I fancy us for the game against Haven as long as we don’t get complacent. But it got me thinking about what size crowd there would be. Hopefully a better crowd than against Halifax but, unfortunately despite a good side, decent weather and a string of home games I am not hopeful gates will be on the up. The huge absence of home games mid May through to end of July, coupled with slightly lacklustre opening home fixture performance and 1st game back after that break means it all feels like after the Lord Mayors Show. I was pleased to see that the mascots visited the local shopping centre recently but that really should have been a basic. My guess we’ve made almost no impact on the local community, spaffed the good will of our move to Plough Lane up the wall with a really poor squad, poor performances and minimal game day efforts in 2022 and PL is now a busted flush. I’d not be massively surprised to hear we were on the move again 2024 or 2025 at the latest. It’s very difficult to see the justification for the additional spend- does corporate look busier than before? Are we inundated with sponsors? It’s definitely a better match day experience than last year but really what is the point of paying for a ground where 3 quarters are closed and are unlikely ever to be needed. I’d think it was a toss up between Ebbsfleet, (outside London and the Oyster card zones but a decent sized stadium) and RP (barely standing and sub-League 1 as is but objectively fix up-able and in RU heartland so some possibilities for getting local interest). If I had to guess I’d say the latter in terms of being a base for training etc as well but money would need to go in to develop at least one stand worthy of 21st century. What do we think? Will we be on the move again?

Listening to the media put out by the club this year, this season was about being better than last season. From what some of the re-signed players have said, there is a long term vision, it's just not being shared with the supporters yet.

We are definitely better than last year. We now have a good competitive Part time championship side capable of challenging most teams in the league. Off field there have been some improvements - the move to a better sized stand with access to pub and food vans makes more sense but as for growing the club or embedding ourselves in Wimbledon I’m not sure at all. As you point out whilst our day to day comms. Is much improved there has been nothing has been passed on by the club’s hierarchy as to what we are up to.

In my opinion, and this was same at every ground we have been at, the thinking that the local community close to the ground are suddenly going to adopt this new amazing sport to the area is never going to happen. Matters not where we play, mascots in local shopping centres are useful for social media pictures doubt it has any effect on local engagement.
Choice of ground is a challenge, Anything inside m25 now can result in extra £12.50 on top of everything else, that's going to effect the fee own travel away fans.
Pl as a ground I don't mind, location is rubbish for me.
RP is dire and a joke even for the 200 or so that turn up, the only positive is the pitch.
Ebbsfleet! Been once, as a nl1 or championship ground It's fine.
Can I see us staying at PL long term? Doubt it maybe another season.
But until someone steps in with a big wallet and funds a full time squad again we need to accept we are a championship club with a poor following, so PL not really suitable for that level.

will we even be playing at PL if we get a home game in the playoffs this season

Can you imagine? Real schoolboy error if not.

Last official survey showed that 90% of cars on the road in London are ULEZ compliant ( my neighbour’s 20 year old Corsa is ) so unless all Broncos fans drive 10 year old diesels or vintage/ classic cars the £ 12.50 charge IS NOT going to be an issue.
Even if you have 4 away fans in a clapped out polluting diesel car, split the ULEZ charge 4 ways and it’s a little over 3 quid each.
I know some Northerners have a reputation for being tight but surely ……….

I’m assuming DH is hoping we don’t finish that high

My 2015 diesel isn't compliant so no more driving in Greater London for me. Not that there's much parking around PL that I could find. Couple that with the withdrawal of rail travelcards before next season starts and it starts to get complicated travelling into London.

My car ain't compliant either, so 2 of us so far will not be taking car anymore. I actually think a lot of it will not be the actual cost even if shared but more likely the principle. Ticket price, petrol, food, enough for most without another charge on top, it will discourage
Vintage classic cars don't pay by the way

My diesel Lexus is not compliant either, yet the 2013 5 litre petrol Range Rover that I have is. Crazy if you ask me.
Today is my last trip in the Lexus, I do not think I will take the Range Rover in the future. We will use the wife's ULEZ acceptable Mini.

Good to have options.

Just don't tell her! You'll save on fuel costs as well then.



All the best today - hopefully a comfy win and into 5th.

That did the trick!

In answer to the OP; Sheffield away - a more difficult proposition.

We were easily the better side should probably have won by more but we remain wasteful with our conversions and there was a bit of carelessness with the ball. Albert had a bit of a spell when he kept dropping it. Thought we were excellent in the first half and being able to bring on Albert, Stock and Williams is really a plus. Thought Whare had his best game and Grant has come back energised from his spell out. Both Leyland did well again. One of the things our team lacks is competition for places on the wing and with Ulberg out there is quite a bit of pressure on Macani who I think has done well but could do with a rest. Haven’s fans were in good voice but I’m not sure about their team. They have some willing runners and Aiye is a threat but it’s only Doran who has the X factor. He looks nothing like my idea of an athlete but is excellent and his kicking is really threatening. Crowd numbers- pretty poor I think. Sub 400? On another matter those who attend may be aware of Big Al who basically acts as a one man band for driving forward the atmosphere. At times it can be a bit tiring but he did a really good job of lifting the crowd second half and I was surprised to see him moved on by Plough Lane staff late in the day. Maybe I got it wrong but, if not, I don’t think that’s the way to go personally. Without him we basically get out sung by travelling fans which is pretty poor.

Jesus christ. I'm stunned that anyone on the back office staff has the nerve to steal a wage.
400? 300? Last time...

Pough lane? It makes no difference if we stun Fev and gain promotion, whilst Hughes owns the club crowds will never grow and the last 2 attendances will have dragged the average down lower than Ealing......HIS

5000 target has been missed but there is no accountability as usual.
What makes it worse is NOBODY is surprised it's come to this and the RFL/IMG aren't coming to the rescue any time soon.
Either a new owner is found or the RFL make a serious decision about how they want the game to be viewed by the entire population. Wall to Wall TV coverage will only further dilute attendances and underline the geographical split of the game.

Regardless of getting into the playoffs. Hughes is a dimwit who is killing the club.

Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, did you enjoy the performance?

Principle?
Sounds a bit like the principle of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Interesting what you say about the classic/ vintage cars , was looking up the London- Brighton Mini Run for next year ( wife used to have a Mini, haven’t been for years) and read that next year’s run has been cancelled, citing ULEZ as the main issue. OK full disclosure, it was a Daily Mail article and they never knowingly pass up an opportunity to Khan bash .

I love the fact that we're a side that isn't battling relegation, but no amount of wins will disguise the fact that 400 fans just isn't enough to bankroll the club and in a stadium that holds 10,000 is a stark reminder of how badly the club is run.

Cars built before 1973 are ULEZ exempt and anything over 40 years old registered with DVLA as historic.

My pal works at Stansted airport. The last few weekends, he said, were the busiest he's ever seen it. So lots of people are away. In fact I'm on holiday in the UK at the moment. I suspect the long break from PL backed up by the poor performance v York put a few off too.

Broncos formula of starting the season with a poor, underprepped squad, then having no home games for weeks (I don't count Kent as home) and then cramming home games in the holiday period is clearly flawed.

The side we have today is a long long long way short of the sides we had in the 2015-2019 era, where the club was growing again (abit very slowly) after the disaster of the Barnet debacle.

In a way I hope we finish 5th and not 4th, as it really would not surprise me if the club have made no plans for a home playoff fixture, and we would end up playing probably the most important game of the season at Rosslyn Park.

This sounds right to me. Whilst you often do get more than one chance to make a good impression you don’t get many and our annoying habit in last 3 years of being poor or mediocre in our initial home games has done us no favours if we really want to grow. I was one of the people who went to Ealing to see our 1st game back after Covid. To say Bulls walloped us would be an understatement and even their fans knew Bulls weren’t all that then. (Then there was the ‘heavily’ promoted game against Toulouse. That didn’t go well to say least). Last season - Widnes/ Haven -genuine rubbish. This season pretty average against Batley then Eagles and did poorly against York first game back at PL after months away and that is how not to grow crowds. Radio silence with fans, lack of local engagement etc all add to the malaise, links with AFC not obvious. Discounting games can help but, as others have said, makes buying a season ticket, a loss leader. I did think that relative to the crowd size there were quite a few in hospitality - it could be about 20% % of the crowd but the numbers through the door will have been low (although not quite as small as the twitterfeed photos might suggest and once again atmosphere quite decent) the plus side we have a decent side and we are winning games - but how do they get the message out? It feels too late in the day in a disjointed season.
So far we’ve announced two are staying. Probably time to hear some more good news. I also think that whilst the jury is still out on some of our late doors recruits it would be good to know Butler is staying and the sp with the 4 overseas recruits. One assumes Whare and Norman are only to the end of the season. The latter in particular will be a loss so I hope we have our recruiting hats on. Broncos must be a more attractive option to players after this season which is some good news. If we can make a decent start next season it could be a good one. Alternatively we could all picking splinters out of our backsides perched on rotten ‘seating’ at Roslyn Park. Happy days.