"The club in general, not just under Mr Hughes ownershiphave repeatedly failed to see the formula is:


Increased awareness = Increased attendance = Increased atraciveness to sponsors = Increased attractiveness to investors = Increased revenue all around."


Really?........think you've missed a vital ingredient here........should be preceded by......Success on the pitch= Increased awareness etc........otherwise it's increased awareness of what?


"April 4th, 1996....9,638 roll upto the Valley......17 years later and 1,136 bothered to go to Esher......."

Says it all really.............and many many reasons I guess as to why it's come to this

London Irish spent HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS getting fans to Reading......as did wasps. Saracens hardly prospered at Watford......urban myth designed to cover up for a lack of willingness to roll up their sleaves

Our arrangement at The Stoop seemed to work pretty well until we gave notice. We have made the ground our biggest problem when it should have been the least of our issues. Lessons should have been learned from the failed rebrand which was a similar folly.

This.

Which failed rebrand are you referring to? The H********s one was hardly a rip roaring success!

The first three years of the 'partnership' was relatively favourable to our club and it is easy to have fond memories as we were more of a 7th to 9th club than a bottom three team also.

Nic Cartwright initially secured a deal for London Broncos which secured the useage of the Twickenham Stoop on extraordinarily favourable terms meaning that all four corners of the ground were open and a degree of co-operation around marketing and commercial opportunities took place. Ian Lenagan was also an open and lively commentator building rapport and the club was open and friendly, rather than the barrier place it later became.

When Nic did the deal Harlequins were up for a full amalgamation of the two clubs. Statements such as “both clubs go into this partnership with the intent that they will be one club playing both codes of rugby” and there was talk of a “synergy and sharing” strategy and that we “will also begin to work together on community, marketing and commercial opportunities” were commonly bandied about.

However the main instigator of the deal on our side was Nic Cartwright from the Rugby League side and he left relatively early in the partnership whilst Ian Lenagan was at Wigan on the 1st December 2007, a long way before the end of the inital three year deal concluded, after which he left the club in suspended animation for several years. Whilst Mark Evans on the Union side was purely committed to his own club - and did nothing for the partnership. It worked for him as he expanded the Stadium and got numbers in crowd-wise particularly from the Big Game concept and no doubt he gained by cross-selling £99 tickets into our base and living off the back of our community work and engagement that promoted Harlequins.

After 2008 we became a tenant/landlord and at that point we should have immediately abandoned the Rugby Union colours and name for our own identity. They declined to buy in for a nominal sum, so the partnership was over.

I know the Union were quoting over £5 grand to open up one stand on one day when asked several years ago and we felt it wiser to only open one stand, such was the steep rise in costs and believe me they have grown each year!

Since June 2009, when we won at Leeds away and then Hull KR away, there has been a major decline in playing standards and that was due to the mediocre acquisition and retention of Brian McDermott which saw him gain just 7 wins from his last 38 games and the club decline year on year under his stewardship. This is fact. Although he only left 2 1/2 years ago just O'Callaghan, Howell and Melling in the squad were discovered by Mac and in the team.

I say this knowing that someone will jump in and talk about how he kept four-times-in-a-row Grand Finalists Leeds still in the Grand Final but there is a difference between maintaining success and delivering it. He did not build things for us, bar having an involvement in the youth side.

Then we had another two bad years with Powell who was a steaming pile of mediocrity with just 9 wins from 47 and thus the club has had five years declining under Mac and two more under Powell, so we have now lost any enthusiasm from the Union supporters as well as the paymasters.

We should have got out after 2008 when no full integration took place, just as we should never have took on two unproven managers, but we are where we are.

It is easy to constantly talk about winning every week and bigger attendances and I have no doubt that possibly some of the floating Union support may have joined a winning bandwagon, but the reality is there was one 8000 gate and the rest has been derisory - people walking out of the ground rather than staying on for free to watch us etc.

I'm looking forward to ending this bad relationship and giving things another go.

But on to more positive things, let's get behind the guys against Bradford and batter the Bulls, after all they are our club and the only one we have.

Easy
Rammo

I may be wrong but I don't think that Nic had much to do with the Quins move and it was ILs drive that got us there.Mark Evans was I believe very supportive. Unfortunately those two have not been around for a number of years and we are where we are.

I just wish the move away from the Stoop was explained fully. If it is this perception from the Warder that RL doesn't work in SW london the sorry that is bullocks. No marketing allied to no success on the pitch and an alienation of the existing supporters will mean it will work nowhere in crowd terms.

Sad as another 2 kids are named in the England yoiuth team and we had more homegrown players in our team than our opposition heartlands club on Monday (probably most heartland clubs in fact). Somehow the M62 gene pool has to be expanded to beat the Aussies and make the international game more popular and by inference the club game.

We've finished 2nd, made the CC final and the play-offs twice in the SL era....each season following OUR CROWDS WENT DOWN.
Success is what it is...a bonus, but the culture of supporting a team is more tribal and cultural than results based....unless you follow Man United that is.....



As for the move from the Stoop......bundled with the foolish rebrand and everything else designed to"improve" things......none.....and I mean not ing one of them, has worked nor will they in future.......regardless of the blind devotion shown by some fans. 1,136 is an embarrassment...let's hope Bradford bring a few down this weekend......

We were in an eminently preferable position then compared to where we are now. We also had a better atmosphere and more songs. I am sick of singing the monotone drone that is our only 'chant'

Broncos 2005 ave 3,918
Harlequins 2006 ave 4,917

25% up.....

Harlequins 2011 ave 3,124
Broncos 2012 ave 2,807

10% down

spot the difference