There are lots of people with an [iinterest[/i in union clubs, but far fewer who go on a regular basis. Witness the disparity between the number who attend the 'London' double header against attendances for the four teams at home.
Our problem is we don't even have that interest.

I disagree, I think people in the south are open to being persuading to go to one off events (in union and League) the dark side just have a much bigger marketing budget to reach these people, particularly at club level.

Most of the people I know or work with have a soccer team they associate with / follow even if they never go to a game....hardly any of those people have a union team they associate with or follow closely. Yes lots of them make a point of watching the union internationals but that's it.

Club union is not a big deal down here, which makes selling a poorly run League club even more difficult.

and post 2003 a great number of them will have (in the bottom of a wardrobe admittedly) a white shirt with a red rose on it that will be dusted off next year and worn "down the pub". There's the problem.....they know the game exists.
I did some work over here recently with a guy from East London who has lived here for 12 years and is a RL nut....his boy plays locally and he attends 3 or 4 amateur games a week. He freely admits to not knowing RL existed when he lived in London.........he thought it was all Union and only Union.

BTW......a million Irish....plastic or otherwise knowing what game London Irish play is hardly something to dismiss. Yes, they struggle to attract crowds, but that's because they're crap and not in London.....not because they are unknown.

London Irish are a strange construct.

They make a big thing of their plastic paddyism when in reality the club should be called Thames Valley Tongans.

Too be sure!

And how many 'ex-pat' northerners and aussies/kiwis are there in the south of England who 'know we exist' and have a knowledge of Rugby League as a sport. There must be 100000s. The fact we don't benefit from that as a club's another matter but RL doesn't live in a bubble of awareness that just stops south of Wakefield.

Actually I think they've made a reasonable fist of things at Reading, certainly better than Saracens did at Watford or Wasps have at High Wycombe.
Certainly can't see them moving back to London any time soon, should rename themselves Reading Irish.

Speaking of Irish their new training ground would probably be good enough for us.

I was wearing a Skolars shirt on Sunday going to the match. A guy asks me who Sarries are playing! Says it all really.

I always thought the thousands of free tickets Saracens dished out was a waste of time.

But mistaken brand recognition is still brand recognition at the end of the day.

It doesn't say anything, except that London Skolars are a poor tier 3 RL club and 'S*rries' are a top level ru club.