With the figures just published. It appears David Hughes hobby cost him just over two million pounds for season 2016. With a turnover of less than half a million. The club are into him for Seventeen odd Million and Ian Lenegan just over two.
Whilst I may be critical of the way he runs the club, it is his toy and be fair to the man. He pays for the privilege.

Where have these figures been published, companies house?

So totally clusterbuggering the set up at Twickenham, changing names and moving us from the rugby stadium to the wilderness to the wedding venue has been nothing more than swapping deck chairs on the Titanic? He was spending that a decade ago.......where the hell did that cash go??
How do you spend 17 million and go from 6th in SL with 4,500 fans to where we are now? It's criminal!



I disagree with this sentiment. It smacks of "fawning" to the rich kid because he's got the best toys, has great parties and let's us swim in his pool.......the Club isn't his...he is the custodian. He needed to and still needs to listen to advice on how to reduce his outgoings whilst improving the club and an occasional "thank you" is all he deserves....he's most assuredly not the Messiah!

So then dog.
Question? Mr Hughes decides tomorrow he does not want to spend that money anymore? What do we think would happen?

We don't have to have a cliff edge. We can work on a planned transition to whatever that may be, with dialogue and good will. Supporters are keen to engage; once David is too we can make a start!

We need a wealthy investor to take over the mantle not a few enthusiasts with £10 in their pocket.

Did you not see that he spent £2m in 2016. 300 fans won't drum that up, nor would the 4500 who watched regularly at Quins

I think a transition from wealthy owner to supporters trust could work if it was planned and worked in stages. I don’t imagine that DH would be completely hostile. I think Hughes’s attitude to an eventual shift in ownership is more important than the initial coin a a supporters trust could put together.

Im curious as to how 300 supporters could raise even £5k

One of:
1.The Club would fold
2.The Club would drop down to Ch1 as a part time outfit
3.The Club would continue in the Ch as a part time outfit funded in part by a supporters trust
4.The Club would continue as is under new ownership once DH walks away and accepts he's not getting a brass farthing

Option 4 is a real possibility once Hughes accepts he's taken the club as far (backwards IMO) as he can and he should be happy with his life membership and our thanks whilst understanding that new ownership is key to the club ever standing a chance of growing again.

Ok
What happened last time when he nearly walked?

The RFL bunged the landlord 100k to take us in.
If they hadn't, wed have folded and SL would have had a skewed fixture list.......as it was we were woefully unprepared and were relegated with only 1 win all year and an average gate of 1,295....again, another example of one mans arrogance impacting negatively on the club.
We lost 1,000 fans from our last year at the Stoop to our first at the Hive....1,000 fans! That is 13,000 over the season at a score a pop let's call it an even quarter of a million in lost revenue.....more than the rent at the Stoop.....so maths and marketing are at least 2 things we know he's not very good at!

So you are saying that we would have folded.
Point proven I believe.
If mr Hughes decided to do a kougash next week, the LBSA would not be stepping up to run the club, there would be no club

That may well be true which is why the Club needs to plan for a transition. Already two years of that possible transition at Ealing wasted - we don't want to start a Phoenix Club rlhttps://phoenixrl.wordpress.comrl when it all goes South surely?

Yes....and Hughes could sit back, look at the receipts for the 20 million (20,000,000)he's owed satisfied that "HE WAS RIGHT" and everyone else who tried to steer him down a different route was wrong.....this includes a Multi-SL winning coach, the Successful owner of Wigan, The man responsible for marketing the Big Bash and also the growth of crowds at the Melbourne Storm, A media consultancy employed by the RFL who helped the likes of Wakey and Castleford reverse the decline in crowds and pretty much anyone else who wasn't fawning over him.......and he'll congratulate himself on the appointments of Blanchard, Mackay, Powell and Grima as masterstrokes, same for the lovely new blue horse logo and the venue in the wilderness followed by the wedding venue and the reduction in interest to fewer that 250 season ticket holders

How anyone can defend someone who has continued to Kill the club with perceived kindness is beyond me......it really is. Just because he writes cheques doesn't give him the right to destroy a club with his sheer arrogance

So I ask the question. What do you suggest? And who says he is owed 18million?
Kill the club? Or been the only lifeblood of the club