Quote: Hatfield tiger "As you can see from my user name I am not exactly local to the Quins but am a Southerner, and I find it easier to head to Yorkshire for the weekend and catch some rugby up there than I do going to the Stoop.
The ground is great but anyone coming from North London can not be bothered as it’s stuck out in Richmond and not somewhere which is accessible for the everyday person unless you drive.
Put it this way. If I fancy a beer whilst I watch the match I need get a bus to Hatfield station. 30mins including waiting at the bus stop.
I get the train into Kings Cross - 35 mins.
I get the underground across London to get the train down to Twickenham - 30mins
I then get the train down to Twickenham or more realistically Richmond - 35-45mins
Little walk to the ground - 15mins
Total one way journey is about 2.5hours assuming that all the connections arrive at the correct time and that i get to Twickenham rather than Richmond.
Or I can have a weekend away and catch a match as well. Even if I go for the day to Yorkshire its only 3.5hours in a car. Or I can watch a game a football as well there is loads of choice there to the neutral
The point I am trying to make is that the stoop really is not London - people coming from Hertfordshire etc don’t really go because its such a pain for them to get there.
Now some may argue that the Stoop is not a long way from central London where much of your marketing will likely occur. And yes, I would agree but you must remember that if you advertise Quins in central London as something to do on the weekend half the people seeing the adverts are likely to be commuters who will have to travel like me a good trek to get to the match.
If the ground were lets say on the M1/M25 corridor (like London Wasps) or on the M6 ( London Irish) corridor the chance of attracting non locals is much higher than being in Richmond where lets be fair the majority are union fans and always will be.'"
So you obviously don't drink when you drive to Yorkshire?
Having worked in Hatfield, it is about a 75 minute drive from Twickenham during the rush hour.
How long does it take you to travel to Yorkshire on public transport ?
P.S. London Irish are on the M4
