Sorry Jonny.

Thought you had someone in mind mate thats all.

I do love the way people profess to know about London RL who don't live anywhere nearby. I must remember to talk to them about RL in the heartlands when I next have a chance. Little mention seems to have been made on this thread to the fact that the reason nobody can for sure say why it hasn't been the roaring success we would have hoped is that there isn't a typical Londoner and there isn't a typical London RL fan. We are a pretty disparate bunch, not just a bunch of toffs from Richmond was suggested earlier in the thread.

Those who live near the stadium may be regulars now but probably would be absent if we moved further away. Some fans however travel from the Home Counties, the West Country, East Anglia etc, because it's the nearest place to get their RL fix - a round trip of many hours. I myself have never lived near where the club has been playing but I've always been a regular. I live very much within the Greater London area yet you could place me at any SL ground on the M62 and I could get to any other M62 ground in less time than it takes me to get to my team's HOME games!

So if there was a marketing strategy who do you appeal to? The casual fans based around TW2 (I'm not suggesting all fans who live nearby are casual supporters BTW. I know for a fact that is not the case) or the die-hard fans who will once adopted will follow you everywhere? What about people who live in other parts of London, fans of other sports? It's a huge effort required to get your presence out there in what is not just a saturated sports market but a saturated social market - there's always something else going on. How do you persuade people to travel well over an hour to a far-flung part of (barely) London to watch a new sport? I don't go south of the river if I can help it! No need. How do you build up a support base around such a varied community? There is no one London identity. Any marketing and publicity would need to reflect that. It would be no good using the same strategy in Twickenham as you did when we were at the Valley. The community there is totally different.

The only real way is to include RL in the sporting psyche of the Londoner. They need to have a reference point. Getting kids playing it from a young age will in the end reap the rewards. I already see kids in their teens who have been playing it for a few years, it's ingrained in them now. They may not make it as players but they will have that understanding in their minds of what RL is, and so will be a far more responsive audience if a London RL club should ever try to get them along to games. Instead of the 'don't like Rugby: Odd shaped balls' response that you get off most of the football loving 'sports' fans in London.

The process will and is taking years. Until then the club will probably have to survive on meagre crowds and David Hughes' pension pot. We may be able to help ourselves with aggressive marketing etc, but the crowds will only truly be taken care of when RL is enough a part of London Sports culture to warrant enough fans making the trek.

In any case, who do you think suffers most from our crowds being low? Is it Widnes or Leigh? No, it's our club and our fans. We're the ones who have to put up with mediocrity at best because we need to reduce our losses. We're the ones who turn up to games when we have a few injuries or suspensions, knowing that the team we are putting out has so few rugby hours behind them that we're probably gonna be flogged by a lot of points. But we do it and we know it's part of the London RL experience. London RL is a different world to M62 RL but it's no less valid for that, and this article is timely IMHO as the future looks very bright indeed thanks to the bottom-up approach being adopted at present, and there is a need to blow away the old cobwebs of an era when people tried to simply put a team in London. That was never going to work long term, ask London-based Ice Hockey or American Football fans.

youll probably get more bites with this thread than the one on salford

10/10 for persisitng

agree 101%

Myth 1: People have taken up RL in London due to the presence of Quins in SL
Myth 2: People in the South watch SL on Sky due to Quins being in SL
Myth 3: London is a big city therefore it is unfair to expect people to support Quins

London has had hundreds of thousands of kids playing at school level for 20+ years (if you believe the people on here). By the law of averages, surely by now they would have unearthed a james roby, or Kyle eastmond, or a lomaskell and not just some posh guy with a long name?

Not only that but the kids who started playing 10 years ago will prob be at least mid-late teens at the mo, so surely the crowds would therefore have seen benefit by now (if they were ever going to).

If you're refering to LMS and you think he's posh I can assure you that he's not.

Hiya chaps, just takin off mi flat cap and t'whippet is in front ot fire.

London is essential for RL growth, indeed 2 clubs are essential. What the s have just seemed to grasp is that you cant just place a club in an area and watch it flourish, you need roots, passion and belonging.

Take the geographic mix of the past decades ST holders in London, they must have that info surely. Look at the strong amateur/junior set ups closest to the mix and start from that area, aligning the junior club to the SL club with a local identity and getting the buy in of the hardcore supporter.

If 3 junior clubs could be aligned from a reasonable geographic area, 1000 kids extended families give a hell of a lot of people to target.

Good luck in London, Wales and France as RL needs strong clubs and structures in these areas but dont leave behind the reason the game is here after 115 years.

Two SL divisions of 10 is the simple solution as we expand our sport.

There isnt enough playing talent to support 14 clubs, let alone 20

Thank you. Very kind. But then....



Kind of wondered why I bothered.