Where are all these pit villages Wire Quin?
Rather out of date aren't you?
Can't remember last time I saw a bloke in a flat cap with a whippet either.
I remember once hosting a load southern businessmen who expected to see all muckstacks and grime.
They were amazed at how much beautiful open countryside there was in West Yorkshire.
And that was in the days of pits.

Stand still and the game will follow Comet and HMV who have refused to move with the times.

As a fan of the Broncos there is no bigger critic than me of what is going on. As Tony Rea says the potential is massive- if London RL becomes big SL will be better for it. Fev, Fax will never get crowds of any note that will exceed the poxy numbers we get at the Stoop currently (at best 2-4k for the bigger games-don’t quote the Pie CC one off)- The M62 area is saturated you really don’t get it do you.

Probably not.

But there is an obvious difference in what we would be trying to achieve in London, and what we are doing in Fax/Fev. There is also the question of the maturity of the market not to mention its potential etc etc.

Were they well supported? Realistically? Were they comparable to Wigan etc?If anything that’s a huge argument against Halifax moving up, with some success, good work at marketing/board level, a little luck and a fair wind, Fax’ could, possibly, with a bit of time, get to 80% of where they need to be.

Smokey, I remember going to Craven Cottage back in the day for a C.C tie & the place was rocking, maybe due to the novelty value.

But, thirty odd years have now passed by and the London experiment has faltered & stagnated to a hard core of fans, with a very wealthy bloke propping them up.

You can quite rightly bang on about “potential” but who’s going to pick up the bill when the Sugar Daddy finally bails?

Surely watching the game is all about aspirations & the supporters of the Featherstone’s of this world deserve to watch their team play top flight rugby.

They see their club meet the criteria on the field, they see the ground development & potential new sponsorship coming in yet, they tune in to Sky and see London getting spanked by Leeds in a ground devoid of any passion.

I would much rather see Post Office Road full to brim to see the all conquering Leeds side than the humiliation of empty stands at the Stoop, one may be a grimy northern town but the alternative is far more offensive on the eye.

Bring Back P&R!

That wont happen thats why we have to get out of the M62

2 years ago you could have easily argued that ‘the wakefield experiment’ had failed. London isn’t an experiment. It is an RL club in the same way Wakefield are an RL club. As for who picks up the tab when the Sugar daddy leaves? Well yes, someone has to. But you could ask that about Wakefield, and most other clubs. And especially about a club like Fev.

It doesn’t make sense to argue on one hand it is a bad thing that London are reliant on a sugar daddy because they aren’t reaching their potential, then argue they should be replaced by a club like Fev who would be miles away from getting the 10k needed to break even and where there is very very little potential that they will ever reach that level.


Post office road currently holds about 7k. Even if they sold out every single week, they would be 30% below the minimum sustainable level. Even if they got a new stadium and every single person in the town attended, they would still be getting 3/4/5k less than the big clubs.

There is also the matter that, in the interests of the wider game, every player brought through by an SL Fev, every new fan attracted by Fev could be attracted by Cas or Wakefield. The game doesn’t benefit from needlessly dividing its support base and player base between 3 clubs instead of 2 or 1.

There are a few SL clubs who don't meet your min sustainable level, so that argument/criteria is null and void.

The argument would only lack validity if you were some kind of moron.

Im well aware that some clubs don’t meet that level now, the answer is to get them up to that level not continually replace them with other clubs who also aren’t at that level and don’t even have the potential to get there.

Thought the well informed would know that Fev have purchased two 1300 seater stands from Scarborough FC,
soon to be erected.
They will substantially increase capacity.

by 2600, which still isnt enough, even if they were filling them.

.

When a club is propelled into the premier league like London were, that's an experiment in my eyes.

Regarding sustaining clubs, if London were to go bust you would be advocating a rescue plan, if it was a Wakefield or Featherstone you would happily wave goodbye.



I would suggest Featherstone would be far more likely to get nearer 10k gates than London ever will & I know you'll go on about the shear size of the Capital, however, they're just not interested, it's like trying to introduce a croquet league in Cas.




Once their new stand is up I've no idea how many it will hold, however, they do own the ground & save a shed load of cash not having to pay rent for P.O.R. As for their crowds, I'm sure they could manage 7k quite quickly, it's not like there's much else to do round there.



Fair point, however, due to the parochial nature of the area, supporters don't tent to swap allegiances, it's not Leeds you know .

.
I Cant see the logic in that.

I think we should have a club in London. Whether that needs to be the Bronco’s or not I’m not sure. I don’t think that they are doing a perfect job, certainly on the playing and attendance side of things, but they are doing a pretty outstanding job at the youth development, community etc, side of things.



Do you really believe that? When have Fev ever got close to 10k averages in their history?
And of course the people in the capital aren’t interested, the game as a whole ranges between doing nothing at all and poor efforts to get them interested. There are many amateur and youth players in London, this shows that there are people interested in the game, the fact they aren’t interested in the club is down to the club and their efforts.



It is a very parochial area and some fans would refuse to support any other club. But Fev only have a relatively small hardcore of fans. I Where are these extra 5.5k fans who would attend an SL Fev and why arent they attending Wakefield or Cas now considering they are new fans Fev would need to bring in rather than existing fans?

Fev just isn’t a place that could sustain a pro RL club. The harsh fact is Fev in SL would be competing with clubs hugely better suited to it and they couldn’t compete. ,

I'm all for Feath having a crack at SL and admire how they go about their business but I'd be utterly stunned if they could get consistently anywhere near 7K, that would be about a third of the town which would be a massive ask.