Sunday, February 24th, 2002. My first and last game as a spectator....from there on in, I have been a supporter.

In the 281 Superleague games since that first ever game (a Challenge Cup loss by the way), the team have won 104 games, drawn 11 and lost 167. Since the start of the 2010 season, I have dragged my sorry butt out of bed at Stupid O'clock to fight for access to the BBC radio commentary on what Kiwis consider broadband internet, to listen to the sometimes depressing reports from the other side of the world. My wardrobe is home to an array of Broncos and Harlequins RL gear, from puffer jackets to replica shirts and Jamie O’Callaghan’s players’ away shirt sits proudly framed in my games room. Despite an awful win ratio of only 37%, nobody who speaks to me about sport or visits my house is in any doubt as to what team I follow.

Over the last 10 seasons I have seen the team hand out the occasional spanking, as well be on the receiving end of some comprehensive thrashings, but until now, I have never considered throwing in the towel.

I am writing to you today to express my concern as to what I believe is another wasted opportunity in the saga that is "attracting fans and associated revenue" to the club. For as long as I can recall, there has been an almost systemic failure to market the game, the club and the spectacle that is "game day". It's almost like the club seem embarrassed to promote themselves and it is my professional belief that if there are not wholesale changes in this attitude, then the club will be in danger of not only continuing to stagnate, but of losing the core support it has.

I applaud the contribution of Mr Hughes in an equal measure as I despair at the apparent lack of tangible support offered by the games governing body in ensuring the existence of the club, but the fact remains that unless the people tasked with delivering revenue streams step up to the mark, everything else becomes secondary.

Firstly, an understanding of the game and its origins are needed to understand and identify a potential target audience. Eclectic is a word that can be easily used to describe the mix in demographics that are the core London Broncos Support, with a few cross code fans from Harlequins, a good smattering of ex-pat northerners, some antipodean passers-by, a collection of ex-armed forces types as well as a handful of curious locals. I know of one ST holder who is originally from London, married to a Yorkshire man and who travels on her own from Kent to the Stoop for every home game by train. This involves leaving home some 3 hours before Kick Off and often enough, getting home on the last train. This fan is not unique. The London Broncos core support comes from all over London as a result of either being a fan of the game and being prepared to travel or as a result of attending games over the years at a wide range of venues the club have called “home”.

I would suggest that whilst this core support is vital to the club, to attempt to attract new fans from anywhere other than the immediate area or from specific demographic groups would be folly. If you look at the history of all of the professional and semi-professional Rugby League Clubs from around the world, you will see that London Broncos are unique. All the other teams in the ESL are historically linked to their local communities, with even Catalans being formed from a vibrant RL heartland. In Australia there is one club similar to ours, but the only reason the Melbourne Storm exist is due to the financial backing given by a major broadcasting partner, whilst in London, we stand alone, with very little community connections or history, no financial support from the games governing body. As a result, the club are reliant on private investment and in a financial environment such as the current economic malaise, this is a precarious position to be in.

Without the luxury of an historical home and a supporter base developed over generations, it is key to the long term survival of the club that they establish roots and connect with the local community. For the time being, the Twickenham Stoop is home and therefore, it is from the borough of Richmond upon Thames, together with the surrounding areas that an audience should be sought from.
That’s 22 square miles and a population of about 190,000 to target for new fans. I do not believe that any concerted effort has been made to contact these “neighbours” since we returned to TW2 in 2006. 41 Primary Schools, 8 Secondary Schools, together with St Mary’s University and Richmond College provide instant access to a large part of this potential audience, but it is vital that a proactive stance is taken to building and nurturing the relationships. It is not enough to simply “touch base” now and again, but instead the club need to actively engage these institutions through continued and regular communications.

The recent video on the club site entitled “catch the London Broncos” could, for example, been have produced in association with the School of Communication, Culture & Creative Arts at St Mary’s University…this would have raised the profile of the club within the University and offered a perfect opportunity for some local editorial coverage as a feel good story. The same methodology can be used for creative marketing campaigns by engaging the students at both sixth form and college level to come up with creative ideas. A bursary could be offered to the winners or for the best ideas, again, raising awareness as well as creating ties with the community.

The residents in the immediate vicinity of the ground should be invited to attend a game as a guest of the club. Giving away tickets in last year’s Evening Standards campaign achieved nothing other than a short term stop-gap. It would be much better to actually write to, or even door knock the closest 3,000 homes and invite these people to games, providing them with tickets, with the number of the ticket correlated to their address. Once the ticket is used, a short phone call or a letter to request feedback would give a better insight as to what can be done to improve the offering and attract repeat business.

If you work on the basis of a 3 minute conversation per household, this procedure would take a total of 150 hours. 15 people, 5 days, 2 hours per evening to invite your nearest neighbours to a game. If a few of the clubs fringe players and cheerleaders could be used, you might actually get a few hundred new fans to a game for very little expenditure. I have no doubt that if required, a few volunteers could be found
It is not my intention to undermine the efforts of those tasked with increasing awareness in the local community or those tasked with generating increased revenue through attendances and sponsorship, but I believe the scenarios outline above would cost a fraction of a professionally made video, an advert in the Evening Standard or even localised print advertising and the only thing they might need is time, effort and enthusiasm.

I will again be fighting for bandwidth on Monday morning at 3am next week and whilst I am in no position to offer advice to Rob Powell and the guys, I hope what I have to say on the subject I am qualified to comment on is taken on board. If the club are to attract sponsors and investment, they first need to attract an audience.

Marketing this club and this game was never going to be easy, but if it was, we’d all be doing it.
Cheers
Gutterfax!

Is there an executive summary?

can you make up your mind whether you're Gus's mate or not please? It would save us all a lot of time.

HTH, it says invite the neighbours round.

(To be fair, I do agree with him. But don't tell him that).

Its a no brainer.

37% is not a win RATIO.

Good letter that I doubt any of us will be able to find reason to disagree with. Let us know if you get a reply.

Fans should be given the opportunity to sign it before sending it into the local press

Great idea send it to the local press, Not!

We are supposed to be looking to promote Positive PR! to bring in local new supporters, Not drive them away!

You really have no clue do you

And you have a clue, all sign the letter and send it to the local press! what a Joke!

All the ideas put forward by "gutterfax" are constructive, but it is up to us to sort the problem
out direct with the club, not the media.

Can't believe I'm responding, but how and why?

IF and it's a big IF, the club are going to go around the local area doing promotional stuff they have a great opportunity coming up. 2 home games in a row Mar 31st against Wakefield and April 5th against Catalans. Both are evening games, always think nights under the lights at the Stoop make for a better game, give local residents family passes for both ( I think the schools will have broken up for Easter by then - give 'em tickets in the South stand as there's no bugger there !), do a bit of promoting at Twickenham station (and maybe even go up to Waterloo and do some there). If it goes well then we may get some of them coming back - but at least do something ! It'll look pretty empty at the Stoop when Sky are there to cover the Wakey game otherwise!

Problem is that anyone wanting to come back faces a wait of over two months to the Widnes fixture in June. Would the interest still be there ?

Oh God yes, I'd forgotten about the On the Road games! D'oh!

It's not a crisis! and I always respect others opinions, but you said it, if that was a joke? then I am
wrong but it did not read that way.

? now you have completely lost me..

1- GF scribes letter
2- posts it on forum
3- Another place it could be posted is a letters page of a newspaper
4- getting a number of fans to sign it would get it published there.
5- you come in
6 -everyone is confused

1. Nothing against GF letter, direct to Gus & Club
2. Of course GF would share his thoughts here on the forum
3. This is were I start to disagree, why put off prospective new supporters with problems?
4. As I say in 3 above, yes sign it, but I feel only send it to the club
5. Yes I come in, its a forum, to express opinions.
6. So you decide, the Royal Everyone is confused.

LOL - Good job I don't let it concern me! but if I disagree with something or agree I will say it, not just to
annoy anyone but because it's my opinion, nothing else.

Here we go again.

If your asked something, you reply! simple, perhaps not LOL

Well that is it, on this subject, Hope you get a response Gutterfax, don't hold your breath!

Lovely, heartfelt, honest, well written are 4 things to say about your letter Gutterfax.

I'm not 100% sure why you posted it on here though.

Well done, GF. Obviously the club will take your view into consideration

Thanks...and I emailed it directly to Gus as well.

Not sure what to make of the rolling eyes at the end of your comment.....but I would hope that the club at least give the ideas some thought. Why else would they have bothered contacting me 12,500 miles away a number of times in the build up to the new season and with comments regarding some of the feedback on ST's posted by others on here?

I may be a right pain in the 'arris at times when I bang on about the same topic, but I do it because I care (and it often takes my mind off the god awfull crap being served up by the team).

Meant to be aimed at the club for seemingly burying their head in the sand and (possibly) ignoring good advice. Internet smilies don't always come across well.