These rumours of a move away from The Stoop are deeply disturbing first and foremost because the existing venues being mooted as our new home are markedly inferior in almost all respects. The Stoop tenancy has been one of the saving graces of a club that has gone backwards for many years, giving up one of our few strengths would suggest we are now running on fumes.

What would the future be if DH decided not to bank roll the club? Maybe behind the rumours there is a long term plan to secure the future of a SL club in the South. What is clear is that the existing crowd numbers at the Stoop are not high enough to cover the costs of running a SL club and either Broncos invest heavily on marketing to improve attendances (at the Stoop) or go out of business in their current form. In the long term DH is not going to be around to keep paying the bills.

We need to know more, but if the plan is to move to an inferior ground elsewhere then it suggests long term SL survival is no longer tenable and we're looking to put ourselves on firm footing for the lower leagues. SL has minimum standards and we need to renew our license in 2 years time.

A move from the Stoop would lose 3 more season ticket holders here as well. Would probably do the odd game but too far from
Guildford with the kids.

I still don't feel we've given the Stoop a chance. A year or two of performances like we've had recently and I'm conviced we'd be up at 5-6k plus.

C'mon David/Gus - give the new coach at least one more season at the Stoop.

Gillingham would get the thumbs down from me too and I've been a regular home supporter since day one. Having stuck with the club in its various guises for so long I am loathe to stop following them regularly but can't see myself traveling to Kent for more than a handful of games. Let's hope the original newspaper story is bulls**t. It wouldn't be the first time that rag has printed lies after all.

No I didn't and No I didn't.....facts getting in the way of your posts again

No he didn't.


Yes they have, and people on here have quoted the sources. The information may (hopefully) be inaccurate, but nevertheless it is out there and people have clearly stated where they heard it.


Why? Why is now the time to move? (To somewhere that won't be Gillingham, but will be somewhere else in or near London, although we don't actually know where, just anywhere except The Stoop, because that's a union ground in union heartland, and some people seem to think this whole nomadic existence is some sort of big adventure and an opportunity to reinforce their loyalty credentials by continuing to follow the club somewhere different.) We've already moved far too much, and it sounds like going around in circles and repeating our mistakes to me.


Personally I'd say the ground is the right one. (That's the ground we're already playing at.) Unless an absolutely fantastic opportunity arises to play somewhere else that ticks all the boxes: that's modern, comfortable, good corporate facilities, sensible size, within Greater London (preferably to the southwest of Central London where the club has spent most of its existence and where its roots are) and with good public transport and road links.

We need to be at the best possible ground that offers the best value, not the one that offers the cheapest rent; that's not the same thing. There's little point in moving to a cheap ground in a cheap town if we're going to haemorrhage support and have to pretty much start from scratch in terms of pulling in supporters. Crusaders did that when they went to Wrexham and look what happened to them.

I'm still not convined we have a long term future once the benevolence of David Hughes is taken out of the equation, but moving to yet another new location and crossing our fingers that it all works out is not the way to go for me.

fou to usr of us have been season ticket holders for 12 years if we end up at gillingham hkr will be our last kent is no good to us

I'm hoping that all this talk of other grounds is a smokescreen so that Quins reduce the rent on the ground. Whatever we pay now, they'll miss that next year if we move

Nail on head.

If London Welsh manage to survive this season in the RU top flight then they may well move into the Stoop next year, assuming the Broncos aren't there.

I'm not a season ticket holder anymore but get to as many games as I can. Move to Gillingham and it's all over for me.

Move to Kent and its over for us to and reading these posts it would suggest they will lose more than half their core group. In effect it will be like starting the club from scratch and I would not like to guess whether or not the club would survive in SL. If we can't stay at the Stoop for economic reasons then let's go back to Bentford and build from there. With a wiining team we can entice more people back and build on from there. All the hard work done in development will be completely wasted if they move to Kent. We have some outstanding talent developing and we need to stay close to the area we are in either the Stoop or Brentford. Move too far away and this could all be lost, would local schools and clubs still want to be part of a club where the main focus is Kent.

Apologies GF! my mistake, I got it wrong.

Kelvin's Ferret started the thread, perhaps he can tell us when Steve said on Sky we would be moving to a ground we have used for on the road games he decided to may his choice of Gillingham and use it as the thread title, was it as I accused GF wrongly that it would get the most worked up!

It annoyed me on a night we had something to celebrate, some great rugby played and an amazing win we were soon back to negative chat! and an headline just plucked out!

Wherever we may play someone will not be happy! David Hughes must do what he feels is best for the club and I am sure this has been discussed with others such as the RFL. Everyone may go on that The Stoop is the best, yes that may be the opinion of some, discussions started with the landlords we know that but it seems an agreement could not be made and a better alternative is available, yes we can go on speculating on and on and saying we will not go, good job many others including myself have never said that since the first Fulham game and followed & supported the club at many homes. It is unfortunate that we were never able to stay at Fulham and have built up a real base, but fact is we didn't and it looks as if we are on the move again.

Maybe this has been discussed somewhere on here already , i can't see anything though but there was a link on the ryman league fans forum about the club becoming part/joint owners of the new 12,000 stadium being planned for AFC Wimbledon at the dog stadium.

Wrong again jaybs!

Sounds good to me

Actually it's on the Tooting & Mitcham forum and it's a fifty fifty share with an initial capacity of 10,000

Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47

Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47

Quote ="hillian"Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47'" Great if true. I used to live down there, well Earlsfield to be exact, and an easy place to get to.

Quote ="hillian"Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47'" Great if true. I used to live down there, well Earlsfield to be exact, and an easy place to get to.

Quote ="Torbreck" Quote ="hillian"Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47'" Great if true. I used to live down there, well Earlsfield to be exact, and an easy place to get to.'" Earlsfield is the future...

Quote ="Torbreck" Quote ="hillian"Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47'" Great if true. I used to live down there, well Earlsfield to be exact, and an easy place to get to.'" Earlsfield is the future...

Even as late as August 12 this year it has been stated that the plan is for the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium to be initially developed into a 12,000 capacity but the options to extend up to 22,000 as if ever needed, but does not mention us as stated on wikipedia except it will be multi purpose? www.london24.com/sport/wimbledon ... _1_1474146 Back in 2011 this was discussed on a Widnes Vikings forum of course mocking how could we ever afford to have a share of a stadium. Do not know the area of Wimbledon very well only ever been to the tennis, is it in a area we could develop? would we go on the road for two season's or to one stadium ready for a 2015 opening?

Even as late as August 12 this year it has been stated that the plan is for the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium to be initially developed into a 12,000 capacity but the options to extend up to 22,000 as if ever needed, but does not mention us as stated on wikipedia except it will be multi purpose? www.london24.com/sport/wimbledon ... _1_1474146 Back in 2011 this was discussed on a Widnes Vikings forum of course mocking how could we ever afford to have a share of a stadium. Do not know the area of Wimbledon very well only ever been to the tennis, is it in a area we could develop? would we go on the road for two season's or to one stadium ready for a 2015 opening?

Just Wish others would stand up and be counted when they get it wrong! very few in the 35 regulars here!

Quote ="jaybs"Even as late as August 12 this year it has been stated that the plan is for the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium to be initially developed into a 12,000 capacity but the options to extend up to 22,000 as if ever needed, but does not mention us as stated on wikipedia except it will be multi purpose? www.london24.com/sport/wimbledon ... _1_1474146 Back in 2011 this was discussed on a Widnes Vikings forum of course mocking how could we ever afford to have a share of a stadium. Do not know the area of Wimbledon very well only ever been to the tennis, is it in a area we could develop? would we go on the road for two season's or to one stadium ready for a 2015 opening?'" If its true and is really gonna happen then common sense would say we must stay in West London so if the stoop is out it must be Brentford as a stopgap surely Maybe we should start a bucket fund at the next home game to help DH raise th £9 million he will need

Quote ="jaybs"Even as late as August 12 this year it has been stated that the plan is for the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium to be initially developed into a 12,000 capacity but the options to extend up to 22,000 as if ever needed, but does not mention us as stated on wikipedia except it will be multi purpose? www.london24.com/sport/wimbledon ... _1_1474146 Back in 2011 this was discussed on a Widnes Vikings forum of course mocking how could we ever afford to have a share of a stadium. Do not know the area of Wimbledon very well only ever been to the tennis, is it in a area we could develop? would we go on the road for two season's or to one stadium ready for a 2015 opening?'" If its true and is really gonna happen then common sense would say we must stay in West London so if the stoop is out it must be Brentford as a stopgap surely Maybe we should start a bucket fund at the next home game to help DH raise th £9 million he will need

Quote ="hillian"Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47'" Isn't that what was posted on Wikipedia sometime last year and discussed on here at the time? Harlequins Rugby League is a bit of a give-away.

Quote ="hillian"Here's the link tootingtruth.proboards.com/index ... &thread=47'" Isn't that what was posted on Wikipedia sometime last year and discussed on here at the time? Harlequins Rugby League is a bit of a give-away.

There's a story on code13 saying it's one of 4 places next year: Stoop, brentford, Orient, Gillingham.

The more this discussion goes on, the more
I appreciate the stoop, it's a great ground and easy to get to, it's not perfect but no where is at the moment.

I couldn't deal with Gillingham, the cost of getting down there on the train every week adds up as well to make it impractical for many of our current fans