You are aware that Harlequins probably have some of the best community structures in the league? That is the one thing they have got right and the one thing that merits their inclusion in SL at the moment. Also, South Wales development work is not lost at all, South Wales RLFC are launching this year with one non-Welsh player in their squad. Development work is never 'lost', it is just sometimes not capitalised on properly.

seriously a london SL club isnt far off being viable.

if crowds rose by 3000 which isnt a lot in absolute terms, the club would be much more viable

quins should be left alone. if they fail they fail, if they go along as they are thats good enough for me.

as the game grows in the next decade clubs like quins will be dragged along for the ride

whether it takes 10 or 100 years its a good project

It is more likely that crowds of 8-10,000 are actually what's needed to give a club the 3million+ quid income most need to survive on. Quins are light years away and currently have a foundation like a pack of cards. Community work is great but as mentioned that should be the job and the money of the RFL, Quins need to spend their time and money getting bums on seats, not balls in hand.

I am interested why Lewis has felt the need to come out with this article. I wonder if the debate around 12 clubs had the other clubs targetting Quins for relegation?

i still think a link up with a lower division soccer club would be better.

the tie in with fulham was fantastic until they got promoted.

if it doesnt work with quins, perhaps a move to a soccer club with their colours again?

3000 is a basis for a club. it needs to rise to 5000 or so and then with away fans you have some kind of reasonable club

Charlton Athletic/Brentford.....both tried and pretty much failed, so there is no basis to try it again unless there is real (long term) money behind it.

Harlequins is really the last stop for this version of Pro RL in London. As has been pointed out, the failure to put bums on seats over the last 15 years has caused this and the clubs failure to realise that it was important to raise the PROFILE of the game in the media is the single biggest disappointment.

A perfect example of this was when the Club played at Brentford and actually had a champion in a senior position at METRO......this relationship (they were once shirt sponsors) was simply left to die........I mean OK, Advertising costs can be high, but when you have someone in a position to get you coverage in a 1,000,000 circulation daily paper you look after them.......as it is, Metro in London hardly touches on League.

All the investment over the years and the revenue from jerseys/beer/food etc may as well have been p1ssed up against the wall, because if Quins aren't over a minimum average of 5k by the second half of this season then they will be on very thin ice.

im not talking about playing games at a soccer ground and paying rent

im talking about a soccer club have a RL club attached. like wrexham have done with crusaders more like

id rather try getting soccer fans watching league than union fans.

brentford treated the RL club with disdain eg reseeding and making them lose home games.

Is there no collaboration with the union side? Does the partnership not benefit Quins RU if there are more paying speccies?

I will tell you why because he a strategic thinker heading up the game. He understands the power of Sky and the need to expand the game for them and indirectly us.

Difficult for a road sweeper in Yorkshire and a spanner mechanic in Lancashire to understand as they seem to be able to see no further than the back playing field.

an under achieving club in london & a failed club in s.wales dont sell sky dishes.nor does a club in france playing in a comp called SL when anyone outside catalan dosn't even know what sport it is.
by the way i'm garden maintenance not a spanner machanic

Expansion is important, but clubs that can regularly attract 10k plus crowds is just, if not more important.

lets get heartland clubs averaging 10,000 first before we think expansion clubs should

I think that was kind of his point.

As this is a sensible post [ strange for yourself but lets not knock it ] , I'll reply

Part of the expansion argument is that clubs from new area's will be able to get bigger crowds than current non SL heartland clubs because of the lack of competition from local SL clubs , however this then creates a problem for those expansion clubs when they dont [ as in the case of London ] , as they dont have a ready made excuse

What you have to ask is , would we rather have poor performing SL expansion clubs , just for the sake of saying we are expanding the top level of the sport , or would we be better having better performing lower tier clubs ?

Some on here suggest that only by being in the top tier can these expansion clubs build themselves , then the same people suggest that lower level heartland clubs should be able to achieve similar results without being in the top tier

Double standards methinks

Every club is different and has different problems , what is certain is that at the moment most clubs are clueless at marketing themselves

Quins are vital to the future of the game, no Quins Cats or Crusaders he top flight in then forget big blue chip sponsorship deals and future national exposure, the game will simply revert back to being a marginalised northern game. The game is doomed without a viable national presence in the SL

Starbug, it's also the player pathways.
We need a southern club, im not quite sure Quins appears to be it