Oh..look. Another newbie. Welcome.
Cold hard reality eh.....how much does that sell for? By the Pound or are you Metric in your trade?

Expansionism in RL is quite possible.......and as usual (it pains me to say this), the NRL have showed the way to do it. Australian RL gets less TV money than the AFL due to the AFL being played at top level in more capital cities. The Melbourne Storm were created purely to tick another state box.......and try to attract more money. As the NSW Mafia weren't too keen on what they saw as a gamble (with their money) to maybe attract more TV cash, News stepped in.......and threw shed loads of cash at the franchise.........they still get crap crowds, but they are on the up...and being caught cheating has perversely created a Millwall type metality down there..........
Now let's look at London in SL shall we......bandied around, moved from pillar to post, new owners, new promises, never delivered upon....yeah,,,,that's the RFL way.

Give a London RL Franchise 3,000,000 a year for 10 years.....ensure that 50% of this is devoted to attracting and keeping fans..........employ marketing professionals (something that has never been done)...and then if it fails, come back and post your Cold Hard Reality.

BTW.....it has never been about attendance figures in the eyes of those who bankroll the game......it is about audience spread.

London Broncos were added to SL, along with Paris St Germain because Sky wanted a 12 team competition with two new sides. Should Maurice Lindsay have ensured that London and Paris were given more Sky money for a fixed period?

Richard Branson and a Wembley appearance couldn't ignite the interest of Londoners. Why can London be compared to Melbourne? Are the sporting environments and culture broadly similar?

Who took London Broncos to Charlton, Griffin park and The Stoop? Where should they be in order for it to 'work'? What should the team be called? Is it simply a matter of marketing and they will come?

Is there any evidence that having Quins RL in SL directly affects audience spread?

I'm not on either side, it just seems that those who say it will work don't really know how to make it work, even though history shows it won't, and I include the SL era in that history.

You don't help viewpoint by saying Quins RL isn't loss making!

IMO...Yes.


Branson totally missed the point...he really thought he was buying the new London Monarchs.....

In a way, they are alike when comparing the sporting geography.....AFL rules in Melbourne./ they get 80 or 90 thousand to regular season games.....soccer, Union and League are all third rate sports when compared by attendance and interest. Soccer used to get 20k to games, but they split their fans with a second franchise......London is a soccer town.....League and Union together with basketball all pale into insignificance by comparison.

No idea of the backroom shennanigans....but


IMO, Brentford was a good location. If the money was available to buy a share of the stadium and develop it then I believe that the club could build on the crowds they had there between 2002-2005. Call them London RL again......they were never oficially the Broncos BTW.


No....but some marketing would be good






Regardless of where the money comes from, the P&L account for Harlequins RL is cash neutral........same way Halifax averaged the right number of fans last season exactly.......it may not be correct, but it is accurate.

1. London were fine at Charlton....but I would have started in a smaller ground...Brentford was fine.
2. Branson didn't want to "invest" or "market"........he didn't understand WHAT he had bought. The London Public, including myself, had no idea London RL existed........there was zero marketing......as for the Monarchs......the club was badly managed but that said, they started as London RL should have......there are 1,000,000 ex-pat northerners inside the M25......it's not because of the fans coming down to London that games at the stoop v Wigan and Saints are the biggest draws........a good number of away fans get the bus/tube home after the game....that's the audience for London RL.
3. DH dislikes/distrusts marketing.....IL left before he had a chance to make a difference and thr storm managed to break the cap because the part owners of the NRL owned them....not because of fan numbers. Their fanbase went UP last year....marketing dream.
As for TV........where do you reckon pro/semi-pro RL would be in the UK without Uncle Rupert?
4. Free ticket offers? Yeah....like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.....should have been done and done BIG in 1996........
5. I didn't say it was right or a good business model...I just said they weren't a loss making club (at the moment and at the whim of DH)....YOU SAID THEY WERE....YOU ARE WRONG.

I could debate this all night, but what's the point. In short, if London RL does fail, it will be through lack of trying IMO.

If London were fine at Charlton, how did Branson get it wrong? You really think Branson didn't know what he had bought? When he walked out at Wembley he was blissfully unaware of everything he was involved with? These 1m ex oats are clearly not RL fans and have no real interest. In that respect they are no different to anyone else in London.
If all the influential wealthy businessmen are clueless about how to make it work, just who is right to make it happen?
How am I wrong about Quins RL operating at a huge deficit? What accounting practices should be applied to back up your assertion I am wrong? If I am wrong, why are you complaining things haven't been done right?

Where should an SL club play in London, how much should they be given, what marleting strategy should be employed, who should own them?

It's time to understand that as far as top level sport in this country is concerned, the landscape is not going to change, no matter how much money is thrown at it. The NFL couldn't crack London or Europe, but you think RL can despite all the historical evidence to the contrary?

The NFL didn't understand the market....they threw cash at it....based a lot of their marketing on C4's TV coverage and the visit of a propper team once a year.......but it soon became obvious that Kids wouldn't sit still for 4 hrs.........especially to watch a game they had never played.
London is a big place.....what is needed is a community team...a brentford Griffins.....a charlton Charriots......which stick to where it is and what it wants.

By the way....Branson is a clever guy.....but for every Virgin Records he has had a fair few failures. I repeat.......he had NO IDEA WHAT HE HAD BOUGHT. Unlike his record shops or planes, where a "customer might pop in once a year" he had no idea of regular, repeat customers......he thought Wembley would mean that 20k would roll up to every game the following year.....which Ii believe was the clubs worst year for attendances (might be beaten this year).
Influental businessmen????Yeah, right, Branson was after a quick buck....DH hates marketing and IL buggered off to Wigan.
Give London thr backing the storm have had and they's have won SL by now..twice.

So the NFL didn't understand the market, the RFL, Branson,Hughes and Lenaghan don't understand the market, but you do? So the efforts of Caro Wild and Phil Jones et al in community development clearly has not really done much to draw spectators to the sport. Have all these really been so profligate with cash?

Sorry but you are talking complete gobbledegook. Retail is all about customer loyalty and repeat business in a competitive market place. What quick buck was Branson after? How do you know DH hates marketing.It costs him an awful lot to hold such a viewpoint!! IL left Quins why?

Broncos had SL money and one of the countries wealthiest men behind them. It didn't work, despite Wembley and finishing second. Quins RL had SL money RFL backing, Quins RU backing and Hughes and Lenaghan behind it. It hasn't worked.

Streatham & Mitcham didn't work. Acton didn't work. Face facts it will never work no matter how much you say the wrong people were/are in charge. It's a great shame, but that's the harsh reality. The queue of investors who can see the potential you can is evidence that your views don't have much support.

This is not backing - it was their share of the super league monies; a right as one of the members of the competition, not a benevolent gift. Just the same as every other club in the competition. Like every other club in the competition this has gone towards paying salaries and running costs. However, unlike every other club (until Cru arrived) they have also been expected to develop and market the game in areas with little contact with or knowledge of the sport. What gains have been made have benefited rugby league with precious little input from the rest of the game.

What backing?

Clearly the game should be basing its expansion policy on what did or didn't work in 1937



The present club has now not been working for 31 years. Additionally Skolars have not been working for 16 years, 8 in the semi-pro ranks.

Good post.

RL in London has been tried.

Time to give up on it.