Seconded. We are after all a London club arent we ?

How has a move to MK reared its head again?

The discussion was about a London RL stadium being the home of RL in London......not by any stretch of the imagination can you describe MK as London or Greater London.

Milton Keynes might be a location for an on-the-road game, but even that would be pointless IMO. London is pretty much "inside the M25".

Interestingly MK tried to persuade Hemel Stags to move there years ago. Red Bull are based there. There's a ready made shiny stadium. You can see why it crops up, but I think it would be a mistake to give up on London. Although I suspect our own stadium within the M25 is a pipe dream.

On-the-road gameshttp://maps.google.co.nz/maps?hl

should keep it in London IMO. Taking games to Brighton, MK, Gillingham or any other area outside the M25 would be pointless IMO.
A game at Orient, maybe Upton Park, maybe Fulham....

Unless The Stoop is unavailable for some reason (e.g. during the Olympics?) I don't see the point of on the road games at all. Only eleven proper home games instead of thirteen; I usually see 8 or 9 out of 13 and still buy a season ticket. Probably not worth renewing my season ticket now. I know we have a large catchment area and it'll be a nice bonus for anyone who ends up with a game on their doorstep, but for most of us it's just going to be more time and money getting to home games.

Can't see much point playing at grounds like MK (about twice the size of The Stoop) unless we can pull at least 15,000+.

8,700 was the average for the Dons last year....down from over 10k the previous 2 seasons. 15K would be a miracle.

The O-T-R games are a good idea in principle, but only if there's an opportunity to get the "LOCALS" to the stoop for more games.

Leyton Orient, for example. Offer their 4,500 (average attendance) fans tickets to the O-T-R game at a tenner, with a free ticket to a SUMMER game at the stoop included. I would also give a minimum of 2,000 free tickets to local schools as well as including the game on the ST for the Stoop. Do absolutely everything to fill the ground! (9,500)
Include suggested Journey routes to The Stoop from Leytonstone (overland/underground) as well as a theme for the day (the old beach parties were fun at Griffin Park) and opportunities to win decent prizes (Virgin Atlantic Flights/Holidays etc...). Get the contact details of these people, and email them an update and a reminder nearer the time. All of this takes a fair amount of planning and wouldn't be easy, but it would be worthwhile when compared to what would happen if it had been done this season......ie,

take game to far side of London....try to whip up local interest, get a crowd of 4,000-5,000 and never communicate with these people again!

makes sense to me. We all know MK to be a hotbed of rugby league.

I agree with gutterfax it makes me sense to take it to Leyton Orient or West Ham, but it has to have the full marketing package for the follow up, but this could be anyway part of the plan with the £250,000 being invested in the East Ham area with young people it makes sense and perhaps is a good sounding board for our eventual move in 3-4 years time.

Seeing it spelt out like this makes more sense, assuming this is what the club has in mind. Obviously the further away from London you go the less chance of getting people along to future matches at The Stoop. It's difficult to think of any other appropiate grounds to take a game to beyond Leyton Orient, i.e. reasonably modernised, decent social facilities (great supporters' club bar at Orient) and a sensible size.

For the same reason that the old Wimbledon FC board wanted to move there and they eventually became MK Dons. There is interest in sport in the new town, and with new generations being born their they will look to support their own town, rather than the likes of Tottenham, Watford, Reading, etc. It is this potential that drew Wimbledon there, and Northampton Saints have looked at playing at Stadium:MK more and have had over 21,000 there for a Heineken Cup match, so there does seem to be an interest in rugby, and rugby league is the more accessible and easy to understand code for new people to get into.

I can see why someone would consider the idea, but we are best concentrating on London and hopefully the club reach that conculsion as well.

Didn't mention significant departures though did he? Any more to come, I wonder?

Not many that could be announced, perhaps only Ellis.

Is there any real basis for thinking Ellis will leave, other than the fact we'll have Randall & Rinaldi, both of whom can play in his position but often play at scrum half too? I'm sure we had Randall & Rinaldi when we signed Ben Kaye a few years back.

And what a great signing he turned out to be

On the road -Brighton New stadium and Gillingham-Maybe