Were those decrying London doing the same thing after the CC semis in 2010?

The under 19s only lost 50-6 against the number 4 graded Hull KR academy today

Pathetic performance, gutless, if i was a London fan i'd be livid, if i was a player i'd be ashamed.

David and Gus are running the club into the ground, the buck(& dusty) stops with them as far as i'm concerned.

I don't think i've known a club that actually has the money to compete be run so badly.

You'd rather have Gerald Ratner running the club.

Funny that, The Giants currently top SL and are very competitive, however everyone seems to notice the empty seats, its all we ever hear about!!!

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A different situation. The empty seats in such a big stadium like John Smiths detracts from the atmosphere and is of financial concern when it's an average crowd across a season.
A one-off game like a semi-final is more about how it appears on TV. There were enough there so it didnt appear empty and if the game had been close and competitive people watching on TV wouldn't notice the empty seats.
A more than half full LSV in a one off televised game is different to a quarter full John Smiths week-in week-out.

No I think we had the ''protest ' against Wigan in the league - agree with the poster who suggested the club should refund the travelling fans costs

Funny how memories are twisted by time! At the moment London are the worst team in the league & got torn a new one by one of the best, so what? The team at the top of the table was only a few seasons ago the worst team & Wigan were in dire straits staring at relegation things go in cycles & things can change but not if they are not given the oportunity to do so & we have had teams go whole seasons without a win no one was screaming to dump them. They have not gone bust or cheated on the cap which can't be said of others in the league just get off their backs & support your own team.

London Losses in order of how heavy

+72
+71 (CC)
+58
+36
+34
+30
+28 (Three times)
+26
+24
+20
+16
+14
+6

Wins
+34 v Salford
+19 v Sheffield (CC)
+14 v Castleford
+12 v Featherstone (CC)
+9 v Bradford
+7 v St Helens

Draws
Hull FC
Castleford

So what the only people that concerns is the suporters & owners of London. In 18 years of super league they have finished as high as second & had a challenge cup final place. More succsess than the team I support & Salford, Wakefield & Castleford. Some team has to be bottom at the moment its their turn just be glad its not your team.

Should they, shouldn't they??? Boot them out, keep them in.

Settle down folks, the SL chairmen have taken steps to sort this all out for you by bringing back P&R



London fans will be comforted by their history of woodenspoonophobia. What's the betting that next year they'll finish mid table and two other more worthy clubs will be sacrificed? If I had to choose 2 clubs to come down to tumbleweed town it would be Castleford & Wakefield. What a massive boost to our league that would be. The colossal battle between the three Wakey clubs would be awesome and would bring a massive shot in the arm to The Championships.

So please London. We need you in SL. Come on you Broncos! ! ! !

I'm pretty sure Mr Hughes is none to pleased either. Lets face it, he is bank rolling this club year in year out as the fans whilst contributing are never going to bear the full weight of this club.

London's survival is down to a benefactor, like the vast majority of SL clubs, but the London rich man does seem to have to dig deeper than most to support his club. The big question is how long his patience and pockets can last and is there another money man ready to lose a substantial amount of money yearly, for this kind of performance.

Whilst the fans deserve better, the players seem to forget who is employing them and keeping them in position where they play for a living rather than work.

When are the powers to be understand that the London Broncos are no longer fit for purpose and yesterdays embarrassment was the nail in the coffin.
You,ve got to feel sorry for some of the very limited loyal supporters who don,t know if they will have players and a ground next season.
The "London Concept" heavily loaded with overseas players had its honeymoon period many, many years ago, when will the RFL realise that from a population of over 10 million+ a support base of 2000 fans reducing is proof that our sport will never take a foothold in the capital.

A lot of people have said the result is more embarrassing than the crowd, but, whilst you'd hate to see lots of results like that, freak games ( or freak teams making the semi finals ) do happen, and we all know that League very dramatically amplifies difference in performance into huge differences in scores, especially in fast summer conditions.

No, the crowd is far more of a problem, as is the fact that French and Davies* are the best the BBC can be bothered to wheel out on this one-of-few days we get to spread the game to the wider public. If you're an optimist, or even Smokey, and convinced we're in safe hands with Nigel and his mates, then maybe you don't go as far as saying the game is in trouble, but only the hopelessly bewildered wouldn't at least recognise that our cup competition is.

(* and by the way, they both deserve credit in a huge number of ways for what they've put into the game - far more than any of us ever have - its nothing personal, but its just a weak combination as a commentary team which does nothing good for our profile )

I would never say never.

I do think people jump to extremes. Going from we need London or SKY and all sponsors will pull out of RL and the sport will collapse in on itself.

To RL just does not work in the capital.

It's neither. The issue is that the Broncos have not worked in the capital since the overseas quota was brought into line. The loyal supporters will have more of an idea why this is, but from the outside, it's difficult to understand how you can spend at cap and be so poor.

I'm not advocating saying the Broncos should stay in SL, but also neither should they be thrown out as they are not flavour of the month.

People wanting them out at all costs, sits as badly with me as the RFL wanting them in at all costs. If they are going to die then that's down to the owner and fans. But RL can exsist in the capital, it may not be as a top flight SL club in 2013.

But certainly the skolars are pulling their own weight.

I think part of the reaction to London, is that London have had advantages with quotas and the licencing system set up with London and other expansion areas in mind that they could never be at risk. People feel now is a chance to get the knife in.

I do wish London where doing better, but if they are in the bottom 2 next year there should be no special measure to save them. However if they survive, there should be no special measure to relegate them. I just want an even system, it's then down to the clubs where they end up.

Long term - Gillingham looks a better bet for RL, but they need to either adopt a franchise or set up their own club to progress through the ranks. Whether that will be the Broncos again comes back to the owner and fans.

If London can replace Gus with someone who actually knows what they're doing instead of just getting jobs for old mates, then they could survive.

It doesn,t take rocket science to understand that the biggest problem with the London club is one of identity and stability.
The very nomadic nature of the clubs existence does not give any sustainable fan base that the big name deserves.
I don,t know how much influence the RFL have had in ensuring the team is called London XXX to prove to the sporting world our sport has expanded beyond the North.
The introduction to Superleague was a short term calculated risk that was allowed to degenerate into the state it is today giving our sport a very negative outlook.
Maybe a drop down into the Championship 1 and the ascension of the Skolars into Championship 1 could be better for a renewed progression, or maybe its too late as the vultures circle overhead waiting for some of the better players.

A clearout of the RFL would be a good start, so that instead of excuses and self-justification, we could have a bunch of new people, untarnished by the past who could start with an honest assessment, which is "great sport, struggling, (proper) strategic plan needed."

The BBC could have done worse than to blackout the screen at half time and put up a message along the lines of ''We are experiencing technical difficulties and will return as soon as we can''. Then return as they were presenting the MOTM.

London in the capital could work, but it needs to be on the back of solid grassroots development of the game. You can't drop an SL team into a town and immediately get it to fly, even one as big as London.

Skolars are doing good work in Wood Green, Broncos need to establish a base and stay there, dropping into Championship 1 if necessary. Given the game is more likely to take in areas we aren't competing with existing RU clubs, I'd say that East London (look at sharing Brisbane Road with Leyton Orient) is probably a better bet than anywhere else. Encouraging Hemel to develop as a club, along with the amateur game in Medway would be a good way forward.

If we want to spread the game in the Capital in the meantime, the best way of doing that is promoting the Challenge Cup Final, playing England internationals in London, moving the Magic Weekend to London or even the Grand Final.

I don't doubt that the endgame for the RFL should be to have anywhere between 2 and 4 clubs in Greater London. But right now it isn't working, and we need to go back to basics and develop the amateur game. When development does happen, it will need to involve names already familiar to the southern public, and we should be looking to bring in RU players who could make it in RL - Manu Tuilagi, Billy Twelvetrees and Matt Banahan spring to mind. But a whipping-boy team full of ancient Aussies is something no-one in the North, let alone in London, would want to watch.

There is a reason that the NRL has succeeded in expanding their game into enemy territory down in Victoria.....the same way there is a reason that the London Franchise has staggered from failure to farce.

If the Sports governing body had any ing spine, they would have told SKY that id they wanted a London team in SL, then they could pay for it!

Melbourne storm have had 15 years of backing by the sports broadcast partner and the ARL in the shape of extra cash and a fair amount of rule breaking/bending. Their team is crammed with stars and they are given the total support of the game to help the sport grow in AFL central.

Flip to London...dropped into the top league and left to fend for themselves with a paltry 10% leverage on the Cap for London Weighting. No "imaginary" payments under the table......but there bloody well should have been.

That said, I 100% blame the current mess that they find themselves in in London on the RFL and David Hughes......the RFL for not letting Lenegan stay with us as well as the pies (at one stage News Ltd owned controlling interests in Brisbane, Melbourne and North Queensland....no outcry from the NSW Mafia) and Hughes for employing complete idiots into key positions at the club.

They will drop out of SL...probably at the end of this year.

As for the players......it would seem to be the truth that the majority of them that are at the end of their contracts this year were told in February that they wouldn't be re-signed.....which would go a long way to explaining their gutless performance on Saturday!

I have supported London since 2002 and will continue to do so regardless of what division they ply their trade in, but in reality, they need to get rid of Mr Hughes, the CEO who is clueless and the coach who has lost what little ability he had 10 years ago. Play in The Championship at The Hive, build a sustainable fan base locally (east/west/north/south.....it makes little difference) and look to the future with a proper business strategy.....

Oh dear, and we wonder why fans of teams with aspirations to join SL like Fev, Fax and Leigh get so upset when we talk about pathways to the elite league.

I believe Fax and Leigh were both visitors to Superleague at some stage....2,977 was the Halifax average in their last SL season, 4,736 at Leigh. I believe that last year was the first time london's crowd dropped below that Halifax figure.......

Don't get me wrong, London will drop out either this or next year and deservedly so and I hope that a heartland team gets the chance to step up, but in reality, the demise of the only English team outside the heartlands will do nothing other than further marginalise the sport and underline the opinion of the southern bias media....that it's northern thing. A couple of years reporting that and let's see how much SKY are willing to fork out for the next TV deal....because it's only SKY reporting that they get viewers in the south that keeps the advertisers happy....god help Rupert if ad agencies actually looked into these farcical claims.......according to the RFL, 22,000 tickets to the Wembley double header were sold to Londoners......again, I doubt the sincerity and validity of that claim too.

London have done incredibly well to survive as long as they have.....the real shame is if the grass roots work is not supported by the RFL when the Broncos go, because regardless of the musings of some of the flat earth brigade up north, the game is more popular in London now than it has ever been.

Someone came up with a good idea (I think it was on the Wakey board) - why not try and get 4 or 5 clubs in similar stature to Scholars playing in NL1 and NL2 in the capital area. Surely this would stimulate attendances and maybe a few years down the line a new combined franchise for London could be looked at ? I honestly cannot see LB in SL next season let alone 2015.

That was me - in addition though, I also said that the governing body should part-fund these ventures and in turn, have some oversight of how that money is used in terms of youth development and supporter engagement. There is no doubt that there has been success in terms of the development of grassroots RL in London and SE - the way to capitalise on that though, is not to hothouse a nomadic SL team.

The market is huge - RL only needs to grab a tiny % of it to become a viable proposition.