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.

What if the RFL were to step in?

The probem with that would be the inevitable cries of conflict of interest, just look at all the bad mouthing they got (admittedly with some justification) over Bradford. What really hacks me off about all this is that, fingers crossed, we're at last looking reasonably stable on the pitch.

But are the Bulls suffering now? they picked up one of the biggest sponsorships ever in the game, we still don't have a sponsor for Superleague or the Challenge Cup. The RFL should have been involved for a long time with a London Superleague club, a ground which should have become RFL Heeadquarters for the South, a centre of excellency for rugby league in the south of England. The only real chance of survival is for rugby league to accept they will have to become involved full time to ensure the game does survive in London/

I worked with the RFL trying to steer the club down the right route in 2006/07.......The RFL paid consultant and I put together a number of plans, all of which were ignored by the club...once bitten, twice shy I am afraid.

6 years later and we ain't heard the end of it.

He asked

When I said we have to swallow it I was referring to us having to play MNF this year as we all know it won't go well, what I am bored to death of is every thread being turned into the same thing, and bored of hearing scaremongering about us moving to Milton Keynes or Oxford or anywhere stupid like that.

Don't get me wrong here either GF I care very much about the club and want it to carry on being based in London (preferably the stoop) and I want it to be successful and well run and I think most of your suggestions are great ideas that should be considered or implemented but you are preaching to the converted on here with us, we know what's wrong but most of us are on here to talk about other issues involving the club, in this instance the fixtures.

Regarding the Leeds Monday night game I thought when MNF came in last year both us and Catalans were "exempt" from it.

Me too. Haven't checked Dragons fixtures, does anyone know if they have a monday night game?

Agree with just about everything GF has said. RFL probably do need to step in, certainly on a negotiating front - if for no other.

if we cannot/wont stay at the Stoop, it seems to me there are only two sensible options? Brentford, somehow buy into it (RFL? Me if i win the euromillions - though i believe you have to buy a ticket to win.....................) or Barnett with Sarries. just because it didnt work with Quins, doesnt mean it wont work with them.

I prefer Brentford but............................................

we have to sort and soon and market!

Given the way they continually fail upwards, instead of downwards, Saffercens RL would probably turn out to be a blessing.

Schalk Brits would also be a fantastic hooker on a cross code deal.

What a crap looking fixture list...the RFL and Sky do us no favours at all (as usual).

The only good thing is that the Sunday matches are all 3pm KO (well done!) and from my point of view, I won't miss any home matches whilst I'm in Durham watching England flog the Aussies in the Ashes

hi first off i am a widnes fan

as you are aware we play you guys first up on the 3rd of feb. the day before england play scotland at twickers in union would it not be an idea for your pr dept to advertise in the local hotels and bars around the twickers area and get your youth team and members of the pr team out on the street on the sat withy t shirts flyers banners and posters trying to poach some of the fans to come to the game on sunday . maybe even offer some kind of incentive ie any england or scotland fan who retains there ticket stub for the union game can get into the stoop for only 10 pound on producing said stub. for getting in and around the fans on the sat for two hours before the game and for an hour or two in the bars etc after it may grab some extra fans for the game. even if just 1% thats another 800 fans watching that would not have been there . i myself will be there again this year maybe with a new clown mask liked the long bar but still prefare griffin park . i reckon this year the broncos will do what wakefield did last year and be the suprise package now that tony rea is back on board . my prediction for your finish is between 10th and 8th. see you all on the third big hoss xx

That sounds like it would involve the club doing some work.

Clearly they have already decided there are no rugby fans in the TW area so are looking to move.

Interesting that in the places being mooted as possible out of London homes, even the well established football clubs barely attract the crowds that would be needed to make us financially self sufficient.

Do we think we can attract the same number or more fans than football ? I very much doubt we could attract even half that number except for perhaps a one off game.

Fortunately, no-one would be stupid enough to make decisions like that on the basis of one off games

Funnily enough, of all the groundsthat have been mentioned in dispatchesover the last 12 months with regard to a home for the London Broncos, only one actually has a current owner/tenant who attracts over a 10,000 average......it's HARLEQUINS RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB



Brentford, about 6.5 to 8k.....Orient about 4k, gillingham about 2k, Oxford United about 6k London Welsh about 5k.......

but as you say, nobody would be stupid enough to move us anywhere based on a one off game...would they

I don't think it matters what attendances the London Football and Rugby Union club's get because they are entirely different entities to London Broncos. What the London Broncos need to do is to make ties within their local community (wherever that may be) and market themselves to those in their immediate vicinity.

I don't see how a move to Saracens new ground would be any better than staying at the Stoop. Saracens have their own fanbase of 4,000 or so and I imagine many of them will go to Barnet with them when they move from Watford. If they do lose a following then I imagine that the Saracens marketing team will be out in the community of Barnet to push the club. What would happen if the Broncos moved there? There would be no marketing and almost no integration into the local community under this current regime.

I would not be surprised to see a move out of London to a town/city with a small football club. The short lived success of the Celtic Crusaders move to Wrexham would be the model. Wrexham had a struggling football side and the Crusaders moved in and the Rugby League crowds were okay for a expansion side (around the 3.5k mark) and even took decent away followings to games at Warrington and Wigan IIRC. However, the Crusaders marketed their first game heavily and got their rewards.

The moral of this post, MARKET YOURSELVES.

Chatham Drongos it is then.

Honestly?

Well it gives you a good idea of the potential crowds you could attract. I think you would be happy to get, for example, 50% of that gate initially and look to grow from there. I don't see that you could realistically expect to attract more than an established football club.

we grew crowds at Griffin Park.....it's the only venue we actually did that and by some strange coincidence, it's also the place where the volunteers did leaflet drops, the club put a couple of adverts on local bus shelters and we reached out to the "nomadic bar staff" for particular games.

in 2012 the Club put all their marketing eggs in a basket that in the end contained, a rebrand 3 months before the season started, a season ticket offer to "bring a mate", a video that was shown on a loop in certain bars across the capital, a dozen liveried cabs, a quarter page advert in Metro (or was it the Standard?) and an offer (may have been 2) on a "dailydeal" type website........this was the entire campaign for a season that lasted 8 months....for the only professional team south of Manchester......



None of the above, including the rebrand, resulted in any attendance figure that was above the 16 season average for the visit of the associated visiting club.....in short, they failed.

Does anyone have any faith in 2013 being better off the pitch than the previous 2 seasons?

I can see the big push in 2013 being SELCO giving free tickets to games with every purchase of a bag of nails

Would that be for nails in the coffin?

Broncos til they die, we're Broncos til they die, or change their name or change their ground, we're Broncos til they die.