2 "home" games away from the Stoop don't appeal to me and for sure I won't travel to Gillingham. So my ST would be for 11 or 12 games depending on where the other awayday is. If I think it's good value for 11 games, I'll buy one.

Make your own mind up but don't ask me to join in a boycott.

I meant boycott that particular OTR game not in general.

they're doing fine without me repeating the obvious.

I will say that Gus has got some front....

...success


Hull FC attendance contained 1,500 kids and amateurs for their "event of the year" and in 19 visits of Bradford to the Capital.......that was the least attnded one



...someone throw him a life-ring

Gus's stuff is just standard marketing-speak, to be ignored.

How does he define "success"? Don't know and don't really care. It's just a load of fluff.

Its not just about attendances, its also the cost of rent, returns from use of bars, length of deal etc.

see what happens with the brentford venture! get in with that from the start, make that our ground from 2014 with a shared of that ground, make it our home!, London Broncos, need to be in LONDON

Brentford is the only ground where we left with more fans than we arrived with........if the owners of Brentford are up for a discussion regarding ground share or part investment/ownership at their Lionel Road base, then that, in my humble opinion, should be the only option being explored. If the club are seriously moving away from the Stoop (again) then it has to be based on more than the opinion of a CEO and Chairman who have presided over a fiasco in the last 24 months....

The RFL, now they have their money back from looking after Bradford should purchase a controlling interest in the London Broncos from 2015-2018 with the sole aim of removing the culture of failure from the club, working on the off field areas that have been butchered for over a decade and attracting investors to take the club forward from 2018 onwards........Thank you very much Mr Hughes for all your support....if we ever own a ground, a stand is the minimum that will carry your name, but for the club to move forward as a viable professional business, it's time somebody else took over.

Let's look at your post in depth shall we?


How does it make complete sense? Since we returned to the Stoop the club have spent less than 100k on atracting fans or promoting games...they have repeatedly employed the wrong people and done nothing to raise their profile in the immediate area. The fact that another CEO who is out of his depth was scrambling around for unimportant things like name changes 6 months into the job and then blaming the team when the re-brand fails points to something that does make sense.......that no matter anyone else says, so long as you do what Mr Hughes tells you to, then you're OK for another few years employment.....see Mr Powell as exhibit 2 and further proof of this theory.


Ah....this is your statement that you can fall back on when a failing CEO and Meglomaniac Chairman decide to shunt the team to Kent in 12 months time.....failure to increase crowds by 78% in 1 season will be the reason.....




This is the only accurate thing in you post...because if we do move, then attendances in the first year will be higher...they have been when we moved back to The Valley in 2000, to Brentford in 2002 and back to The Stoop in 2006........guess what happened in the years after the "initial" curiosity....go jaybs, guess........shall I tell you?

2000-2001 dop of 6%
2002-2003 drop of 7%
2006-2007 drop of 31% (discount the double header and it's only down 22%)

.....the common denominator? Not a ing penny spent on marketing the team/club/event/game......just an arrogant belief that goalposts, 2 teams and KO time was enough.

This club moves to cover up the failings of those charged with improving things and the inability to understand what is really needed by its owner......it always has done and always will do

Now I don't recall him doing that but maybe he did. I'd be interested if you could clarify when and how he did that.

Thanks Barbary

, and with that, it's goodnight from me ...

My bad....7 months into his job he was discussing the change....he's on record as saying...

[urlhttp://www.globalsportsjobs.com/content/3640/industry-insight/the-boss-gus-mackay-london-broncos/[/url



14-01-11 / Gus Mackay Joins as CEO
22-06-11 / Club announce they are investigating a possible re-brand
10-09-11 / 3,456 Watch the loss to St Helens, securing 12th spot with an average down 8% on 2010
01-11-11 / Club announce a rebrand back to the Broncos name

Above are some of the highlights of the 2011 season on and off the pitch.....others include the employment of a communications manager from the LTA to the position of Marketing Manager at the club (she's now been employed in the correct role by our landlords BTW), the decision to appoint a Cricket Clothing Manufacturer to produce the clubs kit and replica items and also, the decision not to press ahead with further exploritary discussions after looking at a potential ground in Barnet........which is now being built by sarries with an 8 million pound sponsorship deal in the bank and, lest we forget, the continued employment of a coach who would go on to become the reason than attendances in 2012 were crap....according to the CEO that is!

There is no direction or leadership being shown at the club.....the problem has never been the stadium the team play their games at, the problem has always been the wrong people in key roles.

I think a share in Lionel Rd project would be great for us but the new owner there has plenty of money and i dont think needs us. Wonder what half a share would cost and whether DH has that sort of money anyway.

With all the cost-cutting going on elsewhere within the club I don't think we need bother talking about pie-in-the-sky ideas for a share in Brentford's stadium. Wound up by the 2014 Grand Final.

Having a close the club down day are we 78

Interns=close the club
Stoop=close the club

Nothing to do with the Stoop, I like the ground and it's probably our best bet when you compare it to anythign else on offer. I just don't see anything coming out of the club that suggests the attitude or approach is going to change in any way shape or form. Which makes the whole thing a bit pointless really.

Which makes what pointless exactly?

You still get to see SL every week. We have a new coach, a bit of hope for the playoffs given the end of season form, you like the Stoop

DH may have made a decision to keep forking out- How does that effect you?

The RFL should have done something years ago about having a LONDON RL GROUND! when we first left Fulham! it could and should have been a Centre of Excellence for RL in the South, all the community teams based there and the HQ for RL & Super League in London, but no they did nothing they were supposed to have sent in help wonder what they did! instead they buy a big hole in the ground for Bradford to save them and ensure that the sale of the ground did not give the people owned £6 Million their monies back! I would not put Nigel Woods in charge of anything and he is shaping the Future of the game and he is part and responsible for the disaster the game is in!

30 years ago Warrington plus plenty of other "big" heartland clubs were failing and you think the RFL had a vision to waste all there money on a ground in London. No really

Wigan had only just returned to the top flight from the second division. Thats what was going on in them days!

There was no Sky deals!!

What disaster is the game in? Crowds growing, Sky deal the biggest we have had, more youth playing than ever before, more youngsters making the top level, new teams in Oxford and other southern regions playing semi pro.......it goes on

Look a bit further than the empty seat next to you in the west stand.

Of course there are good points in the game, perhaps 30 years back may have been the wrong time, but when the Sky money came in for the first time where did that money go? the majority in players high wages, yes they deserved to go higher, but I know many average players who were being paid wages well above their availability. When Sky came on board it was money like the game had never seen before, but did they spend the money on grounds that were many derelict, No!

More Youth playing than ever before, Yes mainly in the South and expansion areas that is not the case in all of the heartlands of the game, yes it is great and I am so pleased about such as Oxford but that is not the opinion of a majority in the North, they are more concerned about their Hunslet's etc

The disaster or serious errors made by those who run the game are such as the Stobart sponsorship, add to that the lack of major sponsorship for such as the Challenge Cup how much do you think a Leeds University pay? crowds growing, but we can't even fill Wembley for a Challenge Cup Final, and look at the crowds for the end of season Mickey Mouse Premiership, did you see the attendance figures last weekend? or the empty terraces all around the stadium in Wigan? Look at the money Union get for their Premiership sponsorship and what BT are talking about for TV coverage £150 million for 4 years!

So yes there are some good points but I don't see the report over the past year being A * plus! and that is the responsibility of those who run the game, the top man being the one to shape the future, sorry but No! that is not the way forward for me.

interesting to see what Bryn Hargreaves says today to the Bradford Argus as he announces his retirement to take a better paid job out of the game.

"We could talk all day about what’s wrong with rugby league and that affected my decision too. It’s a short career and we don’t make vast amounts of money but the segregation of wages in the game is pretty bad and it’s getting worse."

He also spoke out about the licensing system and the infamous Stobart Super League sponsorship deal, for which the clubs did not receive a penny, but instead saw their brands advertised on the side of Eddie Stobart lorries.

He added: "The sport is on tenterhooks at the moment and the people in charge of the game need to do something about it. I thought this whole licensing process was supposed to stop things like this happening. But it’s happened to three clubs now – Wakefield, Crusaders and Bradford – in such a short space of time and there are other clubs that are on the verge.

It’s a downward spiral and there is no way of raising the cap to sign players because the clubs don’t have any money.

The Stobart deal has to be the worst sponsorship deal in history. How can it actually be a sponsor if there’s no actual money for it? It’s obviously not worked and things need to change."

Supporting a team is about much more than simply paying a few quid to watch a game of rugby or whatever. There's an emotional and psychological commitment too. There comes a point where you have to consider if it's worth it, especially if the club is doing everything it can to push you away and ultimately destroy itself. London Broncos have been on a downward spiral for a long time, and the signals coming out from the club are that they've learned nothing.

If it was just about watching SL then I could do that from home or the pub. Which, it seems, a lot of ex-fans have decided to do.

I guess what I'm saying is, either do it properly or don't bother at all and give another club a shot at it.

People forget that 30 years ago the RL was a very different organisation to what it is today. It was basically a variant on the London gentlemen's clubs (women, with the exception of waitresses, were banned from the Wigan boardroom until the mid-eighties when they were forced to admit Kath Hetherington and Barbara Close as they were Chairpersons of their respective clubs), with all the clubs voting on how their cosy little world was run and David Oxley was the League secretary who theoretically did their bidding. A strong secretary like Fallowfield could sometimes bully them into doing what they weren't keen on, but even he wasn't always able to shift the vested interests that were the club chairmen. It was only when it finally sank into their pinheads as to how far behind the Australians we were, plus growing serious financial issues that forced them to agree to the modernisation that should have happened 25 years earlier! Even now the big clubs still do their best to stop anything that might threaten their position.

Pretty much since the day we left Griffin Park

Griffin Park was an aberration, we have been on the slide since 1999!

Hargreaves is just throwing a few ill thought out hand grenades on his way out of the door. He has taken another job with another organisation. We all do that.

What does he know about the Stobart deal? Do you know what goes on in the boardroom of your company? (Its even higher than that in this instance-the RFL boardroom which is one above the Bulls). He is an end user, no different to a gas fitter working for British Gas. He hasn’t got a clue what is going on other than what he reads in the paper.

Wembley never used to fill to the numbers watching now even in the halcyon days you seem to refer. Not forgetting we have a recession and alternative options now for fans such as the GF, France, London away, Magic weekend. Wembley used to be the one day out a year for us northerners, hence the reputation of it being for all fans. I’ve stood on the terraces at Wilderspool in the rain, with a 3-4000 crowds, in a run down stadium watching semi pros play the game. The game has moved on so much since them days it’s incomparable.

Do some research on Wigan crowds over the years, including Central Park? Look up CC crowds and see if they always got 20K or is this just your fertile imagination strengthening, in your own mind, your argument.

The game can improve but is in great shape than that compared to 30 years ago.

Nothing wrong with my memory, I can assure you "east stander", as a kid I stood on Central Park with 39,000, Station Road with 40,000 plus and even Knowsley Road with 20,000, so please a "fertile imagination"

Of course not everything was perfect with the game back them, players working and then training at night, having to take a day off work for a weekday match at Workington! but I feel currently too many people have got carried away with the title "The Greatest Game"

They may have said back before the introduction of the five tackle rule, that teams stuck the ball up their shirts! but is that really any worse than now kicking the ball dead on the fifth tackle constantly? we mocked union for the kicking in the game, how boring it was!

The deal with Stobart was never a secret document! it was pure desperation to get a sponsor, that made the RFL were look a bunch of idiots in the end!

OK, thanks for the recap. But I still don't see Gus ... in all of that.