I paid almost £1000 for the 4 of us last year at the Stoop, this year only 2 of us at £198.. So a £300 loss for no reason.

Still, move to Gillingham and another £198 gone plus all the merchandise bought (when it finally arrived in the shop!)

Given the choice of Gillingham or a more expensive season ticket?

I'd rather spend on the season ticket.

Here here. £99 is an insult to the players. Bradford has shown us what undervaluing our game leads to. Huddersfield cheap ticket deal finishes this year - I expect they'll have added zero to their crowds!

He could have been as Gillingham were playing at home on the Sat but Paul Scally I think his name is lives out in the Far East and is the dodgy of dodgiest football club owners. Anyone on here or anywhere else who follows lower league football would agree I'm sure.

Already paid higher price for season ticket, will willingly pay the same again or a bit more to stay at the Stoop.

Count me out of travelling to Gillingham though, fecking chav-hole!

Let's assume a sports fans A and B live in central London and they are both based within walking distance of the London Kings Cross/St Pancras railway stations.

Fan A supports London Broncos at the Stoop whilst Fan B supports London Broncos at Gillingham.

It would take fan A, who goes to the Twickenham Stoop, between 52 and 59 minutes to get to Twickenham Station and would cost £8.50 for his off peak travel. Given that he has the cheapest season ticket possible, he also uses, in theory, £7.61 of his season ticket to watch the game. So the total cost to him is £16.11.

It would take fan B, who goes to Gillingham, about 60 to 63 minutes to get to this station but would cost £17.50 for his off peak travel. Given that he has the cheapest season ticket possible, he also uses, in theory, £7.61 of his season ticket to watch the game. So the total cost to him is £25.11.

The difference is therefore £9.00 per match to the central supporter. The time difference is nominal. And if he pays an extra £100 for his season ticket there is in theory no difference at all.

Except of course if he strongly favours the Twickenham Stoop because it is purpose built for Rugby Union and is an upper middle class base versus the more working class population of Gillingham and footie ground. This snobbery aspect may of course play a part in some people's thinking.

When you get the supporters who are actually based around Twickenham and nearby areas such as Richmond the cost to them would only be about 70p more than the London to Gillingham fare whilst those based near Staines would pay £3.80 more than those central supporters.

I can imagine that these supporters who now have close to a two hour trip each way which they previously did not have being ed off at the prospect of having to pay around £150 extra to get to games and the travel time whilst the central fans would also not be doing cartwheels at paying around £100 extra to get to games either. For them it makes sense to put their money where their mouth is. For me it doesn't.

However from the club's point of view, there are less than 1000 season ticket holders in total and a simple postcode analysis would be likely to show well under 200 season ticket holding supporters who are based in relatively close proximity to the ground which the new scenario of a long trip and the higher price. They may of course offer a service from the Stoop which mitigates this, but we will assume that away.

My observation is that the overwhelming majority of supporters are already coming into central London and out again so will only really pick up the extra £9 cost, if they still come to the ground.

In theory if 1000 season ticket holders all paid an additional £100 each to the club, then this would in theory create an additional pot of £100k per season.

However, the reality for the club in my view is that it does not make sense for the club to pay the Landlord more to stay in an area which has little prospect for growth and it doesn't really make a large difference whether it comes from supporters donations, season ticket price hikes or David Hughes.

To me the area itself is the problem - basically the demographic is wrong.

I'm completely relaxed about where the club bases itself because I'm not a Londoner (although would be very proud to be) and only hope that the new location is one which gives the club growth potential.

I want the club to outlast David Hughes involvement.

Whether our new host be Gillingham or elsewhere I'd like to think that we have some tolerance for personal discomfort for the greater good of the club. Of course you would have to trust to luck that this move is the right one of course. I've seen no data to suggest it is or isn't!

Not many are willing to welcome this Rugby League Cuckoo into their nest after all.

Rammo, or should I call you 'Statto'.
I'm going to take issue with you on the snobbery against Gillingham (though I note some of the disparaging remarks on here).
I think a lot of people prefer the Stoop because it is a [urugby[/u ground, not a football ground.
It's got a decent sized bar. The stewards don't assume you're about to kick off. We don't have to go 'on the road' for two months every summer.
The leafyness or otherwise of the surrounding streets is of no consequence.

no, I mean the 890 ST holders......would it really make that much difference to the club?

Only time will tell GF!

I agree with much Rammo has to say, I feel we have a much better chance remaining in London and with a campaign "Broncos to Stay in London"

£99 grossly undervalues the product. The £15 pay on the day fee must be the cheapest in the league; with a season ticket your seventh game costs only £9 and the remaining six are totally free. That's if you go to every game of course.

I think having them so cheap encourages people to miss games when they're feeling a bit apathetic and the results and performances are poor. I had one last year, but as it was so cheap it felt easy to miss games as I didn't really feel I'd wasted a significant amount of money. (If I'd paid more I'd have been more minded to keep going and get some value for my money.) By the end of the season I'd more or less completely lost interest so didn't renew.

A few years ago I paid £300 for a "Gold" season ticket on the halfway line. I'd had a bit of a windfall at the time so splashed out, but I don't think £200 for a standard season ticket would be overpriced.

It doesn't matter what the ticket prices are if we go to Gillingham as I won't be there.


That's exactly why so many of us are so sceptical. We seem to make these moves over and over again, and they never seem to work our right in the long term. The fact that this move would entail moving right out of Greater London makes it the most radical switch so far. The club would need to replace all the disaffected current supporters who won't travel to Gillingham, as well as finding more new supporters to take the average crowd figure to a financially viable level. I just hope there's genuine reason to believe this will happen, and it's not just another gambler's throw of the dice.

Mark - get over your Northern inverted snobbery. The Stoop is a great ground with great facilities, it may be in a "nice" part of London but you only have to go 1 mile north to be in what you would call a working class area. Most lower league football grounds do not have a big enough pitch and we would get kicked off in the height of the season. Gillingham is a dump - end of and is miles away.