Personally I have huge doubts despite the optimistic words of Joey G. With no SL local club to aim for I fear that kids will stop playing League which is terrible for the whole game as we were just starting to see the fruits of all the hard work in the past.

Where will the crowds come from? It was hard enough getting people through the gate to see top flight RL but now for second tier?

Where will we play? What will DH do?

Sorry, I really fear for the future.

With you I'm afraid. I just hope the RFL take over the academy so that isn't hit.

Unless someone in the top division implodes it is difficult to see them blowing it against a Championship team - due to salary cap and import level differences. You'd think Bradford are in a better area geographically to sign the sort of northern based experienced lads London will need to bolster their squad as well so would be first in the queue to bounce back.

The news on the ground is crucial. Whilst The Hive isn't great news for me it is a Superleague acceptable ground, just. If London do move to a Championship standard ground, which might save around £200k looking at Gutterfax's figures, it will tell you a lot about the clubs short to medium term plans.

I should add that I'm not opposed to a drop down in stadium size. Londn need to cut their cloth and a smaller, West London-ish stadium (allowing them to tap back into the old development work before it ceases to be relevant) may make a lot of sense in the long run. It would however put the writing on the wall for an immediate return to top tier RL.

So 30 odd years back when the club first started, where were the crowds coming from?

before super league what was the target for people playing rugby league down south?

The world is not going to stop spinning, I will still go watch, just need some direction to the club, DH needs to reveal his intentions so the club can go forward.

of course am not happy that next year it will be fev, Leigh Oldham etc but at least we can have a realistic target of top 4 a fight for a place

to come back up.

interesting thing with next year's play off system, the bottom 4 will have been losing, a be it competing at a higher level, the 2nd tier top 4 will be on the back of winning streak, so it MIGHT be competitive, look at Leigh and Leedsgame

Coaching staff are on board.

Playing staff are shaping up and the squad will operate in a full-time environment.

But the next six weeks are crucial.

News on the ground is required to reassure those of us still supporting the club. Once the ground is sorted - and a squad numbering 15+ is in place - the club needs to talk to every supporter who has been to the Hive this season and personally persuade them that 2015 is going to be a great year worthy of their time and investment. Memberships/renewals should be pushed hard at the Bradford game, which needs to be an event.

My fear is that we will have a protracted period with no home ground sorted and speccies will be allowed to drift away at the end of the season with no concrete plans in place ...

I will remain positive. But a lot depends whether the club has any ambition left.

I don't think we will back in Super League any time soon.

The comp rules are such that there is now effectively a 12 team cartel.

Only chance we have of returning to SL, is if one of the existing clubs go tits up (or they change the rules again).

The blunt truth is that wherever those crowds came from they aren't coming now. RL is a hard sell down south. I'm sure a large chunk of those still going will carry on doing so but the new status will make it harder to attract new faces / win back old faces. (The hard sell bit is true across the region. Suffice to say some of the Championship One games I have been to have resulted in gate declarations that made me wonder if fans had turned up dressed as empty seats.) A team that doesn't generate new support is doomed or totally reliant on benefactors and / or Sky. That's no business model.

As for players well given the track record of development I'd say 30 years ago it wasn't really on the radar. Without southern lads playing in sufficient numbers to produce good enough players we are reliant on northern lads and imports padding out the southern teams. Difficult enough to get the former in SL never mind now. Broncos were, and hopefully still will be a hugely important part of the developmental chain. If they can't fund this now I hope the RFL does.

Events at Broncos have been a huge blow to southern RL, not quite a serious as the development officer funding drying up but close.

I'd suggest if you add Broncos, Skolars, Hemel, Oxford and Cheltenham together you have just over 1000 people regularly watching professional RL and about 100 southern lads in the match day squads, plus a few playing up north. The world may not stop turning but the overall position of southern RL is currently worryingly weak and the sport taking a significant step back towards where it was in 1980 is not something I can welcome.

I just hope we have professional RL down here in another 30 years.

Yes we can. Its a 10 year project but I don't know if and when the project will ever start. The "next six weeks" or the next season or two will go no way in restoring our place at the top table if we don't plan for what we want, when we want to get there, and how we're going to do it.
I don't buy this "a few years in the Championship to regroup" nonsense - might be OK for Leigh but none of the M62 rules apply down here. We have to stop living from week to week, season to season, and build a stable and sustainable club for the long haul. And none of this needs a sugar daddy - the maximum Super League club budget this year (Leeds) is only £8m. With hard work we can get to that place, but of course we need to start the process and there's no sign that we will.

The problem you have is that it will take a massive amount of effort, support and leadership to move on from this position - under the club's current format you possess none of these.

The club needs to stop dealing in idiotic short cuts - change the name, don't play at a Union ground being the most insane of all the decisions, based on not a single scrap of data that I could see.

Lobby hasn't been on here for a while - I seem to recall that was his recipe for success. Worked well didn't it? The support base decimated by 75% in a single ground move.

Time to lose M62 thinking and realise you're operating in the London entertainment market. Therefore, the rugby or the standard of it is irrelevant to be honest. A properly marketed 'fightback' that people can buy into supported by a matchday experience that is fun and enjoyable off the pitch - will have people returning. Hopefully the rugby will improve and together these things can slowly rebuild the fanbase.

I'd get away from The Hive as I don't think any of that is possible there. The Stoop was a great location and venue but may be too expensive now. But I feel you have to move back to West London - you still have a fanbase there based on previous attendance figures even from last season. Somewhere like Esher may not be a bad call if you could guarantee it for 5 years and they're interested. If you get promoted before then - nice problem to have. (Not exactly West London I know btw!)

Keep the youth going - as much as anything for the revenue from selling players. Nothing wrong with this if it's part of your business model until the club gets on to a more solid / successful footing.

I'm singing to the choir here I know and there's no magic answer as the previous poster said. The biggest issue is lack of leadership of the club. With no leader then I don't see anyway back which is really sad as although I've never been a regular - I've always had a great time at the games at The Stoop / Griffin Park and it's sad to see all that lost in such a short time by criminally poor management.

Well said that man!

It has been confirmed that is has been assured we will retain a full time squad next season, we have to build again. I'm not sure IF we do leave The Hive were is the best place to move to, but I do know that The Stoop in our last stay was not the promised land some seem to think now it was.

At the end of the day we need someone who will take over from David Hughes, we all know he will stay long term as owner, but it has to be someone who is committed to rugby league, why was a London businessman interested in The Bulls, and was so involved by business in The World Cup not interested?

All very well to talk about a West Londonish ground - any ideas as to where an affordable one might be?

Nope. Club will languish in champ' for two seasons.
With under 19's playing 1st team getting bullied week in week out.
Then folding.
I know it won't be popular but that's my thoughts.
Hope I'm wrong!!!

Let's put to one side the idea that any Championship club is going to get promoted. The format is clearly, and hugely, weighted in favour of the SL clubs and it would need one of them to implode for a CC club to take their place.

But to the Broncos, we've spent the last couple of years watching effectively an U19s team with a sprinkling of below-average Aussies. Result? A weekly demolition. But on the bright side we thought we were developing our own players. Now we see these lads are all of to northern SL clubs.

So next season, we'll have a team made up of Championship-standard Aussies and a stack of U19s. Does anyone expect to see a different set of results? If you do, then you're nuts.

These kids just aren't ready for senior RL, against battle-hardened pros. If you think going to HKR was hard, try going to Keighley with a team of kids and seeing how they get treated by the locals. Every week is going to be a war zone in that division, those of us who were around in the Barnet Copthall days (and prior) will attest to that. We'll be lucky to finish mid-table.

Just listened to Purdo's interview on RLDS. He thinks that's it!

There are plenty of RU and a few non league football grounds that may well pass the ground grading for the second tier. There are options there in terms of who they can approach. It would certainly be a step-down from The Hive never mind Twickenham Stoop.

I don't know how West you want to go, but Hayes & Yeading have almost finished their ground and would probably welcome a tenant to help share the cost

Emperor's New Clothes......£900,000 of central funding next year is paying for that. Come back and tell me we're full time in 2016 and I'll ask to see where the cash is coming from.......the announcement that we are full time next year is nothing other than flannel to paste over the relegation from SL.


Really? Before Hughes employed that Chimp Mackay, we had out highest ever average attendances spread over 4 seasons.......we had an opportunity to build ties with the landlord and we were in a purpose built Rugby Stadium paying £220,000 a year and taking £100,000 more than that in ticket revenue.......the venue and match days were not the loss making operation



Hughes total ignorance of how to run anything other than his own brokerage destroyed the relationship with the landlord, the sponsors, the fans and most importantly, the RFL.

There was SFA wrong with the Stoop.......I have REPEATEDLY posted the financials that show regardless of the lies perpetuated by the Broker and his Gimp the Stoop were not charging us the earth......but you persist with this myth anyway. Send my your email and I'll send you the P&L for the club 2008-2012 inclusive.........then you can see where the money went and how much EXTRA we got from the RFL.......but stop saying the stoop wasn't right for us. We've sent Buck and Dusty out marketing to the locals in Harrow and we've ridden the train........the idiots employed by Hughes handed out travel pass covers in East London



You're not stupid Jaybs, but sometimes I do wonder if your account has been hacked by a monkey

Sorry Paddock.......back on thread.

Nope. Not in it's current guise. £900k in central funding pays for 2015's "full time" squad of teens and 3rd rate Aussies, but thereafter, with crowds in the region of 500 (and god knows where those crowd will be watching our home games) paying £15 a pop will bring in £112,500 a year.

For this club to get back to being anywhere near ready for SL? Hughes needs to man up now and write a cheque for another £15,000,000.........employ a proper sports administrator and then off (except on match day). This money needs to be used frugally to keep the kids coming through and eventually.....in maybe another 10 years, the London Broncos will have a squad capable of challenging the bottom 4 of SL........AKA...where we were in 2010 before Hughes employed the idiot.

www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/30 ... ll-time-in just for anyone that missed it. RL was played down south before the creation of super league, I know as I played in Bath and Swindon, to say the sport will not continue to flourish down here because we are not in SL toup tier is an insult to folk like Martin coyd at medway, the folk at Elmbridge, Croydon, skolars etc it's good to hear we are following the northern lead though! The new system will create a 12 team cartel, errrrr excuse me what was the franchise system? All be it 14 teams. Saying we are being locked out makes us sound just like every Leigh, Fev, fan, even widnes a couple of years back. maybe next year winning a game or 2 might tempt a few bums back on seats its not the end of the world, it looks like our backer will be sticking with us, which will upset gutters but hey if he was not on the scene then we would not have a club, harsh but true. Think back all those years ago when pro rugby was first muted in London, it will never take off they said

www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/30 ... ll-time-in just for anyone that missed it. RL was played down south before the creation of super league, I know as I played in Bath and Swindon, to say the sport will not continue to flourish down here because we are not in SL toup tier is an insult to folk like Martin coyd at medway, the folk at Elmbridge, Croydon, skolars etc it's good to hear we are following the northern lead though! The new system will create a 12 team cartel, errrrr excuse me what was the franchise system? All be it 14 teams. Saying we are being locked out makes us sound just like every Leigh, Fev, fan, even widnes a couple of years back. maybe next year winning a game or 2 might tempt a few bums back on seats its not the end of the world, it looks like our backer will be sticking with us, which will upset gutters but hey if he was not on the scene then we would not have a club, harsh but true. Think back all those years ago when pro rugby was first muted in London, it will never take off they said

Micky, what bothers me is the state of the amateur game here. Of three games I have tried to watch in the last month, on two occasions only one team has turned up. This doesn't bode well for building up from the lower tiers. I certainly don't know the answer to this problem

Not sure what games you are going too mate, I did 2 at the weekend u 17 skolars v Croydon, standard of kids rugby in the south has improved massively in the last 2 years btw.
Hemel on sat eastern region finals day, ok one game a bit one sided, the actual final was close run and a cracking game.
St Albans played the Army first team not so long back and gave em a good game, same Army team that played Chorley Panthers a heartland team, the standard was not that different.
Am RL is pretty healthy in London and the South

Michael. List the amateur Open Age teams in London and the SE with say a 5 year+ pedigree. Kids is all well and good, but the reality is that teams come and go with terrible frequency and are predominantly based arounf ex-pat northerners and Aussies.
I'd love to know how many of the kids that won at Wembley a couple of years back are still playing competitive RL?

Park RL is great.......but it doesn't deliver a pathway for professional athletes to progress in the game.

The Northerners have taken their ball home.......and the RFU didn't have to do anything to make it happen.

I think we can, because we almost got there on our own before the SLE "franchise" nonsense. As London Crusaders we finished 4th, 5th and 3rd, just missing out on the big time, even when Brisbane first re-christened us we finished 4th.

That was despite a period of direct RL running of the club, financial squeezes on salaries, nomadism and no facilities etc etc et-al.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as frustrated as anyone else that the "gift" of top flight footie was wasted, but reality is, it has been and we have to start again, right back from were we started.

According to the handbook of the Southern Amateur Rugby League (as it was called then) for 1985/6 it's members were Aberavon, Bexley Heath, Cheltenham, Ealing, Fulham Amateurs, Fulham Travellers, Hemel Hempstead, Hounslow, London Colonials, Milton Keynes, Peckham, Peckham Pumas, Queen Mary College, St. Mary's College, Streatham Celtic, West London Institute, Wokingham and Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Obviously at this level clubs come and go (in Hemel's case to better things), but to lose all that is bizarre. No strong amateur base just makes our problems worse.

Unfortunately most southern teams are based around one or two key individuals and rarely survive their departure. There are some very impressive exceptions but it's a legitimate question to ask what legacy, say, Crawley Jets left.

Sadly I'm hearing both Oxford and Hemel have dropped out of the U18 league this season. The former is particularly worrying as the whole ethos of the club is to build local participation and the first team this season have often included 14 southern based lads and I think it was 15 at least once. (Admittedly injuries have forced their hand a little here.)

Clearly the more juniors playing the more good players will be uncovered to play at the highest level available down south, currently Broncos.

As an aside, if the York press is, to be believed a RU player who made his debut for Oxford in Sunday had a rugby league background that amounted to four training sessions. Not exactly evidence of a sport thriving down south. (I should add a conversation I had with someone who is likely to know suggests he had been around the club long enough that he would have attended more than four training sessions.)