Why would we go to Oxford? would that make us the Oxford Bronco's
yep I agree the same could be said for Gillingham, god help us if we go there

This is why the OTR games are a silly idea. Everyone has a different thought as to where we might play and none of the ideas are better than the Stoop.

Depends if you're an owner actively looking to offload the club.

As soon as a full merger with Quins was definitely off the cards The Stoop was living on borrowed time.

I'd love you to test the water in Watford for the Warrington match - I could pop home for the weekend!

Anything to back up any of those statements?

Gillingham and Oxford? Stating the bleeding obvious here but neither are in London. Also, I wonder what Oxford RL think of this. A move there would wipe them off the game a year after forming.

Saracens new ground has been suggested but that doesn't make any sense to me as an on the road venue or a 'permanent' home. It would be jumping out of bed with one RU side to jump into the bed with another. Why would North London prove any more successful than every other place the various Broncos chairmen have parked the horse box up at? Also, wouldn't it adveresly effect the Skolars?

As I've said before, wherever London [insert name here RL play their home games, it won't suit all fans. Thats the downside of the club. The ideal solution would be to build a ground somewhere but that is hugely unrealistic and as a result, this club will always be the bitch of a football or RU side and that will continue until Hughes pulls the plug.

May as well sell the club as a franchise and move them lock, stock and barrel to whoever presents the best bid, be it from Edinburgh to Newquay. I'm afraid I have to agree with the anti-expansionists and London Broncos need to join the RL scrapheap alongside the Gateshead Thunder, Paris St Germain, on the road games and the Origin series.

As some of you may be aware, I have a passing interest in the failed marketing of the club over the years and have a delightful spreadsheet that shows every "reported" attendance for the London based SL club since season 1, including the much maligned, OTR games.
When I get back to my office, I will post the attendances for the visit of both Wigan and Warrington to the capital over the years, including the game where IL subbed transport down to Quins RL, as well as those seasons where 2 trips south were required for regular season games....or when the Wire's trip was close to their trips to Wembley over recent years.......because personally, if they get less than 8k for Wigan and 5k for Wire, I don't see the point of OTR games......but that won't bother Gus or DH.....they'll move anyway and continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over again



Paddock is correct in that the "I can't believe he hasn't drowned he's that much out of his depth" CEO will use the attendance for the Wigan game as proof that The Stoop is the reason he has FAILED in his 2 seasons to date to attract new fans.......but given the much trumpeted "name change" was about as much use as a chocolate teapot and the CEO's "hand picked staff in key positions" didn't survive the mid-season bloodletting, , I fail to see why he is still collecting a salary if I am honest.

Wigan and Saints, together with Leeds are the 3 best supported clubs in London historically and as I have said before, a large number of the 'away" fans at these games are London based.....Leeds on a Monday will Kill that crowd at the Stoop, Wigan away will get it's usual 4-5k regardless of where we play it, so it will be left to Saints to rescue the seasons average at the stoop.....ergo, we're moving



It's time to accept that London RL and the London SL team are two totally seperate issues.........the London franchise will be moved to wherever there is a potential backer/audience and as such, this is looking like the last season at the Stoop (this time around). So long as the amateur set up continues to thrive and the RFL continue their work in the capital, then Milton Keynes, Gillingham, Oxford or tim-buck ing 2 will be tried as a base.......assuring a decent first year crowd average, followed by a CV polishing second year slup and the appointment of another Surrey Cricket reject to the position of CEO



This could be the year to invest in a signed framed shirt guys and gals....London Broncos RFLC could soon be no more as a professional Team unless someone with cash and VISION can be found quickly.


Loving the quote from the CEO:


....he forgot to point out this was only possible through great work done by Gillinghams RL community selling/distributing free tickets and of course, his work in LOWERING THE AVERAGES the year before



I predict the biggest gate at the Stoop for the visit of St Helens, the lowest when the French come calling and, depending on where they take the games, Wigan and Wire will average 4k each.....enough to justify a move away from the stoop.....

Wigan Warriors v London SL team, in London (no OTR games) 104,577/20 = 5,229 average
Since 2006, Wigan in London 9 times, 44,465 = 4,940 average
Wigan in London on Gus's watch 8,732/2 = 4,366

Warrington Wolves v London SL team, London at "home" (2 OTR games) 71,595/19 = 3,768 average
Warrington in London since 2006, 23,701/7 = 3,385
Wire in London on Gus's watch 6,103/2= 3,051

Home games on Gus's watch, 77,116/26 = 2,966

OTR games in 2012:
3,930 for Hull FC......a whole 315 more than the average for the previous 16 London v Hull FC games
2,844 for Bradford....a whopping 1,802 down on the average for the previous 18 London v Bradford games.

According to Gus...the two games above were a success because they were above the seasons average, which BTW, was 2,807 and the lowest in the clubs history in SL......

2010....THE YEAR BEFORE THE CURRENT CEO JOINED.......Wire and Wigan a combined attendance of 9,082.
2011 this dropped to 7,475 and in 2012 to 6,570....nearly 28%....overall attendances are down 18%.

20% of the games on Gus's watch have attendances that start with 1
38% of the games on Gus'swatch have attendances that start with 2
22% of the games on Gus's watch have attendances that start with 3
20% of the games on Gus's watch have attendances that start with 4
0%...of the games on Gus's watch have attendances that start with 5

We had 1 attendance prior to 2011 that started with 1, back in 1999 when Gateshead came to the Stoop...we've had 5 in 2 seasons



I wish to god people would stop making excuses for the club.....it is being run into the ground by a management team who do not have a clue....

Take a Catalans game on Easter Thursday to a new venue to see what the appetite is like..........their average is 2,365. Take Salford to Oxford and beat their average of 2,618.....as it is, you expect ST holders to travel to see 2 of the top draw teams


Huddersfield Giants, 3,207, Wakey 2,827 or even Castleford, 3,294....take them, but taking Wigan OTR to show appetitte outside of TW2 is like dealing from the bottom of the deck (and not trying to hide it)

Rant only just getting started!

Such a litany of failure makes you wonder if Gus had a similar effect on Surrey attendances. County cricket is famous for one man & his dog showing up so imagine poor Rover rattling around the Oval on his own

I thought it was common knowledge that David Hughes was looking to pack it in?

As for vacating The Stoop you only have to join the dots from the Broncos rebrand to taking crowd pulling fixtures on the road.

If you're looking to pack it in, why run it into the ground? Surely the last couple of Lenaghan-free years should have been used to build value; especially since the Broncos relaunch?
I suppose the revealing of the OTR venues may give a clue as to the future of the club, but I am as pessimistic about the Broncos' future now as I was during the first half of the Salford game - and that felt like a funeral!

Maybe Hughes is too nice & cuts underperforming coaches & CEOs too much slack?

He wouldn't be alone in that regard.

Look at the shambles that is QPR for example.

This subject is boring me to death now, if the club moves it will lose a lot of (it's small number of) fans. Skolars will probably gain a lot of them, they will gain me for sure.

Back on the topic of fixtures, we have to play everyone at least twice no matter what but I'm happy that we have a few of the lower placed teams earlier in the year. Leeds at home on a monday in August though is so stupid, it's a contractual obligation with sky that we should be exempt from along with the dragons.
Glad we are starting at home again too, we have been lucky for the last few seasons having home games in round 1, getting a run out at home before going to a pumped up northern crowd can only help us.


Roll on February!

Much as though I like the idea of Monday night games in the summer I agree with your thoughts that we should have been exempted - we'll probably end up with a gate like the Thursday night Catalans game for what is usually one of our biggest gates v Leeds!

Yeah the idea of it being in August is the ony sensible part about it, Monday night VS Catalans in march would be the lowest attended SL fixture ever.

We have to swallow it this year an hopefully it won't happen again when they see the results.

The Fixture list and the way it throws up ties, together with the scheduling of SKY TV coverage should not make one jot of difference to the club......now that they know the dates for the games, they should be planning how to market them and how to attract crowds to these games.

How anyone can say it's 'the fixtures' fault that we are the worst supported team in the league, even after a straight 17 years of top flight RL is beyond me.

Our attendances are not the responsibility of SKY, the RFL, the other 13 teams in SL or anyone else other than Gus MacKay....

January 2012 from runningrugby.com



1. Harlequins Rugby League was never given a chance. Mistakenly, they assumed that Union fans would come along in their droves, so they AGAIN neglected anything like promotional work. There was never any confusion......I suspect that sales people failing to sell boxes were blaming this on their ineptitude....and it was swallowed as the reason.
2. To cover up for his misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about running a minority sports club, the CEO pulled the name change rabbit out of a hat....
3. Because that failed, he tried to extract a "move rabbit" out of the same hat, but was thwarted for now...
4. Obligation wise, we are 33% into this licence period and we have gone backwards.....


Sorry if it's tedious to you sogspurs, but whilst you're happy to shrug your shoulders and attend Skolars games, the fact that the only top flight RL team in the SE is being butchered beore our eyes, is an issue to some.
Believe me, I'd rather discuss the roles of 6/7 and 9 this coming season and hoping that Witt, Lee, Randall and Gower all stay fit, giving us a real chance of the 8.....but every thime I think of the fiasco at TW2 it makes my blood boil.

You say the club assumed that RU fans would turn up but were they ever the target for any of the club's marketing? I honestly can't remember seeing any...EVER.

Free entry to all QRU ST holders to our first ever game as QRL.....we got spanked in front of about 8k.....double header that year that we reported as a 12k gate



.......about 2,500 watched the RL.

Other than that, it was all down to assumption......IL became distracted, DH doesn't undersatand or want to understand Marketing, our then CEO got sick and stepped aside only for a brewery guy to take over.....nobody with any of the right skills and talents was hired........I refer to it as "Field of Dreams" marketing...

It would seem that even though the SL season is spread over 8 months, London Broncos fans will only see activity at the Stoop for 62.5% of it, or 5 Months, with no home fixtures in September combined with 2 OTR games

No SL games at the Stoop in May, July or September would seem to blow the whole concept of 'summer rugby" right out of the water.....there can be no re-seeding the pitch bollox this year either.

54% of our home games will be completed by April...actually, 64% of our games at The Stoop, so by the time "summer" arrives, the choice will be 2 games in July and August each, as well as 2 OTR games, 1 in May, the other in July. As I have said, 2 other games should have been chosen IMO.....Easter game v the French and maybe the Cas game in June.....then we would have had a game in all but 1 of the 8 months!

For most London Broncos fans, the season ends on August 17th....

The decision to take 2 OTR games away from the Stoop is flawed on many levels, but none more so that the concept of a one-off game at Venue X would point to their being an appetitite for 13 games a year in 2014. Furthermore, given the idiocy that nearly saw us move to kent last year, the suggestion that Oxford could be on the cards beggars belief......London Welsh aren't getting 5k there, there is not one social or demographic linking RL to the town or region....and we would be about 60 Miles away from London.

Gillingham, wich may well rear its ugly head again, would be another monumental mistake IMO. If the club are adamant that they must move in 2014, it must only be with a number of cast iron initiatives for the fisrt season in our new, new, new, new, new, new home:

Sign a 10 year lease agreement: No more moving..it's killing the club as an entity worth following
Tennants with Power. No 're-seeding' breaks....a full season played at the ground
RFL play ball: Home and Away....week in, week out. Regularity is key to building a fan base...2013 is over before it starts with that fixture list.
Spend 250k-300k less on players and employ decent staff in key areas off the field. People who understand our sport, the minority standing and the sheer amount of effort required to make it work.
SPEND SOME FUCKING MONEY ON MARKETING: Time and time again, the club have moved, put up goal posts and expected people to turn up.....it doesn't work.

For me, an agreement with Brentford is the ideal scenario. They will look to move into a new stadium in the next few years (2016/17) and may welcome some form of investment from us.....as part owners of the stadium, we would be more likely to encourage cross sport fans IMO. As tennants, we're just the people who mess their pitch up. A move to somewhere further out than Twickenham is the end of "London" being relevant in the name.

Any discussion between Brentford FC and the Club needs to involve the RFL as well, because the current "management" of the club are incapable of organising a pi55 up at Fullers Brewery, so it may be that the RFL need to take control of a portion of our club, a la Bradford Bulls. DH can bitch all he likes about lack of or perceived lack of support from the RFL......on his watch, the club have shipped million in wasted cash and opportunities and we are not an attractive proposition at present.

As it stands, I reckon 2013 will simply be a year to forget off the pitch....the important decision on where we move to has probably already been made and therefore, very little effort will be made to attract fans to games other than the OTR events.....the team may lift the gloom over the first half of the season with home wins, but any attendance momentum built up over these 11 weeks will see the wheels come off with trips to OTR venues....the only constant will be the CEO making excuses and suggesting another name change for 2014.

Gillingham Gladiators? Oxford Orcas? Brighton Bulldogs? Milton Keynes Storm?....kit designed by Gus and supplied by his mates at MKK

You missed the word Nomads in the name

.....damn, such negelegence on my part......there again, I could be heading for the CEO's job they way this club seems to reward failure



Would anyone here like to wear this in a pub?



sorted...now where's that number of my mate at the association of Blind tailors

And to think I thought the pastels were bad!

GF have you ever offered the club your services on a commission basis- ie a % of increased ticket takings etc

Gus cant have anything to lose I wouldnt have thought

But what can be done?

Hughes and Gus aren't going to wake up this morning and have suddenly turned into marketing genuises, are they? They won't employ a competent marketing manager who'll get 10,000 on the gate for the Widnes game.

Hughes and Gus will still make the same mistakes of years gone by and continue to make these mistakes as really there is nothing the fans can do.

There isn't enough fans to even have a half sensible thought about buying the club. And fan owned clubs aren't viable long term but even so, there simply isn't enough numbers to even begin to think of a sensible bid.