Quote: sandy "for what its worth here's another hull kr fans view, I have always loved my away trips to london to see my team and have always made a weekend of it with the mrs as a lot of people do but over the last few years as an outsider you can't get away from the fact that your club appears to be in a spiral of decline.
Obviously money is tight, the playing squad seems to get weaker every year and the crowds seem to have hit rock bottom. It seems to me the move to twickenham is doing you no favours. The ground is excellent for a superleague team, the facilities are excellent but nobody seems to want to go there, if you could pick the ground up and plonk it in central london you'd be on a winner. Having seen you in griffin park and at fulham all those years ago as well as chiswick, you need to be in a more central location where more casual supporters might give league a try, being stuck out on a limb in the middle of a Union stronghold just isn't working. It seems like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place as any ground share in central london is going to be ridiculously expensive and there aren't that many options (loftus road wouldn't be a bad option but obviously is never going to happen).
It seems to me you've got 2 real options for the future, a rich warringtonesque sugar daddy takes over or you move to a better location, the olympic stadium wouldn't be bad if west ham get knocked back and it is scaled down as per the original plans. Moving to milton keynes or dropping into the championship will be the death knell for your club.
I do wish you well though, not because of some "rugby league needs a london presence" rubbish, but because of the die hard fans who go week in week out.'"
Some good points. The only one I disagree with is your point about 'RL needs a london presence' being rubbish. As someone who loves rl & who lives in London, I can see how much having an SL team does make a difference to the awareness of the game here. Its great to see people getting more involved as a result - & especially how many youngsters are playing the game with local amateur teams. & because I love the game so much I dont want it to be confined to the M62 corridor in this country. In this day & age of sport needing money to thrive, sponsorship is essential - & a company like Sporting Bet is more likely to sponsor HKR because they anticipate getting exposure for their brand beyond the confines of a relatively small part of the country. Expansion - especially in the lucrative market of London - is very important for the long term health of the game everywhere.
I agree with you on the problems with the ground. Having tried taking friends to the Stoop, after going once they tend not to go again - largely because it takes such a long time to get there & they dont want to spend the best part of a weekend day doing that. I live in London but it takes me longer to get to Quins games than it would take me to travel from East Hull to Leeds, Bradford or even, sometimes, Warrington.
However, I think the problems go further than the location of the ground. I'm not in favour of Quins being given special dispensation by the RFL & despite the fact that it is more costly for people to live in London its not been a major barrier to players coming to the club, so dont see why Quins should be given more from the Sky purse like some on here have argued. If that happened, we could then start arguing that clubs with a greater portion of their catchment area on the dole should have their season tickets subsidised by the RFL because their supporters cant afford them, or clubs who's councils give less to them than others should get more from the RFL etc etc (tho that certainly shouldnt stop the HKR supporters lobbying their council for some investment in the stadium - I admire what they've been doing). There will never be an even playing field & nothing can stop that.
What would make sense would be for the RFL to support a marketing campaign that promotes the game (& with it Quins RL) in the capital, plus help ensure that whatever other issues are going on that those deeply involved in the club keep alluding to are resolved.
