Can someone please explain to me why we no longer play pre season friendlies at home.
It strikes me as a good way to draw people in, perhaps sell a few season tickets and certainly flog a few shirts.
All these away friendlies seem to me to be an opportunity missed.

Perhaps other teams do not want to play on the artificial surface ?

I’m not sure anyone has a point about other teams charging £15 for a friendly when Broncos want £25 for a league game. That’s excessive and won’t win any fans.

Maybe likes of hull dont want the hassle of travel down to london for a friendly. Might have something to do with logistics of ealing as well.

As for ticket price, it's the highest in the league I think, leigh charge 22 for better seats.
But you dont get owt for nowt in this world

The same reason other clubs such as Hull FC don't play home friendlies, it costs too much to rent the stadium for a game that won't bring any money in.

That's why Hull v London is at a local Union club, it costs £30k to rent the KCOM for a game and then you have match day running costs on top.

One of the problems with our club is its lack of vision. Whilst a home friendly might make a loss. The club needs to play a long game and use one to engage with the locals. Promote the hell out of it. Draw people in and hopefully grow the crowds for the coming season.
No we just do the same old thing and expect crowds to improve on their own.

We dont promote league games, never going to promote a friendly!!!

Who is paying for this game that is certain to make a loss? Because as it stands people are slagging the club off for not spending money on marketing and not spending money on players, are you now saying they should also be losing money on holding pointless fixtures?

It's unreal, it really is. Where do you think this magic money comes from?

Whilst I 100% agree with you in regards of home friendlies, the associated loss that will be made and there being no point in hosting them, I will say that it's a tad unfair to bundle that viewpoint along with the clubs attitude to marketing.

There can be no defense for the abject failure in this area of the club since the birth of Superleague (if not before then) and as far as I can see and having often communicated with old friends who live in Hanwell/West Ealing, it would appear that there's been little effort made to engage with the clubs neighbours.

As for people whining about no money for players. If Ward believes he has the right squad, then so be it. I think the average age of the starting 17 is 23, so no matter what else, if we can keep this lot together for a couple of years, you'd fancy them to go up and stay up.

Things are not going to change until ownership changes, which isn’t to denigrate DH, just a fact

Whilst it is obvious the club have a history of getting it wrong when it comes to marketing and building a fanbase I am not sure their immediate neighbors, eg the expensive houses a mile around the ground would bring in anything more than the odd curious old bloke on a freebie.
What they are doing, and I personally feel is the best way, is targeting school age kids through various programmes where the kids are at an impressionable age and make take an interest in RL and convince a parent to take them along. It is a slow burner and may take years to see crowds get anywhere near 4000/5000 however IF at the same time the club continue to stop wasting money and start becoming self sufficient then it has to be a positive thing.

We both know exactly what Toronto are doing and you've made an excellent job of posting about it on other forums even when people are trying to stick up for them. LB are only doing what we have both suggested Toronto should have done. Produce their own kids, build a fan base without freebies and get the fundementals right such as getting your gear out for christmas, making hospitality enjoyable, fan events etc.

It will take time, and maybe too long for some of the older fans to see the benefits, but this is a dying game and the Broncos are in an area with very little interest in RL.

This ^^^^

Well I guess it might work if little Jimmy or Jenny gets a parent to bring them along but if you don't have a winning product, they probably wont come back. If we are going to develop our own youngsters, we need at 17/18 to be signing them on long contracts to avoid them being poached by other teams otherwise you just become a feeder club.

As you say, RL is a dying sport & i'm not sure whether it wouldn't be kinder to put the poor thing down, rather than watch it slowly bleed to death.

The thought that "locals" are the answer has always been an interesting one. The catchment area for LB is massive, that's why it's not the easiest thing to promote.
Not sure where RL is dying comes from though, it might be in a lull but overall bums on seats for SL games have been worse. Championship probably not significantly changed in years.
As for numbers of folk playing the game reckon it's pretty stable not sure how it shows a dying sport

It's dying because there are almost two dozen clubs on a life support machine called central funding which in itself is reliant on SKY paying the same money or more in the new deal. Unlikely.

It's dying because participation in the heartlands is down year on year to the point where leagues like the hull junior league now has only a handful of teams and the senior league has 4 clubs. It once had two divisions of 12 with other senior sides playing in Yorkshire leagues.

It's dying because clubs embarrass themselves on a weekly basis with two bit social media output.

Crowds are down at many of those heartland clubs. And what are we doing? Ottawa, New York, Valencia. For goodness sake Valencia play a friendly in a few weeks and have not got a coach or any players. We agreed a kit deal with them which i had to terminate within a couple of weeks because it was a mess and won't get past the first hurdle. My mistake on that one. 80% of clubs are not paying their bills on time or at all. We are owed thousands across the league's, so are other kit suppliers and so are many other businesses. People are reluctant to touch the sport. Do you think ISC have walked away for a laugh? Do you think Toronto changing supplier every single season is a coincidence?

You tell me how Rugby League recovers from the above, especially when several of the money men are trying to get out without hurting their clubs.