while i did look at the London crowd after returing from the Shay on friday and give out a little sigh, i understand that 'crowds' are really not important in securing a SL licence and a seat at the top table.

it is becoming all the more apparant ALL that maters is if you have a 'money man'

eventually the money men (hughes included) will decide enough is enough and pull their chequebook away. a sad day is looming on London Broncos, they are on borrowed time.

what is embarrasing is the thought London could technically appear in our 'showpeice Challenge cup final' and probably attract 4-5000 fans, Maximum! god knows how many free tickets the RFL would give away in london to give the impression that Londoners actually give a sh#t!

been played in their back yard.

if this happened and i was sat in a pub with lets say, an Ozzie a yawnion fan and a football fan, i would be embarassed!

would you?

No I couldn't give one what other people think. Stop being so insecure.

Who cares the final is always a mix of different people.

This is a very frustrating situation and a real shame for the sport. I'm not sure how much longer Hughes will continue to bankroll the Broncos.

RL does suffer from the lack of a national footprint and is quickly becoming irrelevant outside of the heartlands. I don't know how they are going to change things. How can they get more people interested down there? Another move maybe?

<Double post>

Wow! Some brand new, interesting and diverse discussion for the VT! Thanks OP, I've never seen a thread like this before...

I wonder why this happens?

Expansion is working nicely now,unless your talking about forced expansion

You've just got to take it on the chin, Chief. Either that, or continue to make your point. Like you say, Widnes are taking some stick; some of it justified, some not. We have issues that certainly need to be addressed. If we don't do that, we will be harshly judged on boards like this.

London's attendances have been unsustainable for a very long time. They can only survive thanks to the incredible generosity of one man. I know that most clubs are in that position, but I bet they don't have to put in anything like the amount Hughes has to put in. What happens if he doesn't support the Broncos financially after the next round of licences?

I don't think these threads are all about knocking the Broncos. I think many are genuinely concerned for them and the game as a whole. I think most RL fans understand that a game based entirely round the M62 corridor will become a national irrelevance. This could see TV deals and sponsorship vanish from the sport. With RU now in the ascendancy, this could soon see us being a part-time sport again.

So, it is important that the Broncos get people to their games. If sub 2,000 attendances continue, people will, quite rightly, question their viability, in the same way Widnes will be questioned about their lack of competitiveness. Both clubs have work to do.

while I agree some people are just concerned about broncos there is no doubt that their is a fair few who just wanna see London gone no matter what. They would be moaning about something else if it wasn't attendances.

Fair point, can't say I've had any trouble getting around London late in the evening on the trains/tube myself, but it does depend on exactly where you're going to I suppose, leaving you at the mercy of the timetable.

My bit of "London" is Wiltshire.

With the lack of stability they have had over the past decade its not a shock. They have moved half a dozen times. They really need some stability.

Most of us want a good solid team in London. The trouble is at the moment, the skolars seem to be the better bet. Decent results, crowds are up and decent club marketing especially cup final weekend. Time for a swap?

errr no. Skolars are doing everything the right way for any club to properly set down roots in a community, if they grow until eventually being capable of meeting SL criteria, then it will be on the merit of their own history and damn hard work and of organically growing the love of the sport [first] followed by a community love of the club. What the Skolars can do is look at the "growth" of the knowledge of the sport in the South and cut their cloth accordingly within their own community.

Rugby League as a sport will never break into the mass psyche of the southern sports fan, there are too many ingrained alternatives, based mainly around the territory football teams which is the heritage equivelent of a Hull or Leeds resident growing up with a love of League. We cannot even blame Rugby Union as their support is also based in small pockets around the greater London area with most permiership teams playing outside the M25.

The sadness about so called RL supporters wishing that the Broncos would fold flat and die isn't one of those people cast as flat cappers who could probably see how difficult it would be to seed a regional sport into a metropolis and expect a growth, it is those who supposedly love the sport yet will willingly be joyful about it's demise in any area of the country for the simple reason " it shouldn't be played there". That is what will ultimately cause a sport we love to become even further marginalised than it currently is.