Now that's the truth, but hey no one else would have us

The one thing that Gus (are we allowed to speak his name?) suggested that made some sense to me was the idea that the Broncos had a central home and then took some games on the road, rather like a county cricket club. Ealing for 10 home games with 2 or 3 on the road, based close to London League clubs who could help make the day into a festival of rugby.

I always thought that when we took games on the road in The Stoop/Griffin Park/The Valley days, we went too far from home .We should have stayed closer to London and used the games to promote The Broncos. Gillingham being an example of when we did and we got 6 000 fans for the first game..
When you think, we went many times to Wales, went to Scotland and even France. Whilst these games may have promoted RL in general, did it do any good for the club.
Must admit I enjoyed attending them.

You have to be joking about taking games on the road, strewth look at the discussions we had about the "difficulties " of getting to Ealing on a Sunday. How on earth would we cope with a different ground 2 or 3 times a season?
Reality is, trail finders suits us at the moment, everything is one place and let's be honest without a massive investment we are probably playing at the level of competition suitable for us.
If we were too moved am sure it would generate lots of discussion of N E W or S london but go to east london and you will probably lose more fans than you gain and we have few enough.

Get the point of the opening post, there are quite a few active players down that neck of the woods, are they being given the support to develop, well that's a question. There are a bunch of blokes in london who have set up a business getting folk to play a form of rugby league and are extremely successful all over london so things can be done.
As to where the professional teams should or need to be is a very different question.
In my view Broncos are best placed in West London somewhere. Why, well look at the "potential" supporters catchment area of the club. let's call everything on the tube map London. So they should draw fans from london berks Hants wilts Surrey Sussex Essex Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire maybe east anglia Herts Kent and beds
Where we are fans from Kent and Essex are pretty hard done to
If we move to Kent or Essex we would lose most fans from berks Hants wilts bucks oxen beds
For away fans from Yorks east or west makes no difference lancs actually not really much difference either for guys from Surrey Sussex Herts it probably makes not a lot of difference.
We all know that to get back into super league means a move, but doing what we have always done with the moves has never helped. Leigh, Widnes both showed how it needs to be done, get a decent stadium and build slowly year on year to get to where you need to be.

We need to stay where we are.

We need to get promoted first.

If we do then how confident are we that we will stay up and would it be a one season wonder which would burn our bridges with trailfinders and be back to where we were looking for a ground should we not stay in SL.

Has any one any knowledge as to whether or not we could get a dispensation for RFL to stay at Ealing, other clubs dont have a problem as they mainly own the ground should they go up and then back down again the following season.

Seating could be rearranged and redesigned and I am sure you could get to the minimum level.

Trailfinders was developed massively during the close season who is to say they could not do the same again with seating plans. There are three side which could be further developed.

Min requirements are 5000 with 2000 seats. We would really struggle to get near that on the seats. In theory the capacity of 5000 would be ok, we just stand em all on that top pitch. That's why wakey are in trouble.
Not sure how you could develop 3 sides though. There is a very small space by the main stand that could have something put on it, then behind the sticks at one end.

Get promoted then move is the wrong way to drive for success in my opinion. If you do that then in sept you get promoted and then have in effect 2 months to find a suitable home, and we know how that has worked for us in the past.
When we think we are capable of building for a genuine push for SL status we do it properly. First find a home that is suitable for SL but more importantly the club, then try to get promoted, get the foundations first.

Stand opposite the main stand could take a lot more seating and incorporate the players and coaches area as was done at the stoop. Behind the goals could easily take another tier if reinvented. Behind the goals at the opposite end could again take a large number of seating in two or three tiers. Putting seating in there would also prevent those house behind from seeing the game free of charge and may increase numbers (joke)

There is no room to build anything on the far side, the second pitch is too close

Could they not just get rid of the pitch to the side? The footprint of Trailfinders is more than big enough to meet SL standards and as a west Londoner, from a purely selfish perspective the location is bang on

So the brand new 4g pitch that was finished about 2 months ago, why would they get rid if something they have just spent a fortune on

Why the hell did they build another 4g pitch in the first place ? makes no sense to me. Thought the idea of having a grass pitch there was so both teams have grass to train on in preparation for away games , complete waste of money. So where do they train for away games ? Ealing common ? or do they just stay on the 4g pitch , would explain there poor performances away from home I suppose.

We need to get promoted before we worry about all this. If we get promoted this season then we need serious consideration as to where we go from here ie RFL talks to remain at Trailfinders with discussion at the end of that season. We would need to stay up in SL but it has been a see saw of up and down for the lower teams and we cannot afford to leave trailfinders and find the following season we are in the same position again plus it is a great ground to play in. Very neat and loads of facilities. Great gym and training facilities also. I cannot see us getting promotion this year therefore it probably won't be a problem to worry about at the moment. There are enough real situations to tackle before we think of what might be / what could be. We need a consistent team week on week, we have great guys with bags of personality, we have guys who play as individuals and we have the guys who slog it out week on week and give it their all but until they play as one unit we will suffer with the results. There is not one bad bloke amongst them they just need reassurance that playing as a team they will go further.

Agree that super league is probably at best a few years away but that ground is not even at championship 1 standard let alone championship. Easy for us to say what should be done as its not our money but for me it wouldn't cost a fortune to get it to championship level. First get rid of those stupid pods where the coaches are and house them over where we are now and keep that stand for coaches , officials , staff , players family and friends, build a shallow stand something similar to salfords small one along that side and have a similar stand like the away stand at the entrance end. That surely wont cost the earth and it would be a nice little ground for championship rugby.

agree from small acorns

All forgetting one vital thing, it's Ealing trailfinders ground not ours. Why did they build a second 4 g pitch, because that's what Ealing wanted, it's all weather and you can play as many games as you want on it year round. What we have is good enough for the level we are playing at. I think the most we can hope for on any expansion would initially only be temporary, there was lots of talk when we first moved here re local planning permissions.

I think where all fully aware that its Ealing's ground and they can do what they want but surely like us they want to progress and have a nice little ground there proud to call home. As for the 4g pitch again there choice but I just don't get the need for another one , as you say its all weather and will last for years so why two? is it in case you lose one ? Surely money could have been put to better use and again i still don't know if or where we train on grass for away games , not just us but Ealing as well.

Talk to Ealing about that. The arrangement at Ealing with trailfinders is not that straight forward, am sure there are folk on here better informed than me, reality probably is that Ealing rfu are happy playing where they are in the league they have openly stated that they are not looking to get promoted to a higher level, not just because of facilities, but they don't want to go up and come straight down so have a realistic attitude

Its common knowledge that Ealing have no ambition to play in the premiership at the moment and I get that what I don't get is that there seems to be no desire to want to play in a nice little ground that people get a good veiw of the game . I know this is from our perspective but the amount of people that I spoke to at the Leeds game last year that were either lapsed broncos fans or northerners that lived down here that would be say casual supporters said they wouldn't return , the simple fact was £20 to watch a match pitch level , the £20 was fine if they could see but all said thankfully they had recorded it as you cant see bugger all pitch level

Nice little ground! Where?

Where we are , both clubs building slowly but surely , shouldn't that be the aim ?

Thought you were suggesting that trailfinders wasn't that ground? My misunderstanding mate.
I think at the moment trailfinders is ideal for us. As for the fans you talked to, hey you can never please everyone, Barnet, nice ground good views wrong location, stoop good stadium but to far from the pitch with that walkway. Brentford no parking.
For me watching rugby at pitch level not a problem.

A partnership with Blackheath would be about the clubs level at the moment. It amazes me how little professional sport there is in the area.