I'm prepared to be shot down here but when did London ever get gates of over 9k ? I certainly cannot remember.

at the stoop?
2 in 1997 and
one in 2006....
also had a couple of 8k's there too in 2006 and again in 2008.....

They alsoaveraged just shy of 5k in 2006.....sat on their s and watched the crowds shrink by 44% in 7 years.

Time for central funding for the expansion club or time to quit expansion, because crowds in 2013 will break records....lowest records that is!

Only problem with central funding would be where the money is coming from. Unlike the NRL, the game over here as you know is on its harris. All the other 13 clubs would have to vote for it also. I could see my club (Tigers) voting to keep London in and with some sort of additional funding but only if we had asurances over our own licence in the elite comp.

Central funding would probably get voted in because it gives the smaller clubs yet more excuses not to do anything and let the likes of Wigan, Warrington, Leeds and St Helens do everything for them.

The RFL should have given London the extra funding from the start.
Is rugby league being played a lot in the london schools and are there many amatuer clubs?
If the development is looking promising, then it maybe worth while sticking with a London team

Hi Gutterfax, that post is one of the most depressing statements i've read concerning pro RL in the capital and it shows that there is something fundamentally wrong with how the game is "expanding".

When one considers that the southern "experiment", which began in 1980, has had over 30 years to progress, it becomes even more depressing.

I know that you have posted previously on the subject but, how do you think that a London club could become a viable/sustainable SL
outfit.

Whilst a centrally funded set up may help, surely these things come down to good management and clever marketing.

It's true to say there has been a club in London for 30 years. However, it's also true to say that the club has never had money to spend on marketing - the only time it was cashed up was when Virgin were around and they assumed (like a lot of people connected to the club to this day) that if you put a decent team together then people will turn up. Not if they don't know you exist they won't!

It really is 'make your ind up time' for the game as a whole. Either we go all out for London or we forget about it and stop wasting everyone's time.

I'm of the opinion (many I know will disagree) that RL in London is of strategic importance, so I would be happy for some Central funding - under the proviso that the RFL have a say in how the club is ran. Have the RFL offered non financial support in the past with regards marketing etc?

But with clubs already on the edge of financial ruin, does the sport have the funds available to divert to it?

They should enter a partnership with their owner. He pays for general running of the playing side and the RFL pay for the promotion, marketing, Jnr development, media manager etc.
750k a year should be enough to cover off on those things and get someone decent who knows the London market. It's as much about raising the profile of the game as it is the profile of the Broncos.

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Don't worry. We gave up on joining the little boys' club when they let Crusaders in

Your on my radar as another know nothing windbag - stop talking crap, it's not too late.

Maybe Wigan, Warrington, Leeds and Saints should go it alone ? Or even join in with the NRL ? They could play each other 9 times a season to make the fixture list up if the NRL wasn't welcoming to them.

The other 10 SL clubs could break away and form "Rugby League 1" with Fev, Sheffield, Leigh and Halifax.

It's a crying shame. It really is. A properly-marketed London club in the mix, getting good crowds and being successful on the pitch, would have been a godsend for this sport.

Now that I live down south I'll have to go there more often and do my bit...

I think London could help themselves a little bit by conceding that playing home games on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm, and competing for crowds with London's 14 or so professional football clubs for the majority of the season, is a bad idea! I'm convinced that ticketing offers which don't clash with Saturday football fixtures would increase attendances.