Quote: Graham Richards "What is all this "its not working". How do we define "working". If its simply bums on seats then granted its not "working". But I would argue its not working in most of SL by that standard. Hull FC alone should be averaging over 13000. HKR want 10000, Huddersfield should be relegated as well, winning team with no fans.
Or is "working" the development of grassroots rugby league. Would you rather tens of thousands play the game or watch it? Look at the "stars" of SL coming through the system from clubs in the SE.
Now in the time since they were placed in SL London in all its different disgusies have NEVER finished bottom of the pile. They have NEVER been docked points for salary cap infringments. Yes they have had financial problems but that does not seem to be a route straight down the leagues. So other than diminishing crowds (which teams have crowds on the up) and no away support (something that riles me about HFC fans who seem to think thats the be all and end all of a club, as we have a few that travel) what exactly is your definition of "not working". I suspect its a phrase that is often brought out as its easy to say but lacks any real substance.
I can tell you what is wrong with RL in London imho. I moved to the city in 1990 a time when the game was on the up. We had a great international squad and we were able to hold internationals at Wembley without gimmicky £10 tickets. The sport was being talked about in London. We had recognisable stars (many of whom are now in RU) Edwards, Offiah, Davis, Lydon etc etc. But then we decide on SL and draw up the bridges and become a closed shop and reject international rugby totally. We have internationals in our own backyard in small stadia and we now call it England and tinker with the other home nations. We sold out to Sky which I accept keeps the sport alive at Pro level. We got rid of county cups and JPS Trophy which were screened on the BBC and we as a sport disappeared out of the country's conscience. Add in the total disregard we had for the Challenge Cup when it was relegated to a more pre season cup competition and you now have an under performing sport.
The product is fantastic. If we got out and bigged it up in London it would work to a certain extent. But as I stated before even RU struggles to attract crowds in London. Only Harlequins is based in London atm. Saracens moving shortly but they are nomadic and in all honesty make massive losses despite their gimmicky £5 a ticket Wembley games. Yes they get big crowds at Wembley with very little in the way of gate receipts, but how many of them turn up week in week out? The rest moved out years ago or went bust.
Cricket has p poor crowds for what is our national summer sport (traditionally). The T20s (non International) are attended by an average of about 10,000 people. Not massive in the scheme of things. Football is the only game that matters in London.
But if we ditched LB we would lose alot of the grassroots stuff and the development which is now starting to pay dividends both nationally for RL and for the LB themselves.
Finally I would add again, that the population may well be 8 million in London, some say its alot more. But in the 20 odd years I have been down here the demographics have changed massively. The population is transciant at the best of times, but in the past 10 years your traditional "Cockney" has moved out. Now we have a massive ethnic mix of people. Many of whom do not speak English and as has been said many of whom do not stick around long enough.
London is unique to any other city in the UK. You can not compare like with like. Millions commute in daily. I can't see many wanting to commute in on a Saturday to watch a losing team in SW London. Other than Football I can not think of a single sport that attacts crowds within the confines of Greater London. I can think of many that are played by thousands and one of those is RL.
So is it "working" ?'"
Have to say I agree with lot's of this. I moved to London for work reasons about nine months ago and in that time I've been trying to spread the word amongst people I meet about what a fantastic entertainment sport RL is.
Last Friday I quite by chance happened to be watching the England game in the same pub as a number of guys who actually worked for the Broncos who I won't name. I was actually taken aback by how little respect these people had for the figurehead Mackay. It seems clear to me without going into detail that until there is a change at the top then there will be trouble ahead.
What Graham rightly points out is that the game is being played by youngsters all over the capital and there will soon be some excellent kids coming through at not just the Broncos but the Skolhars too.
They need to move it from Twickenham though as it's such a nightmare to get too. When I attended our game back in March it was quite depressing to see how few people where there. But if they could persuade someone like Leyton Orient to use their ground then I'm convinced the attendances would improve as that stadium is better connected tube wise and I genuinely believe it would be easier to attract people to the game who live in and around the East End.
There are so many kiwis and aussie's down here and a few have said to me, league might not be there number one sport, most seem to prefer aussie rules, but if there was a successful and accessible team to follow in London they would go.
It's not rocket science. They just need to try and find 8,000 more regular followers to make this London team something to be taken seriously. Be interesting to see how they market a potential Challenge Cup semi final with Soward in tow?
