True, I spose the club is situated right next door to the Stockbroker belt if Surrey. I think Wasps and Sarries fans are more open minded to entertaining RL. There were a lot if positive words on the Sarries forum, with some asking to offer Allianz Park as a temporary ground if we couldn't sort out The Hive.
"A Friend in need" and all that...

whereas of course linking up with professional football, which is run by honest, salt of the earth, straight-arrow types, is entirely preferable.

You might laugh at the Quins name or their pastel shirts, but they're successful and well supported. Sharing a ground and a shirt with them did us no harm at all, and our lack of success during that period was very little to do with being called Harlequins RL.

Maybe so, but I don't see how after our stint under their flag of convenience we derived much real benefit. We just ended up effectively as tenants again, albeit this time with a pretty poor team and falling crowds.

ask the RFL how many watched Wales Italy or Australia v Fiji at RLWC.


Double headers are apparently IN this year

296,257 for the 6 seasons up to and including 2005....3,527 per game. Remove the double headers all together and the QuinsRL average still comes in at 3,585.

Go on...send me back to school again! Is there another way you'd like to try and show that Quins name and ground was damaging???? I can do this all day




by the way...yes you do and in the 6 seasons up to 2010 there were 2 6k+ attendances.....one in France OTR and the other when Jungle.com bussed down the population of Pontefract in 2000.

Selective memory Pete.....96 and 97 were the only seasons with respectable gates and I don't need to have been there to tell you that

We had a great opportunity as Quins RL but failed to take advantage of it.

Nobody says we benefitted. I am just countering the myth that the clubs woes are in any way shape or form down to the arrangement.

No and I don't remember saying they are down to anything other than poor marketing, poor publicity and poor management, I just get annoyed by the constant "we should link up with Saracens", "We should link up with Wasps" etc etc et al. Because that ain't the answer either!

Right now, we need a product, and then we need the marketing and PR that comes with launching a product and we need a management team capable of not shooting themselves in the foot!

Not saying we should link up with Sarries at all.They have a partnership with Wigan Warriors.mJust saying that I have found the Wasps and Sarries fans to be more understanding of our situation having been nomadic themselves.

Chill.

I'm not saying they are entirely but they way it was arranged as far as I could see was ( as YOU have also said before) as a Kevin Costner type 'if you play RL in pastels they will come'.

As another poster says it was a missed opportunity, agreed no question, but so was the Broncos relaunch! We've a bloody history of missed opportunities! I don't accept that somehow Harlequins RL is no way shape or form the only part of our existence that has nothing to do with the mess we are in now!

BTW, you got a touch of insomnia going on? Or just up early to make a start on the Christmas shopping?

Maybe.

But Quins RU benefited greatly from Quins RL.

They used to be poxy on the field with crap crowds off it.

You can't tell me the quarter mill David Hughes ponied up every year didn't help realise their objectives.

250 grand a year might be chump change in football but it's a lot of money in rugby terms.

Some posts & a couple of stewards who didn't do their job is all Quins RU provided in return.

The initial deal was way below market rate and gave us a cut of bar takings etc, almost unheard of in ground rental deals. The second deal was purely commercial and to be honest why should they do any more. By then Quins RU were landlords and no more.

Which is why I don't get the continued love for The Stoop from some.

Gus may have made a total mess of cutting the ties but they needed to be cut all the same.

Up to check on the completion of the sale of a London flat. Brentford is now officially a hole

FACT:
£222k was the official figure given for match-day costs in 2012....that's about 10% of the losses we made that year.

Reading between the lines David Hughes has decided he didn't want to pay the sort of rent Quins wanted so yes we had to go.

Why the love? Well I personally think it was an excellent ground to watch rugby at. Sadly as our crowds declined it became to big for us.

On a personal level it will take me at least twice as long to get to Barnet, and that's on a good day. I suspect any midweek matches are now basically impossible unless I take half a day off. However if the move generates 4000 new fans that fact it inconveniences me is frankly irrelevant.

We're here again ain't we guys, we coulda been a successs as Fulham, we coulda been a success at the valley, we coulda been a success at Coptal, we coulda been a success at the Stoop.

We're London, we don't need no effin' success, being here is good enough and for that I do thank Hughes, just wish he'd kick some of his employees out to pasture!

That's utter cobblers. Even when they were playing in the National League in the 2005-6 season, they were getting crowds of 8,000 plus, and ever since then they regularly have got crowds of more than 10,000. How would being landlord to a struggling rugby league club have made any difference to them whatsoever? The £200k rent is a nice addition but given their salary cap of £4.8m and the Heineken Cup TV money, it seems a drop in the ocean in revenue terms.

The notion they somehow took advantage of us is laughable.

Quins RU are struggling financially trust me.

First time around The Stoop was a good place, but I put that down to the success with corporate! but no tears at leaving.

ok. So how did they benefit from us being there? I think the point still stands.

We paid them money to use the ground - simples!

Their management team had the common sense to use our e-mail and mailing lists, extensively. However, I would have to admit our management not using theirs is actually down to the stupidity of our own management rather than Quinns being underhand in any way.