consider the step up or be enticed to a professional union set up. Don't underestimate the importance of a SL club in London, not to the fans, most won't give a crap, but to the game. You don't think it will hurt it, I do but we see when it happens who is right, I actually hope it's you Sal.

Regards attendances: just because they are playing the game, doesn't mean it's any easier to get to. If there were a rise in the number of players in Yorkshire, would you expect an increase in warringtons crowds? I'm based in Wimbledon (South west London) and it would take me 1.5~2 hours to get to barnet, and that's with easy access to the tube (it's opposite ends of the northern line.)

That however, doesn't make it any less of a target for those kids who are taking up the game. London don't necessarily need to be in super league imo, but they definitely need to remain a professional outfit, and I'm not sure they can outside of super league. Turning pro is the dream of a kid playing in any sport, and only helps encourage those in the capital playing, even if going is out of the question.

I'm all for keeping London in Yed.
Its a step backwards to let them dissolve away.

The RFL should have done more in funding.
Ensuring London has a full salary cap and massively subsidised turnstile prices until they became successful and self sufficient.

I wish Richard Branson could have hung around much longer.

....But now there's a reintroduction of relegation it would make a mockery to keep London and Catalan and dismiss the team above them!

Felt like standing up and clapping after reading Yed's posts. Well said that man!

I think the moving around over the years has affected the viability of the club.

When they first played at the Stoop they were getting a lot of the Aussies and Kiwis coming out from Earls Court and the surrounding areas as Twickenham is easily accessible by rail.

In those days crowds of 4K were routinely achieved, and it was a crackin' atmosphere.

Then they moved to the Valley, and getting to Charlton on a Sunday afternoon was like going abroad.

When they came back to the Stoop the momentum had disappeared, and attendances just seem to slowly decline.

As Yed has said, the amateur game is flourishing in the London area, and I think a lot of that is down to the efforts of the development officers at the Broncos. I even found out last week that there is an amateur club in Southampton which really cheered me up; [urlhttp://www.southampton-spitfires.co.uk[/url

It would be a great pity if the Broncos went down, but I do understand that there current situation isn't doing RL any favours.

Plus One, very well said Yed.

I don't think the OP mentioned cutting ties with London. He just stated what most people are thinking that they are a shoe-in for relegation and deserve to go down if they finish in the bottom 2.

Its great the amateur scene is flourishing in the capital, and I'm sure the fans have been let down badly. But the Broncos should still go down if they're not good enough to be in SL.

I'm another one, I've loved going to watch the Broncos since the start of super league, they had some underrated players that were fun to watch and didn't fit in at other teams, but for London, they were just right.

Much like Catalans are now.

The move back to the stoop and the change to Quins and the change in management has slowly killed them, why should the fans bother, management don't seem to be.

Watching that game last night was really sad, I wondered last year where the blue and black strip has come from? It looked like a training top.

Why not bring back the classic quartered London colours, the reds the yellows, THATS LONDON BRONCOS, THATS THEIR BRAND.


Sad so so sad.

Out of the 100k people in Cumbria, 90% are rugby league fans, this the reason that a team should be up in cumbria, not sure how it will work, but i believe there should be one up there. I also believe that London should have a team but at the minute it is not good for the game. Can you imagine a person form London tuning in last nigt to to see that, i dont think a Hive season ticket would first thing on the wish list this morning.

Stick a Cumbria side in, thrown together at the last minute see how they perform.

For what it's worth I think it'll do them good to rebuild in the Championship. Their presence in Super League isn't doing anyone any good at the moment. That's not to say it can't do any good and regrouping a league below would hopefully see fans backing a winning team who would get in to the middle eight and get a few glamour ties.

Agree that they've got to stick in one place and Barnet seems to be a good match. I also think they should bring back the red and yellow kits, they can bring back the old badge while they're at it as well, I really liked it.

It's on the verge of something good ? It's been on that same verge for over 30 years.....Dead horse, flogging springs to mind...Hardly anybody in London is interested in watching RL....Figures can't lie....Bin 'em.

It's not just a London issue but one that is at the root of RL expansion.

Try to think of who was last "new" professional/semi pro RL team in the UK that achieved a credible amount of success on/off field whilst attracting regular crowds of 5k, and then ask why the game hasn't expanded (at pro level)beyond its traditional borders ?

Or bid the powers that be to relocate London to Cumbria asap before possible relegation.

Trying to merge the Cumbrian clubs would be like trying to merge Wire/Widnes or Saints/Wigan. As for London,as i've said before, i think their best chance would be in a division made up of last years new admissions of Bristol ,Gloucester ,Hemel & any other southern clubs at a similar playing level. Unfortunately ,many southerners still believe nothing exists north of Watford .

Don't forget all the hard work that London Skolars do they have a huge tie up with lots of schools and teams.

The problem with the Broncos is too many owners and too many ground moves. Although the major error is the hiring of Gus who managed to balls up two county cricket teams before arriving at Broncos.

cumbria, lol

You're right figures don't lie
just slightly over 50% of the Sky viewing figures for Rugby League come from within the M25.

You're another one we can add to the 'ignorant' list

The only way a Cumbrian franchise might work would be to create a totally new club, that uses Barrow/Whitehaven/Workington as its 'nurseries' - It would also require a massive marketing job, that involved convincing the fans of these 3 clubs that they could incorporate their support for their present side with support for the newly formed club (Special offer season tickets for both clubs??).

You also have the problem that there is a fair distance between Barrow and the other two clubs, which I guess would have to be solved with the new club being nomadic between the three clubs, which would then mean all three grounds needing some sort of upgrade if they were to be taken seriously.

Personally, if, in the unlikely scenario, they found some wealthy backers willing to carry out that sort of plan, then I believe Cumbria has much more chance of having a well supported Super League club than London will ever have.... However, realistically, unless they found a Koukash, then I fear neither will ever be a long term success.

As a Londoner who'd go to the odd Broncos game in the 90's before moving away and later really falling in love with RL when I saw how Warrington play it

there are some very interesting posts here, particularly from Yed and Sal. On SL Backchat one of the guests got it right for me a couple of weeks ago, the problem seems to be that great things are happening in London at the lower levels but there seems to be a lack of connection between that and what the Broncos do. During that abysmal viewing experience last night the highlight for me was Eddie rattling off places near where I'm from in North London which now have junior RL teams which weren't there 20 years ago. And I think that's fantastic. To me Sal's question is the key one - would the Broncos dropping out of SL damage all that?