I think we weren't asked at Brentford because, as I understand it, Nic Cartwright and co went cap in hand to Harlequins to sort out ground sharing or Harlequins taking us over after London Broncos went bust. Becoming Harlequins RL and adopting their pastel colours was made a condition of the deal. I don't think the club were given a choice so consequently the fans had no say in the matter!

Stiil ,on the bright side we won't have to play under the pastel flag of convenience for much longer!!

The long and short of the change to Quins RL was quite simple. David Hughes had decided enough was enough when it came to hurling money down the drain and wanted someone else to share the financial burden. Ian Lenegan was willing to assist but only if we became Quins RL as he didn't see any future for us as London Broncos and thought the Quins link up might work. The name was part of the deal however the kit wasn't quite so certain. Ian didn't want us to wear the RU kit, hence the initial talk about a RL influenced kit however he had his mind changed by Mark Evans who pointed out that if we were trying to win over Quins RU fans mucking about with a 150 or so year old traditional kit probably wouldn't be a great starting point.

Put simply if there had been a vote at the time of the name change it would basically have been do you want a) a club called Quins RL or b) no club.

I suspect the name Quins RL would have got a bit more than 1% of the vote.

Edited to add that whilst there was no survey a small number of "key" fans were consulted about the Quins move. I wasn't one but a then high profile fan who was a close friend was one of them. He has drifted away, personal reasons caused him to move, but at least one of the others consulted regularly posts on this board. I'll leave it up to them whether they wish to confirm the truth of this as I don't think they have ever publicly said they were consulted.

I was one of the few consulted. After the initial shock and after it was explained as in the above by Halfdan, it was accepted as 'force majuere'. We were told that the Quins brand would bring in lots of corporate sponsors..................

I remember being told that - still waiting!!

Credit to Poplar. To make sure there is no speculation as to who the other person I know who was consulted was, it was Poplar. I disagree slightly with him (I'm more in the Paddock camp as in terms of don't re-name us spend the money on a good team instead) however back at the time Poplar was presented with no realistic option. If we hadn't become Quins RL the top team in London would have been London Skolars. The simple fact is we have only had fully professional RL in London for the past few seasons due to the link up with Quins RU. (Poplar and I come from different sides on this but trust us, it is true.) Claiming being Quins RL has damaged full time RL in London is laughable. Without us being Quins RL we would no longer exist and neither Louis or Tony would have played for their nation,the likes of Dan and Mikey wouldn't have played for their nation at junior levels, indeed Dan would probably never have played RL as he grew up playing RU.

Whatever we may think of the decision to change name, and Poplar and I disagree on this one, the blunt truth is the decision has been made. The future of fully professional RL in London is on the line and we all need to back the sport irrespective of whatever we may personally feel about the imminent changes. In a few weeks time we change name, in three years time we may lose fully professional RL in London. Which is more important?

Long live London whatever we are called, where ever we are playing next year, RL................

nm

Hopefully when the name change is announced the vast majority on here will get behind the new incarnation, there is no choice unless you prefer the heroic efforts of the mighty Skolars (I support both teams of course), We will have 3 years to make it work.Hopefully that will focus some minds.

Definitely something we can all agree about!

This may be controversial but think about what im about to say before you dismiss it out of hand. I think the best think Quins (or what ever they will be called next year) could have done to boost attendances and core support would have been to drop into the championship for 3 years, think about it new fans are more likely to be attracted to a winning team challenging for honours (all be it in a division down) than a team near the foot of the super league getting hammered week after week.

A drop would simply not work, people in London have such a wide choice of Top Sport if they want to see lower division RL they have London Skolars RL

It's a controversial as saying perhaps send the top two teams in Super League into the Championship for 3 seasons and then it would allow some others teams to win build up their attendances and anyway the two teams sent down their fans would still watch a winning team so attract large crowds, don't think so!

I hope it works for the Crusaders as they have had more than 4,000 sign to back them, but I wonder if they do stay in the town why not become Wrexham Crusaders?

Would you be interested in some magic beans for your laptop

As a St Helens fan you prob dont want my input on this thread, it cant be helpful to the club to keep moving around London, A fan base is formed and the aim is to expand this over time. I dont know the geography of the diff grounds uv played at.London is such a vast place where as up north we`ve grown up from school supporting our town teams, I totally endorse having a London team and it would be brilliant for the image of the game and media exposure if London Broncos, or whatever name was generating 15,000 plus crowds. See you all on saturday i will be down there with family to watch the saints

...I played for London Irish in the 80's.....It took 2 seasons before I purchased a replica Quins shirt...I have no love of the Quins Brand at all....... as for the rebranding making a Huge difference, I would suspect yout definition of Huge and mine may differ somewhat. You named a few who have left since the Quins branding came into being.....a handful of people, but the fact remains......and regardless of the free ticket offers this year, it is a fact, the crowds as Quins are better than the crowds in the preceeding years as the Broncos.


I will say it again...name changes, stadium moves, better team performances are all a waste of time unless someone admits the main reason the club find themselves dancing this merry dance again is a total lack of marketing in any shape or form.

Please can we NOT have a new name beginning with H.

At least the match reports won't refer to us 'hapless' every week.

Lowly or lackadaisical or lacklustre or lacking or lost or or or LONDON

The only rationale behind a club changing its name would be for legal reasons.....

The only rationale behind a team changing it's shirt is at half time when its dirty.....

..................and in case you haven't noticed The Stoop is a proven sporting stadium and has no case to answer, a successful rugby league team in London is the missing link.

We could be called Hitlers Dream Thirteen and play in black shirts; if we were top of the league we'd have crowds..............................

A little convoluted, perhaps, but not far of the mark.

I would suggest that we could be top of the table after 3 rounds of the comp, having beaten one of the best teams in the comp the previous weekend and still only get 2,624 fans to the next home game. I might even suggest that after a 4/2 record after 6 games, with wins over Saint Helens and Leeds, the 2 dominant teams in recent years we would still only attract a crowd of 3,052 for the next home game.

Hang on...I don't have to suggest it......it happened.

A trip to wembley and 2 play-off games down the line and yet some believe that it's that simple......it's not!

Ok! missed out he word 'constantly', rather than the freak instance we found ourselves in this year.

Agree - you can polish a t**d but it is still a t**d.

The Stoop is not a great ground for atmosphere (unless it its over 3/4 full) due to the stands being quite decoupled from each other. Also the East Stand is quiet far from the action.

Therefor I'd like the club to introduce special areas for the more vociferous of London fans (i.e. not a "family" area)

Yeah the Stoop's a terrible ground. We should move to Barnet's ground post-haste, then everything would be fine.

"... =#FF0000introduce special areas for the more vociferous of London fans...".
You have been out of touch haven't you? Ask about Loud and Loyal.

....so let's leave one of the best Rugby Only stadiums in the country because about a half dozen of your mates have stopped coming to games. The issue here isn't the stands being de-coupled, the issue here is the 3/4 full and that has SFA to do with the ground, its location, the clubs name or the landlord. If you think that it does, then you are barking!


Did you think that up all on your own? Nope, because it's already been done.....kind of like having no union connection, not playing in a Union ground and not being called Harlequins.

Remind me again, how Über Popular were we before 2006?

The Stoop is nowhere near one of the best rugby stadiums in the country from an atmosphere point of view. It is much more of a casual "from a distance" stadiums - Good for food/drink/non-rugby actvities, but poor for out and out atmosphere. It always has been worse for this comparably to Brentford for example which is much closer to action. Of course some people prefer the more relaxed venue (akin to Wimbledon tennis) - I don't.

Also it is in an area that will never be interested en masse in RL, so it will always be an uphill struggle to get even 5k averages. This will be even more difficult now compared to 1997, with the rise in popularity of Quins RU since then