I don't think the club really know who to target and hence the obsession with changing grounds and names under the illusion that the problem will solve itself.

I would suggest there are more than enough Northern Exiles in London to form a decent fanbase. As has been suggested before we should target people who have bought Challenge Cup, Grand Final or international tickets who are living in the South East. Another thing to consider in the number of people who travel south for work each week and stay Mon to Thursday night in Greater London. We should perhaps try some mid week games and try and target RL fans of other clubs with the aim of making London their second team.

is the answer Kent?

The answer is find the market and get it to turn up.

You know it isn't

Find the market? We seem incapapble of the simplest tasks and have in fact managed to shrink our market.

In 2005 we averaged 3,918 with only the one gimmick game v Leeds in France bosting the attendance by a couple of thousand......so over the last 7 seasons, about 1,100 people have STOPPED coming to games on a regular basis nearly 1/3 of our base.....getting some of this lot back would be a start. Alas, it would seem that the simplest of tasks such as data collection is too much to expect. I can't think of many successful businesses that don't know their customers, what makes them tick and how best to contact them.

More worrying is that over the last 2 years we have seen our gates drop from 3,380 to 2,807...573 less fans per game.......and regardless of how crap the team have been, letting 17% of our core support to drift is indefensible.

Let's hope that the appointment of Codel 13's Steve to the Media role at the club is just the tip of the iceberg and that other professionlas are appointed to positions that they are qualified for and that David Hughes has freed up about 250k for marketing this year....

How many new people do you need to get £250K back?

I think DH invested his marketing money in the team last year with max salary cap banking on success to bring in the crowds- Sadly Powell ballsed it all up.

The rebrand was probably the biggest marketing expense. Powell couldn't be blamed for that.

How much would have been spent on our rebrand? It's not as though we were relaunching Coca-Cola.

I don't know, but not much sign of spending on anything else.

Well if you pull in 250 , with a season ticket being say 200 quid and say 50 quid profit per season on bits and pieces, you need them to continue coming for 4 years to break even on your 250 K investement

If they remain as fans for 14 years then with inflation and potential other spends you make a million out of them

A reasonable target should be around 250/300 extra paying fans per season, to achieve that a reasonable target should be at least 5,000 new people through the gates, hoping to ' convert ' 1 in 20
This thread started with a comparison to Union , and there lies the key , their product is poor , so they market the ' Event ' , so make the product feel like an event

You wouldn't get it back in a hurry.......but long term, you would.

Say we set a target of 8,000 over the next 10 seasons, with 10% growth year on year....spending 250k a year doing so. If we say each attendee is worth 25 quid a pop in tickets and residuals, we currently are on an income of 900k and change from our fans....

In 10 years time you have invested 2.5 million in marketing and your income over that period would be would be:

1,000,000
1,125,000
1,250,000
1,390,000
1,550,000
1,700,000
1,900,000
2,100,000
2,350,000
2,600,000


16,965,000 return on 2.5 million.......nearly tripple the "fan revenue" for investing 16% of David Hughes money into building security.

What it takes is planning, stratergy, resilliance, skill, hard work, enthusiasm, passion, belief and a bucket load of other stuff the club patently lacks.





Field of Dreams marketing has failed at the club for 17 years.....even when we madethe Play offs in 2003 and again in 2005, we didn't see major surges in attendances, samer goes for the Challenge Cup year too.......what works is marketing......wasting money on players and a coach is not marketing!

And at every other club that has tried it , there is no logical reason that any club could not play to sell out crowds for every game it plays, the only thing stopping it is the mindset that it cannot be achieved

Searching my inbox for "London Broncos" , the last email I got from the club was the July 30 fixture correction.

I can't believe the re branding cost so much. A new kit, new website, new headed paper and half a dozen taxis ads. tbh I can't think of anything else.

Starbug said `This thread started with a comparison to Union`.

The purpose of my original post was to draw attention to the fact that a Harlequins employee, who had been part of a successful campaign over a number of years to build crowds, no longer worked for them…..and might just be worth contacting.

Unlike one poster has suggested, my post was not a snipe at our new man Steve (I wish him every success). The suggestion was that JS might be worth approaching as someone with skills and experience, who would be a useful addition to our back office team and able to make a positive contribution.

There must be a ton of work for everyone in the back office if they are to turn around our dismal management and marketing performance over the years.

Steve`s going to have a hard time of it if people are looking just to him to be our saviour.

He's not the Messiah.....he's a very naughty boy



I was assured last year by the CEO that the young lady he'd placed in the role was as good as gold and new what she was doing....she didn't last 6 months. I honestly wish Steve all the success in the world, but I have major concerns over the self preservation tactics of others in the back office who have a history of dropping the ball. New Name,New Ground, New Staff......always something else to blame.

On the subject of those who have worked for Quins, I believe the young lady mentioned above now has a role she is qualified to do with our landlords.....[urlhttp://www.quins.co.uk/news/6390.php[/url.

I can only reflect on why I stopped supporting the club on a regular basis, after following the club since the Chiswick Poly. days.

While I still claim RL is my favourite sport, over the last few years the lack of commitment by some of the players, coupled with the lack of professionalism off the pitch has made the prospect of a 180 mile round trip to the Stoop very unappealing indeed. I would come back but I would need to see some real change both on and off the pitch. I am not looking for League or Cup titles, just a competitive team, proffesionally run, worthy of representing London, playing entertaining Rugby League.

Not too much to ask, if the club gave it a try they may be surprised at how big we could be.

And what you asking for off the field?


You hand in your ticket, go in and sit in a state of the art ground, bars under the stands, programmes readily available, toilets at hand, stacks of parking next to the ground.....what else do you require other than a moan.

London has never been known as a flamboyant side- TR was known as the grinder in his first stint as coach.

FOR THE ATTENTION OF MR G. MACKAY AND MR D. HUGHES.

Below is the musing of one "lapsed" fan of London RL. This person may be unique, or they may be indicative of a larger group of fans who have drifted away over the years, but be assured that if the club continues on the path that it has taken over the last 24 months or so, this person will be the tip of a very large iceberg. As fans of the club, we understand the constraints that are sometimes encountered when trying to balance the books whilst growing the appeal of attending games, but it is the aparent lack of any effort being made that is most upsetting for supporters.

2013 will be faced with the usual mix of optimism and passion, with a real sense of belief that TR can continue the transformation of the squad, but off the park is where the club need to completely overhaul their ethos........the fans are paying customers and unless they are treated as such, they, like the poster below, will continue to drift.

Good Luck for 2013.

You forgot the part about buying the ticket that you hand in.

For too long the club has acted like we were honoured to be able to part with our hard earned and we should be thankfull for the opportunity.......paying customers need decent customer service and as it stands, the club is lacking anything in the way of understanding of how to treat a group of people that contribute to between 25% and 26% of their entire income......David Huges contributes 40% so he does what he wants......the fans contribution in 2010 was 30% by the way....and 38% in 2006.....each year that passes sees less income from fans and more reliance on DH.

You walk up to the ticket office, hand over £15 pound without queuing, get a ticket and go into the ground grab a beer and sit where you want-It is the easiest entry to a ground that I have ever come across in any sport.

He/she doesnt want to travel the 180 miles-just looking for an excuse not to come.

Only the top sides play fancy footy 'cause they have the players to chase it back if it doesnt stick-Wire and Leeds made the most handling mistakes last year. The rest play % footy.

For the average punter who just wants to go and watch RL there are no adverse off field issues-it is the best match day experience in RL.

and apparently the best kept secret

There is one important thing increasingly lacking from the match day experience.....atmosphere !!!

It will be better in Kent

Exactly



Hopefully once we start winning that will come back