let's face it, that's hardly the barometer for success in SL.

10,000 average attendances needed to Break even at about 20 notes a punter including ticket is about 2.6 million, +SKY money of 1.3....call it 4 million Turn over......London generate about 900k from revenues,1.3 from SKY and DH pumps about another 1.6 million a year with no hope of ever seeing a penny of it back...does the new "benefactor" at Fev have 8 million to invest over 5 years with the distinct possibility of never seeing a penny back?




London Broncos can be considered a failure only when an attempt has been made to market them poperly. Rather than using an insane standpoint over HMV and their refusal to see that the future was 100% on-line, why not try something a little "closer to home"

Melbourne Storm...bankrolled by the 50% owner of the NRL and Broadcast Partner, worse support than 11 AFL sides, a union franchise and 2 Wendyball teams in their own city....losing cash hand over fist and found guilty of cheating in an attempt to grow popularity..... are they a success or a failure in your eyes?

The argument isnt London or Featherstone, it should be both, part of Londons failure to progress is down to the RFL, they should have recieved financial help to market themselves, similarily the RFLs clueless approach to dealings with the Championships is another failure

I'm not saying it is only their fault, it isnt, the clubs are all guilty of not understanding the need to change in how they operate

As regards Fevs ' investor ' , well its good to see a Championship Club attracting money, as long as they actually get it

Some very uninformed and way off the mark posts on here about fev. Suggest you either find out facts or stop posting inane drivel.

Don't make me whoop you again - life is to short.

Nothing dumb in my post me old mucka - I'm right on this and always have been, you are wrong on almost everything regarding RL a sport and culture you clearly don't understand and never will.

London do get double the amount of other SL clubs to invest in junior development from the RFL. Why doesn't this get cut to 70 grand (same as everyone else) and the extra money ploughed into marketing ?

Because they cover a much larger geographical and more populous area.

I didn’t say they would get close, merely nearer, I can vaguely remember back in the day Featherstone achieved similar crowds to most other clubs, their fan base goes further than Purston.

Whilst I appreciate your frustration regarding drumming up support in the Capital I’m of the opinion that even Saatchi & Saatchi would fail to raise the profile. It’s not only West Yorkshire towns with a penchant for parochialism & many people from our glorious capital look on the north with distain & they sure as hell won’t go watch a ised version of the glorious game.

That’s just simply not my experience. People from outside RL heartlands generally don’t dislike the game, they just don’t see much of it, and have an image of it as a small town parochial sport far removed from them. They see clubs that don’t represent them, playing in small stadia, in front of small crowds, in towns they haven’t heard of. Why would they support the game, it doesn’t have anything to do with them.

That’s where the game goes wrong, that’s the big failing it has, part of that is marketing, part of it is the geographic spread, part of it is the p1sspoor job we do in bringing people in to the game. People making an active choice to ignore the game because of a previous affiliation with RU would, unfortunately, be actually an improvement from where we are now. Where we aren’t even a valid alternative, we are game not played near them, where they have no representation, where even if they wanted to go watch local professional RL, they cant.

Meanwhile the heartland are arguing about which small town would make the best West Yorkshire team number 6 in SL.

There seems a counter-intuitivity to me in seeing two West Yorkshire sides go bust, having 3 of 5 not particularly close to making the 10k average they need, to throw another club in their to split and cannabilise that market further.

But that not the case with London though, they’ve been around for thirty odd years now, they’ve been in S.L since its inception. They have decent ground, they have a club representing their beloved capital, yet the fan base remains depressingly low.





Yes they can - go watch London, they just can't get past the "cloth cap" image, whilst Harlequins continue to boast huge crowds, even if London were to win the G.F the interest would remain tepid.



Smokey, I appreciate your desire for a master plan where R.L is a national game with Leeds championing the Yorkshire cause & I've no idea how old you are, but, I assure you, you'll be long gone before that would happen.

And numerous moves, numerous names, not a lot of success on the field, and it is pretty isolated. Also ‘London’ isn’t comparable to Cas or Wakefield. A club the other side of London is about as relevant as a club in Wakefield is to people in Middlesboro.

You cant on one hand argue that it is wrong to expect the people of Featherstone to travel all the way to Cas or Wakefield. Wakefield and Cas have spent 2 years arguing how important it is to have two stadiums within 2 motorway junctions. Yet on the other hand arguing that pretty much the entire south-east of England should be expected to identify with one club.



Its not the ‘cloth cap’ image. That’s your own insecurities coming through. It is the fact Rugby League isn’t something they associate with. One token club in an RU stadium doesn’t build an association with the entirety of London.

It is, unfortunately that, or the game dies. We are seeing it in action now, we are seeing that small towns cant compete, we are seeing that a lack of big places and glamour ties means we struggle for sponsorship, our image as a game played in small northern towns makes us less attractive to TV companies. It is a sad reality that if we stick to being a sport played in a small area, relevant to a limited amount of people our value will fall, when that happens we will go back to being semi-pro. When that happens we will be in a spiral that will end up with the game’s presence as even a semi-pro sport being token. Our best players will leave, people will stop watching and that will mean people will stop playing. In my lifetime we will either see a much larger national presence or a game which, for all intents and purposes, is dead.

What a load of bollax Smokey.

Well the game has finally got its council house sponsor.

Can you ever imagine RU ever being sponsored by anything like a bloody bingo company!

Thats why we need a re brand so RBS, Aviva etc get involved. Not some pastime played in social clubs by "big Birds" on there one night out per week in there Primark dress

Wire Quim, if you're so embarrassed by Rugby League why don't you f-off to Union?