I've just read Hughes's Statement.
Christ on a bike....the man's an idiot!


No poop sherlock. You've had 15 years of going backwards and you're about to be handed £1.8 million which you and your useless Hockey loving accountant will P up the wall and achieve nothing. Ask yourself some hard questions Hughes.

Why did we leave Quins? Why did we revert back to the Broncos name? Why did we leave the Hive? Why did we move into the "perfect" Trailfinders? Why did the perfect Trailfinders not work? How many more fans and to be precise how much more revenue has the move to Merton delivered. What is the plan now? Are there targets and consequences for missing them? Why has the Commercial Manager still got a job when we've had no shirt sponsor this year?

All these moves resulted in us going backwards.

It's just farcical that you're that much of a narcissist that you'll continue to spaz money away rather than admit defeat.

My initial mirth has now turned to outright ire at your utter incompetence. If IMG had been asked to grade us in the same way in 2008 we'd be very close to a Grade A ...now we are a gnats hair from being a C Grade club

The mismanagement of the club in the past two decade has well and truly come home to roost.

After promotion I.saw a fan on social media saying they wondered what some fans would possibly find to moan about now...

Unbelievably, on Facebook there are fans who still haven't twigged that Hughes is the reason we have this rating.

So I have not really posted much on this, as fully expected we would be this low.... For me however it looks like London and Cas out of SL next year and Tolouse and Bradford in....

Not sure what the approach is for next year. Why would you spend money on the squad next year, we are going down anyway, but will you get crowds if your conceeding 50+ each game

.......Hughes and Lobster couldn't attract crowds even if we were sticking 50 on Wigan and Leeds week in week out, but you've just highlighted the excuse that will no doubt be rolled out at the end of 2025.

Maybe we should sell our place in SL next season to any club prepared to pay £500k for the privilege.

Or put it on eBay with no reserve! Cash on collection only though...

Sounds a plan that is better than Lobster would come up with.

It has little to do with my humility and more to do with the close to 2 decades of me trying to get Hughes to comprehend what was important. I may not have been the only one, or even the first but I would hazzard a guess that I have been the most prolific voice when it came to the need for the club to focus on attracting fans and attention to itself. I've met with them and the RFL and offered viable cost effective ways to organically grow gates but even though encouraged to listen to me by the RFL, Hughes ignored me. Oyster card holders in Canary wharf and stickers on black cabs is about the long and the short of it. Lazy above the line tube advertising. I've often pointed out that the only ground we left with more fans than when we arrived was Brentford and AFAIK that is the only ground where fans would meet on a Thursday night to leaflet drop the neighbours. Even then, Chris Warren didn't help other than to print the leaflets....volunteers did the work.
Interestingly, since moving to NZ I've set up a company that has helped 2 professional sports teams grow their crowds. One of these now regularly sell out their games, so no, I don't do humility. I do however get results!
Here's a thought for you. We were at trailfinders for a few years. When I'm back in London, I stay at a mates flat a 5 minute walk away and a great number of our friends live in West Ealing and Hanwell, but none of them have ever had a letter, leaflet, seen an advert for the Broncos. That's criminal in my opinion. Hughes prattles on about corporate income and it "not being fair" but the reality is he just doesn't understand why fans don't flock to the game HE likes.....like most RL fans he's myopic in his passion and prejudice against anyone or anything that doesn't "get it".
Don't get me wrong. £30,000,000 is a hell of an investment, but in truth, if he'd spent 10% of that.on marketing we'd probably be bolted on for a SL spot in 2025.

Absolutely. I've zero argument with any of that: it's what we've all grown to expect.

Add to that, we moved from Trailfinders as it wasn't fit for Super League. Apparently.

Good job then: our move to Wimbledon really shot us up the IMG rankings.

Oh, hold on a minute...

Yes Benny but the RFL told us we couldn’t play in SL if we stayed at Trailfinders whereas at PL we can....if we have enough IMG points.....which we don’t... hold on somethings gone wrong here. Why did we move again?

Perhaps the management misjudged what the ranking criteria would be and thought they could get some easy points. In reality, the fact our crowd barely touch the sides of the stadium and we can't play all our games there count against us.

Yes that’s my conclusion as well. On the plus side next season is a real acid test for the move. My expectation is two sides of the stadium will be opened, possibly three. Decent crowds - now we’ll see if there are benefits To moving to a big stadium. Real need to get a coherent comms/awareness raising programme on in the weeks before start of the season and real engagement with the surrounding areas of Wimbledon and Tooting. My slight concerns, over and above the obvious, are a) what day will we be playing? If it’s Thursday that will affect attendance badly; and b) how accessible is PL to away fans. To my eyes it looked like lots drove to Ealing, parked up basically outside the stadium jobs a good ‘in. PL is an entirely different bag. I don’t see where they park and am not even sure where the paid for parking is.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... per-league Headline is a bit ‘No **** Sherlock’. Surely Thursday night fixtures will further kill off any chance of increasing attendances?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... per-league Headline is a bit ‘No **** Sherlock’. Surely Thursday night fixtures will further kill off any chance of increasing attendances?

Quote ="BigTime"Yes that’s my conclusion as well. On the plus side next season is a real acid test for the move. My expectation is two sides of the stadium will be opened, possibly three. Decent crowds - now we’ll see if there are benefits To moving to a big stadium. Real need to get a coherent comms/awareness raising programme on in the weeks before start of the season and real engagement with the surrounding areas of Wimbledon and Tooting. My slight concerns, over and above the obvious, are a) what day will we be playing? If it’s Thursday that will affect attendance badly; and b) how accessible is PL to away fans. To my eyes it looked like lots drove to Ealing, parked up basically outside the stadium jobs a good ‘in. PL is an entirely different bag. I don’t see where they park and am not even sure where the paid for parking is.'" Big Time. I did a write-up on Parking options before last season. If I didn't live locally, if I choose to drive I'd be confident of finding a parking spot. Hope that provides some options. North Road is the area you'd feel most comfortable leaving your car if you feel the Industrial areas are too quiet. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=636922

Quote ="BigTime"Yes that’s my conclusion as well. On the plus side next season is a real acid test for the move. My expectation is two sides of the stadium will be opened, possibly three. Decent crowds - now we’ll see if there are benefits To moving to a big stadium. Real need to get a coherent comms/awareness raising programme on in the weeks before start of the season and real engagement with the surrounding areas of Wimbledon and Tooting. My slight concerns, over and above the obvious, are a) what day will we be playing? If it’s Thursday that will affect attendance badly; and b) how accessible is PL to away fans. To my eyes it looked like lots drove to Ealing, parked up basically outside the stadium jobs a good ‘in. PL is an entirely different bag. I don’t see where they park and am not even sure where the paid for parking is.'" Big Time. I did a write-up on Parking options before last season. If I didn't live locally, if I choose to drive I'd be confident of finding a parking spot. Hope that provides some options. North Road is the area you'd feel most comfortable leaving your car if you feel the Industrial areas are too quiet. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=636922

Plough Lane is almost at gridlock between 5.30 & 6.30pm whenever I go along it during the week.

Yup that Greggs sure is popular. Or is it the Broncos club shop? I note all stock sold out!

Think that is 5 shirts & we all know who bought the bobble hat.

Quote ="Smithers99"Big Time. I did a write-up on Parking options before last season. If I didn't live locally, if I choose to drive I'd be confident of finding a parking spot. Hope that provides some options. North Road is the area you'd feel most comfortable leaving your car if you feel the Industrial areas are too quiet. https://www.rlfans.com/forums/viewtopic ... 7&t=636922'" I recall but when I walk from T Broadway I can’t see any viable parking options and I took a saunter passed Lidl up to Haywoods Rd station and could t see anything that way. I can’t quite picture where North Road is but hopefully our Northern amigos will note your inside knowledge and act accordingly. Definitely the more the merrier.

Quote ="Smithers99"Big Time. I did a write-up on Parking options before last season. If I didn't live locally, if I choose to drive I'd be confident of finding a parking spot. Hope that provides some options. North Road is the area you'd feel most comfortable leaving your car if you feel the Industrial areas are too quiet. https://www.rlfans.com/forums/viewtopic ... 7&t=636922'" I recall but when I walk from T Broadway I can’t see any viable parking options and I took a saunter passed Lidl up to Haywoods Rd station and could t see anything that way. I can’t quite picture where North Road is but hopefully our Northern amigos will note your inside knowledge and act accordingly. Definitely the more the merrier.

Without wishing to be too negative over next season's potential floggings, a good afternoon's entertainment can be had wandering around Hobbycraft across the road.

Would buy more if I could!

I'm sure you will get the chance to buy more come next April.

Could have fitted into a few threads tbh https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... gby-league

Could have fitted into a few threads tbh https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... gby-league

It’s pleasing to see that instead of moaning about how unfair it all is Mike Eccles is just going to get on with things on the playing/ training side of things.
One thing does bug me from the article, having a strong academy apparently counts for nothing according to IMG.
Seems very wrong to me.

The Broncos claim our academy is relatively well funded but on the field they only won one game last season (against Newcastle Thunder who lost every game) with the scholarship side losing every game heavily. So even if IMG did give points for the academy we wouldn't be getting much if based on results.