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.