But it can be done, with some thought. Quins 13 does the job, similar but different.

Are attendances down on last year? I suppose one of the main problems is that RL in London has been plugging away at it for the past 20 odd years and the same arguments have come up again and again, and the same old ideas have been tried over and over.
What the team needs is marketing muscle, and serious money with which to buy advertising in the London papers, on the tube, etc. But of course, where does the money come from? The RFL's attitude seems to be create local talent and let the game put down roots. A long term solution, and if it is effective, I think we will only see the results from it in 20 odd years (although of course, local talent is representing the team right now and it doesnt seem to be swelling the supporter ranks).
What I don't understand is the attitude of some fellow RL fans who come on here and complain (or shout things such as ' ground, no fans' at matches). If you loved the game, you would want to see a successful team in London. Newsflash- the majority of people in the country don't know or care where sh*t holes like Castleford and St Helens are. The only way the game will grow and raise it's profile is through expansion.
I don't know if the RFL already do this, but a seriously large amount of money needs to pumped into promoting the international game and teams like Celtic and Harlequins. The profile of Union is continually soaring. Most union fans I meet are no where near as prejudiced and spiteful towards are code as I am of theres. High-profile cross code games are needed, as well as the poaching of Union talent (of course, whilst there still young and inexpensive, e.g Brian Carney).
Well, my thoughts anyhow.

Yes the crwod was terrible but 5,000 and something for Cas v Wire was pathetic as well.

Somehow I doubt the name has any impact on the crowd size.

Correct. Laughable suggestion.

The Quins brand is a failure. No, really

Here comes the brains of the outfit!!

We didn't go yesterday - voting with the feet at the online booking sham and failure of quins rl to reply to my email about difficulties with the online booking.

Will be there for the Rhinos game, but I'll be booking my tickets from the Rhinos (only cost £1.50 online booking fee plus ticket cost and they respond to queries!) - not my first choice as would have preferred to sit in AC (so Mrs ER isn't too far from her fellow Quins supporters).

How many more games we'll bother with this season I'm not sure.
It's a real shame, because the product is good and the Stoop is a good ground in which to watch RL. The online booking system is good too - when it works.

The club need to sort quickly the basics of enabling people to part with money to watch a quality product.

How can that possibly be right that can book at ticket for a HOME game cheaper with the away team

Its just gets sillier

IL pumped 600K of his own cash into the club this year under an existing agreement (which was for the past two years). He should no longer be the major share holder by the end of the season (before anyone says DH is the major shareholder he is Chairman, the two are not mutually inclusive IL still has 60% of the shares).

Unless of course things have changed in the background.

Here is a thought why don't a few fans bang their heads together like with this banner and do their own little marketing thing in their own time.

Fans shouldn't have to i know but what about a few getting together round strategic points round London
Oxford st, Piccadilly, Victoria, Shepherds bush, Earls court and promoting it.

Some flyer's, some enthusiasm, some team spirit and i agree that the Harlequins name should never have been adopted.

My understanding is that Ian Lenegen still has his 60% shareholding in Quins RL, but under the agreement with the RFL to buy Wigan Warriors he has to "dispose" of his Quins shareholding by end of October 2009.

You've said it yourself, there is no reason why fans should have to do such a thing. The people working at the club are a joke and a complete embarrassment and are slowly killing us.

And its a load of rubbish that we should never have adopted the most recognisable brand in world rugby. We just aren't using it right. The Broncos were more anonymous - people thought they were are a basketball or american football team.

Agreed, and this is something I am angry about. The two friends I brought to the Wakefield match on the pair of free tickets loved the experience and wanted to come to the Celtic & Leeds matches on the discounted ticket offer. They never received any further information from the club despite being told that the club would contact them with information on how to get their discounted tickets for yesterday's game.

I am emailing the club about this and several other fiascos. Any response I get I'll reproduce on here.

Why even suggest something that will clearly never happen?

Union despise us with a passion so why would they help us ?

And like i said fans shouldn't have to market the game but surely a little help wouldn't go a miss.
It does seem slightly hypocritical to slag the complete lack of marketing and at the same time saying sod it im doing nothing.
I try to sell this game to everyone i know down here, i've even paid for tickets so that they didn't have the "i have no money excuse"

Evidence please. I think you'll find you couldn't be more wrong with that comment.



Are you for real? So we can't have a go at the people paid to do a job, and we should be volunteering and it doing it outselves (because they are clueless) for free?

Yup.
That should get the support rolling in

Why are you attacking me.
Ok let's critise the board because they are rubbish but we can still help out.
So your idea is sit on your computer and slate the board on RLFans and send them some nice emails too, even go to the meetings and tell them in person how bad they are YET at the same do nothing yourself and then watch the club go under. You can then say well it wasn't my fault im just a fan ?
The board have the biggest responsibility this i accept but the fans/supporters should always do their part. Or is it just easier to critise and do nothing and blame others and [ilaugh[/i at those that might offer an alternate view because again that's the easy thing to do.
I apologise in advance for my seemingly tiny intellect compared to yours 'the mighty lister'

You came on branding anyone that complains a hypocrite



Again, I ask the quesiton, why should the supporters of a multimillion pound business have to do their jobs for them? You think Leeds supporters hand out flyers in the city centre? Or maybe Wigan RL supporters give discountened tickets to Latics fans?

You are clueless.

Oh, and wheres your evidence to support your claim that Union "despise us with a passion"?

So how many chips do you need to balance the other shoulder?

I was at the game yesterday with 3 other Quins RU season ticket holders, and I recognised at least a dozen others, as well as a few people wearing union shirts.

I've been to every home match this season, but perhaps I should stop so you can wallow in your self pity.

I think you'll find that the majority of union supporters have no particular feelings about RL - the same as RL supporters feel about union.

What does alienate people is stupid comments such as that made above.

I wonder if anyone has the attendance records for the period of Richards Branson’s time owning the Club. We had a great team with rugby legends such as Offiah and Edwards, but ultimately we had a team that was fantastically marketed across the capital.

The main thing I remember from that period apart from the great games and atmosphere was the marketing of the game that Branson achieved, if you were out and about in London you new that London had a rugby league team as it was in papers such as the Standard, on bill boards at train stations, there used to be free tickets given out and when at the Stoop the first time round the people of Twickenham new that there was a rugby league team playing every other week.

I know it is probably unrealistic to hope that Branson will come back, but we ultimately need an injection of cash that will go specifically into marketing the game and team throughout the London area. I'm sure Branson and his team spent a lot of money marketing the team and that will have to be done again if we are to get an increase in our average attendances.

There are plenty on here too that have season tickets at both. I would go as far as saying a lot of RU supporters have a huge amount of respect for RL, more than any other sport.

Indeed. Although, GF's suggestions before have proved that you don't need huge amounts of money to get bums on seats.

They write it down all the time in the same way the government work for the people because they tell us they do.
Union would love it if our game was dead because then all the people who would want to play rugby would have one option.
It's the same as people in your line of work would love to see their competitors dead and buried.

What's wrong with helping out ?
Whats clueless about that?
Football as a whole is marketed better than rugby so using a football comparison is a weak argument.

So keep laughing Lister you smug old goat, you're no better than a flatcapper and if the quins go down i'll still have my team Warrington.
I want Quins to do well, i want them to be a big success i want to go down to the stoop or griffin park or anywhere in London to watch them because i enjoy the game but if they go im sorry but it wouldn't be the biggest event of my life.
What makes you such an expert?

You haven't got a name. Your avatar, Quins RL, AFAIK, was dropped. 'Harlequins Rugby League' was its replacement. This is so long that it is totally unusable, so it didn't get used by the press. 'Quins' did instead. Except Quins is well known to be the name of an existing rugby team. And so we have a sports team without a name of its own. And I am still scratching my head as to why so many interested and thoughtful posters can't see the issue here.

It's not the only problem but it is a big problem and it needs sorting.