The only stadium in the Superleague era that the club called "home" where we had more fans when we vacated than we did when we arrived.......and we made the play-offs twice in 4 years there........

We leaflet dropped the area regularly, had posters in the local pubs and in general connected with the local community..........even the team had their after match meals upstairs in The Griffin IIRC.

Fast forward 6 seasons and the households in the area don't know we exist, there are no posters in local pubs and you've got to have a gold soooooper ticket to catch a glimpse of the team after the match.....

.....Progress?

Attendances in the Superleage era.......

VALLEY 1 - 1996 (5,699) Honeymoon Season…W12, D1, L9 - F=4th
STOOP 1 - 1997 (4,849) W15, D 3, L4 - F=2nd
STOOP 2 - 2006 (4,23icon_cool.gif First season as Harlequins RL W11, D1, L16 – F=7th
GRIFFIN -2005 (3,91icon_cool.gif Last Season at Griffin Park W13, D2, L13 – F=6th Play offs!
STOOP 1 - 1998 (3,805) W10, L13 – F=7th
GRIFFIN - 2002 (3,803) First season at Griffin Park W13, D1, L14 F=8th
STOOP 2 - 2008 (3,630) W11, L16 – F=9th
GRIFFIN - 2003 (3,545) W14, D2, L12 – F= 5th Play offs!
GRIFFIN - 2004 (3,460) W7, D 1, L 21 F=10
STOOP 2 - 2009 (3,436) W11, D 16 – F= 11th
VALLEY 2 - 2000 (3,430) W6, L22 F=11th
STOOP 2 - 2007 (3,42icon_cool.gif W10, D3, L13 - F=9th
STOOP 2 - 2010 (3,380) W7, L20 – F=13th
VALLEY 2 - 2001 (3,232) W13, D1, L14 F=6th
STOOP 1 - 1999 (3,17icon_cool.gif W13, D2, L15 F=8th
STOOP 2 - 2011 (3,124) Last season as Harlequins RL W6, D1, L20 – F=12th

If it's DH's assertion that The Stoop charge too much rent, then rather than a pipe dream of our own stadium, I'd get back to GP sharpish.

Loved the place, but had drawbacks.
1 as a matchday revenue spinner it sucked in comparison to Stoop or Valley, one small car park area for selling anything, meeting mates etc, so most people drank in the 4 pubs and arrived 5 mins before KO and then fooked off sharpish afterwards for more of the same.
2 Footie ground, so say goodbye to home for up to two months mid season
3 Corporate facilities, nuff said.

When we moved from GP to Stoop as QRL, that was the last chance saloon, all we are doing now is sticking plasters on a corpse, and a move back to GP would do nothing to stop that, remember in your own words, the supporters did the marketing and canvassing work not the club via SAG etc, nothing I see around this current entity would suggest they would welcome using those routes again until it comes down to the crunch again and the supporters have to pitch in to help save the club as they have done so many times in the past.

Liked the view of the game, everything else was terrible.

that, and the fact that small pockets of supporters along the stand could get good support chants going due to the low roof, which the rest would soon join in with.

VB buckets - Tremendous
Cowgirls-ditto
Team-ditto

In that order

Yes!

In all the talk of a new stadium no-one has identified where the money will come from for it. Assuming it would be Hughes' back pocket, then he'd be better off giving it to Brentford for a 50% share in Griffin Park. I think they've given up on moving to a new ground, not that they'll ever need one for a club of that size and potential, so maybe they'd be open to a few quid to use on redeveloping the main stand with better corporates, etc, and paying off some of their debts?

Griffin Park.
A godawful venue. Those burgers, jeez, what were they made of?

The only redeeming feature of our Brentford tenure was The Royal Oak and it's friendly bar manager.

We liked the Griffin pub but the landlord was a miserable barsteward (literally!)



Enjoyed GP but had too many drawbacks for me (1 train an hour out of W'Loo to Brentford on a Sunday and I remember a day when the 1 hourly train was cancelled)

Thanks but no thanks to GP for me.

As I seem to have said countless times, we cannot keep moving around. We've relocated too many times as it is. You need a regular, consistent home ground to have any hope of laying down a foundation of support. If we are going to survive in Super League, it is going to have to be at The Stoop.

I tend to agree with you Surreyben. I hope this talk of moving from the Stoop is a bargaining tool and nothing more (though I do realise we have to options).

Ah nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

GP would be a fall-back position if nothing better was available.

Embarassing thread all round to be honest.

Wasn't there yet another rumour doing the rounds a couple of years ago that Brentford were going going to move to a new ground near Heathrow and that the Broncos as they are today were going to play there as well?

Brentford looked at Hanwell.....very briefly, as their supporters told them that they's move there on their own......There is a much better site at Lionel road, but the financial downturn scared their partners, barratt homes, away. If they were prepared to go 50/50 on the costs, then that would be a viable option for the Broncos......as long as they run 4 trains an hour on matchday sundays!

That site at Lionel Rd wasn't big enough for the 20,000 seat stadium (God knows why Brentford want something that big) and all the surrounding developments needed to pay for it. Perhaps if they lowered their sights in terms of capacity then it might be doable. I don't see why Brentford would want anything above 15k, and even that would only be tested one game every decade.

There has also been a lot of talk on the grapevine about London Welsh RFC moving in with Brentford as they cannot redevelop Old Deer Park as it is on Crown Land.

I think this is the contingency only if they get promoted. LW's current facilities are fine for Championship.

but you felt the need to pop in and comment anyway........

I am not advocating a move back to TW8.....just pointing out that a nice stadium and a new name is not the formula for decent attendances......but community connection might be!

It isn't a nice stadum though, its a dump.

Where did I say it was a nice stadium? It's a hole, but it's a community hole......Twickenham Stoop is great, but nobody knows we are there......
...I see the club have gone down the video route again

.....370 views and counting

Sorry misread your post.

Still, awful idea.

Not saying they move back to GP.....just suggesting the sense of community isn't the same at TW2.
BTW......see they've gone for another viral video .....

We can't afford high rent. Needs to be a stadium owner genuinely after a partnership. Orient looks best bet at mo.

Well I suppose we'll get a chance to see how good a fit their stadium is come May.