Every time you mention the fact that we had no players, didn't know we were going to exist or that we weren't told anything I am going to ask the same questions!
Who was to blame for that situation and how can we embrace this brave new dawn whilst this person is still at the club?

I know GF, I see where you're coming from. Am trying not to be so blinkered and trying to see the viewpoint from other people's point of view. However, the ownership is something we can't control. Have seen many campaigns from football clubs asking for such and such 'chairman out', eg;Man Utd, Southampton, Newcastle....but ultimately the Supporters get behind the team otherwise it kind of is cutting the nose to spite the face.

If things go well, and IF they do, who is to say a Dr.Koukash type investor will see the potential in London and then we start buying the Billy Slaters, Jarryd Haynes, Shauny Johnson's of the world (fat chance, ha, but you never know - money talks).

Tis a great location. With very good transport links. If a branch of Toshiba saw something they liked in a conference club what about investors looking into an SL/Championship team.

How much is it on the day? And where will we be situated? We're selling tickets for £23 for adults at the club shop!!! Yet you can buy them for £17 on the London website, just seems strange that we've been sent a batch of expensive tickets, which i can only presume are for decent seats at that price.

£17 is for the terracing North or South.£23 is for the stands I believe West or East I think.I believe the majority will be in the West Stand but not too sure. Anyone know?

We agree to differ. It's in a suburban desert 15 mins walk from a tube station.

I suspect that there are as many trains passing through Twickenham station every day as tube trains passing through cannons park every day. Twickenham is most definitely served by more bus routes than the new location.

Meliferra won't have a bad word said about AK and the Hive, RLLND won't have a negative word said about the "new dawn" and Bees Knees repeatedly says "no fans, no broncos".
Combine these 3 additions to the forum with the set of usual apologists such as PC Plum and Jaybs and you really do get the impression that this club is already dead in the water if this is indicative of the future laid out for us by Hughes and MacKay.

I wonder what positives this lot will come up with on Saturday evening at about 5pm....

I have no problem with you having a pop the Hive or TK. TK is no angel, the Hive has been described as souless and a bit like going to a leisure centre by a few home and away fans.

I'm sure some fans will have a longer journey and some shorter, can't really blame the Hive or the Stoop for that (I think you've amply targeted those that decided you should move already).

I really don't know about the stoop as I've never been but if I use internet directions for walking from Twickenham station to the Stoop it comes back as 14min, is there a quicker route than down the suburban road that is Craneford way?

The Hive is opposite Canons Park Tube, I mean directly opposite. Cross the road and you enter the grounds. Admittedly you then have a 5-10 min walk past football training pitches but distance wise to the turnstyles looks about the same to me.

It's not really a surprise that Bronco fans south of the Thames don't like the Hive as they now have to go into central London and then come back out. It's also no surprise that fans North of the Thames are happier with the journey. We've been over this on another thread.

I'm sure you can make plenty of arguments for against travel to the Stoop\Hive depending on where you live. Looking at it from a RL point of view I would be guessing that being within 10 min of the M1 motorway and 10 min of Wembley Stadium is a big plus for RL fans, but it is very sad that the fanbase built up based on the Twickenham location have been negatively affected.

I'm certainly not going to analyse trains\tubes\buses per minute to see which wins the most connected contest. Hive benefits from tube access via Jubilee and Northern lines (Edgware Station 20 min walk), Stoop benefits from Trains that travel from London heading Southwest.

Stoop is 15 min walk to a train station. You walk down zero residential streets to get to the Hive.

Twickenham is nice place with decent restuarants\pubs (miles better than whats around the Hive) but distance wise from Trains\Tubes you would be hard pressed to claim the Hive is further away from public transport than the Stoop.

If you do decide to come to the Hive then Edgware central has a fair number of restaurants etc or a couple of tube stops for Stanmore\Kingsbury\Wembley. Personally I'm happy with the food and drink available in the Hive bar.

I have been to the Hive twice, middle of North London suburbia with naff all in the area. Nice little ground though, shame it's not big enough for a proper rugby league pitch.

Then I'm surprised you highlight the walking distance from the tube?
The length of the pitch may change when the North stand is put in (due to be this summer). If this is to be a long term home for Broncos then it would make sense to do it as part of removing the terrace.

Have we taken bets yet on which member of The Hive staff meliferra is? I'm assuming it's not actually Tony Kleanthouse.

The conversation has moved on a bit but if it's still relevant I'll answer anyway;



1 - The lot. Primary, secondary, FE, HE, community club. All schools/FE delivery was to promote sign-up at local community clubs. Same sort of thing that goes on at every pro club community trust.
2 - Quite a few. Jamie O'Callaghan, Olsi Krasniqi, Mike McMeeken, Erjon Dollapi and a few others are all products of the West London development work. It's not 40k people who can or will ever play Super League though, so that's not a bad return. A 7-year-old in 2010 will still only be 11, so is unlikely to play this season. Likewise the girls, students, disability groups and standard amateur-club level kids won't ever get near a SL shirt. It's about getting people knowing about - and playing - the game. The performance pathway then got the right ones to SL level.
3. Again, quite a few. All the kids playing in West London & Surrey benefited from this work in some way. Even if they didn't directly have a schools session, love it and join the local club then the local club was assisted by, their coaches supported by, and in some cases clubs and teams administrated or coached by Broncos people.



It was burgeoning, now it's dwindling. Of the current W London clubs, Staines Titans, Richmond Warriors, Elmbridge Eagles, Guildford Giants were all heavily supported, and in some cases run, by the Broncos over the last few years. Most of their teams, if not entire clubs, would not have existed if it wasn't for Broncos development work.

I never have and never will be on the payroll of the Hive.

I do not want Barnet Fc playing at the Hive and I am heavily involved in the Back2Barnet campaign to get us out of there and back home asap.

While we are there I will make the best of it. My long term hope is that in 10 years time you and Wealdstone Fc are very happy together there.

Agreed.

In my experience, the DOs did practically everything in a junior club but largely not development, ie put in place a sustainable entity, run by others. It's not unique to SW London, once the DO funding dried up and the DO moved on, it wasn't a case of the junior club having a minor blip and then business as usual, it was more catastrophic.

It is interesting to read this TMF as iv'e always said how important the LB were to the development of the game down here not only for the interaction at local level but also as a pathway to a career but other posters (especially up North)don't buy it and say RL will continue to thrive even when the LB are no more. You seem to be confirming my worst fears.

Genuine question, why don't you just embrace the fact you have a very nice modern compact stadium with excellent facilities only a few miles away from the border of Barnet? It seems ridiculous that fans are unhappy, especially in a city like London where planning permission is v difficult and land prices are immense.

If you supported a provincial town club and they built an out of town stadium that would be ok so what's the difference? Ok it's a different borough but its your stadium, in your colours and only down the road. Id be grateful, especially looking at the stat of Underhill, which is probably the worst pro soccer stadium I've ever been to.

Underhill is our natural home. I'm not saying I want to return to Underhill as it is now but while we hold the freehold to the ground and the area south of the stadium is being considered for removal from greenbelt then I will support the campaign to have a new stadium included in any development that takes place.
Bizarrely it is harder for Barnet FC to have a future at the hive than it is Broncos. The lease prevents use of the stadium for league 2 football and above but places no restriction on other sports so at present it is a pretty trap and not a future for us.

If the lease restriction is lifted and we are forced to sell underhill without getting a new stadium then I will probably swallow it and reluctantly accept the Hive as our future home.

Surely that can be challenged though? How can you have a SL rugby team playing there but not allow a L2 soccer side to play? Doesn't make any sense.

That's about right. Southall Vikings, New Malden Magpies, Southall Saints and a few others were all the result of funding bids to get DOs in place, who then started clubs entirely reliant on them to continuation. With other areas of London it was a similar story.

There was a culture of dependency from community clubs on London region - including Broncos - employed staff, but the other edge of the sword was that without the staff the clubs would have either never started or folded straight away.

The ones that remain in West London are the result of a change of tactics by the Broncos Foundation in 2010, when DOs were told to stop running the clubs and instead were focus on making them sustainable when the inevitable Sport England funding cuts came in March 2013.

The ones that remain are strong enough for now, but they were always fed by a strong local schools competition and the presence and support of a local professional club. It remains to be seen how they will continue.

In forum terms, this is what is called 'thread drift'. Sorry!

when the lease was drawn up it was intended that Wealdstone FC and Edgware Town FC would play there and the condition was put in place to prevent Barnet FC moving in. Now it just looks wierd as Barnet are no longer a league club. I agree The Hive could take it to court if it prevented Barnet gaining promotion but it would be costly and not do us any favours in terms of local relations.
I don't think the people who drew up the lease ever considered that RL or professional womens football would be played in the stadium.

Same way that AK never expected a games governing body to pay him to take a team in so they could see our their contractual obligation to a tv company!

Oh yeah that's exactly the same, I can see why you made that useful comparison, it wasn't at all just a pointless remark to push your anti-Broncos management agenda.

Agenda or not, it is true. The deal was dead in the water until Blake Solly came back with Knock-down Nigel's Cheque Book. As for the comparison, it was stated that the Hive never expected to have a Pro RL club in residence....I simply pointed out how that came to be!

Fascinating. What's your prediction for the Top 6 in SL this year?

Depends on what you find interesting, but I personally think it is relevant in the context of who is currently plying their trade at the Hive. If Gus were to get lucky and somehow, we start winning games and crowds rise to 5k this year, then I suspect the neighbours may well object to 6,000 northerners ing on their front lawns after a Friday Evening Kick Off.




The top 6?
Wigan, Saints, Hudds, Leeds, Wire and Catalans.....

Wire and Catalans are the weakest of this top 6 IMO, but they will still probably have more than enough over 27 rounds to get them above the 2 Hulls, Salford, Widnes and Castleford, who I believe will be scrapping for the minor placing's whilst Wakey and Bradford will fight to see who comes 13th.