Actually I agree our home core group of fans is pretty small and we are and always have been reliant on away fans.
It takes us back to marketing though and who do you target and what games. In relation to the game on Fri and targeting. What is the special pull on this game for the dormant northern RL fan living in London? Very little! What was the pull to get the extra numbers to Skolars, have said it before it was a first!
What's special about this game for the kiwis, Queenslanders and NSW fans in the area? They are not getting to watch any Australian players of any note playing here so very little draw.
So far the game in Canada is Toronto thats all and even that has not started yet! I would suggest any Toronto residents might have a passing interest but I doubt many other Canadians would be that interested.
We need to draw more fans in! How do we do it? If I had the answer am pretty sure someone at the club would have found the same answer.
Am not suggesting give up on Fri night but blowing a big chunk of budget on it would be a waste in my opinion, so let's be realistic, if we win and get a home draw in the next round against a SL outfit then push it.
Long term! Who knows?

I'd market this one as a corporate post work corporate opportunity primarily. Skolars report having made good corporate link ups from their game and that was on a Sunday. That's the route with potentially the quickest return. Skolars have at least part of the answer so well worth liaising with them.

I'd actually be wary of pushing a next round draw v say Wigan too hard. A likely blow out, that wouldn't appeal to first timers. A push to lost season ticket holders might be worth it though. If Broncos are going to go for it frankly bung Skolars a few quid and let them organise the day with a quid pro quo they can plug their next home game on a day Broncos are away. They have a proven track record of running one off big game events, no point re-inventing wheels.

At one point there was a hardcore of about 2,000 fans who'd go weekly, and another 2-3,000 who'd pick and choose games to attend based on other factors (opponents, form, personal circumstances, venue (of course!), etc). That tallies with a report in football a few years back where they estimated most fans of a club would go to circa 25% of home fixtures over the course of a season. From that the Broncos now have, what, 400 hardcore and however many picking and choosing?

The former was sustainable, within the right environment, and could have been built upon. Settling for the latter is akin to entering a death spiral.

Genuine question - has there been any work done to contact those lost supporters (thousands of them) in a bid to establish why they left and what could possibly bring them back?

Naderia, for a potential Super League team 2000 is nowhere near enough to be self sufficient. Not sure about this 25% of games you mention, I would hope a core support might actually at most miss 25% not attend.
Why people walk away is pretty varied. On field performance! A season winning only 1 game in the year hurts. Off field, location for some people! Cost!
Some folk don't like the way the club is run. They have all been mentioned.
All those that walked away for what ever reason for me it's wasted effort chasing them too much, pretty sure if they have any interest they still follow the club on all the media that is out there! How will repeating what they see to them make them any more inclined to come back? If an ex season ticket holder is not even watching the club on media out there, then I doubt a mail shot from the club is going to reinvigorate there interest in Rugby League.
My mind the club should be targeting corporate, they should be targeting the big aussie audience out there, they should be targeting big companies.
A lapsed season ticket holder.
Should the club be doing everything it can? Yes! Is it doing that? Obviously not! But it's not a straight fwd issue

What would it cost to send lapsed ST holders from the Stoop a free ticket to a game and a pint of beer on arrival to entice them back for a taster. Im sure some would take it back up.

A simple email may work for some of the pickers-and-choosers, very occasionals and lapsed speccies. Amazed that something with such little cost and effort attached is not done. 400 diehards and declining seems to be the limit of ambition.

You misread my post. The 2,000 or so were the hardcore. Then a similar number of occassionals picking and choosing. The 25% attendance guide was for the latter group. But they've all gone now and, apparently, both you and the club see no value in attempting to win them back.

Instead chasing that mythical Aussie audience that rarely, if ever, showed any interest in the club. Instead chasing a corporate audience to come and sit in a sports ground pavilion.

There's that death spiral.

Mickey has a habit of missing the point. Its difficult to discuss anything with those that don't know they don't know but are opinionated

Cheers for that wire. Just discussing my thoughts. We all have opinions!
Re the lapsed fans, so an example. Fan comes from medway, brings his 2 kids so every home game coming to ealing for that fan is going to be iro £100, how are you going to tempt that fan back? A free ticket and a pint ain't going to do it. I reckon the only way to get that fan back is make the product worth the money so opposition standard is probably going to dictate that. So until we are in the position to offer that it's highly unlikely you are gonna tempt that fan back. However I reckon that fan still follows the club via www etc etc is that a sensible person to market too?
Take the fan who has walked away because they don't like the way the club is run, or because in there opinion they have been treated badly by the club. Again I would bet they still watch the club closely using any media available, that's proven as some of them post on here, maybe even mailing them is what they want to make em feel the club are treating them right, but again as shown they are already aware of what the club is doing.
So am not saying ignore em, simply saying that there are probably better targets for the marketing, an example twice a week 2 miles from Trailfinders there are about 100 people playing a form of rugby league and paying for the pleasure. That's just one venue, there are similar numbers at several venues playing 5 days a week.
Target the right people!

The starting point, surely, would be to find our why those lapsed fans no longer attend games?

Or....just assume it's because of relegation and forget about them.

BTW - and I should say I don't think Instagram is a particularly useful marketing tool - the club's Insta account hasn't been updated since the Cronulla training session on February 16th. They're not even doing the absolute basics.

What's instagram?

I think you need to add the club moving ground to losing support.

Wantawin, well the counter argument to that is what is being mooted by the RFL. Wasps RU moved 80 odd miles, there gates have gone up.
Constant moving is never going to help though, although reality is apart from charlton we have moved at most 10 miles

£20 to watch a poor standard of rugby at a crap ground in an awful part of London is the reason this lapsed fan doesn't bother.

By the size of the attendances at Ealing you're not alone. Sadly.