Good day that, apart from Thaler's debut. I even got to chat to Tommy Sale who I hadn't seen for the best part of half a century. Is he still around at Leigh and has one of the LSV stands been named after him?

goes to all the home games, also saw him at batley away a few week ago. Still wears the hat he has wore for ages!! If im correct im sure they named a road after him (sale way)

Anyway, to try and get the thread back to where it was before we all started arguing with each other....
In order for Quins RL to get more bums on seats, we need:
1) A (very) successful team
2) A team who don't regularly play poop RL at home.
3) A huge (and unlikely) injection of funds to the marketing budget which would buy media time, get us featured in London's local newspapers (who never cover the club) and on local TV news in London.
4) To stay at the same stadium for the long term - we have a superb ground with marvellous facilities.

Which probably tells us that Saturday at 3pm is not the appropriate time to play

I agree that one neesd to be picked and stuck to but sadly the one they have picked is hardly being used

So whats the answer CB? tell us what day is best and provide some hard facts that supports your argument.

I take it you wont be coming Sat due to the sun that is forecast.

Why are we givig this guy the time of day? Wow, cheers 'jonny the leyrther' you're original and exciting veiwpoint on RL in London means that you have put forward arguments that have left us all desperately scratching out heads.

Why don't you just f off. The people on this forum love Rugby League and they go and support it in London, and there all fairly tired of the growing the game here arguments that have been thrown around and around.

If you have some wonderful new insight, stick it in that new technology in Leigh they call 'ink' to the RFL- I love the game and I go from your equivalent of Leigh to Knutsford every week (which isn't actually far comparartively).

Strange logic CB....how on earth do you arrive at the conclusion that Sat 3pm (which probably strikes a chord with most sports fans) is not appropriate just because management have only seen fit to schedule a couple of games at this time????

So if this is the case, by process of elimination all the Sunday games (whether or not the KO has been at 2.00 or 17.45) which have added nothing to the gate (and reduced the bar takings) have all been a great success.................absolutely bonkers

The Twickenham Stoop is a purpose built RUGBY stadium. No other sports apart from the 2 codes are played there....unlike some of the other bigger better stadiums. The Olympic stadium is designed as an athletics venue......ie, it has 8 lanes of track (10 meters minimum) between the crowd and where the pitch would be........25-30 meters behind the sticks. Twickenham Stoop has state of the art facilities including a sports injury clinic, Gymnasium, massive bar(s) plenty of boxes for corporate hospitality and is also seen as a great day out by most RL fans who bother to travel south once a year for their teams game. The Olympic stadium will probably have facilities that will be bigger....but not better. 3k fans rattling around a 14k seater ground is better than 4k rattling around a 25k seater......and regardles of what you think, ANZACS will not go to games...even if it were free entry..if they have to travel for more than 10 minutes and the escelator from the tube takes them directly to their seat.
To Buy Quins, relocate to East London and prop them up for a minimum of 10 years in their new location would cost a minimum of 20,000,000.....not exactly a small amount in the current financial climate.
Lastly........attract better players? From where? We have the most English Squad in SL..........do you mean attract more Australians...yeah, that's a step in the right direction. We blooded a young kid recently, 17 yr old prop from Feltham. It's taken years of hard work to get kids like this ready to step up...are you saying we bin them for Bigger Names? Are you saying we move 25 miles across town in the hope that cockney soccer fans or the east End community embrace RL....unlike the south East (Charlton) community?

Is it because the media in London are pro RU/anti RL.

Not really. Bloke called Jones was the sports editor at the Standard (may still be) and he was pro union....but as far as I know, the RFL/Quins offered to PAY for editorial content in Metro and were told that there was no interest...so no point?
The problem is (and I know I go on about it), the LOCAL area is where the club should be targeting...forget Anzacs or the rest of london for now......get the locals down to watch. There are 250k residents local....invite them to come and see a game....they can get to the ground easily, they can identify with the local brand and they can be canvased afterwards to see what they think......

Nice.

Can I just ask a favour of the mod of your board and ban me from it please. I don't even ever want the temptation to come on and discuss the game in London anymore, it's not worth my time getting abuse and basically sworn at every 5 minutes.

Do you think people who come on this board abuse people for no reason or have you possibly considered it may be something you have brought on yourself.

Why do you need to be banned- have you heard of self control.

Maybe when Leigh get a franchise you will want to come back and offer your sincere thanks to the club and supporters for a wonderful game day experience at the Stoop-In front of a big crowd!

This is exactly the reason I won't be bothering.
I know what self-control is, but in a moment of madness I may actually start caring about the game in London again. I love how the Harlequins fans can't discuss their problems without being so aggressive. It didn't occur to you that other fans havn't spoke about your problems as much as you have? How ignorant are you? It comes down to swearing at people and abusing the places they come from, and you turn it into a you v us arguement, that was never the intention. The intention was to have an adult discussion about the game in London and how it can progress. I never said my ideas were right or wrong, I can form my own opinions on that after finding out from the people who know better, i.e the Quins fans.

Leigh won't get a franchise, there are too many clubs in front of them. We are a small town that has over achieved if anything. I hope that RL does succeed in London, but I doubt that if it does happen, it will be under the name Harlequins RL and I doubt it will be at 'The Twickenham Stoop'.

I think you are looking at your case in isolation-How many other posters do you believe have come onto the Quins site and said-this isn’t working, London rugby shouldn’t be, small crowds, it’s a northern game etc- Go into the VT and look at any thread that discusses crowds and I’m willing to bet that it eventually turns into an anti Quins thread. See for yourself.

Without being funny or coming across as aggressive do you not think that we are as worried about the state of the crowds as everyone else. We have professional marketers, business people etc who come on here who have all offered their solution to increase crowds. There is no immediate obvious answer- Your solution which includes moving is possibly one of the options we can’t try as it has failed on several occasions in the past-we need a permanent home.

At least you're being civil mate! I think Quins need a backer, a big rich backer who sets fire to £50 notes and puts them in his ears. Everything I hear about yawnion is saying every club is broke with the exception of Leicester and Sale (and they're homeless but have a sugar daddy) If you could get a backer, RL in London WOULD kick off. It got close a few years ago until Branson pulled out.

JtL my suggestion is speak to Gutterfax he probably has his own thread on it.

Jonny-We have an oil magnet running the club who props the club up to the tune of 1.9 million a year.

What we dont have is fans

I didn't know that, that's good news, how rich is he? Is he Abramovich rich? Dave Whelan rich or Dev from Corrie rich?

whats the salary cap these days? does it go off the amount of money the club brings in??

How much wire/pies and saints can get away with

edited for accuracy

Well I guess the logic is that if matches are not at 3pm on a Saturday then there must be a reason for that. I assume this is because

1. The stadium is not available
2. They think running at a time other than 3pm on Saturday is a better bet

The deduction is that doe SOME reason Saturday 3pm is not being used, if its either of these reasons then surely it stands to reason that it is inappropriate. If it was appropriate then all but the SKY games would be played then wouldn't they ?

Whether its Saturday or Sunday it has to be consistent. Wuins are the only club who have more than two home game times. Most have two, normal and SKY, Quins have 4 or 5, stands to reason that while that is the case people will not be able to plan to be there

BTW Is there any factual evidence that bar takings on a Saturday are greater ??




Sadly I have moved on and I am one of the lost supporters in terms of attending games. Slate me if you wish but there are I am afraid too many like me over the past few years and that is a major issue that the club have. Do I have the answer ? Probably no but the answer is certainly not the path that is being followed at the moment unless you believe all in the garden is rosy. The answer is a solution which retains the current support base, wins back some of those lost and then goes on to win new ones. There are however hard facts to say that todays solution is NOT working

As you wish to slate me I assume you have your own solution ??

...
you carry on CB.........hopefully people will have a go at you for pointing out what's obvious rather than me



I have been publicly hammered on these boards for saying exactly what you have...the management at the club are failing in most areas and most importantly there seems to be no urgency or desire to increase attendances. At the start of the year, we were treated to attempts to market the game, with on-line activity and oyster card holders, together with the viral campaign. We were told that these were part of a massive marketing campaign......but when they failed, the marketing dried up.......again. Furthermore, the culture change in the back office that was touted by PB sounded like a good idea, but yet again, the club seems to have reverted to type.
Sorry...I know DH will prop the club up and I know this is nothing that the fans can influence, but if there are more people like you CB, who have drifted away (and we are 20% down on last year and 30% down on 2006), then I say that the fans are influencing the state of the club....by leaving


Still, you carry on CB......at least I won't be the only one getting it in the ear

Do we believe that moving times affects the attendance- Are our lives that structured that we aren’t flexible enough to adjust (that’s a question not a statement). I have friends who travel to watch Man Utd from the south and they have commented that Utd play most of there games outside of the traditional Sat afternoon at 3pm. This doesn’t appear to affect them and there attendance record- Isolated example I accept.

I don’t know what the general feeling is from the supporters but I’m not convinced the date/time the game is played is a huge factor, although I’m happy to accept it is a factor- you could also cite

Poor team- undoubtedly success brings in fans-just look at Chelsea’s popularity, Wigan’s increased crowds
Recession- there is no question the working class budgets are tighter
Away fans have more than one attractive away day-Catalans etc- I hear the don’t rely on away fans call
Transient club- Moving between grounds regularly doesn’t held build roots

I’m sure those who have stopped going have there own and I suspect very different reasons for not attending.

For me I get to see top class rugby league(!!!) in a superb facility, relatively cheap. Having watched the game at Wilderspool for years I know where I would prefer to watch rugby league and that includes more recently the modern HJ stadium. All you get there is what you pay for-if it’s a terraced ticket you get to stand and grab a beer from the concourse – nothing else. How is that better than what’s served up at the Stoop.

Life is about choices- CB you like your speedway (I used to watch Bell Vue and lived in the same road as Peter Collins ex WC) but my preference is league.

Agree entirely that they need to settle on a given day/time for all home matches (and accept that SKY will mess up any arrangement at some stage). Having a permanent home should have resolved this, but game day and ko time is as chaotic now as it was in years gone by.

I remember that some time ago the club said they were to experiment with match day arrangements and decide on what was best (taking into account the views expressed by the fans), but when did they or when will they arrive at a decision??? I agree that in the meantime this constant change is probably costing us fans.

I seem to recall that you were a strong supporter of a Sunday game and I think this influences your comments.......I prefer Saturday, so on this issue we will have to agree to disagree.

With regard to factual evidence.......well the crowd numbers are an indicator that the Sunday games are not a great success. I am not privvy to the till receipts in the bar, but as I attend all the home games (you should try it

) I can state that the bar is busier on Saturday evenings after the game than on a Sunday when many seem to drift away straight after the game.......does not take much working out.