Quote: jaybs "It took me all day to find someone who had a subscription to the Current Bun, who would? it was a media colleague's office.
Everything alanw, says is correct, I think this is what we all expected, I can't blame David Hughes playing hard ball, of that is part of the case, we have had far too many promises and that is all they remained, no one expected Melbourne to be a success at first, but the NRL believed, time now for the RFL to!
But then with Wakefield having to sell a player, to pay the August wages, then Wakefield accusing Salford of approaching players, tapping them up? then the Bulls with a statement explaining why yesterday it showed they were in a closing down situation for tax payments now paid, their CEO standing up and taking the blame saying he has forgot to pay! Salford with not very good attendances this season, Dr Koukash, spending all the money he seems to be, will expect results, if not, will he hand around as long as David Hughes has? and The Super League Plate Winners, Huddersifled doing so well on the pitch, but always have to defend and put off questions about their low attendances, we must come right at the bottom of RFL worries?'"
Attendances at Huddersfield that are not quite as low as some like to make out, but can certainly be improved. The average SL attendance at the JSS this year was 6,766, which is some way short of the 8k average seen a couple of years ago. A few reasons for that, poor match day pricing policy, Thursday, Friday and Monday night matches (Giants have a large proportion of family tickets, many of these do not turn up on awkward evenings showing 12-1500 less in home areas for equivalent Sunday afternoon matches) stadia issues and the Nathan Brown factor, many fans were very disillusioned with his tinkering and mid season collapses. I understand that although Huddersfield Giants average crowd is 9th or 10th out of 14 this season, matchday revenue is 7th of 14, well clear of 8th. Our ground has decent facilities including corporate etc and people pay more to get in.
Plenty of work to do at Huddersfield yet, but our issues are not of the order of others, expect to see average gates up to 7.5-8k next season, more if we can win the play offs.
There is a parallel in there for London, address the actual issues not the percieved issues, who cares if you move to a 6k capacity ground as long as you are sustainable in it? It seems to me you currently lack direction as a club, you need a clearly understood strategy to rally behind. Wherever you end up playing next year, if you have a clear "corporate direction of travel" you will get there. If you have no clear path then fans, funding and sustainability will continue to drift away.
I have no doubt there is a sustainable market for top class RL in London, it is also clear that in the current economic climate poorly run SL clubs are not sustainable, that applies in the "Heartlands" as well as in London.
Good luck.