Mate, i'm originally from Golborne, whether you like it or not the only thing i was always sure of in a night in Leigh was someone trying to start a fight. Without meaning to sound rude most of that area is extremely poor and full of insecurity. Hilton Park was in its latter years a den of hate and small mindedness, i hope that hasn't been carried on to the LSV? Now i've been watching the Quins a few times and i have to be honest they are THE most friendly and welcoming fans in SL and i for one hope that people see the value of this. With the rise in the number of people playing i can see there being a very slow trickle of rising attendances, it's just going to take a little patience.

Lol? Grow up mate. My theory would be, quoting you, use the '1250 to 1750 fans that would travel to any southern ground to watch the club play' and go to the Olympic Stadium, get the top facilities, top rail link and fantastic stadium along with all the promotion that would go with it and use that to not only attract better players, but also every single travelling fan will want to go to that stadium. Your crowds arn't exactly going to suffer are they if you get 1500 from Richmond and any newcomers nearer the Olympic site plus all the away following.

There is absolutely no evidence of a trickle of crowds growing, falling definatley. And how can someone from Golborne (i lived there for 5 years and stillo own a house there) call Leigh a dump?

It is a dump i know, i won't counter that but didn't Leigh used to fill Hilton Park about 40 years ago and your crowds shrank year on year? It's not so much a Quins problem but for a few exceptions, a rugby league problem. As for the olympic stadium idea would you move your ground 30 miles away !

I'm not having a go! I think that you have got an opportunity coming up that is once a century to get on the back of.

would Leigh have taken up an offer to use the city of manchester stadium if offered? No i don't think so and that's only 20 miles away. The majority of Quins fans are based in West London not East. Do you actually realise that london is huge? It's bigger than Manchester and Liverpool combined.

Why do you keep yapping on about Leigh to me? What have they got to do with your crowds? All the RL fans that say 'you're just a small town near Wigan'. We know this, you're stating the obvious. We can't deny it! If any fans think we think we are ever going to compete with the enormous clubs in SL like Wigan, Leeds, Saints and Hull F.C. we know we're not. We like our Rugby and the stadium we play in and the odd spell in SL, a good cup run and competing for the Northern Rail cup and we're happy.

Back to the point in hand, how are London going to succeed? You know best.

I'm 'yapping' about Leigh because i'm trying to put it into context for you. You[Leigh wouldn't relocate 30 miles neither would most clubs BUT it's ok for Quins just because it's a shiny new stadium? It would be a really bad idea and i live a lot closer to Stratford than Twickenham. Like someone said previous it is the over saturation of football in London. Moving to the east would be worse, Charlton, Millwall, West Ham, Leyton orient, Tottenham, Arsenal. No one except those that already do would be that excited

How is saying that Leigh is small but London is big putting things into context? I understand this! You don't understand what context is mate. How can you say moving a club to a city that is closer to about 6 or 7 clubs is the same as moving a club around one of the largest cities on the planet that a club has pretty much to itself? It's inposible to compare the situations with the two clubs.

i understand were your coming from, as a leyther myself i would not want leigh to move out of leigh! its local for me , theres plenty of pubs around !

what jonny is probably trying to say is ....how would your make your crowds bigger?? is there any promotions you offer to get people in the stadium.? To be fair theres many of clubs in the same situation!! take salford for example, manchester/liverpool have 4 prem sides and a few good SL team , pies, saints, wire ...... So their crowds must also be affected in the same way.

I was warned that you can't try and suggest anything constructive on the Quions board Ste. Maybe I should have listened! I want RL to be huge in London, I just don't see how it can be in the current situation.

Oh yes you can. Problem is, as stated earlier on this thread, that we've heard it all before, mostly from our own fans. so you're finding people being rude or just ignoring you.

Good day that, apart from Thaler's debut. I even got to chat to Tommy Sale who I hadn't seen for the best part of half a century. Is he still around at Leigh and has one of the LSV stands been named after him?

goes to all the home games, also saw him at batley away a few week ago. Still wears the hat he has wore for ages!! If im correct im sure they named a road after him (sale way)

Anyway, to try and get the thread back to where it was before we all started arguing with each other....
In order for Quins RL to get more bums on seats, we need:
1) A (very) successful team
2) A team who don't regularly play poop RL at home.
3) A huge (and unlikely) injection of funds to the marketing budget which would buy media time, get us featured in London's local newspapers (who never cover the club) and on local TV news in London.
4) To stay at the same stadium for the long term - we have a superb ground with marvellous facilities.

Which probably tells us that Saturday at 3pm is not the appropriate time to play

I agree that one neesd to be picked and stuck to but sadly the one they have picked is hardly being used

So whats the answer CB? tell us what day is best and provide some hard facts that supports your argument.

I take it you wont be coming Sat due to the sun that is forecast.

Why are we givig this guy the time of day? Wow, cheers 'jonny the leyrther' you're original and exciting veiwpoint on RL in London means that you have put forward arguments that have left us all desperately scratching out heads.

Why don't you just f off. The people on this forum love Rugby League and they go and support it in London, and there all fairly tired of the growing the game here arguments that have been thrown around and around.

If you have some wonderful new insight, stick it in that new technology in Leigh they call 'ink' to the RFL- I love the game and I go from your equivalent of Leigh to Knutsford every week (which isn't actually far comparartively).

Strange logic CB....how on earth do you arrive at the conclusion that Sat 3pm (which probably strikes a chord with most sports fans) is not appropriate just because management have only seen fit to schedule a couple of games at this time????

So if this is the case, by process of elimination all the Sunday games (whether or not the KO has been at 2.00 or 17.45) which have added nothing to the gate (and reduced the bar takings) have all been a great success.................absolutely bonkers

The Twickenham Stoop is a purpose built RUGBY stadium. No other sports apart from the 2 codes are played there....unlike some of the other bigger better stadiums. The Olympic stadium is designed as an athletics venue......ie, it has 8 lanes of track (10 meters minimum) between the crowd and where the pitch would be........25-30 meters behind the sticks. Twickenham Stoop has state of the art facilities including a sports injury clinic, Gymnasium, massive bar(s) plenty of boxes for corporate hospitality and is also seen as a great day out by most RL fans who bother to travel south once a year for their teams game. The Olympic stadium will probably have facilities that will be bigger....but not better. 3k fans rattling around a 14k seater ground is better than 4k rattling around a 25k seater......and regardles of what you think, ANZACS will not go to games...even if it were free entry..if they have to travel for more than 10 minutes and the escelator from the tube takes them directly to their seat.
To Buy Quins, relocate to East London and prop them up for a minimum of 10 years in their new location would cost a minimum of 20,000,000.....not exactly a small amount in the current financial climate.
Lastly........attract better players? From where? We have the most English Squad in SL..........do you mean attract more Australians...yeah, that's a step in the right direction. We blooded a young kid recently, 17 yr old prop from Feltham. It's taken years of hard work to get kids like this ready to step up...are you saying we bin them for Bigger Names? Are you saying we move 25 miles across town in the hope that cockney soccer fans or the east End community embrace RL....unlike the south East (Charlton) community?

Is it because the media in London are pro RU/anti RL.

Not really. Bloke called Jones was the sports editor at the Standard (may still be) and he was pro union....but as far as I know, the RFL/Quins offered to PAY for editorial content in Metro and were told that there was no interest...so no point?
The problem is (and I know I go on about it), the LOCAL area is where the club should be targeting...forget Anzacs or the rest of london for now......get the locals down to watch. There are 250k residents local....invite them to come and see a game....they can get to the ground easily, they can identify with the local brand and they can be canvased afterwards to see what they think......

Nice.

Can I just ask a favour of the mod of your board and ban me from it please. I don't even ever want the temptation to come on and discuss the game in London anymore, it's not worth my time getting abuse and basically sworn at every 5 minutes.

Do you think people who come on this board abuse people for no reason or have you possibly considered it may be something you have brought on yourself.

Why do you need to be banned- have you heard of self control.

Maybe when Leigh get a franchise you will want to come back and offer your sincere thanks to the club and supporters for a wonderful game day experience at the Stoop-In front of a big crowd!

This is exactly the reason I won't be bothering.
I know what self-control is, but in a moment of madness I may actually start caring about the game in London again. I love how the Harlequins fans can't discuss their problems without being so aggressive. It didn't occur to you that other fans havn't spoke about your problems as much as you have? How ignorant are you? It comes down to swearing at people and abusing the places they come from, and you turn it into a you v us arguement, that was never the intention. The intention was to have an adult discussion about the game in London and how it can progress. I never said my ideas were right or wrong, I can form my own opinions on that after finding out from the people who know better, i.e the Quins fans.

Leigh won't get a franchise, there are too many clubs in front of them. We are a small town that has over achieved if anything. I hope that RL does succeed in London, but I doubt that if it does happen, it will be under the name Harlequins RL and I doubt it will be at 'The Twickenham Stoop'.