It's a sin to support more than one sport? If the club had 10k football fans as secondary fans, 10k RU fans as secondary fans, 10k cricket fans, 10k hockey fans....should I go on?

If these fans came to 4 home games per season....see where I'm going?
What an incredibly narrow minded view.

I've supported soccer in the north, AFL in Sydney, cricket in the carribean, NFL in New York, Kabaddi in Mumbai, darts at Frimley.....please

RL is a summer sport, where are the conflicts?

And didn't you try to get a CEO thread going before...?

Hockey is in the right demographic for Rugby support.
Amazingly hockey is one of the top 5 PARTICIPATION sports in the UK every weekend.

West London has the highest %age of players in the right demographic.
Sunbury/Teddington/Surbiton/Chiswick/PHC Chiswick/Richmond/Spencer/Barnes/Hounslow/Ealing/Raynes Park/Wimbledon each have +20 teams - thats 2860 people doing NOTHING in the summer months.

If people like Storming Bronco wont even entertain the fact that these people could to the weekly attendance figure, then maybe thats the problem.

I will openly admit that Hockey is my No1 sport and i play it and love it.
But RL is my spectator sport, and im not alone in hockey players watching RL.

Dont ostracise us - we may be a lifeline!

I can't remember if it was Bradford, Sarries or Warrington....but didn't that genius of the sports marketing world, Peter Deakin (RIP) once have his pro rugby club sponsoring the local cricket club....?
It's a complicated world of synergies we live in! A world of abundance in choice, supposedly without the prejudices of yesteryear. Reach out QuinsRL, reach out.

Today this could be....the greatest.... blah.
hic.

EFH I understand where you are coming from linking sports and the players, sadly though Hockey is middle England sport akin to Golf, cricket and RU.

We have a reputation rightly or wrongly of being a northern working class sport. Maybe we have to change that perception some way.

WIRE

Wrong wrong wrong!
Hockey may be perceived as having that background - but in West London, you have a lot of Saffas/Kiwis/Aussies, mingled in with ordinary state school boys like myself, to OxBridge grads.

I played hockey for Richmond at Dukes Meadows on Chiswick Bridge, 1 evening we wanted to go out on the but didnt want to start at 3pm..............so...........we said we'd go watch a Quins RL game.
Some guys from the 2nd team decided to come along, then some ladies from the 1s, then housemates.

next thing we know, we're a group of 50+ HOCKEY players drinking at a slow(ish) pace whilst watching some RL.

Match over, train to Richmond, on the smash.

People loved it - some of us have even been back!

Interestingly I have a friend who is leaving the Army in the next few months and he is a hockey player. We were discussing options for future employment/networking when we got onto just this subject-Hockey/middle England etc and he agreed that the "type" of people who played the sport were just that. Paddock dont take offence!!

Its also intersting you mention Aussies etc, in the posts before the Manly game there were stats that suggested the Aussies that come to UK are "middle Australia" and likely to wear a Wallabies top.

Im not knocking this just questioning is this the right audience, do we need to change [iwhat we are as a sport [/ietc to make the link

EFH you mention in a earlier post you know why companies dont sponsor Quins RL- What is that reason? Im not into marketing but am just interested

Its all relative to the sector your in.

Its the perceived success and the benfits derived.

I'll list the Marketing Black Marks against Quins

Youre in Rugby League.
- You are detached from the main audience (M62 corridoor) which doesnt appeal.

- You have no local roots and fan base in an area of London, which means no immediate audeince

- Compared to the competition you dont get equivalent audiences, as a sponsor you wonder why you only get 5k when your competition get 15k.

- As a sponsor you want to be known in London (which isnt happening)

- As a London sponsor, could you get better coverage from another team (Wasps, Saracens, Brentford, Charlton,etc etc)

- You dont offer a commercially sound and succesful sporting platform to attribute a brand/company to. (Sky sponsoring British Cycling for example)

WIRE

With regards to your friend, maybe thats his circle of friends.

But im from Hull, went to a rough state school, went to Uni in Birmingham and couldnt be any further from your middle class RU fan.
Yes there are people in Hockey from that sector of society, but they are not the norm or the majority!

Porta-Cabin ref was to highlight the conditions the club were operating under. This is not a cottage industry, it is professional sport.
I have no idea why the club have never managed to hang on to marketing staff. I know they don't pay a lot, but still, it is a bit of a mystery. To have "grew crowds from 4k to 10k in 3 years" would look good on anyones CV.
As for damaging the club.....anything but. The club will launch a new scheme this year that I introduced them to. For this introduction, I would normally receive commission.....but I have declined the comms on this occassion. I sat with the RFL and discussed ways in which to promote the game. Taking no credit for the great turn out, but £500 a day is my going rate for consultancy which I would never dream of charging the club. Opinions regarding where things go wrong are just that, Opinions. As for casual visitors.....I think you overstate the importance of this site and this forum.
Negative PR.......GET FRIGGIN REAL. If we got some press coverage regarding this site it would be more coverage than the club normally get.
I happen to be in Sales and Marketing and as such, if I can help the club in any way, I will. If I was an accountant, I'd probably do their books for nothing.

Still no idea what the portacabins have to do with anything. It seems to me that the QuinsRU link up hasn't worked yet, so they may as well still be in the car park....
I suspect you probably do know why nobody has stayed in marketing - you're evidently bright and seems fairly obvious to me. 20% of your consultancy fee prob wouldn't be obtainable. And no matter how much you pretend it is, history suggests it isn't an easy task and that luck plays a major part - ask the team who put together the popular basketball side in Newcastle, but the same team, doing the same things, can't make the Falcons work....

I think it's great that you help out - but why not do so with humility and selflessness, or why bother?

I like your postings - they're witty and you clearly don't always take yourself too seriousy....however you sometimes let yourself down with personal invective.

Incidentally, PR doesn't have to involve media - it's the management of the flow of information between an organisation and its publics. So it can be quite subtle. And I work in it. And get very well paid to do so - though you won't find me crassly quoting figures.

And although this board isn't mega-populated, it does partly contribute to the publics perception of the club. All these things add up and if I were a new fan looking to support, I'd think twice given some of the things that are said!

and were influenced by the postings on an Internet website, then they need to have a very serious long look at themselves and grow some testicles. On that basis Wigan currently would have a supporter base of around 100 people and at various times during the season so would the other SL clubs...............I truly think that anybody who inhabits a sports forum on the Internet with opinions given by fans, will know roughly what to expect.

I am in SALES & Marketing. Sad to say that nice guys come last in most areas of my business. There are Gurus in marketing and advertising like Martin Sorrell who are Knighted and praised, but very few (if any) Sales Gurus who have been to the palace. It is my job to be borderline arrogant....and yes, sometimes I am a little OTT, but that's why I am so frigging good at my job


It is not my job to make friends and influence people, I am here to make money...and that is what I do. PR people are really clever (I used to sell to them

) and what they do would bore me to tears. They are in the friends and influence business, I am not.

Fair enough, perhaps a little OTT but it's part of the bigger picture, it all contributes to the perception of the sport in the region. The likelihood is, that if it's being pedalled on here, it's being pedalled verbally across London RL. And a lot of it isn't constructive. And some of it is invective. I thought this forum was anti-personal insults. Yet insults and comments can be made about people in certain positions at the club? It's ok to point out a person in a position as long as you don't use their name? Where's the moderation?

Incidentally - I lost a ball in 1999 in a rugby accident and I take that personally....



I suspect that if things continue as they are, the Pies will undergo a Bradford-esque fall from grace and will indeed be down to 100 by August.

B0LL0X....is someone is employed to do a job and they don't do it (allegedly) then they are fair game. (this of course does not apply to bankers)
The only person I think you could be referring to has a thankless task and not one I envy them, but the fact of the matter is, IT IS THAT PERSONS JOB! If we had sold 210 boxes last year, I would be the first to applaud them. I have always applauded the club and the staff when something is done well, but I will be bu99ered if I will sit back and be quiet when we sold 1 box last season and the then Boss smiled at me when he said it.
If you think I am a bit brash, then fine, but information in the public domain is just that. I have broken no law or the AUP and I will continue to lavish praise and scorn as I see fit.
If it upsets you, avoid my posts.
HTH

:1e8dtwir

Fair[i:1e8dtwirish[/i to my perception recently there has been nothing but praise given to those few staff members who appear to punch way above their weight within the club.

The perception given out that the club can be rather laissez faire about their own structure and organisation not to mention the PR that is not generated, would, in my 'umble opinion, put off more of your floating possible punters, than any drivel written by fans, for fans, on any sports BB.

By definition of still breathing you break my own personal AUP

and the laws of Physics, Biology and Chemistry

spot on, but like heroin, this topic is very morish - once you pop you just can't stop (until someone at the club trys to action some of the ideas for once of course, then we can all calm down a bit..)

I employ hundreds of sales people. The harsh reality in the game I'm in is that if individuals can't sell your thing then there's only a couple of things you can do, either (1) they're the issue, so either train them or replace them (and do one or the other fast), or (2) the product/service is the issue so change that, or after a while stop trying to sell it and look for another way of making money instead. The apparent option (3), ie just carry on banging your head against a brick wall, is not a real option it is just disguised procrastination, so I'm not sure why it seems to be the one taken by Quins - and GF has every right to flag it up, harsh as it seems

Not so. The world has changed, google happened, it's about time we took advantage of that - worth reading the excellent "What Would Google Do?" which was out recently. Small ripples can now create huge waves, you don't need the old school marcomms spend to get momentum - anyone who says you do works for an agency. Jeff Jarvis (the author) nearly killed Dell's business with one blog post not so long ago (google that...), and the opposite is possible. If you're thinking Quins are small fry so this is all irrelevent, then read "The Long Tail" as well (get things right, and you can find more than enough people to sustain a business with a very small niche in a crowded market within a large population, which seems like the dictionary definition of Quins RL)

and I derive no pleasure from it

No, no, you have me soooooooo wrong. I love your postings. I just have an opinion too, which I've aired, without prejudice.

I too was once (10 years) in Sales and Marketing until I sold my small business for a tidy sum. PR is, in essence, selling, subtly, without closing - and I do it now to avoid the stress. Go for your life - be as brash as you like and as often as you like, as long as you don't mind me commenting, public domain and all that?



And what's all this obsession with genitalia, testicles, bollox, bu99ered.....come now, moderate!



HTH too

:1u81mkbk

Simple: 99.9% of all posts on all sports internet forums by fans are total male genitalia and we know it

Firstly, well done for having the [icojones [/ifor going out on your own. I had the [iballs [/ito do it a while back and have never looked back. Secondly, [ibig chocolate salty ones [/i(see south park) are a precondition of getting into sales. I moved from being a publican to sales and my [inuts[/i where sometimes in my mouth waiting for those early deals. My [isweetbreads[/i where sometimes on the line, but I always managed to deliver and as such, I have managed to be considered the [imutts nuts [/iwhen it comes to sales.
Although I do sometimes talk utter [ib0ll0x[/i, some of my ideas are considered [ijewels[/i by my [ibest friends[/i.
I have no idea where you think I have a pre-occupation with male genetalia though

www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.c ... ns_shirts/

www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.c ... ns_shirts/