It isn't the league we play in or the ground we play at that makes the club viable.

Attracting more fans is what makes the club viable and this is an area the club has rarely shown an interest in.

I like the ambition to move to a SL ground but it should have been planned for next season or progressed much further during 2020.

When the move happens lets see how interested the club is in making itself viable long term. I expect the home support will likely drop as it has after every other move because the club never put the investment into building the fan base in the new location.

Jbuzza I don't really disagree with your sentiment, I would say with the cut to central funding. I don't think any professional champ club is viable long term.
I do personal think with the crowds we have had since moving to Ealing.
We're we played great rugby singed a few biggish names.
Jamie soward wes naiqama. I know not stars but NRL players some fans would have heard of.
Played big games on sky and played well Vs Leeds and Warrington.
Got promoted! are attendances were still awful.
I'd say the run we had a Ealing that was some great marketing in its shelf if you watch RL.

So I suppose what trying to say sorry if I am rambling.

Marketings is important I struggle to see what marketing can be done to bring in many more fans.
If we gotta jump through some hoops to secure a chance at more permanent home it's hopefully worth it.

Lots of assumptions made! There were rumours a long time back even abiut a move to wimbledon! So how do any of us know what the club were negotiating! So no am not missing the point at all. Had the second wave of covid not hapoened wimbledon would likely be all wrapped up.
Nobody is denying the situation is poop
As for the club not being viable if not in super league! Not as if we were pulling massive crowds in when we were SL

In the course of 5 years at Ealing our entire marketing campaign consisted of: one poster outside a church near the Broadway, which went up with only a couple of games left in our first season, a leaflet drop outside Ealing and Richmond (!) train stations, a leaflet drop for the Super 8s which went out after our first game had been played, and asking the players to go for coffee in Ealing wearing their training kit. I lived in Acton/Ealing for 40 years, until leaving 18 months ago, and it's a plain fact that no-one there knew we existed let alone played in the borough.

Let's be honest here, we haven't done this stuff properly for the entirety of David Hughes' ownership, and certainly not since the hardworking Chris Warren left. If I may quote the most prominent western philosophers of late 20th Century society, The Simpsons, "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas".

Its back to the d8scussion of where is the expected fan base. Personally in m mind it never has and never will be the local populace where we play, so local advertising leaflet drops around the ground pretty pointless. Its a london club not an ealing club.
Marketting if there was any needed spreading further afield, and then you are into how and how much.

Regarding the clubs fan base. It has to be said that it has certainly been widespread.
I do a round trip of 120 miles and I know others travel a lot further.
For the club to grow its fan base it must engage with the local area. It will need a lot of effort, but it can be done.
If the move to Wimbledon is to happen, then the planning needs to start now.

I agree, given the nature of the sport and the club's history we have drawn support across a wide area. However, if you are looking to grow your fan base then the local community is clearly one area to target. Since these are possibly not going to people familiar to the sport it would also make sense to think more broadly about the match day experience so you can give people more reasons to come back.

yep firt time at the stoop they did meet the players, this was in the bar before the game and players who were not playing signed autographs, kids face painting and activities, cowgirls, half time entertainment like Heather Small, blues brothers tribute and many other class acts, competitions and a great social time after a game, So much more than just a game and felt fantastic value for money and a massive indicator to the difference between football and Rugby

I imagine the club think that if we start playing at PL, Wimbledon fans will just turn up in their hundreds or even thousands. I cant see it myself. I think a few may have a look, but if the team do not perform, lets face it your not going to come back are you (which I why I thought we may have improved the squad a bit). My own view, we need a proper marketing campaign built around spreading the word that the club exists. Sitting with fingers crossed will not work

I really really hope I am wrong, but I will be extremely surprised if apart from the first game at PL (which probably will have a couple of hundred more owing to novelty factor) we get over 600 fans watching. Especially if by then the team is struggling and has injuries so we are mid table and not top 3.

our home games in late June / July are Swindon, York then Widnes, none of which are extremely eye catching as the first game at PL if it goes through.

However 8th Aug we have Toulouse, properly marketed (aim it at the french in London, after all London is the 4th french city if you count french nationals, make it an Eng V Fra RL match up, really big Toulouse up (market them as the Barcelona of Rugby League), really get the mystique flowing for the game, and really try and attract the Neutrals that way.

If you look at the best ad's they are about brand not about actual product.. How many Apple / John Lewis ads etc actually show product instead they market an experience..... Make London v Toulouse the first game at PL, and then market it as a England v France / Britain vs rest of world type occasion, get people waving little england flags etc.

We need the first game at PL to be a bang, and that means getting none RL people in for that game and hoping they like what they see, so they will stick around for teams like Oldham, Whitehaven, Fev which have no appeal at all to those not familiar to RL.

At Perpignan, Catalan make the game day an experience. Okay they have the weather and their culture is different to ours.
I do think that that has to be the way that the club should go to increase attendance. It may well not be an instant success and it may have to evolve, but I am sure it will work.

The success of The World Challenge Games at The Stoop, was much down to the link we made with Capital Radio! Very few clubs invest, St Helens at one time had posters for every match all around The Town and in shop windows, now nothing, they average around 9,5 except Wigan match. You have to invest, the Wimbledon FC programme two home games before ours! Local free newspaper with a completion to win family tickets for 4, do a promotion with the best local radio station, get them involved with pre match entertainment!

You only get out, how much you put in!

Jaybs you are right, you only get out what you put in.
A sign outside the church and a couple of posters on the back of a bus is not really enough.

Loads of good ideas on here of how to swell the fan base for Wimbledon. Make it family friendly with things for the kids to look forward to. If the kids have a great time parents are happy and those same kids tell their friends all about it and then hopefully they will badger their parents to take them along as well. Make it known around the area, love the ideas for Toulouse game, again get the media involved with competitions for family tickets or group of friends tickets that's how we discovered LB 25 years ago. Have a monthly raffle where the prize is points towards either next seasons season ticket or towards the cost of a game ticket. Doesn't really cost the club much money in fact if advertised properly it wont cost anything as they will make more than they spend but brings in the funds. The club need to be proactive rather than reactive and dont shout down fans when they dont hold your thoughts for the future, listen and learn as some of those fans have been around RL a lot longer than any of the staff, some have 40 years plus watching RL We all see things in a different light and that can help the club if listened to

There are a lot of "ifs" in this but sounds reasonable to me.

When you consider how good the relationship between owners & fans were when Ron & Mo Snares then Gwen & Barry Warren were if you like a link between the two, it is hard to understand how it has become such a one ring circus.