Which rather confirms my point, you are fortunate enough to have a job that lets you work flexibly. Some people are still expected to work fixed hours, don't judge them too harshly.

yes,you're right

tolerance never was my strong point i'm afraid .....

Not sure if you missed what I meant. I was agreeing, clubs shouldn't whinge about small away supports coming to their grounds and work on filling them with their own. Smarter business.

He was agreeing with you. Doh!!!!!!!!!

nah - my nearest LER team is either Toulouse or Villeneuve both about three hours away

Brive is about an hour away to see Top 14 RU which is ok if i'm desperate.....

Not getting defensive, just highlighting the ignorance of some posts and how people, usually flat cappers, are unable to base their opinions on anything other than attendances, a factor which as pointed out, has no adverse effect on other clubs.

Wigan are probably averaging 10k more than Castleford, therefore there really must be little point in Cas existing.

Dumb isn't it?

I don't think the majority of RL fans are anti Broncos or even anti excpansionist

I think they,well me anyway are surprised that with such a large catchment area the game at SL level hasn't caught the imagination of Joe Public

before the Broncos initial SL foray I honestly believed the thousands of ex pat northerners down sarf plus a fair smattering of southerners would have flocked to whichever ground in the London area to watch top flight RL but obviously not !


I just find it sad to see a venture like that going down the pan...

True, and it's dead handy if you're near Waterloo. Trouble is most of London isn't. And a lot of London isn't near a transport link that will get you to Waterloo quickly.
That rather depends on when you're allowed to leave work. Some people in this world work fixed hours.

I hope he did bring them and that they enjoyed themselves. My worry is that they saw a poor team performance, a small lack lustre home crowd, no away support, no banter, no atmosphere. Not a great advert for the game.

Given that they've played weeknight games in every year I've followed them, how does this constitute 'something different'?

I was at the match, heard you gobbing off, east stand block FD I'd estimate. This isn't about me, I'd rather you didn't make it personal.

Like I say, some people work fixed hours, they simply cannot 'organise their life better' without compromising their employment.

This is surely another reason why we should avoid Friday night games.

This is the 17th year I've followed them and I've worked in London all that time.
There are many seasons where the only way I could make a Friday night game would have been to take a days holiday, and in some jobs I didn't have many of those to start with. So my assertion that travel time / logistics are an issue for some people is learned from personal experience.
I am struggling to think of a weekday match I've been to where the crowd wasn't well below the season average.

How many times do we try this before admitting that Friday night games do us no favours?

It was a Thursday night for starters, and IIRC that has only been attempted once. Yes, it didn't work this time, but nothing works at the moment and that is down to the shambolic running of our club. I doubt many people would have enjoyed themselves on a Sunday, as per the Huddersfield game where the crowd was nearly identical to the Catalans match, impressive considering Catalans bought 0 away supporters and Huddersfield a couple of hundred. So the Catalans match on a Thursday night was in fact better attended than the Huddersfield match, explain that?

The majority of people work 9-5, allowing up to 3 hours for the trek to TW2. Waterloo is a grand total of 13 minutes from Canary Wharf. I can't think of anywhere in Central London that represents a difficult journey to Waterloo considering it is so well connected.

Oh and ironic at you complaining "making it personal", I make a general comment that could be about anyone and in a stalker-like fashion, you identify where I was sitting on Thursday, even though you have never met me.

I think part of the problem here is that the catchment area isn't as big as some might think. London's public transport system is the biggest in the country and great for getting into the central area. Trouble is Twickenham is stuck out in the south west, and unless live near a station on a line that runs through Twickenham, you're journey can often be a long one.

A fast train from Waterloo takes 20 mins, then you need 10-15 mins to walk to the ground, a total of 30-35 mins. Most people in London has a whole load more traveling to get to Waterloo in the first place.
When we talk to away fans most of them say 35 mins is their total traveling time door-door for a home game.
I suspect if you defined 35 mins traveling time as your catchment area, it wouldn't have a huge number of people in it.

I was pointing out that we were both there, and backing it up. Identifying you the block right next to the one to the one I was in is hardly stalker like.
If I'd offered row and seat number you might have a point, although given that I sometimes a struggle to find time for home games I can't see me having time for any of that.

Considering there were only 5 of us in there, I'm still a little worried