[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/london/8388266.stm[/url

Nevermind the poor home support what about the non existant away support.

Home games against teams like harlequinns, catalans and celtic always have a poor atmosphere due to their appalling lack of travelling fans.

I would much prefer to see teams like Widnes and Leigh in SL, you know the ones who actually have fans who are prepared to follow their team home and away.

I hope cullen turns widnes into a force again, god knows SL needs them.

Widnes could be like another Hull KR but with a better stadium already.

Bit of a difference, with Leigh and Widnes being all of twenty minutes drive away and London being a 400 mile round trip. I'm sure even the bestest westest Wire fan would miss the odd game if every away game was in a different country, like Catalans away games are.

The athmosphere at Widnes and Leigh games would be crap after a few 50 point batterings, anyway.

Would you travel all that way every other week to watch your team play? Could you afford to do that? No, I don't think so.



Ah, you mean two teams that are within spitting distance of clubs like us, St Helens, Wigan etc so it's easier for their fans to travel in numbers?

So what you are saying is that you expect at least 3,000 Catalans, Quins or Celtic fans to follow their team for 13 away games every season.

Get real. As stated above, If you lived in the South of France or in the capital, would you travel up to the North every week to watch your team? Would you be able to afford it?

No, you wouldn't. At least your comments show your stance on things anyway; you'd prefer RL to be stuck within the M62 corridor and with the flatcap brigade rather than expanding to other countries and cultures.

You are jolly well right, i would.

for as long as i have a hole in my behind RL will never be well supported down south. Celtic has turned into a bit of a farce and will probably be wound up any day soon.

Catalans is a difficult one as they have a half decent team and good home support its just a shame there is not a more affordable way of their fans coming over on a regular basis.

you in the know now then Natters?



think you may well be wrong with that statement!

Dreary me.

You all bleat on about wanting to promote the good name of RL yet Celtic have brought nothing but shame and embarrasment on our game this year.

I wouldn't mind but they cant even field a competitive team.

Im not ashamed to say that I think this expansion nonesense absolutely sucks. RL belongs in the heartlands of the m62 corridor and I cant believe that clubs rich in RL history and tradition such as Oldham are going to the wall for the sake of stupid projects such as harlequins (been rescued more times than is healthy) and celtic.


Even Branson walked away from the harlequins cos he knew he was flogging a deadun.

I bet your the type that doesn't like to see Russia, Italy, Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands play on the international stage either.

Warrington ont l'appui parti chié. ils ont apporté 52 défenseurs par le passé, c'est appui terrible les donnent un coup de pied hors de la ligue superbe et se débarassent du Taffs et des cockneys tandis que vous êtes à lui,

merci

Jean Baptiste
1164, Avenue De's Englais
Perpignan

Catalans are understandable really, you can't expect them to fly large numbers to away games 13 times a year. At least they get decent numbers to home games and it helps promote the game in France. Also I think alot of fans enjoy the trips to France, I went the season before last and had a brilliant time regardless of the tonking we received. Keep.

I feel we do need a team in London, im unaware of the amount of work done to promote the game down south but obviously more is required or at least more intelligent marketing. I mean its a densly populated area it can't possibly be that hard to get more supporters, can it? Back to the original point, more home supporters is going to directly affect the number of away supporters.

As for the Crusaders, I never thought they deserved a place in the league in the first place, subsiquent matters have done nothing but support my initial feelings. The sooner they are replaced by Widnes the better. I'm all for expansion but not at the expense of teams that deserve to be in the league, imo they were put in too soon.

It shouldn't be the responsibility of the away fans to fill a ground.

It is for this reason that I believe the Hull teams home crowds are so impressive as they get little away support yet get such consistent crowds.

Teams in Yorkshire get so much away support and yet many still get poor crowds.

the development in London is huge. the amount of school kids playing rugby league is on the increase year on year. the amount of amateur players is on the increase year on year. a year on year increase of 30 London schools takes part in the schools challenge cup, and the more established sides are getting further in the competition than ever before. London universities have regularly won busa, and these players go on and play, coach and ref league in the south. talented rugby players are seeing league a viable alternative to union now, as they know that they will be able to compete, and the amount of southerners playing for quins is rising season on season.

for some reason though, and if you look at the quins board you can see the frustration, the marketing seems to be well behind other super league clubs, and in such a hotbed of marketing, its hard to understand why. why the antipodeans population hasn't been targeted, we don't know, why these school kids who are playing haven't been targeted, we don't know and why lapsed season ticket holders haven't been targeted, we don't know. things have to, and will improve, but it is agreed by all that quins need to be successful on the field before they start drawing in the crowds, and won't have the following as the wigans and hulls of this world when they are not challenging for the play offs.

Good to hear the game is growing at grassroots level, seems strange that it hasn't affected the crowds much. Can't get my head round that.

I'm sure the change to Harliquins from London Bronco's and the subsiquent ground change didn't help much with crowd figures, am I right in thinking the grounds were about an hours drive apart? Now if we moved to other side of Northwich, lets say, how many fans would we expect to keep turning up.

I can't offer much in the way of answers myself, just dissapoints me highly the lack of success down there.

Also do you feel there's bit of a catch 22 situation regarding on & off field success and the salary cap?? But then I suppose Huddersfield performed well without spending the full cap........ Infuriating to say the least!

the grounds aren't that far apart, no. an hour in London rush hour traffic but only 5 or 6 miles I would say. it is infuriating, the potential is most definitely there, but how long can you keep saying that. rugby league has been professional in London for the best part of 30 years now, and apart from a challenge cup final appearance, and coming third (may have even been second) one year, there has not been much success to speak of. that successful season though, crowds were excellent and if they could get just some of them to go back, then things may not be quite so bleak.

Agree. Was it the Quins game that Wigan marketed earlier in the season to fill the 'away' end with home fans to create a better atmosphere?
I suppose selling tickets to kids and families at cut prices is better than having empty terraces for 3 of our home games, if the marketing is done correctly, as Wigan showed, playing Catalans/crusaders/quins won't always be like a graveyard

I just praised Wigan

We sold the whole of the north stand to Heinz for their employees. Almost 15,000 at home to quins was not bad. Having fans on all 4 sides made a pretty good atmosphere.

On the Hull board there's a thread demanding Warrington are kicked out of Super League due to the pathetic number of supporters that follow them.

it doesn't suprise me fans won't go to hull after the trouble we have there, coaches getting bricked and bottled fans attacked asaulted and abused

Wasn't there lots of problems with Hull fans at the HJ last season (or was it the season before)?

The season before, 1st game of the season when there were a lot of their fans arrested outside, and somebody got bottled too IIRC

I haven't been to the K.C. in the last 2 or 3 seasons for those reasons...I know the vast majority of Hull (F.C.) fans are sound but some of the stuff thats gone on lately at the K.C. and outside the H.J. have forced me to give the Hull F.C. away game a wide berth...I take my young cousin to games and my mate takes is two sons....We have to consider their safety.

Seems its ok for us not to go to Hull due to an history of trouble but complain at poor away support to Warrington.


"Hello Mr. Kettle, you're black" said Mr. Pot

The vasy majority of the antipodeans don't bother going to watch because they consider it rubbish compared to the NRL. There were always offers in TNT magazine and free tickets being given out but most aren't interested.

Also, London is a funny one as the population is quite transient in terms of travelling into town for work and doing the rush hours is very tedious and you just don't want to be bothered with travelling at weekends.

also, despite the huge numbers, there is also a huge amount of other distractions with football and union, plus all the other sports. Add to the the vast number of ethnics who will ave never heard of the sport and are unable to relate to it, you can see some of the problems they face.

A strong core of the support for London travel considerable miles for the love of the game. I know a few who travel from Kent and essex for all home matches and big occasions like finals and internationals. It makes bleating about travelling to widnes/leigh very petty when you consider the amount of travel they do every other week.

With regards to marketing, it is very difficult to get column inches when there is so much more going on. When I've lived down there and watched matches on Sky the locals have fully embraced the game and love it, but from an armchair point of view, how you can get them to attend matches consistently.........

Cas did a sponsored promotion for the London game a few years ago and over 8000 turned up at Brentford. It's essential we keep a London side in SL, there's so many kids playing in the Schools that if we pulled out now so much potential would just be wasted.