There's been some interesting debate here. And it's an issue that's bothered me for a long time. As fans, we are nowhere near demanding enough. Because of the club's turbulent history, I think a lot of us got into a mind-set of "just be thankful we have a club to support at all" - which is a point I understand, but we have to look for more.

When you're an expansion club, there should be an atmosphere of dynamism and growth, and there was never enough of either with us. Compare us to the Catalans. It's a really stark contrast. Decision-making was, and still is, muddled, underperformance is not challenged, but we as fans don't pull them up on it.

I think you're spot on, Penguin.

It certainly does seem to be a Broncos thing.

I bet Gower thought we were a right load of saps for putting up with the rubbish efforts by his team.

Only time I can recall any concerted booing of our players by Broncos fans was in a match at Charlton. Can't remember opposition but the booing was directed at the performance of (you guessed it) Frank Napoli. It wasn't clear to me at the time whether the target was the hapless Napoli himself or John Monie for selecting him. And didn't Napoli then respond with a spectacular try? Or maybe not? ...

Like I saying booings not for me but sometimes it gets a reaction , remember the Warrington fans at the stoop a few years ago ? that seemed to be a turning point for them and although I'm only guessing it wouldn't surprise me if the hkr fans gave there team a volley at half time last week and look what happened there.

So if some of us set our shirts on fire the team will take the hint? And we'll start rocketing back up the table ?

Obviously thats taking it to extremes but surely you see the point ?

adrian cambriani used to get loads of stick....as did...sean hoare...napoli....harry beverley..ian van belle...im sure there are loads more !!!
in those days reg used to lay into them in changing rooms for half hour!!!

The money ran out, thats whats changed, once it became clear you can't really build an ersatz Grand Final Winner or top of the league team without losing money, the Branson's of this world got fed up of losing money and so buggered off, as did Lenaghan, Hughes will too!

You need to build from the bottom up, all those Broncos fans/believers/deluded-fools whatever, none seemed to grasp that the whole thing wasn't real, it was built on nothing. Even if we had of triumphed in 97 or lifted the Cup in 99, it would have made no difference to a club that had to be financially propped up and whose fanbase was full of fair-weather fans.

One bad season and the gates came tumbling down, as the crowds dwindled so did the best players and it became the inevitable unstoppable downhill spiral.

In 1994, when Brisbane hi-jacked the club, there were many who predicted exactly what has happened (ie right back where we were before), I thought 5 years, some said 10, some 15 and others said 20 (I was wrong it was twenty). But here we are, hurrah!!!

No one likes us....we don't care!

Well said Crusader Pete. People need to smell the coffee. DH money is a mirage which will one day evaporate. Then we will have to live on what we generate as any rational club should. All DH has done is create a Potemkin village RL club.

I have to disagree.

Firstly, running any sports club in the professional arena is rarely about making money. The losses incurred by our various owners over the 19 SL seasons wouldn't be enough to keep a premiership footballer happy for just 1 season. Then there's the manner in which this money was lost.
At no stage (since 2002 at least) has the club had a clear strategy to generate revenue, be that through fans or down a corporate route. Instead, the various owners have decided that a winning team is the solution and accordingly, all the eggs were placed in that basket, to the detriment of the "business" itself.
The attendances at any club that hopes to break even need to be 10,000. This figure has been declared by a number of chairmen and CEO's in SL and should be the minimum target for any club either in or aspiring to be in SL. It's not a mystery that the clubs who either make a profit or lose very little are the ones who average this figure. Even Hull FC, who have been pretty ordinary for a couple of years see the benefit of having that core supporter base.

As for those who predicted it would all end in tears after Brisbane came to the game, well done you. Problem is, the reason it's all ended in tears has nothing to do with Brisbane, nor Branson or even David Hughes. Brisbane had no concept of how minor a sport RL was in London, Branson thought all he had to do was put his name to it and it would work and Hughes has been led by his nose by a great number of freeloaders who took his cash and told him what he wanted to hear....they are culpable, but they are not the villains of this piece.
The main reason it's ended in tears is the lip service paid to the club by The RFL and SKY. The relationship between the RFL and SKY has, from day 1 always been about what sky wanted, when they wanted it and for as little as they wanted to pay. At no stage has the RFL ever "negotiated" as a business should, but instead hey have simply said thank you for the cash and circled their wagons to defend their position.
We were elevated at Sky's request, or that's what we are told, yet at no stage where we ever given extra resources to make sure we could put down roots and grow.

I don't disagree with your idea of building from the ground up by the way, but that will take 50+ years and there was an opportunity to short-cut that in London, if the RFL had had the gumption to demand a model similar to the NRL/FOX deal in Australia.
Brisbane, Nth Queensland and Melbourne were all at one stage owned by or propped up by the owners of the comp and it should have been the same with London and Paris in 1996. Failing that, once the club had started to wobble, the RFL and/or other SL clubs should have bought it, but the fear of annoying pit village club owners was too great.

As for the future? As I say, well done all those who predicted this back in 1994. I hope you're all happy supping soup from a flask at Chiswick Poly in a couple of years watching the Broncos v Hemmel Stags.......it'll be a good game, but it'll never be top flight. Not in this posters life time anyway!

Yawn!

Noone said we were happy GF, simply that we knew if the club wasn't financed in a way that ensured/insured we had a permanant base and a proper developement program, it would not work, we were right. The club has now been abandoned like a listing ship, only we the fans will ensure it doesn't shatter on the rocks and if that continuation is to be at a lower level, then so be it. We fully understand that the "fair-weather" fans will leave (99% of them have already done so).

I still go to games, I will go to my usual quota of half a dozen home games and an away game or two as I have done since Sept' 1991 (excluding the QRL period), I will buy my shirt and wear it with pride, yes pride, we are London RL, not SKY, not Soopah Leeeege or any bugger else!!!!!!!!

I remember the days at Charlton when the club said they needed 5000 average to break even (as an aside, that's probably the closest thing we ever had to a business plan). Of course we never got there, despite exceeding 4000 average for a couple of seasons.

I do recall sitting there just before kick off one week, looking at all the expensively hired in PA equipment and the Virgin Cola inflatables and thinking to myself "this can't last".