I give them 2-3 seasons at most before they wind down... PL is too expensive to run a PT outfit, unless Wimbledon actually buy the franchise.

What would people prefer. A full time team with no academy. Or a part time team with an academy.
The club will be getting no money from the RFL to support the academy. Its share of the TV monies will be 10% of what we previously received.
This is a problem for all clubs.

Yes, many of us have worried about this announcement, few have a bottomless pocket, just trust we have a good plan, as no fans with everything that is offered in London, will follow a team that may not ve able to compete. Never liked Trailfinders, shocked that teams did not complain about how bad the surface was.

Wimbledon seemed a complete new beginning (again) but I will not travel 500 miles for home games for a team unable to compete. It sums up Rugby League in General. The new Wigan Athletic owner wanting higher rent from The Warriors, painting the ground blue and white? what club is not struggling, every Super League club will want more from Central Funding, which will leave not much for Championship Clubs, and Division One clubs, what can be spared for them?

Academy has been a huge success, but more for Super League Clubs in the North than our club, how many transfer fees have we received?

A sad day for Rugby League in London, it's been a good journey since as a teenager covering the first Fulham game, falling in love with the club, when Saints & Wire would have been a 15 minute drive away. We can only wait and see.

From the Beeb London Broncos to go part time from 2022 in preparation for reduced funding - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/58475912

From the Beeb London Broncos to go part time from 2022 in preparation for reduced funding - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/58475912

Super League & The RFL need to look seriously, that clubs working hard producing Academy players, any Super League club signing a player home produced from lower league clubs, Must pay that club a serious signing on fee, not Mickey Mouse money.

The move to Wimbledon is interesting in its timing, assuming it does not all fall apart.
We can hope maybe next season is going to be used as a reset period looking towards whatever re structure happens in 23.
In reality if the 10 and 10 rumour is true then earliest possible return to top flight is 24 season. So sort of makes sense to do what we are doing

It would not surprise me if over the next few years even the Super League clubs were to go part time.
Remember that the new TV deal is only for two years and the one that follows that, could easily be worth significantly less.
If gate receipts across the sport continue to decline even the mighty SL clubs like Wigan and St Helens might have to cut their coats to suit their cloth and go part time.

I beg to differ there is a competitive team in London called Skolars and a lot of Broncos fans go there instead of to LB due to the mismanagement of the back office.

Someone had their head up their backside when deciding Plough Lane was a good place to move to instead of staying at Trailfinders or Richmond and putting money into development. DO they really expect people to spend so much money to go to watch an academy team.
Wonder how much a ticket at PL will be. The other part of the idiocy is they still move there when a lot of the few remaining fans say it wont be possible for them to get there. All the marketing in the world (I know that would be alien to LB) will not put bums on seats of a barely out of academy PT team being trounced each week. Poor lads they will have their spirits broken doing that to them - cruel

A lot of people say good things about Skolars but I’m not sure they are that competitive unfortunately. I hope they become so.

Their results P17 W3 L13 D1 suggests they are competitive for the bottom but not much else sadly.

Championship Clubs & Division 1 clubs will share £2 million, down from £4 million.

Don't know why some of the usual apologists on here are discussing promotion 2024.....I told you all this was going to happen.......there is no coming back from this.
100 fans left....if that. Part time squad and an academy that has managed to win a couple of games between spankings.....what is the plan? What were the chosen disciples told in that consultation?
Hughes has destroyed the club and he should hang his head in shame. I'm more annoyed that I'm not able to tell him that to his face......any begrudging respect I had for him is gone. He never had a plan. Because he didn't understand why people didn't flock to games he steadfastly refused to spend any money on marketing and the result is that there's nothing to attract any new investment....no fans, no audience, poor standard of academy players, poor standard of first team squad and a dodgy relationship with the games governing body.....it's a husk if what once was a massive opportunity.
To the apologists. Enjoy plough lane.....I give it 24 months.
To the architects of this......I genuinely hope your record if failure follows you on your CV when looking for work once you get canned....you've done this with an arrogance and disregard for the important people....the fans.

I'll burst your bubble now.

There are 100 fans at best who will form a core at PL.

This number was about 3,000 20 years ago when th club decided to move to Brentford. When at Brentford, they advertised in Metro, bus stops and blanket leafletting of the neighbourhood. I believe Chris Warren spent £35,000 on marketing in 2004....we left Brentford a few years and 2 superleague play offs later with 30% more regulars....

We are moving across town with a part time side playing in the 2nd tier of Rugby League. Wimbledon will make all the right noises, because they want us to service their debt, but other than asking their own fans to pay to watch us, there's little they'll be able to do. Recent studies have shown youngsters are less interested in soccer now than at any stage......it's a Natural evolution and dilution as entertainment options widen.... Wimbledon will struggle to fill plough lane......London Broncos will average 150 at best if they have the success we had at Brentford. And remember, we moved to Brentford a few years after the CC final, in SL with large travelling fan bases.....Whitehaven bring their away fans onnth back of a scooter....we were competitive in games.....Featherstone rovers reserves will stick 50+ on us this week.

The only marketing strategy I can see working here is that if a new product launch which would require an eye watering amount of spends and a huge amount of risk.

I cant see any marketing strategy working when we are getting our backsides handed to us week in week out, playing a bunch of kids.

You are not going to attract new fans watching a rubbish side.

I agree the chances of it working are small. It would need time, money and talent to pull it off. I'm not sure Broncos have any of those three in their favour. However, a bad plan would mean certain death. A good plan may just work, even if it's massively odds against. On a truly awful day for London RL I thought the fact the penny may finally have dropped was worth flagging. It's a shame it's almost certainly too late.

Sadly when we do disappear, countless fans of other clubs will crow "bound to happen, no one in London ever had any interest in rugby league."

I was once naive enough to think that a successful London side would transform the perception of the sport in this country. Well, that ship has well and truly sailed. Sailed and then sunk.

Best way to sum up why we are at this juncture is actually the WCC warm up games.

2009. Manly. RFL marketed the game and we got 6,000.
2010 we were again give the warm up game v the storm, but no marketing from the RFL, we didn't bother even trying and we got 3,500

It was simple bloody maths.....an extra £50k on the gate +whatever in the bars and food concessions because of a heap of PR and Promotional work undertaken by the RFL in London prior to the Manly match..

Has anyone received an e-mail from the club about this? I haven't and am wondering whether I'm now on some don't bother e-mailing them list or whether the club really don't feel the need to inform someone who has held around twenty season tickets - albeit not this season for health reasons.

Email from the club?
Oh you are funny!

Typical on Twitter yesterday, some Loud Mouth! sent me a message, you never attracted more than 100!! when I looked at his information LFC Fan and Saints, the team who has been attracting 7,000 to 8,000 this season! the new stadium St Helens Council pulled out all the stops for them ££££, population now of the area is 170,000, council spending council tax money for 7,000 lol, it sums up RL, yes some people in lockdown have found better things to do, but no one at the RFL will pull their finger out!

It was good in the Catalan game Saints owner, the man with his personal offices at the ground lol, jumped up and down with one of the late conversion attempts, while no one around him in the stand did! Would love to have found a photo o this and titled it ;Should have Gone to Specsavers' lol

People keep talking about 2024. In 2022 and 2023 we have to pay 200K rent just for PL... Not sure how much for Richmond. And we have very little central funding. Just how much money do you think we have to spend on the squad (acadamy). I don't see any noises from Wimbledon regarding the cost of the rent, (and why should they reduce it).... But no matter what the ticket price and marketing, people are not going to flock to see kids get beat by 50 week on week on week.

Would be interesting if we draw WWR in the cup next year. Could be their first ever win

I wonder what onnth gate price will be demanded to watch part time players next year. This year started at £25.00 IIRC.....what will the accountant lobster and commercial monkey think the imaginary hoards of new fans will pay to watch egg chasers get walloped by a team from a pit village they've never heard of?
How much do Skolars charge?

Think this year s/t was £100 with Conc at £80. No idea re kids. Match tickets £15 I think but sure there are those that know better than me.

900 was the average in 2018 in the championship....we won it and went up. 2022 will see us struggle to stay up....BUT....let's say we get 1,000 back, how.much will they be expected to pay to watch part timers?

I imagine prices will be same as this year. It will be impossible to justify raising them.