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| Under Hughes the club will only go backwards. How long will it take some people to realise this ?
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Quote: "All told I can’t make the case for PL over Ealing.'"
Agreed. I like Ealing as a venue and as a facility built with rugby foremost in mind and in a part of London with genuine rugby credentials, it more often than not felt conducive to a good atmosphere. Others may well know better than me, but it also felt as though we were a genuinely valued tenant. It also enabled us to have that 'one club' approach. I'd more often than not come down and watch the reserve/junior grade games beforehand and it was a nice little way of helping to bump the crowd numbers up a little. So much talk in RL currently about making games a day out and an event and we seem to have put ourselves in a facility at PL that while nice, isn't really conducive to any of that.
Although circumstances are obviously greatly changed since, it is interesting to look back on 'Mr London's' comments on Ealing from 2017, in the context of where we are at currently;
[i“It’s the one place we’ve settled,” Hughes says. “We can train on the artificial surface every day, and we’ve brought all our junior teams under one venue. I see no reason why we’d need to change again. The challenge for us now is to build a gate and a local fanbase. We’ve dined out on excuses whenever we’ve moved around the city. Now, London Broncos have a venue that works.”[/i
posting.php?mode=quote&f=27&p=19431293
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Quote: "All told I can’t make the case for PL over Ealing.'"
Agreed. I like Ealing as a venue and as a facility built with rugby foremost in mind and in a part of London with genuine rugby credentials, it more often than not felt conducive to a good atmosphere. Others may well know better than me, but it also felt as though we were a genuinely valued tenant. It also enabled us to have that 'one club' approach. I'd more often than not come down and watch the reserve/junior grade games beforehand and it was a nice little way of helping to bump the crowd numbers up a little. So much talk in RL currently about making games a day out and an event and we seem to have put ourselves in a facility at PL that while nice, isn't really conducive to any of that.
Although circumstances are obviously greatly changed since, it is interesting to look back on 'Mr London's' comments on Ealing from 2017, in the context of where we are at currently;
[i“It’s the one place we’ve settled,” Hughes says. “We can train on the artificial surface every day, and we’ve brought all our junior teams under one venue. I see no reason why we’d need to change again. The challenge for us now is to build a gate and a local fanbase. We’ve dined out on excuses whenever we’ve moved around the city. Now, London Broncos have a venue that works.”[/i
posting.php?mode=quote&f=27&p=19431293
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International Chairman | 5130 | |
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| Hughes talks about dining out on excuses but there's no such thing as a free lunch. He has never put the required effort and investment into building a crowd. He can only hold himself to account for slowly killing the club.
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Club Captain | 1032 | |
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Feb 2018 | 7 years | |
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| Quote: "PL is a nice new stadium with decent transport links. No one can say it doesn’t look the business but as you say a nice stadium 3/4 + empty can only look so good.
I can’t get a sense of whether the corporate is better but am willing to accept it is. How much interest there is in corporate and how much it is growing month on month is difficult to know. When the fan zone is open the food options for the general punter are slightly better, when not, they are identical to Ealing.
The one thing I do know is if we get to an average gate of 1500 -1750 whilst a mid table Championship side outside the heartlands and parachuted into an area with no residual buy in for RL then we will have done well. How that matches up to financial targets I don’t know but I do think the 5000 is pie in the sky. So if I’m right although a little tin pot Ealing is a better fit especially with the big new(ish) stand and scope to add some more seating. I do think despite the small crowd rattling around the ground The atmosphere at PL is decent now we are all in the east stand but the idea of inhabiting a ground where 3 sides are closed and the fourth side 1/3 full is a difficult sell and there is no suggestion that is likely to change anytime soon. We experimented with opening 2 sides against Widnes after. the flawed awareness raising campaign. We were truly (but completely predictably) dreadful and have never got anywhere near those crowd numbers again. I also wonder how easy is it for those from the North to drive down and park near PL (as opposed to Ealing). I suspect that is a popular method of getting to games in London historically that we may well have curtailed. All told I can’t make the case for PL over Ealing. We don’t even seem to be actively engaging with the community which I assume is more difficult now we only have access to players for a short while and have next to no back room staff. As for RP well it’s tinpot in the same way as Ealing was and the seating area was very very poor (borderline dangerous). Transport wise I suspect driving there may not be too bad but I’m unclear on parking options and the transport link, which is well situated, is a train which is more fiddly than a tube. I thought the atmosphere was decent. The club house was good although I didn’t have the patience to wait for the burger van to get its act together. On balance I prefer PL.
Any way we dress it up we are in some strife and our bungled re-launch run simultaneously with a shambolic move to PT meant we missed a chance to make a good 1st impression....and then there is the decamping to away games and Kent for weeks on end that really doesn’t make any sense and kills momentum. I suspect our average crowd numbers are probably what they were last year circa 750-950. All things considered that’s not bad but also not good enough to justify the expense.'"
To be honest I thought at first that Ealing's ground would have to work really hard to become as good as 'tinpot'!
But over time, and with the new stand built behind the other goal, it did improve greatly.
I know it would have needed a complete rebuilt on both sides to even have a hope of becoming top flight but we're in no way, shape or form likely to be an SL side any time soon - so I reckon we could have carried on there in the Championship. If nothing else we could have possibly have regular double headers with the academy and womens sides, and with the all weather pitch we wouldn't find ourselves being away from home for months, including two 'home' games in Kent ( which admittedly are easy for me to get to).
Ealing now is on the Liz line so a lot easier to get to from out East ( when it's running!).
Nothing wrong with PL, I do like the ground in terms of it's size but I don't think the move has done us too many favours to be honest.
First game of this season was good, result notwithstanding, with a crowd of 1500-1700 but crowds have dropped quickly to just a few hundred now. We could all fit in to 2 or 3 blocks of the East stand if the club doesn't want to pay for stewards to keep the whole stand open! - and if we have a cup run we're unable to play there because AFC's teams will want to use the ground, as owners there always going to get first dibs.
I don't see how having to go to RP for cup ties at short notice gives a good impression-although giving up home advantage would be even worse.
Overall I have to agree with your last sentence ' not bad but not good enough to justify the expense'.
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International Chairman | 5130 | |
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Quote: "Overall I have to agree with your last sentence ' not bad but not good enough to justify the expense'.'"
Hughes probably saw the move to PL as a easy way to tick off some IMG scoring criteria but he has failed to address other important areas which required work.
Unclear to me how the amended critera announced today might affect our scoring.
https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/revealed ... ria-72332/
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Quote: "Overall I have to agree with your last sentence ' not bad but not good enough to justify the expense'.'"
Hughes probably saw the move to PL as a easy way to tick off some IMG scoring criteria but he has failed to address other important areas which required work.
Unclear to me how the amended critera announced today might affect our scoring.
https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/revealed ... ria-72332/
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First Team Player | 1708 | No Team Selected |
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Mar 2021 | 4 years | |
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| Quote: "Hughes probably saw the move to PL as a easy way to tick off some IMG scoring criteria but he has failed to address other important areas which required work.
Unclear to me how the amended critera announced today might affect our scoring.
I may have mentioned this before, but simply put, 10,000 fans = a viable club. 130,000 fans is 2.6 million in income on the Gate and another 2.6 residual. Add in sky at 1.8 and sponsors at 500k and you've got 7.5 million in turn over.
As it is, we have little more than 200k on thr gate, 100k on residuals, 0 on sponsorship and SFA central funding.....so about 5% of where we could/should have been if Hughes had listened to the chorus of advice he was given in 2008.
If IMG offer Hughes anything, it should be to fetch his coat for him.
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International Board Member | 256 | |
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Jun 2003 | 22 years | |
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| Quote: " I suspect our average crowd numbers are probably what they were last year circa 750-950.'"
That was what we had at Copthall, pre Super League. It's a long time ago so I may be wrong. Back then, 950 would have been a good attendance. Again, I may be wrong. But, after a couple of seasons, I knew 95% of our supporters by sight.
Sadly, I think that may be our "natural" level. Unless someone can replace DH with a newer version of Barry Maranta.
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International Star | 1936 | No Team Selected |
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Dec 2010 | 14 years | |
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| Quote: "That was what we had at Copthall, pre Super League. It's a long time ago so I may be wrong. Back then, 950 would have been a good attendance. Again, I may be wrong. But, after a couple of seasons, I knew 95% of our supporters by sight.
Sadly, I think that may be our "natural" level. Unless someone can replace DH with a newer version of Barry Maranta.'"
Don't think you are far off the mark Benny. Used to enjoy Nigel's bus from Mill Hill East to the ground. Interesting to see how the Salary-cheats have changed the ground by spending money on it.
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| Quote: "That was what we had at Copthall, pre Super League. It's a long time ago so I may be wrong. Back then, 950 would have been a good attendance. Again, I may be wrong. But, after a couple of seasons, I knew 95% of our supporters by sight.
Sadly, I think that may be our "natural" level. Unless someone can replace DH with a newer version of Barry Maranta.'"
Not sure what you mean by 'natural' level because we have certainly had more fans in the past when we were a competitive SL side. If what you are saying is that Hughes has eroded the core fan base back to what it was pre SL era then you are probably correct.
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International Board Member | 256 | |
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| Quote: " If what you are saying is that Hughes has eroded the core fan base back to what it was pre SL era then you are probably correct.'"
Exactly this.
Thanks to Dave, we have the same sized fan base (but fans with a lot less optimism than back then).
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| Quote: "Don't think you are far off the mark Benny. Used to enjoy Nigel's bus from Mill Hill East to the ground. Interesting to see how the Salary-cheats have changed the ground by spending money on it.'"
I'd take salaraycens or dare I say Melbourne storms current predicaments over the carcass festering at wimbledon
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International Star | 1936 | No Team Selected |
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Dec 2010 | 14 years | |
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| Quote: "I'd take salaraycens or dare I say Melbourne storms current predicaments over the carcass festering at wimbledon'"
If the carcass continues to fester, suggest we flog it to a Tooting curry house.
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International Star | 681 | |
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| Dewsbury on Sun... Can we do it..... Win this and hopefully draw York/Newcastle in semi's.....
Also would be nice to get a game vs Pies or Leeds or Saints in 6th round of CC, not that PL would be available for it
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Academy Player | 234 | No Team Selected |
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| Quote: "Dewsbury on Sun... Can we do it..... Win this and hopefully draw York/Newcastle in semi's.....
Also would be nice to get a game vs Pies or Leeds or Saints in 6th round of CC, not that PL would be available for it'"
Hopefully the Doncaster experience focuses our preparation this week and we can put a good performance in. Looks like rain on Sunday, which might be a bit of an equaliser on a quick pitch and against an as yet unbeaten Rams, certainly sets up for a good contest.
Would be nice to have a decent SL away day next round and like you say, we would probably have to give up any home draw advantage anyway.
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Jul 2015 | 9 years | |
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| All the best today against Djowsbry. Make sure that it's the red rose of (Lancashire &icon_wink.gif England that triumphs on St George's Day!
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