Thought BM was on contract for the next couple of years??

everyone has their moments of feeling down GF. Don't give up, the game needs people like you. Have a couple of weeks off and relax charge up your batteries and restart the good fight.

Yeah.....let's keep stumbling along and hope David Hughes doesn't find a new toy to play with.

Remember we were playing the side holding everyone else up for G*D's sake. They are not a top draw team (although I hope one day they will be). For crying out load give PB a chance, Rome was not built in a day. Look at many of the crowds lately and they look poor. Cas V Wolves was about 5500 - I bet that in the past would have drawn 7000 to 8000 (and Cas are going well at the moment).


The new bloke needs a chance to set out his stall, make a plan, get DH's backing and motivate the back office (who must be worn to the bone having to prop up everything for over a year). Then crack on. He has been in the job, what three months tops? Most people joining a new company need three to six months to understand the tools, processes, PEOPLE etc.

If PB had gone in all guns blazing he would be a fool, he needs to get the back office's trust first and foremost.

As for the CATS game, yes that is shocking and SKY have not done us any favours at all. But you can't blame the club, DH or PB for that. Of course they could have said to SKY - shove it. But it's not a good idea to bite off the hand that feeds you.


I pity the poor Warriors!



All the best in NZ, you will be missed GF.

The club could do nothing about the Catalans game - SKY say jump you have to say how high. Where the club went wrong IMHO is saying initially that they had objected to the move - it was a PR disaster.

Correct.
And, if this is an example of how the new man does business, it goes a long way to explaining his colourful list of past jobs over the last 10 years.
NFL Europe, SFA, Southampton, Surrey CC, Hull KR. all in the last 11 years...............Not one of these organisations seem to have tried to keep him when he left. I am sure he is a very capable person, but as CV's go, it does raise a slight amount of concern IMO that is.
6 jobs in 11 years........read into that what you wish.

applauding a common sense posting, it's good to hear that perspective hasn't gone completely out of the window



DH owns the keys to that budget. If he chooses not to release it, then the club goes down with him, but at what point does that become the GM's fault? As HKB points out, he needs to earn DH's trust. I think you're expressing your angst at the wrong person. Someone who's been in charge for 2 months or 10+ years?



Btw - I suspect the break even for any benefactors at the club is an attendance of circa 10k depending on ticket price. It's prob not going to happen in our lifetime, but we can hope. There have been plenty of incidences of sub 2k audiences in the past 15 years and the club has survived....

On the club site it says
"Paul is responsible for the day to day running of Harlequins Rugby League and his top priority is to increase attendances at matches."

On Point 1. The day to day running of the club. Top job so far with the Catalans fiasco

give him a pay rise.
On Point 2. We are nearly 1,000 fans down since we left TW8 for TW2. Not his fault at all, but still, since he joined we have had the bring a mate for free campaign and NO FOLLOW UP CONTACT to those people. We have had George Sampson (not cheap I should imagine) with no chance of any of the screaming teens coming back.
So, 60 days into the job and all that has happened is we seem to have lost a Commercial Sales Manager, the head of the volunteers group and pretty much nothing else


Sorry, I know it can't be easy getting funds out of DH for marketing, but I take it that PB would have had to offer some kind of Business plan to DH when he was interviewed for the role. If I was offered a job that required increasing attendance figures, but was told there was no budget to achieve this, I doubt I would take the job on.

i really feel for the management at quins, they are producing a good standard of rugby which is comparable to anything (saints apart) in the heartlands. just a pity that more people don't turn up and watch them every week..............i know i would if i didn't live 200 miles away.

Yeah, you're right mate, sack him and be done with it. And anyone else who can't turn water into wine within 60 days. You've already made your mind up.

You keep on whipping your cronies into an extremist frenzy. Though I'm not quite sure what good that does?

He is, extended his contract last year before the Leeds game, can't remember for how long though.

I don't think any one is asking for miracles here but to carry on the crappy analogies we are looking for a little bit of smoke before the fire gets going.

Sorry.......extremist frenzy? my cronies?
I have no cronies and as for extremist frenzy" WTF


Put simply, I work in Sales. I have a target. I don't get 6 months to "bed in"...not even 6 weeks. I hit my target, or I get fired.
If you like, why don't we just write off this season altogether. I mean to say, it's not like it's his fault we are badly supported is it.

He was offered a job. He accepted it and now he must deliver. No if's, but's or maybe's......more fans at the stoop and sooner rather than later.

and the converted know what the sport is like, the scary issue currently is in the sad decline of the "hard-core" due in part to what is percieved as stupid mistakes on the part of the club.

We cannot afford to alienate that section of the supporters who have been through all the griefs of the past.

Agree totally with your last sentence Homer and was shocked on Saturday at the amount of people who have been coming a long time (like myself) who were seriously naffed off. I think we lost a lot when the coverage went from the Metro. I honestly don't know what the answer is and obviously there just aren't the funds to mount a very serious marketing campaign.

sad to say (and I do not include myself in the group who have given so much to the club BTW), they already have.

I am sure a lot of you received the email from Russ Morris and I wish him well in his attempts to get something started, but I believe that the heart of the club has been, if not ripped out, then definitely damaged over the last week or so. Believe me, I never give up without a fight and for me to wave the white flag of surrender over marketing speaks volumes about how the club have staggered and stumbled over the last 3 years.

do not get disengaged in the process. The Cat's game proves that despite the rhetoric coming from the club, they do not realise or care about the importance of keeping a diminishing fan base on-side, because they in their enthusiasm for the club and the sport have probably brought more bums on seats over the years than any other one single initiative.

It's a 'pity' that we currently have a Chairman - come minority owner - who seemingly knows little or nowt about ' consumer marketing' and seems to be totally unwilling - or worse - unable to 'invest' funds to enable the Club to undertake anything like worthwhile programme aimed at inreasing 'bums' on seats.

I still believe that a major reason for QRL being unable to increase it's attandance is the 'location' of the stadium. A stadium badly served by public transport links might add.

Rubbish. A direct service from Waterloo and 15 minutes from Clapham Junction where every train going South/South West stops? And then a 10 minute walk? God knows how many bus routes there are. I would say we are probably the best served stadium in the whole of Rugby League (perhaps with the exception of Salford).

Listy, agreed there is a direct service which is excellent unlessNetwork Rail are causing disruption with line works which were all too frequent last season although slightly better this.

Lister - I agree with you. That makes it twice by my reckoning!

ok so i'm not a quins supporter, but i really admire the work you are doing in the south and i have been to a couple of games this season when you have played in the north, just wish i could get to the stoop on a regular basis to watch the home game. as homer and big graeme will know, if quins can win me over then anything is posible.......

sometimes i think you are deliberately obtuse.

compared to the rest of london it's not great.
compared to rest of the country it's great.

It's not on the tube network for a start.
It's in west London which i know for a fact is the most congested part of the capital (yes i have proof of that)

Brentford for instance you can catch a few buses from zone 1 to the old ground at Griffin park and the tube station was a short walk away unlike Twickenham with the exception of ONE route out of Hammersmith.
Yes there is the train link but not actually part of the TfL network therefore more expensive.

It (in regards of London) is probably the worst served area for public transport.
Compare that to if you played at QPR or still at Griffin park which is catered for the public transport user

What?



You think Brentford was a short walk away from the tube? it has got to be twice as far as Twickenham station to The Stoop.

Besides there is no point whinging, The Stoop is where we are we have got to live with it, the RU lot don't have any issues getting around 12000 in there for home games, you don't hear them whinging that there is no tube stop right out side.