Moving times probably doesn't affect the attendance of regular supporters on the whole, but I believe it probably does make it more difficult to capture and retain new supporters. If people know we play at (for example) 3pm on Saturday they're likely to look and see if there's a fixture when they have a free Saturday afternoon. If they're enthusiastic they'll look out for fixtures at other times, but the more casual floating supporters will probably just forget about us. We need to get people into a regular habit. In four seasons at Griffin Park every home game seemed to be 3pm Sunday unless chosen for Sky coverage, although of course there was the unrelated issue of a six weeks mid-season break from home games for pitch repairs during the football close season.

As for Manchester United playing at irregular times; they're the biggest, most consistently successful team in the country over a 20 year span and fill the biggest club ground in England on a regular basis. Firstly they can afford to take a "take it or leave it" stance, because anyone inconvenienced by an odd kick off time and not turning up will be replaced by someone else desperate to see the game. Secondly, their many kick off changes are a direct result of their great success, i.e. television companies choosing their games for live transmission or occasionally moving a game forward or back a day to give more recovery time from or before a big match. QRL seem to be changing kick off times largely to avoid clashing with bigger local events or because our ground is not available to us. No comparison really.

Saints was reported as 5,200

so second biggest....but great crowd yet again for the visit of the pies.

Yesterday was the "biggest" real crowd of the season-Pies brought there usual large following

Other than the result a great day in the sun

It was reported as that, and that was with a sprinkling of RU fans, so really yesterday's crowd was the real biggest one of the season.

Good point.......and this is in stark contrast to Quins RU approach. QRU decided to increase the cost of their season tickets by a small amount, but they also decided to shuffle the various seat catagories meaning my regular seat was in a much poorer position.....so our group of 4 did not renew our season tickets.

I must have received a dozen emails from QRU reminding me of the ticket renewal date, making me aware of other offers, asking why I have decided not to renew etc etc.........they have even phoned another member of the group with similar direct questions!!!

It seems we are under the same roof as the RU club but share none of their management expertise or systems.

Oi......get off my soap box

Here`s another one for you GF (and others)............I spoke to Ian Lenegan after the match regarding his 65% of the shares and what was he going to do about them given the downward spiral we find ourselves in i.e.

We are totally reliant on Saint David funding the club, if we are ever in a situation when he can no longer do this the club is dead.
We need IL to sell his shares to another investor to obtain more help for DH and provide additional funds.
Without further investment we cannot attract quality players in order to be competitive on a week by week basis in SL.
Without an injection of quality players our woeful form will continue and we will struggle to retain our existing fans, let alone attract new punters.
Without more fans we have no additional funds............and so the cycle continues.

IL acknowledges the predicament and says that he has spoken to the RFL and will be speaking to them again (whatever that means). He stated (and he says not for the first time) that he has been unable to sell his shares and he is prepared to give them away!!!!

(I fully appreciate the funding that to his credit IL has provided to date......even when he did not have to)

So if that situation arose (with no future investor on the horizon), what could we the fans do about it?

I know that investment by the fans has been discussed on this forum before and I fully appreciate my ignorance in such matters, but is there some way the fans could become involved/invest/intervene to provide assistance, as at the moment we receive zero funding from IL?

The RU side of the club run a debenture holder scheme where supporters can provide a lump sum payment to the club to provide funds for capital expenditure and players. The payment up front is invested by the club over 5 years and for that 5 year period the supporter gets their season ticket at half price and other fringe benfits (jester club membership etc etc).........So for example.....let`s say IL`s stakeholding were divided up between 1500 fans who were prepared to invest £1000 each that would give us £1.5 million to be invested over 5 years which equates to £300k per annum........enough to get 3 much needed quality players.

As I have no idea what the implications of being a shareholder means, we could of course run a debenture holder scheme without having to get involved in the shareholder issue at all.

(nod to GF......fully appreciate that the need to market ourselves is in the mix for funding).

They cant even keep an £2 per week raffle going(just been cancelled)-what chance of finding 1500 fans with £1000 to blow.

Im not sure where you are coming from with regards to no new big names- We are pretty much at full salary cap-thats the restricter, not lack of funds

It astounds me that we are at the top of the salary cap. Is that because it is more expensive to live in London or is it that we are over-paying players? How come the teams not at the top of salary cap spending do better than us? I have heard that Wilkes came to London he doubled his salary! Our squad is not good enough, but if money is not the issue it must be the coach! Season end will be a good time to clear out the under performers and advertise for a coach with charisma, the ability to produce a team that has aggression, can play 80 minutes and and has a do-or-die attitude. The coaches are out there, we should demand that they are asked to apply.

"Rugby League in London is a crusade or it is nothing"

The demise of the Lotto scheme was not restricted to the RL side, it applied across the club as a whole.

I understand the concerns over the way the club is managed but perhaps my comments are driven by frustration at the diatribe we are served up week after week and have been getting for nearly a season and a half.

I have followed this club in all its various forms for more years than I care to remember, but I am sick to death of losing game after game and the poor perfomances.

Salary cap.....level playing field.....your having a laugh. With few exceptions all we have is substandard players, players at the wrong end of their career or kids new to the game. Compare that to the internationals and quality of player on show in last nights Wire v Leeds game, the quality of play was on another planet (as was the recent Saints v Wigan) compared to what we can produce.

Of course the northern clubs like their visit to London...it`s a two point banker all day.

Despite their poor start to the season my money is on Catalan overtaking us and we will be bottom of the pile which will be further proof if any were needed of our general decline........but I shall take comfort from the fact that funding is not a problem, everything is equal, all the clubs are spending the same and it is just a cruel twist of fate that finds us in the hole we are in!!!!!!!

Give them to GF

Why would that be laughable? No, I wouldn't be prepared to re-mortgage properties to prop up inept management year on year, but if I thought for 1 second that I could sell a house to pump the profits into the club in THE WAY I SEE FIT, I would take his shares on tomorrow. That said...I can't see DH Letting someone come on board who would rock his boat


It's easier for people like you to have a go at me rather than understand the issues at Quins......so I will spell it out for you.

David Hughes is a SAINT....of that there is no doubt, but of the 1.5 million (or more) he flushes down the loo every year, a miniscule fraction is spent on marketing. I don't know if this is because Sir Martin Sorrell once ran over DH's cat, or if he just doesn't understand the need to speculate on Marketing and promotion....but it would seem odd that more fans watching games would reduce the amount he needed to bail the club out every year, yet he spends two tenths of SFA on trying to get more fans......and when they do try, they do so in an amateur way. He may be proud of the youth set-up and the conveyer belt of talent coming through.....and he will probably get a statue for his troubles, but he will also be remembered as the man who presided over the year on year decline of attendances at the club......and bottom line is, people like you and the others who are sick of my ranting, sniping or attacks on the hard working (and well paid) members of staff at the club had better pray to whatever gods you believe in that he stays healthy......otherwise all that will of have been achieved is a load of kids will be better prepared to star in union when they get older.......
Yes...I blab on about it, but I can assure you of this, against the wishes of my wife and probably at the risk of being committed, I would happily throw money at Quins RL.....if I thought they would use it wisely....but then again, quins rl doing anything wisely is never going to happen.

Just a point of clarification.......IL stated that DH puts £1.7 million into QRL each year.

The issues are very easy to understand actually. I certainly don't need you to spell them out yet again. Thought you might fancy putting your money where your mouth is though.

As I said above, I would have no issue investing in the club.......but I would have issues investing in the club with the current management structure and attitudes. Alas, I am not a millionaire and in all honesty, unless the property market booms again, I will never be one and therefore, could not compete with DH and his everlasting cheque book. I doubt very much an offer of funds to boost marketing activity would be welcomed, especially from someone who has expressed his opinion as to what the club should be doing for nearly 10 years now.

As for putting my money where my mouth is, I offered......the RFL described me as 'just the kind of passionate person the club needed" but the headhunter/recruitment person employed by the club didn't even see fit to respond to my CV being submitted.......and believe me, I would have taken a massive drop in salary if I had been successful. As it is, the position I applied for was never filled and PB now has someone he has worked with in the past in place.

I digress (as it's always about me isn't it).......you talk about putting my money where my mouth is......ie, take IL's shares and open myself up to the % of the loss the club make.......

and you say I have trouble using a calculator

Quins RL will succeed because they will remain a super league outfit whilst you still haven't meet the vital licencing crteria of winning something with only one route still left to you.

Whilst I respect your right to have a view on how we "southern shandy drinking poofs" are getting to grips with "your game" I fear that your efforts would be better directed at Ian Millward and why did Leigh screw up against Batley in the Northern Rail cup.........................



Keep the faith.

I'm sure he'd readily hand them over for "nowt" to whoever is going to cover his outstanding loans to Quins RL.

Excuse my ignorance...........Is that how it works i.e. whoever takes on the shares has to payback what IL has put into the club (which I think someone mentioned in the past stands at around £4 million)??

If that is the case then he is never going to get rid of them unless Branson fancies giving it another shot!!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think IL could easily write those debts off - the problem lies with the fact that any potential investor buying shares would then begin to share the responsbility of the clubs future/current losses, apart from IL's donations. Their investment would probably be sucked up fairly quickly.

My understanding is that IL would agree to hand over the shares to any new "owner" as long as he is repaid his outstanding directors loans that IL has with Quins RL.

should be according to the commentary now on 5 Live Sportsextra.

Oh I can just see it now....MK Quins !!!!
At least it'll keep the Northerners happy as it's a bit nearer the M62 !!!

And you lot say we stereotype.

Wot a lot of bulle

I want us to stay where we are fyi !!!!