Noticed a media report saying that the RFL was in discussion with the London Olympic management over the use of it's Stadium in 2013.....as a RL World Cup venue.

Perhaps they will make it a condition of any future SuperLeague licence in London that the holders play out of the stadium. Sorry Quins but have always been of the view that The Stoop is not the ideal venue for a SuperLeague team.......the bars are ok but the TRANSPORT LINKS are disgraceful.

At least the Olympic Stadium is going to be well served by tube, rail, bus and parking





Any views

Noticed a media report saying that the RFL was in discussion with the London Olympic management over the use of it's Stadium in 2013.....as a RL World Cup venue.

Perhaps they will make it a condition of any future SuperLeague licence in London that the holders play out of the stadium. Sorry Quins but have always been of the view that The Stoop is not the ideal venue for a SuperLeague team.......the bars are ok but the TRANSPORT LINKS are disgraceful.

At least the Olympic Stadium is going to be well served by tube, rail, bus and parking





Any views

Loon.

Am sure in the standard a couple of weeks ago that it was stated the use of the stadium post 2012 could not fit Football or Rugby both codes as the running track will have to stay.

Transport links! Pretty much on the M4, M3, M25, 40ish mins from M1, SWT Twickenham 10 mins away only thing is that we don't have a tube nearby!

Any new club playing out of a big stadium with small crowds would just be lost.

Great idea — throw away all the work that has gone in to building a community presence in the local area at one fell swoop.

Our future is to stay allied to the Quin's.
The stadium is perfect for our needs & hopefully, we will get more interaction with our Union counterparts.
As for terrible transport links, whats wrong with 6-8 trains an hour from Waterloo with an average journey time of 20-25 minutes. (I know that there have been problems with track maintenance but that is countrywide.Hence the reason I have not travelled to Castleford today.)
Also, Richmond Tube Station is only a few minutes away & the motorway network is close by.
As for talk of uprooting again. NO WAY!!!!!

so lets make it harder for away fans to get to the games eh?
What a stupid idea, the Stoop might not be ideal but where is? at least with the stoop links to the M way sytem are pretty good, M25 M40, (lancs based teams0 and M25/M1 for Yroks based teams

Last season there was talk of possibly London Skolars moving to the Olympic Stadium post 2012.

With the club's history, that makes it a given, then.

The RFL is thinking about a second London Super League club --- possibly Skolars --- not about having Harlequins move!

Richard Lewis wants two SL clubs in London to create a local derby, and also to give real professional opportunities for the massive and increasing number of working class London boys who want to be the next Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Tony Clubb or Will Sharp.

Is this a 'working class' boys play League, the rest play Union type of thing ? If it is then it seems to be a pretty efficient way of alienating all of them.

I don't know what the next step up is from 'massive' but whatever it is, multiply it by 10 and you'll have a rough idea of the number of boys that play Rugby Union. Whatever you may think, Rugby League is up against it down here and by appearing to target 'working class' boys over everyone else it will make it even harder, if not impossible.

Why don't they just give real professional opportunities to anyone who wants to take the game up ?

Perhaps I miswrote the qualifier "working class." The game is open to everyone. But it is the working class who are more likely to become professional rugby league players than the university students present or future.

The middle class boys, whom I suspect are the core and majority of the "10 times" number who play rugby union in London, are never going to be professional rugby union players, because it would interfere with their university studies or with their active careers in business,banking, medicine, law or another profession.

I doubt that will happen for a considerable amount of time. What we need is 1, self sufficient London based team, with gates over 8,000 and challenging for honours with a squad full of our own, home grown talent.
If the RFL were to put skolars in whilst we have 4,000 crowds, I believe that some of our northern cousins might well top themselves


Seriously, if we can get to 8,000 gates by 2016, THEN maybe look at a second London Franchise.

Nice to have you back Albert. I always suspected it was you

......forgot to include the second 'titbit' from the Guadrian report. It's that the RFL would like to have the Olympic Stadium as their HQ ground for the South of Englaznd.

As regards the access potential.......personally think the OLympic site is better accesswise - more so for the Northern teams/fans than the Stoop.
Might add that living in Chiswick it's quicker to Olympic Stadium than it ever will be to the Stoop.

The only 'negative' might be the lack of pubs n'bye!!!

The stadium will have to keep its running track, making it unsuitable for football or either rugby code. If they change the design (a la stade francais)and have a retractable seating area, then fine, otherwise, it will not be fan friendly. Jesus, just look at the bitching on here about 20 feet of concourse in front of the east stand


HTH.

The Stoop

Awful access
M25 - 20 mins away.
M3 - 10 mins away
Twickenham NR Station - 10 min walk
Waterloo - 30 mins
Clapham Junction - 20 mins

That has to be some of the most god awful public transport links i think ive ever seen.

Jesus........nothing is under 10 mins away.

How on earth am i going to survive, i mean there isnt even a Tesco Express, Starbucks or Pret a Manger within a stones throw.

Its an outrage and i for one have started the FaceBook group to get Quins removed from Super League because this is just not up to scratch!

......as they are going to do major refurb work on they Olympic Stadium anyway and have had no takers for the venue from football or union think the LODA will be looking into a alternative seating format before to long.

Am sure the RFL would not be keen on the site if the running track can not be 'covered'...........

The RL has always needed it's own stadium for internationals etc. You only have to look at the RU to see it makes sense.

For years they talked up Odsal but that was never going happen and why play internationals in sub 30K stadiums as we do now - hardly makes them special. PRE the SL Wars we RL internationals were regularly getting 40 or 50,000 crowds.

With the recession and lack of interest by others maybe the RL feel this is to good a chance to pass up? Stage the SL season launch, Challenge Cup, SL Grand Final, NL Grand finals, WCC, major internationals and World Cup finals there - soon makes financial sense.

Plus you have the TV and written media on the doorstep. Rock concerts etc. could also be a money raiser.

60,000 to 70,000 seater would be ideal and fianlly we would be on an equal footing with the Rah Rah's.


Also we would not have to go to Wembley and either sit in the shade (and cold) or face the sun squinting. New Wembley is like New Labour, even worse than the old bl**dy versions. Think of the money saved there - going straight to the RL coffers?

There's thinking big and there's thinking stupidly.

That would mean the 80,000 at England v Italy the other week are very stupid then!

What is it with RL supporters (and especially this forum) that makes them think our sport can't set goals and aim high, that we have to settle for second best?


The last major international before the SL War attracted nearly 55,000 to the dump that was old Wembley. Build it and they will come! Re-build international RL and they will come!

Ye, of little faith in your sport!