The Quins RU site reports that their `Big Game 5` being played at Twickenham tomorrow is a sell-out 80,000 crowd. Before anyone jumps in with the usual `I hate RU` diatribe, you have to respect and acknowledge that this is some achievment and the numbers have grown year on year from the original 50,000 attendance.

Purpose of this post is........There was a guy called Jon Salinger who used to work in the commercial/promotional department at Quins, who I believe played a significant part in growing Quins attendance over the years. To the surprise of many, Quins let Jon go last year and I believe outsourced part of the operation.

He has experience, knows the market, the ground and what does and does not work.......I wonder if the Broncos have ever interviewed him??? (he still frequents the Quins RU `Come All Within` message board).

Which market?

I have asked him....and no they have not approached him.

We have a new 'media manager' don't we - Steven Devonshire of Code13 Sports Media and a very good start I think. Give him 1 season at least



The Twickenham Stadium club RU games are a phenomenal achievement when they sell out but they're frequented by one off attendees who on the whole wouldn't normally bother going to a RU game (they tend to be 6 Nations wannabes) little alone an RL one with rough northerners/Cockneys. But credit where credit is due, selling out these games an incredible accomplishment although it is in the interests of the RFU for it to do so. Even I will go and watch a match or two of RU there (cheap tickets/great seats) but have no affiliation for any club playing, I just like the atmosphere even if the game is a bit dull

Your competely correct! it is just the sense of occasion and as you say tickets are cheap, they would need a new stadium if they could only convert a small percentage of those new supporters! The RFL have to take some responsibility for the current state in London and the game in general at present, until Nigel Woods goes and is replaced with someone with so up & go the game will just continue to struggle along, so no rush to help Salford!

very little to add other than until the club frees up cash to employ and supply a Marketing person with a decent budget then our attendances will continue to slide.
In 2003 all it would have taken was hard work....in 2013 it will now take hard work and hard cash

Marketing budget? , whats one of them then?

....come to think of it, it is worth maybe someone pointing out to our Chairman that Harlequins will attract more fans to one game, marketed as an event and well publicised, than the current CEO has managed to attract to twenty ing six home games under his stewardship.

82,200 people were convinced, cadjoled, bribed or press-ganged into attending a game that would normally have attracted 14 to 15,000.......this is how an ON THE ROAD event is run. Fans of both clubs would have been bombarded with messages "bigging the event up", encouraging people to organise groups, regular bulletins and of course a prettydevent amount of marketing spend.
Last year, 2,844 attended one of our on the Road games..........the second lowest gate ever for the visit of the Bradford Bulls........and yet the CEO tried to put a positive spin on it

The average attendance for a Bradford game in London before 2012 was 4,645, so we got 1,801 LESS than this....but he declares it a success.

The other OTR game attracted less than 4,000 and only got close thanks to the Medway Stampede of Rugby League event and many many free tickets for the Kids....it attracted 315 more fans than was the average for Hull FC prior to 2012......prior to 2012 we SOLD every ticket for this fixture.......

EIGHTY TWO THOUSAND AND TWO HUNDRED........that's a success, not nearly 1,500 LESS fans than the average over the previous 16 seasons



The Chairman needs to act and act now IMO......he has said he can't go indefinitely bankrolling the club and he patently has an aversion to spending money on Marketing. He needs to go the the RFL/SKY and offer 75% of his stake in the club for nothing up front, but 5 million invested over 4 years, with total control of the day to day running of the club taken over by business minded people, who understand the direct connection between bums on seats, ticket and residual revenues and increased awareness attracting sponsors. The current Club management have achieved exactly nothing of any merit in 2 years and should be replaced immediately.The new management would need to come up with ways to attract fans back as well as getting new ones on board....not ing around with name changes or blaming imaginary confusion over our Identity. By all means look for a new home, but bin Kent as an idea from the start......get into negotiations with Brentford.

For 20% of the money DH currently es away each year, you'd get a 20k per game budget and 50k to pay a decent marketing bod.......it really isn't ing brain science and neither is it rocket surgery neither, but it would seem that the RFL are happy for the current lot to carry on as normal untill we become another Bradford, Salford, Crusaders or Wakefield.....and when London Broncos do go to the wall, it will be mainly because not one person connected with the back office staff at the club in the last 2 years has been qualified for the positions they have occupied.


It's just not cricket I tell thee......just not cricket!

you know gutters!! you said some sense there ! Brentford link is summat i think we should be looking at, part share.
as for the start of this thread talking about 80k for a club game for the quins! the RFL cannot even get that many in for the magic weekend so this idea of putting the club under the control of the RFL to market us pah!!!

start winning some games!!!

The club needs to pester the RFL for the details of everyone within a 40 mile radius of TW12 who bought tickets to the Challenge Cup Final for a start.

It was rfl/ SKY

Went to the game yesterday. Absolute garbage of a game, but great marketing. I would imagine that for 60,000 it was the only live game they would go to in a year, and 60,000 of them did not have a clue what was going on (if anything) on the pitch.

2 hours after the match I got an email from Quins asking for feedback about the day.

Q13. If you were to change or improve anything about the Big Game 5, what would you suggest?

"Make it a Rugby League game as it is much more exciting"

60,001 didn't have a clue what was going on



Make it 60,002 if we include you

I don't know why the club is so reluctant to piggy back off Quins success here, (or maybe their not allowed to) could of had 80K flyers printed and one on every seat with the fixture list and with some sort of incentive with producing the flyer. If that not viable option then page space in the programme. Always seems a missed trick to me.

Another missed trick in a long long line of 'em Duncan!

Was it?

I could understand piggybacking before the name change but not after it.

& to be fair the club did advertise to eventers at the Wembley international double header.

In my opinion it was! There was a large crowd on our home patch over the festive period going to watch an oval ball game and did we do anything to let them know of our existence, let alone the fact our season starts in a few weeks time?
Yeah sure they advertised at Wembley but how many other opportunities have been missed both as Broncos AND QRL? And not just in growing attendances - why didn't the club get a run of hats, caps, scarves made up in the new colours for sale in the club shop last season? There was plenty of old London stuff being worn by the fans - surely the same people would have bought new scarves etc..I would have! An easy money making opportunity , albeit it a small one, thrown away!
And why not piggyback the Union game? if these folks are prepared to get to Twickenham for one sort of oval ball game then why not the other, sorry better one? Union, at the top end anyway, seems to be more a social event whereas RL fans seem to be more up for the match itself - get a small percentage of the Big Game crowd in and we could substantially increase our gates, give them a good team to watch and a decent match experience and they may even come back!

Quins do these games to gain more fans, therefore I can hardly see them allowing us to advertise there without paying a huge sum of money.

Genius that was....pure Genius. 3 months before the new season and we stuck some stickers on a few cabs, an advert in a programme.........and then 8 months later looked tomove to Kent because it didn't work

It is one thing to get people to one RL game, it is a completely different thing to get people to come to most home matches. That is the million dollar baby!

You will catch more fish using a net, than a rod and line

Only if you put the net where the fish are. You wont catch any in a swimming pool.

True if its fish you are after, if its people then a swimming pool probably wouldnt be a bad idea