After a long discussion on the VT, a few people have mentioned ways and means for RL in London to move forwards. My personal view is that since changing to Harlequins RL the club have become stuck in a rut.

The general concensus on the VT is that the club should move to Loftus Road to try and tap in to the antipods. One last rebranding to get from under the Harlequins Rugby Union Rock.

A lot of the discussion was also trying to find out where the majority of Harlequins RL fans come from? Whether it be from around Shepherds Bush or not?

This isn't a whinging northener preaching, I just want the best for the game, and in my opinion that includes a strong team from the capital.

I’m assuming you have chosen Shepherds Bush because the Aussies hang around there. Let’s get one thing straight they are not and will not be the answer to London RL. We’ve in the past had big name Aussie’s splay for us, sold VB as the standard beer etc and they haven’t turned up. The typical Aussie over here is middle class RU fan, scrimping around on very little money whilst also being very transient. The didn’t even turn up in great numbers to see there national side play NZ recently

What does QPR’s ground offer for a rugby club-the pitch is small, the bars are rubbish…… on listen to Bazza he lives on the moon

It's just a few people's opinions that's all, because Harlequins RL arn't exactly setting the game alight are they. If they're not careful they will be in championship 1 in 2012.

And moving to Shepherds Bush will improve what???

There might be a lot of rugby league fanatic Antipodeans living in and around West London but the majority don't care about a London rugby league side or indeed, even Super League. They are in London to earn some coin, and spend it on boooze, partying and continental travel, not on rugby league. Sorry, but a non starter.

That was what people were trying to discuss. It's not yawnion or soccerball you know, people can discuss the good of the game without getting so touchy about things.
Ok then mate, what would you do to save your club?

I've lived in North West London for nearly two years and I've been supporting Quins in that time. I've observed all the various debates about making RL strong in London, and to be honest, I'm pretty tired of it all. Whatever suggestion you can make, trust me, it's been done before.

You can lambast the 'League playing under a Union club' identity problem, but Broncos attendance figures where never much higher than Quins RL. Also, get over the Antipodean thing. I know plenty round here, they don't come, there not interested, for whatever reason. The club has marketed at them extensively and it's never worked.

In terms of the make up of the crowd, from observation, it seems to be 70% local cockneys, 30% northern exiles (like me). The people that DO come come because of a loyalty to both the club and the sport, and because they enjoy it. MORE people will come when and if we win anything. But the club doesn't have the funding to ever have a squad strong enough to win anything. So it will just go round and round.

in order that possibly a community of people who like, know, enjoy RL will evolve, from that stems a 10000000 other elements such as will the sport ever enter the psyche of the main stream, will it get marketed correcty, will we be able to support the club at present on low gates while developing that community.

All other elements inc sugar daddies have been tried, inc marketing to antipodeans who frankly do not want to come and watch RL.
Many many times at grounds we have played at the usual suspects if people are efaced and causing grief tend to be those on freebie days outs marketed through Aussie sponsors.

Southerners en masse need to learn to love the sport first.

What he said.


The whole let's try and get some "transient Aussies who couldn't give a flying one about SL or British RL in general" to watch us has been trawled over so many times it's not even funny, you'd think the people who put it forward might just have the self-awareness to realise that it's such an obvious observation that thousands have probably already raised it without fruit.

ahhh so we have to move to where the aussies live?? ahh ok obvious answer, so if they dont turn up then what do we do send a bus around to there houses as obviously what you are saying in aussies will only come to watch rugby league if the match is played within a couple of mile radius of wher they live

If the Aussies want to come and watch SL they can quite easily make there way to the Stoop on match days, it is not as if it is far
Moving the home games to a pitch closer to where the majority of aussies live will not make a blind bit of difference get a grip

Loftus Road is not the answer. The facilities are awful, with no leg room so that your knees are under your chin for the whole game. If Australians wanted to come and support a London team they've had 30 years to do so. Besides, when we played at Griffin Park, that's not exactly a million miles away from QPR either, is it?

Quins RL need to have something that our club has never had - a seriously long term home ground. The Stoop offers that and fantastic facilities to match it. What we need is consistently good and well directed marketing (northerners will perhaps not be aware that our local ITV channel never features the club on the sports news, BBC London TV rarely does, and the London Evening Standard and other City papers don't seem to be aware that we exist at all - that is part of the problem).

Tempting.....but I like my posting rights

For fear of being shot down (as often happens here) I would draw us back to the game day. I was consistently told that Saturday 3pm was the way forward and to give it a couple of years. Well we are 3 years into that scenario and it seems the crowds are only going one way and its not up

OK, I have no cause to complain because I am one of those who has drifted away, primarily because of the game day and because of the 100 mile round trip on match day. My choice but I wonder is we should accept that Saturday has failed, you can tell me that saturday means that all locals can get hammered after the match but sadly the 'best after match party' is not leading to success on or off the field

Is Saturdays 3pm really the answer

Just a question

We need to stay put. As Homer says, there is no advantage to moving again.
Brentford saw averages of 3803-3545-3460-3918...the stoop has seen 4238-3428-3630- 2901 (ytd)......but the fall off in attendances can be in part, put down to the dross served up since last Summer. Yes, the team need to be competative and yes, results do dictate the level of crowds that can be expected, but the underlying feature in the fall off of gate figures is not down to where we are situated geographically.......
To suggest that we move to a handier local for the ANZAC element shows up the poster for knowing nothing about either the habits of these transients or their loyalties. On the VT, bazza the troll has suggested better beer, better known players and better food.......I have suggested he go home.......it's all there waiting for him at Shark Park.
London RL and in it's current guise of Harlequins Rugby League is a work in progress. Yes, the crowd numbers are a worry, but just look at the 2 teams that faced each other at Caravan Park on Sunday...which line-up best fits the RFL's long term plan? Which club has the better ground? Finances? Award winning Community Team?....All these things point to Quins being in rude health and it is always the same old chestnut that crops up...my favourite topic, crowds and how to increase them. My thoughts on this need no repeating, so there's no need to go down that route, but what I will say is that for all the good work being done elsewhere, the club seem to have retained the field of dreams attitude to marketing......which is fine just so long as DH is prepared to prop them up year on year.
Everything else would seem to be moving in the right direction and once we get the full squad back, we will win a few more games this year. Next year is the litmus test.....we need to be competative from the start and this may well be the crucial factor in receiving another 3 years....end this season with a couple of wins, start next year like Wakey did this and everything will start to look a bit better.....

all you need is a consistently winning side and a better youth system and more people being aware (easy)

we have a yoof system.......the kids in the under age groups 15/16's are all coming along nicely....our reserves are getting beaten regularly due to our injury list being pretty much long all season and sending players to the Skolars...but they did make 4th 2 years ago and the Senior academy (U20's) are doing pretty well this year........but I agree, on the pitch a few wins would help and off it...more bums on seats.

Okay then, is there no way of getting every kid playing RL in London to games? I keep reading that there are record numbers playing the game, yet less and less support the game.

London isn't a small town like Leigh, for example. Its not so easy just to pop to the ground. It can involve travelling literally for hours if you are in the wrong part of London. Agree with what has already been said by Homer, GF et al.

There have only been 2 Saturday 3pm kick offs all seasons IIRC - both against Wakefield.

the rest of their families also need to buy into it to the same degree, but for most it still is a novelty to come down and watch rather than being part of their culture and heritage.

Kids of 11-15 say in areas around Leigh or Castleford can on match days get together with their mates and walk down to a game, because it's local and thats what their dads did, and their dads before them.

Kids outside of a 2 mile radius of our ground cannot do that, kids playing the game in South, East, North, Central or even West London would need to have their parents take them, and in some cases the game day is the same day as they are also playing, not so easy to work the logistics out in those cases. We have to accept that the only way it may work is for the immediate area around the ground to want to accept the sport and make it part of their "heritage" and for that to even begin to consider happening, we need to be in place for a minimum of a decade if not longer, all other measures will only be transient.

commiting to it for a minimum of 5 years so that people know that on X day at Y time there will be a live game of premier Rugby League on in London every other weekend.

This is part of the problem. The supposed default game day/time we've chosen of 3pm Saturday is often impractical and we've ended up playing at all sorts of different times. Sometimes games have been switched to Sundays or (in the case of the Bradford game) Friday night for no apparent reason. Whilst Sunday afternoons would be my personal preference, for goodness sake let's just pick one regular day/time and stick with it.

What a few of my Northern chums don't realise is that to go from the most easterly to westerly points of London is the same distance as Warrington to Leeds.

What a few of my Souther chums don't realise is that they're club won't exist in a decades time unless you do something about it.

Everyone realises this danger. If it was that simple to address the situation it would have been done already. Relocating to another random football ground is certainly no solution.