I am prepared, as I was with the super dooper marketing manager from 2009, to give Gus time to get things sorted. Because I repeat this, I am a lap dog? What did strike me was the enthusiasm that he has for the club and for making it a success.....
Carley or whatever she was called messed about with 5,000 oyster cards and a viral video seen by nobody.......she got both barrells from me and in my opinion, deservedly so. If Gus takes his foot off the gas and/or makes the same kind of basic errors then his inbox will light up like the Oxford Street Xmas lights, but as it stands:

New Badge is OK....it gets better each time I look at it.
New Shirts are OK. All black kit...........I like it. The coloured one.....jury's still out.
ST prices are OK...in fact, they are outstanding VFM.
10 Black cabs is 10000000% better than anything since the free VB in 2005
Video and ad at Wembley is 10000000% better than anything since the free VB in 2005
2 Games on the road in 2012 will have cheap travel options to wherever they are played......good move by the club IMO.

Yes, some people would prefer to have a reserved seat. As I have said, email or even call Gus to discuss this option. I am sure that he will listen to reasoned opinions as to why reserved seating should be reintroduced, but if he doesn't, then that's his decision.

I am the biggest critic of the club for their off-field shennanigans, but as before in 2006 and again when Carly joined, I will at least have the good manners to let them make massive mistakes before I rip into them.

Listy, if you and Nigel really have issues with the club then for gods sake, call him and let him know. It's fans like you 2, the sidcup massive etc that he needs to find.....don't just whine on the boards, it does no good at all.

I feel more enthusiastic and hopefull about the club than at any other time I have followed them.


I recently found an old programme from February 2002 v Castleford in the Nutrigrain CC..........

We were called the London Broncos
It was our first match at GP (and it must have been my first game)
IIRC it was 12 quid a ticket or a tenner on the Ealing road terrace
Replica Shirts were 50 quid each
We had Cowgirls
ST's started at 99 Quid and you could pay more for a "gold" membership if you wanted
Car Parking was a fiver
There was a new initiative...A supporters Action Group
London League Publications sponsored "away tries"
StormingBronco was a miserable old git


We Lost....but I was still hooked!
Stuart Cummings was the first of many Referees I "shared an opinion" with


That season 3,803 was the average gate....I'd be happy with that this year.

10 years later....not a lot has changed

Fully agree! it is no use is fighting each other here on the forum, I have found Gus really helpful and willing to listen each time I have approached him.

That first season I remember so well at Charlton, I liked it!

Can you remember the marketing guy then, he was so good and helpful, I would often have to leave before raffles were drawn to make the journey home 225 miles, but he always let me know the results, he had such enthusiasm I can see his face but not remember his name!!!!

I'm still a bit confused. So season ticket holders are guaranteed one of these 3000 or so seats?

Probably guaranteed one of 14000 on a first come first sit basis for every game.

With the Lv it is more like 5000.

No, sorry, I mean the middle 3 blocks of the East (c. 1300 seats?) and West (c. 1400 seats?). Do I understand correctly that these blocks are for season ticket holders only?

Know idea but I am sure someone will post the answer, shortly.

Its a free for all isn't it? Ludicrous that these details aren't clear.

The reason that it is a "free for all" is because ST holders are to be encouraged to bring loads of "newbies" to games....if I have a reserved seat and I am a ST holder, my "newbies" do not get to sit with me, as there are other reserved seats surounding me.

I repeat, email or call Gus and express your concerns about this, but as I understand it, if a ST holder brings a certain amount of newbies along over the course of the 2012 season, then they will get a ST in 2013 for 50 quid

To be honest, I don't expect Gus to have to liase with fans over these sorts of decisions. They are decisions that should be made at the top level of club management, and they should be correct from the outset. I should sincerely hope he wouldn't listen to any of us if we moaned, nor caved into pressure if there were a few of us (unless it was a spectacularly bad error of judgement). The club are hardly going to relent and change their whole policy on this are they? I'm not going to waste my time penning an e-mail to Gus, only to recieve a reply with him justifying his decision. It won't get me anywhere, it won't get him anywhere.

I wish to contact him over a completely unrelated matter. What his e-mail? There is nothing on the temporary website offering supporters to contact anyone at the club, never mind him. This launch was apparently planned for weeks/months, yet nobody could bother knocking together a proper website. Pathetic, no?

When they did the launch they gave the address as "chiefexec@londonbroncosrl.com" , I wrote to him on that address on 03.11.11, and as yet have to receive a reply. Others have said he's a good listener, it would appear he needs to work on the other aspect of conversing

It is chiefexec@londonbroncosrl.com. I have spoken to him about saving Buck & Dusty he said nothing doing. But he changed his mind after a few people asked him to. He is our version of the 'listening bank' if your idea has any merit he will listen.

It is chiefexec@londonbroncosrl.com. I have spoken to him about saving Buck & Dusty he said nothing doing. But he changed his mind after a few people asked him to. He is our version of the 'listening bank' if your idea has any merit he will listen.

Gus.Mackay@londonbroncosrl.com is where I send my thoughts. Listy, I can see that some would like to have an assured seat whilst others aren't that fussed. Every time I have brought someone to a game, I have tried to sit with them and explain the in's and out's of the game as it unfolds, something I would not be able to do if I was going to sit in my allocated seat. As I have said, there is an incentive for ST holders to bring new people and get 50% off the 2013 ST cost and as such, there are no allocated seats as this would prevent these newbies from sitting with the invitee. The Stoop holds 14,800 and change.......we average about 21% of that.....there will be plenty of seats. A quick glance at the stadium view would show about 8k seats between the 40 meter lines alone....and given we have only had 1 or possibly 2 attendances of that size in the SL era, it's not really a problem as such, more a reason to have a moan.

Gus.Mackay@londonbroncosrl.com is where I send my thoughts. Listy, I can see that some would like to have an assured seat whilst others aren't that fussed. Every time I have brought someone to a game, I have tried to sit with them and explain the in's and out's of the game as it unfolds, something I would not be able to do if I was going to sit in my allocated seat. As I have said, there is an incentive for ST holders to bring new people and get 50% off the 2013 ST cost and as such, there are no allocated seats as this would prevent these newbies from sitting with the invitee. The Stoop holds 14,800 and change.......we average about 21% of that.....there will be plenty of seats. A quick glance at the stadium view would show about 8k seats between the 40 meter lines alone....and given we have only had 1 or possibly 2 attendances of that size in the SL era, it's not really a problem as such, more a reason to have a moan.

I also e-mailed with no reply, but seems pretty clear now from discussion on here that seating will be a free for all arrangement.

yep.....and with 1,100 ST holders fighting for the 3,000 seats on half way or the 2,500 either side before the 40 meter line, let's hope the club have extra stewards in riot gear ready



It will be lik an episode of......

If I am close to being right about the relevant capacities of each stand, then the 3 areas at the centre of the 2 main stands is enough to hold our current average total attendance and the 2 centre bist are enough to hold all out ST holders from last year....if we add 40% as Gus wants, you will still get a seat within the 40 meter line......as it is,I have suggested Gus considers charging anyone who wants it an extra 75 notes for an allocated seat in area AE or FT.

I don't particularly have a problem with the arrangement but was just trying to understand the differences between the ticket options. More than happy to save the money as once the West Stand was open I didn't use my allocated seat last year. However, info on the packages was somewhat confusing and needed clearing up. Folks on here have done that now.

Gutters, we all understand the numbers game. That isn't why we think this is a bad idea and you know it. It isn't difficult to accommodate everyone. Even 2 allocated blocks would have done nicely. How many other professional sports teams have offered their seating in this way? I would be shocked if it was above 0.

At the end of the day the club has dropped abollock on this one. No one thought it through. Two blocks on the halfway line unallocated at a premium rate would have been fine, then if you want to bring your mates and pay a bit more no problem. I suspect that the prison warder is on holiday after building up to the enormous announcement last wek and when he gets back hopefully he will sort this out.

GF you don't know the half of it will pm you soon.

I have to agree.

I genuinely expected a fully-functional, multi-featured website to be unveiled on the launch day. The club are selling themselves as something different to Harlequins RL but aside from the new name and badge, what's new? I'm a fan and even I'm getting less excited about 2012 with each passing day. Where's the big coverage of the launch event? Where are the interviews with coaching staff, new players etc.? Why isn't the website trying to sell us a team that could be play-off contenders? Why aren't the likes of Robertson, Gower, Kaufusi etc. being paraded? (I'll overlook the fact that the website isn't actually selling us much by way of merchandise while the launch is still fresh in our minds). In short, how is the club building towards generating 5000+ optimistic LBRL fans at Round 1 of 2012?

There are massive problems with the club's online presence. Frankly, londonbroncosrl.com screams amateur - technically and in terms of (a complete lack of) content. Hughes must be ready to write off about £2.5m over the next 3 years; if he were willing to lift that to £3m, he could get a web developer and a database developer in to turn the website into something that can sell the club.

I signed up for an e-newsletter. Haven't had one yet. The first one should have been sent out within days of the launch and they should be weekly thereafter - you can fill them with any old , it's the contact with supporters that's important. I thought the launch event was great BTW but it is already a fading memory as nothing is being built on top of it.

But back to the ticketing. The ticketing is not only a communications problem but also a technical problem with the software - I'm still waiting for an email reminder of my password otherwise I might have signed up for a season ticket by now. Harlequins RL made it difficult for customers, likewise London Broncos it seems.

To add some enthusiasm to the thread I am getting more and more excited about next season. I ordered the ‘We’re Back’ t-shirt and it looks good. The logo looks good and I am sure the new top will look great on the field.

The squad looks so much better than last year and if Gower doesn’t fire straight away we have options. In fact we options and competition for all places. This year we kept all our best players from the youth system. This is a team that should make the playoffs. If our creative players spark and we can bring up one or two more quality youth players we should be looking for 5th or 6th and a home playoff game.

The club did the right thing launching the new ‘brand’ in the week before Wembley but not rushing a poor website. Admitting it wasn’t ready will give us another launch pt. The new players won’t be in the country so they won’t be on display till they arrive for preseason training. Again another chance for press coverage.

The futures bright… the future is black, blue and a hint of silver.

But the website should have been ready. It's a depressingly familiar message that it wasn't/isn't. The ticketing software definitely should have been up to the job from day 1.

The players don't actually have to be in the country to supply pics/quotes/video messages.

Quote ="Colly2"I have to agree. I genuinely expected a fully-functional, multi-featured website to be unveiled on the launch day. The club are selling themselves as something different to Harlequins RL but aside from the new name and badge, what's new? I'm a fan and even I'm getting less excited about 2012 with each passing day. Where's the big coverage of the launch event? Where are the interviews with coaching staff, new players etc.? Why isn't the website trying to sell us a team that could be play-off contenders? Why aren't the likes of Robertson, Gower, Kaufusi etc. being paraded? (I'll overlook the fact that the website isn't actually selling us much by way of merchandise while the launch is still fresh in our minds). In short, how is the club building towards generating 5000+ optimistic LBRL fans at Round 1 of 2012? There are massive problems with the club's online presence. Frankly, londonbroncosrl.com screams amateur - technically and in terms of (a complete lack of) content. Hughes must be ready to write off about £2.5m over the next 3 years; if he were willing to lift that to £3m, he could get a web developer and a database developer in to turn the website into something that can sell the club. I signed up for an e-newsletter. Haven't had one yet. The first one should have been sent out within days of the launch and they should be weekly thereafter - you can fill them with any old poop, it's the contact with supporters that's important. I thought the launch event was great BTW but it is already a fading memory as nothing is being built on top of it. But back to the ticketing. The ticketing is not only a communications problem but also a technical problem with the software - I'm still waiting for an email reminder of my password otherwise I might have signed up for a season ticket by now. Harlequins RL made it difficult for customers, likewise London Broncos it seems.'" Why the angst?...........do you really expect to have loads of interviews with players and back room staff, some of which may not even be in the country yet. If they had been in the UK then all probability they would have been part of the launch. Do you really expect the club to do all the marketing you describe at this point in the off-season, surely it would be better to take a measured approach leading into the start of the season rather than run out of steam now? Ok the web site is not impressive, but I thought the club had declared that this was work in progress. The same could be said of the RLfans.com web site and administrators in that we have all been aware of a name change and re-launch for weeks/months, yet when you first enter the RLfans web site the Super league pull down menu still states `Harlequins`…………….is this equally unacceptable and should the RLfans admin guys be sacked for incompetence (it would never have happened in Homers day ). Not sure what you are expecting from a Newsletter, not much by the sound of it as `it can be filled with any old poop`, so why worry about it. On the 2nd November an email communication was sent out by chiefexec@londonbroncosrl.com with a brief update of what was going on……couple this with the web site info what `other old poop` do you need to know? Regarding the ticketing………..call me old fashioned but ever thought of picking up the phone and speaking to someone. I and quite a few others I know tried it, nice girl at the other end clearly explained the ticketing arrangements and answered any questions I had and season tickets were purchased accordingly………….but I suppose if you were expecting David Hughes or Gus to hand deliver you a fantastic value season ticket then you could be forgiven for being easily disappointed. The club have invested heavily in putting an improved team together for next year, they are offering great value tickets and marketing shows all the early signs of the improvement that fans have been asking for, but you are still disappointed and not looking forward to next season……to be honest I think this says more about you than it does the club. Feel free to carry on whinging.

Quote ="Colly2"I have to agree. I genuinely expected a fully-functional, multi-featured website to be unveiled on the launch day. The club are selling themselves as something different to Harlequins RL but aside from the new name and badge, what's new? I'm a fan and even I'm getting less excited about 2012 with each passing day. Where's the big coverage of the launch event? Where are the interviews with coaching staff, new players etc.? Why isn't the website trying to sell us a team that could be play-off contenders? Why aren't the likes of Robertson, Gower, Kaufusi etc. being paraded? (I'll overlook the fact that the website isn't actually selling us much by way of merchandise while the launch is still fresh in our minds). In short, how is the club building towards generating 5000+ optimistic LBRL fans at Round 1 of 2012? There are massive problems with the club's online presence. Frankly, londonbroncosrl.com screams amateur - technically and in terms of (a complete lack of) content. Hughes must be ready to write off about £2.5m over the next 3 years; if he were willing to lift that to £3m, he could get a web developer and a database developer in to turn the website into something that can sell the club. I signed up for an e-newsletter. Haven't had one yet. The first one should have been sent out within days of the launch and they should be weekly thereafter - you can fill them with any old poop, it's the contact with supporters that's important. I thought the launch event was great BTW but it is already a fading memory as nothing is being built on top of it. But back to the ticketing. The ticketing is not only a communications problem but also a technical problem with the software - I'm still waiting for an email reminder of my password otherwise I might have signed up for a season ticket by now. Harlequins RL made it difficult for customers, likewise London Broncos it seems.'" Why the angst?...........do you really expect to have loads of interviews with players and back room staff, some of which may not even be in the country yet. If they had been in the UK then all probability they would have been part of the launch. Do you really expect the club to do all the marketing you describe at this point in the off-season, surely it would be better to take a measured approach leading into the start of the season rather than run out of steam now? Ok the web site is not impressive, but I thought the club had declared that this was work in progress. The same could be said of the RLfans.com web site and administrators in that we have all been aware of a name change and re-launch for weeks/months, yet when you first enter the RLfans web site the Super league pull down menu still states `Harlequins`…………….is this equally unacceptable and should the RLfans admin guys be sacked for incompetence (it would never have happened in Homers day ). Not sure what you are expecting from a Newsletter, not much by the sound of it as `it can be filled with any old poop`, so why worry about it. On the 2nd November an email communication was sent out by chiefexec@londonbroncosrl.com with a brief update of what was going on……couple this with the web site info what `other old poop` do you need to know? Regarding the ticketing………..call me old fashioned but ever thought of picking up the phone and speaking to someone. I and quite a few others I know tried it, nice girl at the other end clearly explained the ticketing arrangements and answered any questions I had and season tickets were purchased accordingly………….but I suppose if you were expecting David Hughes or Gus to hand deliver you a fantastic value season ticket then you could be forgiven for being easily disappointed. The club have invested heavily in putting an improved team together for next year, they are offering great value tickets and marketing shows all the early signs of the improvement that fans have been asking for, but you are still disappointed and not looking forward to next season……to be honest I think this says more about you than it does the club. Feel free to carry on whinging.

Getting back to the original topic, I think the season ticket deals are fantastic value.

I have always thought unallocated seating is the best bet as you have flexibility when you bring friends (and you can move away from miserable or annoying sods).

We have always had the dearest seats on the halfway line, but we didn't like ours last year as the people around us seemed to like a library atmosphere.

I do like the best seats but unfortunately for me, now we have the unallocated system and the nice members bar with real glasses, I don't think I will ever get to see the game from the h-w line again as we won't get out of the bar in time.

I guess we could always get the cheap tickets so we aren't waylaid in the bar thereby saving our money and livers.

Sorry if I'm late on this - does the extra £76 include access to a private bar? I'm confused.

You absolutely don't launch a 'work in progress'. And even if you did, you'd make it clear what progress was to be expected and on what timetable. 'Coming soon' has been the club's unofficial strapline for as long as I can remember and it inspires no confidence for me.

And it would be best if the ticketing software worked. (But rest assured I'll be phoning the club and buying a ticket).

I'm just looking for noticeable improvements on the Harlequins RL operation because I desperately want to have a club to support in 2015. If the relaunch doesn't bring us 2.5k season ticket holders, 10k for the first home game, and 4-5k thereafter then 2013 and 2014 will witness yet another slow decline into yet another crisis because we can't re-launch again. If it were me, I'd be pushing the new Broncos much, much harder than the temporary website is doing. November is the key month for sales - on the back of the launch and while tickets are cheapest; promotional efforts should be at their highest right now not in January.