Sounds like a SL club in Twickenham is not sustainable. Is that better?

Just out of interest how many different areas of London has this team played from? To be fair then I do wonder why they are called London if the reality is that they are just a bus stop in Twickenham.

There are a few factors I think. A Superleague club in the capital is definately sustainable.

Personally, I don't think their location helps. Decent stadium, but situated that far out of central London, in an RU area with poor (for London) transport links doesn't help. A more central location in a more densely populated area would be my choice, somewhere like Loftus Road or Brisbane Road.

As Gutterfax has told us for years, their marketing is poor.


The only black mark against their name is the poor attendances. The work at grassroots/amateur level in the capital is vital, as is RL having a Superleague presence there. No debts, no additional SL money going their way, decent stadium, decentish youth setup - it's just their attendances really isn't it? Obviously they've been poor on the pitch, but the investment in players is there, they've just fallen short on the coaching side.

Not daft at all.

It is constantly being sold to us as "must have a club in London" but when it suits the argument it's not in a big city called London, it's in a small town called Twickenham.

You can't have it both ways.

It is daft, and you know it. The need for a southern club in the London market is obvious.
To suggest that simply because it has London in the name then the entirety of a huge area like London should be classed as its catchment area is just stupid.
As I said, was Celtic Crusaders catchment area one of 18.5m people? Or was it in Bridgend?

No, it isn't and please don't presume to tell me what I know or don't know just because my viewpoint differs from yours.

So, to recap, you are saying that London's catchment area is the town of Twickenham then?

Why is it any more vital than anywhere else? Its pretty obvious that the people of London, sorry Twickenham, are not interested in RL at SL level.

It's got nothing to do with a viewpoint differing, it's got do with you making daft comments. To suggest the Broncos catchment area is the size of an area that encompasses 8 million people is daft.
It's certainly closer to being Twickenham than it is the entire London area, I don't think it unreasonable to assume a clubs catchment area is primarily the area that club is based in.

I'll ask the question for a third time since you appear unwilling to answer it -
Do you think Celtic Crusaders catchment area was one of 18.5m people?

It's a daft comment IN YOUR OPINION! In mine it isn't and if you consider London's catchment area to be Twickenham only, their attendances are brilliant. Happy now?

As to your question about Celtic Crusaders. Now that is daft. I am saying that, nominally, London's catchment area is, err, London. You are saying that, because they have the word Celtic in their name, they should have a catchment area of 18.5 million which figure I assume you have reached by adding together the populations of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany.
By that reckoning then the catchment area for Les Catalans is the whole of the Catalan Region.

To be totally honest, the catchment area of the Broncos is neither here nor there in the greater scheme of things. The have systematically failed to market themselves to anyone......the citizens of Charlton, Twickenham, Charlton, Brentford or Twickenham....and as a direct result, they achieve their all time record low attendance last weekend for a Superleague match.

There will be no London Superleague club in a few years unless the RFL or SKY TV take over......David Hughes is well intentioned, but he has continued to sorround himself with yes men whilst engaging in some sort of insane game of Chicken with the RFL over the funding of the "expansion" of the game.

The facts of the matter are that the owner will pump the best part of 1.5 million into the club this year, which when combined with the SKY money and the income from tickets, residuals and dare I say it without laughing.....sponsors comes to a total of about 3.5 million. They have spent 1.65 million on players (we are told we are at full cap) which leaves 1.85 million, of which, not even 2% has been spent on marketing....not even 3k a game. It's a farce and one that the RFL need to address......because if they don't get involved now, come 2015, the goings on at Bradford at the moment wi in all probability come back to bite them on the ...hard!

There needs to be a line drawn in the sand here.....either the RFL want London, or they are prepared to try and hang on to all the youngsters, schools and amateur clubs through their own work (2 blokes IIRC) from a rented office in town, or they want to continue to piggy back on the great work done b the SL club and admit it's time the paid for some of it.

On the aside of the Salary Cap......London weighting is the norm in most jobs of work and it should be allowed in SL......15% would be about right, raising the cap for London to 1.9 million. Most northeners that come down aren't star names anyway...they are kids who are struggling to get a place in teams up north....the extra 15% in pay would help the get their heads around the cost of living down south....which is far greater than it is up norf.

Happy at what? Where did I say their attendances were good? The point was that it's daft to suggest a club the size of the Broncos should have a catchment area the size of London just because it's in the name.


Thank you for proving my point.

Being a Londoner and loving rugby league I really dont want to see London out of the super league any time soon but believe we need to move locations, community RL is growing in London, loads of schools and kids playing across the capital and a strong origin series has been around for a few years.

But with low crowds stops first time fans are getting put of from coming back as well as the poor results and performances.

Id love to see us move to a slightly smaller stadium to get more of an atmosphere and move to a better more transport friendly ground and maybe attract more fans with better commerical presence around London.

Welcome to the RLFANS.COM boards.

On the topic of a move, I have no problem with the identifying of, research into and exploration of the possibility of a move to a new ground.......but, and as a poster of some 13,000+ comments on the subject, ONLY AFTER THE CLUB ACCEPT THAT THEY HAVE TO SPEND SOME PROPER MONEY ADVERTISING THE FACT THEY EXIST AND INVITING PEOPLE TO COME ALONG TO GAMES AT TWICKENHAM.

I have a delightfull spreadsheet which highlights the attendances at all the London SL teams games since the start of the comp, including the 11 games taken on the road...the current average across all seasons is 3,758.

The reason the club are currently attracting 2,883 this year is a combination of the dross on the park, caused by the BLANK REFUSAL OF THE CHAIRMAN TO SACK THE UNDERPOEFORMING COACH as well as the TOTAL AND UTTER REFUSAL OF THE CHAIRMAN TO FINANCE ANY MARKETING OF SUBSTANCE because he doesn't understand how to run a professional sports business.

David Hughes is both the problem and the current saviour of Londons Superleague side....it's his toy and he will play with it as he sees fit.....

At some point last year, the CEO, the second to be employed from Cricket and the second to have failed in their stated aims BTW, managed to convince the Chairman that the Name Harlequins Rugby League was the problem.....Now apparently the problem is the ground and where it is situated. The club will have had no shirt sponsor for 47 games of 54 under the CEO's tenure, attendances have dropped 15% since he came on board, he employed a cricket wear manufacturer to produce the clubs RUGBY LEAGUE kit, he has opened up a 14,850 seater stadium on all sides to accommodate 20% capacity crowds therefore reducing the atmosphere at games and now after sacking the commercial sales manager and Marketing and Comms manager, both I will add who were hand picked by him from.......wait for it.......CRICKET BACKGROUNDS.......he is touting a move as the "answer"

Put simply, the answer is for the club to be taken over by the RFL/SKY with 100% transparency. Then Build David Hughes a statue, make him a life member forever and then tell him Thak you.....and goodbye!

Since Ian Lenegan went north in 2007, DH has pumped about 8 million into the club....he has spent more on failed CEO's, failed Commercial Sales Managers and failed Marketing Managers in this timne than the club has spent on actually attracting fans, corporate sales, sponsors or any other form of revenue stream that could see them move towards self sustainability.

As I said, welcome to the boards

I agree with the above advertising needs to be better last year they had giveaways in evening standard paper as well as sections promoting home games.

I work on the underground and believe that the club could have spent abit on putting posters on the stations whilst the Olympics are on and advertising in the papers. Rob Powell should have gone a long time ago.

Im agreeing with all the Above but as a league fan I don't want to see the club fizzle out of the top flight but performances and advertising need to be stepped up.

Cheers for the welcome