I'm pleased your pleased, but slightly worried that you deliberately missed the point because it doesn't sit right with your opinion. Still, at least you can tell us all how infallible the refs are whilst the kids from Essex all get dragged off home straight after their game never to be seen at Trailfinders again or at least until next season when it happens again with no tangible business gain

Question: if we ran beer tents/festivals:

A. Can we do it, I.e. do trailfinders hold the drinks license and does that prevent anyone else selling drink?

B. If we did, who gets the money? Tralfinders or LB? Or is it split?

Does anyone know?

It’s an opinion! What’s the clubs aim? Bums on seats watching the game expanding the sport, ie get more people playing?
Yep it’s my view, but the more people involved in playing the game does a few things, it raises the profile of the game in the region, if the aim is just to get people through the turnstiles then fine go to the local schools. Get more kids playing in schools in local clubs get more folk involved in RL you will get more watching! It’s also where the players of the future come from.
So engage with the clubs! Engage with the schools especially those that play.
You wanting to turn it into a Refs thread

Ealing Trailfinders get a lot of kids in on a Sunday morning playing or training, both boys and girls. Whether they attend union games I do not know.

I think Trailfinders may have a beer tie, which would be a problem as far as bringing in craft brewers.

It is and you are entitled to it.

It is also deeply flawed in that we have done that and got a wardrobe full of T-shirts to prove it with NO TANGIBLE GAINS. I repeat, it is not the job of the London Broncos to get kids playing RL. It is on the other hand, the Job of the London Broncos to try and prepare for the day when DH isn't willing or able to prop us up.
The RL Volunteers involved in youth RL on this site and other RL boards will back me up here. The Broncos are of little interest to the Parents of the Kids who play RL........these Parents (in the majority) are happy to ferry their kids to games down the road, but across London is a non starter.
As a Club we have run countless London Youth Events prior to games and the vast majority of these kids are nowhere to be seen by the time the SL game KO'd.......your "opinion" would have us repeating this exercise and expecting a different outcome.

I'll say it again, just one more time for you. It is not the job of the London Broncos to get kids playing RL. If the RFL want London to assist, then they can pay us to do their job for them, but the priority for the club must be to search for self sufficiency and to do that, they need to stay very local to the Ealing Community and put down some real roots.

As I say, you're entitled to your opinion and no doubt you'll continue to argue for it, even though I've shown you, through use of previous events delivering nothing as well as Identifying that it's the RFL's job to get kids playing and not the clubs, that it is wrong.

It's worth exploring. If there is a contract in place, then it would be foolish of the supplier to turn down a request for 3 events, as it would certainly jeapordise any future agreements and as far as I can see the venue is a popular place.

Maybe the supplier could be persuaded to organise the beer festival themselves, taking a cut of the visitors takings?

What is assured is that if we don't offer something other than the game, we will struggle to catch the attention of the borough and therefore struggle to attract crowds.

Can’t agree! It is the job of clubs to get kids playing. It’s called youth development! Without it there is no future in the sport.
For clubs to succeed they need to nurture development from the bottom, that’s as much to do with the clubs as it is the governing body of the game.
One question, long term, will the club still be at Ealing? Thoughts

Nope. It is the job of the RFL. A job they jettisoned a few years back and as a result they now receive vastly reduced funding from Sport England. I terms of development of the next generation of players, the club runs under age teams, but the attraction of younger kids is down to the amateur clubs and the RFL.



Nobody knows, but I can assure you that if we hadn't changed our name and if we hadn't then left the Stoop, both measures designed to cover the ineptitude of one administrator and the owner BTW, then we'd have stood a better chance of staying up in 2014 and we'd still have a 3k average as opposed to a 900 one.
If the temporary Stand goes up and we stay up, then I can see the powers that be looking into expanding the ground to a 5k all seater........if they can get permission past the NIMBY's. Personally if Hughes bankrolls a £3,000,000, 3,250 seat stand opposite the current main stand, I'd be happy for it be named after him given the investment he's laid out over the years. Such an investment should include the conduit that we remain at the stadium rent free and only responsible for our match day costs for 25 years.....
......if on the other hand the NIMBY's win the day, then if we have designs on remaining in SL, we will need to move again.....all of which would be totally unnecessary if he hadn't employed the Zimbabwe Fielding Expert

If you have a limited budget and skeleton staff - which undoubtedly is true of the Broncos - then you have to prioritise your involvement. Getting kids playing RL is important, but that's a ten-year gain in terms of finding players, it won't do anything to help the club in the short term. For that we need more people coming through the gates, to raise income but also make us more attractive to sponsors (and maybe even investors). That has to be the priority for us.

Development work in Newham won't bring any extra people through the gates. Getting out and about in Ealing (as a start, then spreading to neighbouring boroughs as and when) does give us a chance of doing that.

Finding players and increasing the fan base are very different things. The focus on the local community including schools should be about building the fan base of the club. Of course, the club should also build relationships with existing RL clubs across the entire region to develop player pathways.

So dog!your own words that it’s quite possible we may have to move again! That’s the problem with focusing local! 2 years time we move to another borough in london what happens to all those locals.
The drop in funding from sport England was the cause of reduced development staff not the reason.
Buzza, we agree on something

Homme! Brough can quite often have an attitude issue which does effect his game, don’t think anyone can deny that, a move to you could be good for him.

It's called 5th down south

.if on the other hand the NIMBY's win the day, then if we have designs on remaining in SL, we will need to move again...
Dog you have gone to great lengths to say the nimbys will never permit planning permission.
Vallis way is a multi purpose sports club, Trailfinders RFU are tenants. There is no chance of buying that ground, as you say the nimbys would be even more opposed to that.
The point is, it highlights its London broncos not Ealing broncos. So cast the net wide rather than local! The days when we had bigger crowds say at the stoop, didn’t all come from twickenham! They came from a much wider area!