Ah....but who do you blame?

Guess!

Dropping Dorn and spurning a great opportunity to play the Storm, they have lost the plot big-time!

Was it really such a bad decision? Our crowds are so small we can barely afford to turn the lights on and pay for the stewards......and suddenly we are expected to stump up all the money for setting up such a game, plus associated Storm costs, expenses etc.......all in the hope that Leeds will cough up some money to soften the blow. The RFL clearly want nothing to do with it, even though it is good for the promotion of the sport as a whole in this country (their responsibility), but as ever they expect the clubs involved, the supposed benafactors to foot the bill. Yes we may have attracted say 5,000 to a one off game, but would they have come back?......I think we all know the answer to that.
Given the `strength` of our team and the way we are playing where we are not even able to compete with the likes of Widnes and Wakefield, what sort of `game` would we have offered to Storm......nothing more than an average training session I would suggest and yet more embaressment heaped on our club who are struggling to even justify a position in Super League. Just see it for what it was guys..........an opportunity offered to us to pay part of Storms costs in being over here..........if the opportunity to play them was so advantageous how come no other SL club jumped in to take our place?

5,000 fans x £20 per ticket thats a 100 grand, plus sponsorship if the club had a clue how to get it, plus a mass of London publicity. No clearly the club were right!

The club are bent on thinking small and therefore shrinking small, we are a Championship in disguise and have been since Lenegan went.

You're right of course, we are small.

Putting on that game would have involved applying some resources on top of those which are already clearly struggling just to keep up with out current commitment to SL. DH and/or Gus and/or the invisible Dutchman decided they weren't able or willing to finance those resources and SL and the RFL couldn't or wouldn't help, so the decision made itself.

PP......if the info provided in the story link is to be believed the Broncos would have been picking up the tab for all the Storm costs and expenses......as a guess that would be for around a squad a 25 players say plus 15 support/admin people, around 40 in total. They will not be staying at a local B&B and I doubt they flew economy from OZ, so the notional £100k entrance money is already under pressure. We then have to add the costs of the ground, staff and facilities as this would be an extra fixture.

History tells us that when we have had friendlies against other NRL champions it has not exactly attracted a huge turnout of fans and the long term advantages to us have been.......er, nil.

As for a `mass of publicity`, well it did not happen before, the RFL want naf all to do with it and it would all be down to the club to do..........so I think we can safely say that will amount to zero exposure.

Yes we are a small club and will continue to shrink all the time we have the current management and a lousy team, which will no doubt result in the Broncos going tits up in the not to distant future.

The fans have had a bellyful of defeats and disappointments with this club and I for one can well do without yet another in what is going to be a long, long season.

1. We attracted 4k and 7k IIRC.......the 7k was as a result of the RFL's man in London at the time working his bollox off...the 4K a result of harlequins RL making a phone call to TNT.
2. Neither event was used to collect data.....as per ing usual, the club/rfl expected people to flock back to the stoop


3. Done PROPERLY....with a trophy (qantas cup/TNT trophy)and a big drive in direct promotion to criminal bar staff would have seen a potential 10k attendance......
4. The RFL have patently given up on London and will let us die when DH walks......

the club is a dead man walking.......they tried to move to Gillingham and the RFL said no....our future is now in the hands of a bloke I suspect spends more time updating his CV (or maybe he gets his PA to do it for him) and planning 2 course menus than attracting investors

A fair call. I was one of the hardy 150 or so souls who woukld regularly turn up at games at the likes of Crystal Paklace and Chiswick, seeing a poor team lose regularly but at least there was some hope that things would turn around some day. I can't see any hope at all now unless either the RFL or Sky step in and completely revitalise this club.
As it is, I'm looking forward to seeing the new Oxford team in action.

That's exactly where I'll be heading come March

It was 3612 last time out against the Storm in 2010. So I'm guessing that this time around it would have been considerably less

And me, for at least a few games. It would help if they released some ticketing info ...

Obviously I don't expect you to name sources, but is that reasonably accurate about the RFL blocking Gillingham or just a bit of speculation?

I heard the same from Quins sources a few weeks ago.

Sad to say, I've since heard the opposite from someone connected to one of our players, so I am not at all sure now that Gillingham won't come off.

Think we'll end up wherever we can afford (and that may be Gillingham).

BTW, all the stuff about players having to move to Kent is a red herring, imo. They will continue to live and train where they are and just drive to wherever on matchday...no different from a lot of the journeys the Northern players do.

Still live in hope that good sense may prevail and Quins will continue to host us for an affordable rent.

I've no reason the doubt my source.

Its never going to be easy for any London side, the game in the south lacks any kind of identity.The clubs changed its name, and venues far too often. I traveled in from Essex to the game and it took me just over 3 hours. I remember going to Craven Cottage to a c c game and the place was packed. One of the safety team on duty on Sunday said that it would be Londons last season in SL. I remember going to Craven Cottage for a C C game and the place was packed
One things for sure your present ground aint the future. Why not take the game on the road, visiting and playing the east of London.
I wish you all the best for the future , Im sure the club are trying to pull the crowds in and hopefully things will look up after a couple of good results.

£12 entrance, I think they said £6 for concessions. No plans for season tickets at the moment, but looking at a "membership scheme", I'm not sure what that involves though

Thanks for that.
Vaikona's disappearance for "family reasons" even before they start is a bit of a downer.

True, but I reckon they've made a smart move in appointing Tony Benson.

Fair enough. I'm begining to wonder if the RFL has had a basinful of us and would be more than happy to wave bye-bye. I know that I tend (sic) to bang on a bit about the Crusaders, but when I see a Championship 1 side get in over 400 for a pre-season friendly with an amateur team and the supporters in their new replica tops buzzing with enthusiasm for the season to come and then contemplate the disaster that we are I couldn't in my heart of hearts critise the RFL if they did give us the boot!

I think the allocation of no group RLWC games to a london ground speaks volumes of the RFL's attitude to the capital.......
NZ v PNG & Australia v Ireland would all have come close to filling the Stoop IMHO and I doubt either will get 15,000 where they are scheduled to be played now.

IIRC the RFL wanted 'host towns' to provide certain things like marketing and community events for the games they've been allocated. I don't think Boris / GLA / Councils / Stadia bid for any games to be held in London.

It would be disapointing to say the least if the broncos and the rfl hadn't pushed the local council for help to put on a rlwc game

There is a RL World Cup in Gillingham over the summer. Now if you all moved.

And a whole bunch of whippet racing flat cappers will love that!