Sorry to sound dismal but living in Cumbria which is according to the media (A real RL hotbed) is just as depressing.
A recent Workington v Whithaven derby attracted less than 800 speccies and Barrow average less than 2000 for a home match whilst knocking on the superleague door.
At least you get to watch top level teams when you buy a ticket and in a decent stadium!!

yes...it's 9pm now. ...

I think something that also needs to be tackled is the fact that we constantly hear that RL is being played by more youngsters in the south-east than ever before - so why the bloody hell aren't they coming along to watch Quins?! Even a couple of years ago when hundreds of free season tickets were given out, there was no noticable take up!

I don't have a clue how you introduce the game to southerners in this country, what i will say i was amazed by the number of southerners (and midlanders) that we met supporting the England team at the last world cup in Oz.

They had ALL emigrated to Oz and had the game introduced there and supported quite a different selection of NRL teams. Might be the fact of the high profile media attention it gets over there...and the lack of decent soccer teams to support. That said they were as enthusiastic and as knowledgable about our great game than us northerners supporting our country over there.

I think it was one of the points in the thingy I posted last September. It's all well and good giving them tickets, but you have to liaise with the clubs to ensure there is the desire to come to games and if not, ask why not.

A lot of this failure comes down to a lack of planning and follow up. An example would be the big gate we got v Wigan in 2008. If Wigan brought down 3,000, then there were 2,000 "other" fans in addition to our 3,000 regulars. The club needed to canvas these 2,000 people. This would have taken time, planning, effort and a fair amount of volunteers, but it would have been feasable to get at least 500 contact details. Questions should have been asked, rewards offered for response and even if only 50 of these people became regulars...it would have been a start.
I may be well off the mark, but it strikes me that there is one of 2 things going on at Quins.
The first is nothing. By this, I mean that there is no budget available for any form of promotion and therefore, the average gates and associated income will continue to fall or stagnate.....
The second is that there is nobody at the club with the ability to think outside the box, take a risk or stick their neck out. Oyster card holders for 1,500 or a viral campaign that nobody saw are cheap options that won't cost you your job if they don't work. They are safe........and useless in equal measure.
Either way, the culture change spoken about by PB when he joined seems to have been put on the back burner

Right on we need really edgy stuff like adverts in the residents magazine and sponsored flowers at the railway station.

Arcadia Magazine. 80,000 copies delivered to homes withina few miles of the ground. 1 page ad £1,400
Oyster Card holders. 5,000, delivered to places including Canary Wharf....cost £1,500
Hmm...let me see? 80,000 locals or 5,000 random people......which would be likely to get me a better ROI for pretty much the same outlay? I wonder, would 75,000 more opportunities for £100 LESS spend be worth a punt.


.....or we could spend a few grand on a video, post it on you tube and no bu99er will bother viewing it. Of the people who do view it, they could be based anywhere.....(although I suspect they were mostly quins fans already)...brilliant.

jbuzza...you have made it clear that you don't agree with my ideas or the posting of them. You accuse me of repeating myself, but hey, you brought up the 2 instances above, so let's go with it.

Are you saying that 5,000 oyster card holders is a better option than an A4 advert, in full colour, delivered to 80,000 local homes? I never said an advert in Arcadia was cutting edge by the way.......just a cheap way to get in front of the local population...as against canary wharf workers

Maybe, maybe not. In fact, they aren't perfect. No marketing idea is perfect.
A marketing campaign needs to be planned. It needs to be quantifiable and it needs to deliver some form of return on investment.
5,000 oyster card holders is a form of above the line/brand marketing that works if you are a household name. Quins RL are not in a position to waste money on this form of bollox........it isn't quantifiable. Neither was the viral campaign that was neither a campaign or viral.
80,000 opportunities to be seen or 5,000........where would you spend your money? Same amount of cash......which one has a fighting chance of getting even just 1 extra fan through the gates?

Don't try to be clever.....stick to picking up incorrect calculations. Try this one....36,747 divided by 11....I make it 3,340.6363...or otherwise known as a average attendance figure again, even after a MASSIVE marketing campaign including giving things away in canary wharf, recording a video that no bu99er saw and a few posters on the railway network.....that's the mutts nuts......that is ....... but hey, you keep pointing out maths errors.......and while your at it, calculate how much will be added to your match day travel if your only option is to go to Skolars games once DH has walked and the club that currently spends 70 grand a week has to make do with 38 grand...45.71% less....

When they sort out where and when the Warrington game will be played, and it's sounding like it's going to be a Friday night, it will mean reduced numbers coming from Warrington, so let's get some local and vocal support behind Quins by giving away many tickets

Hampshire Cricket are doing similar for their 20/20 game against Durham. Durham aren't the biggest draw in the game and have to come from further afield. HCC have recognised this and have given one local radio station 1,000 tickets FOC, all you do is register and you can have up to four tickets each. That's extra bums on seats who will pay to park, who may pay for a programme, food and drink, and support the local side. And who knows, they may enjoy the experiece and come back again

What's to lose?

Find a really good entertaining game make shed loads of free DVD's, put them in The Sun, The Express, The Guardian.

God knows how much that will cost, get em hooked that way.

"oh look a free DVD, let's watch it............wow what a great sport where is the nearest professional club?"
see's the details on sleeve of DVD
"Maybe i could venture down and watch more of this, it's amazing"

er....a lot more than it would ever ever recoup, so Quins will probably do it

Free DVD's cost money to produce........pack, deliver to the newspaper(s) who will not only charge a shed load for advertising the free DVD, but also to distribute to the newsagens. If that's not enough, all non-sold copies would need to be returned to the newspaper and then the club (more money) and then you may get lucky and flog them for 1p each and they will turn up in a car boot sale about a year later.

Cost estimate to produce 100,000....and all of the above? I'd say 600k minimum. Response? Let's say people get curious, you would need to sell 40,000 tickets at 15 quid each to break even...and given we are on less than that for ALL season so far......I think it's a complete non-starter.

Therefore, expect a free Harlequins Rugby League DVD to be available in the Observer in December this year (with a free bonus DVD on the making of the Massive Viral Video)

Its interesting to see whats happened to League in London, as an Aussie who was living in London back in 97 when the Broncos came second, the year of the world club championship etc, i went to quite a lot of games as a mate was playing for the broncos

I seem to remember live TV games, Richard Branson & other celebrity supporters, the crowds werent that bad from memory, the bar at the stoop was fantastic after games, a real good atmosphere etc

what happened, the basis seemed like it was there & things were growing, i however do realise that everyone is football mad & with so many teams in London it makes it hard

does the club know about this arcadia mag if so and dont want to know why dont us the fans do somethink about it 350 fans £4 each or so . dont slag me off its just an idea

It's a good idea, may not happen, but can have my £20 that was originally pledged to the 30 year banner towards it, maybe the club could split 50/50 with supporters or offer an incentive, eg a special raffle for a signed shirt, £4 or whatever a ticket, when the funds are raised the raffle is drawn and the advert is bought