I can't really argue with comments on other threads that today's show was one of the worst ever (and I have been there week in week out since day one at Fulham) but I will try and leave all the emotion out.
In my view we have 3 key interlocking problems
1) The temporary ownership and management structure does no more than keep the ship afloat (just) and provides no foundation for real investment without which there can be no long term future.
2) We have a squad that even at full strength on paper is barely of Super League standard and pitiful when key players are out.
3) The crowds are the lowest in Super League and provide no financial basis for improvement either in terms of gate receipts or merchandise.

These problems must be solved in the order listed above if there is to be a future for Super League in London.

Ownership and investment
Would any sensible person buy into Quins RL as things are at the moment? It is difficult to see why anybody should, but unless they do, we can kiss goodbye to the club and the franchise.

Playing squad
The squad has obviously been assembled on a shoestring without sufficient quality or strength in depth to compete at this level. It is encouraging that so many young London-based players are involved, but you don't develop youngsters into stars by throwing them into a weak team and getting stuffed every game. It is no coincidence that the clubs with the best player development records have the strongest first team squads on which to build. Leeds are the most obvious example.
Unfortunately, we are unlikely to find the funds to strengthen the squad until the ownership and management issue has been resolved.

Crowds
The supporters are as demoralised as the team seems to be, down to the basic core and dwindling. Nobody but the most long-suffering supporter would pay to watch what we see now. You can criticise the marketing as much as you like, but there is just nothing to market at the moment. Every game is a disappointment at best and often a total embarrassment. There is no chance of improving attendances until we have a truly competitive squad and that can't happen until a settled ownership structure provides significant long-term investment.

Such a long post and no mention of the [icoach[/i yet ! I honestly think it is a side issue. Given the unsolved problems listed above, there isn't a coach in either hemisphere who could achieve suceess in the current climate with the present squad. I am not sure whether Brian McDermott is a good coach or not, but I am sure he is not the problem so getting rid of him can not be the solution.

Very good post and in all honesty I make you right on all points, apart from possibly the coach.

If you go back to last season, the first half of it, we were performing very well and up in the top six in the league with a squad not disimilar to what we have now, so the question is what has gone wrong since then, yes we have had our share of injuries and with our squad strength we are probably effected more than other teams. I feel that if we can afford a change in coach it certainly wont make us a worse team surely, and maybe someone with different ideas and tactics may help to improve our players, at the moment most of our players seem to be going backwards. When Huddersfiel got a new coach at the beginning of last season(I think), they improved dramatically due to a change in tactics and play(you may not agree with the way they play) but they have certainly become a very good and generally consistent team.

So just maybe with a change of coach and tactics things might improve and with improvement on the pitch just maybe someone might want to invest in us and that may go some way to averting your doomsday senario. It is a long shot I know, but I really want Rugby League to survive in London and be successful.

My friends and I bought four season tickets for the 2010 campaign. I had the choice of sitting in the good seats with fans or have the club sell three more tix by going in the 99 section.

Went for 99 and they all got tix.
Its been SO bad this year though that collectively two have only bothered to go once, the other made his second game today.

Its performance that brings people out and we've been a disgrace this season. Why would anyone watch this team?

If they said at the start of the year its gonna be a struggle as we look to balance the books and bring through young players and needed all the support we could get, fans would be understandable.
Saying - this squad can win it all. is just delusion

Whichever way you look at it we are clearly in deep

The thing with Quins is, if i were a sugar daddy would i (even if i loved London RL) be able to buy into Quins and would i really want to ?

As a wire fan i could if loaded and wire didn't already have a sugar daddy, buy the club.
I'd know that i was buying the salaries of everyone and all the infrastructure and i could potentially invest my money to improve what ever i wanted.

Now with Quins i don't have that luxury and surely that in itself is some sort of hindrance to potential investment. Surely the main man here has his hands tied in some respect.

At least he could buy in a coach that could offer a different approach to what we have now. It is clear to me that the team has stopped playing for Mac. 24 games, 2 wins, a coach who said last year he had no idea, it shows. Time to go.

I think Mac has always asked us to judge him on team spirit and defence- Sadly today that had gone. I suspect he has lost the dressing room.

The first try of the game was a simple one on one(Wilkes the defender) who got handed of like a school kid. It then went downhill

When we were losing badly at half time why didn't he-
Move the 9 and 7 back to there real positions
Move Purdo to 13 thus having a decent 7, 9, 13 (cover centre with Bryan)
Give his 4th replacement a game of some form(he keeps using a 3 man bench)

I sometimes question his rugby intelligence- he seems very reactive in his decision making

He may well have lost the dressing room. At half time did you see Mac walking back to his seat with still about 5 minutes of half time left.

It will come as little surprise to regular readers of this forum that I completely agree with you.

How bad do things have to become before David Hughes does what's required and puts the club and, indeed, Brian McDermott himself out of this misery?

I know I've described Brian McDermott in the past as a 'miserable git'.

I retract this remark, which was made in haste and frustration. I accept that, while Brian McDermott is constantly miserable (with the press, with fans, with players, etc), he can't be described as a 'git'. That's unfair and inappropriate, and I apologise to him unreservedly.

However, it would be great if Brian felt moved to 'fall on his sword' and move on to another club. This would give him the benefits of a fresh start, thereby ditching the baggage of his negative impact on Quins RL.

It's just so painful to see him constantly failing catastrophically to select, coach and motivate talented players.

Unless Brian McDermott moves on, I think the end result for Quins RL is as predicable as it was when I first raised this point - falling crowds, catastrophic results and dwindling fan support.

The evidence is there for anyone who is open-minded enough to evaluate it for themselves.

I hate to come across as a Cassandra whose comments no one wants to hear, but reality speaks for itself.

Mac has to go.

If this thread is a fair reflection, at least your fans seem to have more sense than most. Scant consolation, I'm sure.

You need a better (more expensive) squad to draw in crowds and better crowds to afford that squad, so it is Catch-22.
I'm usually all in favour of prudence, and growing your own team, but perhaps a couple of big name signings would be worth gambling on? Generate a bit of excitement and maybe go some way to paying for themselves. I think the franchise needs something to kickstart it.

Would you believe it is £1.56 Million

About a year ago....

Really?!

I guess London is a dramatically more expensive place to live than, say, Hull or St. Helens.

Perhaps you should have London-weighting on the Salary Cap, although the money would still have to come from somewhere, of course.

I'd have thought it'd be mitigated by London being a dramatically more attractive place to live than, say, Hull or St. Helens - especially for antipodeans. Mind, I suppose there'll be a relocation premium for Northerners - if you live in West Yorkshire, you can easily change clubs without the hassle of upping sticks for a 1 or 2 year deal.

I used to be a season ticket holder at the Stoop first time round who drifted away gradually due to family and home changes but I went along today as my 13 year old son got an invite to the juniors event. Just after half time he turned to me and said he wished we hadn't bothered coming as Quins were so bad......next time there is a junior event I doubt he will bother to tell me or ask to go
What the answer to this is I don't know but I do fear for the future of SL in London ( And yes I know I am partly to blame by not attending like I used to).