Make a point Barry. Instead of just stating the obvious.

Dave.

What would Quins bring to the table with regards to QPR's new stadium? it's not like QPR are short of a few quid and also they are quite likely to be playing in the Premier League next year.

That's true, but I think if stadiums are going to be used all year round they arn't as expensive to run. What about the Olympic Stadium? Too big? Either way I think where they are playing now and naming themselves Harlequins is and has been a mistake and I want success for London RL.

Are you [size=150SERIOUSLY[/size suggesting a London based professional RL side play their home fixtures at the Olympic stadium???

Oh my god.






WHY??


have you been eating those British Rail cheese sandwiches again?

A lot of people say how many kids are playing the game. The same goes for my local non league soccer club they have hundreds of kids that turn out every week and play. How many go and watch the senior team about 5.

I've always said that the Quins branding is wrong. its doesnt target those union fans who like league but support wasps or someone else.

I agree, London Broncos was a brand that everyone knew. I just wish that someone would come along like Richard Branson did years ago and really promote the club, find them a permenant home and stick with them for a long time.

Like Richard Branson? Walk away and leave them with a massive debt generated during his ownership, which the successors spent years paying off before the outstanding bit to HMRC caught up with them? Yep, that's the way forward.

I wouldn’t want Richard Branson anywhere near our sport ever again or anyone similar to him for that matter. He’s nothing but a self-promoting turd whose interest was anything but helping rugby league. Just like his interest is anything but helping (start-up Britain) new businesses.

If he could get it cheap, our top flight would be called Virgin Super League. But he’s getting much cheaper (probably free) publicity for his company from the government.

Are there "more than 100 clubs" in London?

There's been people on here involved with promoting RL in schools in London complaining that the players are lost to RU because there's no clubs nearby for them to go to. That argument seems a bit weakened if there's actually over 100 in the capital to play at.

It all sounds encouraging anyway. I agree with some others on here if SL in London is so important to the sport then it should be given more support by the RFL, should be exempt from the Franchise bidding process (along with Crusaders) and really worked on the ensure it's sustainability. Before that though, I'd like to see some kind of tangible proof that it is as important to RL as is often claimed.

Has there?

1 There's only one top-flight Union team in London as well
2 Travel time is hugely important: I live a direct c.25 miles from Quins and it would take me 75-100 minutes to get there, so unless you're in Central London you automatically cut off half of the city because casual fans aren't going to travel that far.
3 Without Quins, you simply wouldn't have the level of club development that's going on: Skolars, Storm, St Albans, Hemel, Sharks, Brentwood, Hainault and many more all come off having a 'London' club at the top level. It doesn't mean all these players, spectators etc have to go to Quins.
4 What else would you have to talk about if there was no London club?

Only if you consider £0 to be enough already

Eh?!

I heard it was multiple millions each year.

Only from the voices inside your head

Hence me saying 'and stick with them for a long time'. I just meant a rich owner who can take the club forward. I didn't mean to touch a nerve with peoples personal vendattas agaist Branson.

Who would you suggest jonny? Got any names in mind?

Since the great chippy myth of London being given millions had even been put in its place – again – in the opening article, what does that tell us about your ability to actually read something before posting?

What article?

I said I 'wish' someone would take them over and promote them. I think that's what RL in London needs to succeed. I never said it will, can, could or should happen you moron.

Sorry Jonny.

Thought you had someone in mind mate thats all.

I do love the way people profess to know about London RL who don't live anywhere nearby. I must remember to talk to them about RL in the heartlands when I next have a chance. Little mention seems to have been made on this thread to the fact that the reason nobody can for sure say why it hasn't been the roaring success we would have hoped is that there isn't a typical Londoner and there isn't a typical London RL fan. We are a pretty disparate bunch, not just a bunch of toffs from Richmond was suggested earlier in the thread.

Those who live near the stadium may be regulars now but probably would be absent if we moved further away. Some fans however travel from the Home Counties, the West Country, East Anglia etc, because it's the nearest place to get their RL fix - a round trip of many hours. I myself have never lived near where the club has been playing but I've always been a regular. I live very much within the Greater London area yet you could place me at any SL ground on the M62 and I could get to any other M62 ground in less time than it takes me to get to my team's HOME games!

So if there was a marketing strategy who do you appeal to? The casual fans based around TW2 (I'm not suggesting all fans who live nearby are casual supporters BTW. I know for a fact that is not the case) or the die-hard fans who will once adopted will follow you everywhere? What about people who live in other parts of London, fans of other sports? It's a huge effort required to get your presence out there in what is not just a saturated sports market but a saturated social market - there's always something else going on. How do you persuade people to travel well over an hour to a far-flung part of (barely) London to watch a new sport? I don't go south of the river if I can help it! No need. How do you build up a support base around such a varied community? There is no one London identity. Any marketing and publicity would need to reflect that. It would be no good using the same strategy in Twickenham as you did when we were at the Valley. The community there is totally different.

The only real way is to include RL in the sporting psyche of the Londoner. They need to have a reference point. Getting kids playing it from a young age will in the end reap the rewards. I already see kids in their teens who have been playing it for a few years, it's ingrained in them now. They may not make it as players but they will have that understanding in their minds of what RL is, and so will be a far more responsive audience if a London RL club should ever try to get them along to games. Instead of the 'don't like Rugby: Odd shaped balls' response that you get off most of the football loving 'sports' fans in London.

The process will and is taking years. Until then the club will probably have to survive on meagre crowds and David Hughes' pension pot. We may be able to help ourselves with aggressive marketing etc, but the crowds will only truly be taken care of when RL is enough a part of London Sports culture to warrant enough fans making the trek.

In any case, who do you think suffers most from our crowds being low? Is it Widnes or Leigh? No, it's our club and our fans. We're the ones who have to put up with mediocrity at best because we need to reduce our losses. We're the ones who turn up to games when we have a few injuries or suspensions, knowing that the team we are putting out has so few rugby hours behind them that we're probably gonna be flogged by a lot of points. But we do it and we know it's part of the London RL experience. London RL is a different world to M62 RL but it's no less valid for that, and this article is timely IMHO as the future looks very bright indeed thanks to the bottom-up approach being adopted at present, and there is a need to blow away the old cobwebs of an era when people tried to simply put a team in London. That was never going to work long term, ask London-based Ice Hockey or American Football fans.

youll probably get more bites with this thread than the one on salford

10/10 for persisitng

Top, top post!

Post of the year.