I don't know if I'm missing the point here, but there seems to be some misconception about social rugby union attendees (I call them that as they don't go to watch the game - just to drink and talk).

On an average match, I would guess - purely from observation, no facts to back this up - that less than 10% fall into this category.

I think part of the problem is that there are no "local" derbies - home matches against Perpignan and Newport will never generate the same polarisation and support as Quins v L.Irish

or autumn international, the vast majority would not really be club supporters but "social" attendee's, and yup I was a Quins RU supporter in them days when the main games were against Bath and you stood on milk crates behind the sticks to get a good view

1.1 actually and its 0.8 miles from Twickenham Station to Twickenham Stoop

It's in west London which i know for a fact is the most congested part of the capital (yes i have proof of that)

Rubbish. I had to go to north-east London from souh-west London the other Saturday by car and it took 2 hours to do 24 miles. The first half of the journey through the "congested west of London" to 30 minutes. The remaining 12 miles to the north east to 90 minutes.

I have never seen traffic, road works and so many pointless red routes in my life and I have lived in south west London 21 years.


Why have red routes and then allow some parking? The cars just block the route. We followed a bus for two miles and not once did it go in to the red route bus lane because every few hundred yards there was a car parked in an allowable zone.

We all think sometime the RFL and our club mgmt can't organise themselves, well north east Londons traffic planners couldn't organise a glass of fine wine in a vineyard.

Rant over. Back to rugby.

Have read this thread with interest

Got to say I understand Gutterfax's frustration

Many many times I have read people post on these boards how their chairman/BOD/owner is a successful businessman and they know what they are doing

Unfortunatley running a proffessional sports club is totally different to setting up and building a business to make your fortune

It requires a completely different mindset

Lets face it to virtually all of them it is nothing more than an expensive hobby taken on via the heart rather than the head

They like us are actually fans and think that everybody ' thinks ' like us , ie have a winning team and people will want to pay to watch it

But that is the heart ruling the head

This is the reason I feel the RFL really need to do more either to educate the clubs and their owners or actually setting something up to help and show the clubs what to do

But they did!
The RFL marketed the Manly game, not the club. Result was, 6,000 fans with 4,000 odd that we haven't seen again since? As TNT were running a cheap offer on tickets and getting a commission on each one, somewhere, there is a database of these fans?

Sorry, but the club need a marketing professional in place now. Even if this means paying over the odds for someone on a temp basis, it is blatantly obvious that the club can't manage with the resources in place at the moment.
Someone who can centralise the data held by the club (email, post, telephone, ST holders and online ticket purchasers), manage the sending of offers, arranging for leaflet drops, booking small ads in the local press, organising the day to day activity that would raise awareness.

With regard to the future, we have approximately 30 home games until the next licence applications will be assessed and we are currently 1,700 away per game from the 40% figure.

This target of 5,000 was never going to be easy to achieve, but with every passing week, it is getting even harder.

I'd question whether 5k was ever a realistic target anyway.

40% is the figure we would need to achieve 1 point.
Given that we ticked a load of other boxes, I would be suprised if we weren't asked to give assurances on crowds. I would have thought that all clubs that failed on certain points would have been expected to make in-roads towards attaining those points next time.

Simple financial common sense would seem to point to any club needing its supporters to grow, not shrink.

Also, if our average this year is currently 3,224, then this would point towards 750+ home fans missing last Saturday. This should be a major concern to the club. Was it simply because so many other things were on (Lions, England RU, The Derby, England wendyball) or is it something else?

I know that crowds are not the be all and end all, but surely, given it is the stated aim of the GM to increase attendances, the current downward trend is worrying.

BTW, if we had managed to get 10% of the Manly crowd to come back on a regular basis, that would have added 600 to the average figure so far......

Of course "...it is something else...", Celtic don't have the pulling power of Saints, Leeds or Wigan. All clubs used to expect their lowest crowd of the season when we visited or Leigh / Widnes/ Cas / Salford were getting hammered in the past and sitting at the foot of the table. Leigh a few years back would have been a dead cert for 2000 at the Stoop/Brentford etc. It is the nature of sport and sports fans - the best draws the extra bums on seats, but the die hard core fans turn up even if the team were demonstrating the art of tomato planting.


Yes the marketing is poor, yes they need somebody in place - but up to Paul Brown's illness the club was starting to make some strides (in my humble view)- since last summer though the club have been hamstrung. Maybe, in hindsight, they should have got in a temp / contract marketing guru to keep things going. May be they tried and everyone they approached said "...Na, no thanks..".

We don't know, we don't attend the board meetings. Please lets just give it a rest on this subject and let PB get on with it. If come December it is another shambles then I for one will agree with you all on this matter.

Really? Where? Can't believe you are using that as an excuse tbh.

No I am not using it as an excuse, the club had a clear plan under Paul Brown. Communications were improving. The club were tying up players, getting ahead of the recruitment curve - and we are seeing the benefit of that this season on the pitch with a stable squad.

Things seemed very professional. Then bang, "...sorry guys got to go - not well...". Unfortunately Boss Hogg could not grasp and maintain the plan until somebody better suited came along.

What happened to Paul Brown, did he recover? Not a jot about the guy.

Most businesses / clubs would struggle to survive with the kind of cr&p the club has had to deal with in recent times.

Marketing of Quins RL is like the MP's expenses scandal to most of you out there. your like the Daily Telegraph squeezing a bit more and bit more out of a boring subject.

Yes we know it needs to improve, now let the club get on with it.