What are people's opinions on the Broncos position should the RFL give them a special dispensation to recruit as many overseas players as they need or do people think the experiment has failed and let them go into the championship and rebuild from the bottom up ?
Personally I would let them go down and earn their place back

I think the Broncos position is "A Bridge Too Far"

Is this based on the precident set by the way Salford, Bradford & Wakefield were (similarly) treated ?

Enough is enough is enough..

Time to say goodbye

A 20 odd year experiment which has failed

They have had good times and bad times but lately it's mostly been bad. Whether they are given dispensation or not I can't see any way they could put together a competitive team before the start of next season, there are hardly any players left there to build from and most players are now tied up for 2014. In my opinion another season of whipping boys would be counter productive to the longevity of their franchise anyway so they may be better off playing outside superleague.

Just in to make up the numbers

I would be interested to know whether any sponsorship negotiations are subject to whether there is a London club.

I think there's 2 questions here.

Is a London / SE presence important to SL?
Is LB the team to do it?

On the first - yes it is. Sky is under serious pressure from BT and needs to save as much money as it can to hold on to its marquee properties such as the cricket, F1 and the remaining Premier League rights.
It gets revenue through subscriptions and advertising. Media buyers will want properties that are national - having a London team helps tick this box. Not having them, makes it a harder and a lower revenue sell for Sky. Ergo - smaller TV deal for SL. (particularly if we contract to 12 teams.)

As Sky is by far the biggest investor in SL this is important. In summary, without a decent Sky TV deal we're screwed and without London we're more likey to get a lower deal.

Outside of the commercial aspects there is the playing angle - we're starting to generate a number of players via the London youth route. Kieran Dixon being the most promising of the recent batch along with Sarginson. We will just lose these players (i.e. the next gen of Dixon's) without a local top level avenue to aim for.

On the second question - in its current 'organisation' - the answer is a resounding no. Which is why the game has to decide are we serious about a London presence or not?

If we are then let's actually take a strategic approach to it. An experiment would suggest a level of control and thought behind it. This has never been the case with LB - we dropped them in and said off you go boys.

It's all very well and good for Nigel Wood to say we're not going to run the clubs but this is where he needs to show some leadership and map out to the game why London / SE is important and why they're going to get more support than the other areas. If we're contracting to 12 teams then let's use that money 'saved' (if the Sky deal doesn't get cut) to invest in LB (as well as the international game) - it may make it more attractive as a going concern to a businessman.Might not be a bad idea to take the RLWC2013 team lead by Sally Bolton and have them run LB on the RFL's dime for the next 2 years to make it a more attractive proposition for potential investors - at the minute no sane thinking businessman would touch it with a barge pole.

Whether you like it or not the British economy is increasingly focused around London (for the record I think it's a bad thing) - we need a strong presence as this is where the major HQs and decision makers are.

So if they need a dispensation for 1 season to get a team together then yes but only if it's part of a clear strategic plan. If the alternative is a team for a team's sake then it may be best to just have the RFL bankroll and run the London academy with a draft system in place for the most promising players. The RFL can charge a transfer fee and recoup some investment that way and let the senior team fall apart. Alot of the core support may well still go along and watch the youngsters.

If it does it will be a total waste that a club that had a pretty strong core support of around 3.5k a few years back has been so badly mismanaged to end up in this position.

I think what could work is if the new teams that were admitted last year & the Skolars were in a southern division to play each other several times a year to create a rivalry between clubs & they would hopefully grow together in terms of on field ability. May be even the Broncos could be in that league with what players they have left ,new signings & may be even loanees from other clubs. As long as they were in a competitive league the support may be drawn in. To put them back in SL though, to succeed they would really need to be a manufactured quality team to have any chance of drawing crowds by competing & giving blood noses to top teams.

At a time when people are talking of merging clubs. Why not merge the London clubs? Ambi correct in saying there are 3?

I saw what you did there

Interesting points well made Chiswick, but, after some considerable consideration I'm yet to be convinced either way by the London question.

Regarding the Sky aspect and whether the deal depends on a London presence is it really that simple? If I was a sponsor or advertiser perhaps I might look at the viewing figures together with their demographic rather than the location of competing teams.

For example, are viewing figures split equally per capita do 'Londoners' make up their quota of the TV audience on a regular basis? Additionally, if they made up a fourteenth geographically how much is that dependant upon a SL team called London perhaps a significant % are exiled flat cappers or general sports fans or RL fans that might be attracted to a successful side in a lower division?

All conjecture I know but until someone has the facts to hand a SL without London might not be too disastrous for either SL or London

If they survive does anybody have any clue as to where they might be playing next year?

Trying to plan trains but it's quite difficult when you don't have an idea of where they will be playing.

I've heard at the Hive (Barnet FC).