Maybe the club should not be in SL then. What have we done to earn the right to be in the top flight.
it may be a hard pill to swallow but maybe we have found our level for the time being.
it might just be that we have to wait for the revolution in the sport with Toronto, ny, maybe wasps in the UK to get the interest in the sport to generate the financial backer and fans to sustain a team in the elite comp

That's how I see it NB.

1. Financial Backer? Really. Have you not met Mr Hughes? He has ploughed many many many Millions into the London Broncos and to be fair to him, has a love for the game and the patience of a saint. What he doesn't have unfortunately for the club, is an ounce of business acumen and therefore the tens of millions he invested have gone down the drain. We don't need any old financial backer, we need one with business acumen. Toronto are still in their infancy and we too had a great first season albeit in SL, but I can only imagine how different things would have been if we had had an Eric Perez on our staff 15 years ago.
2. Fans are there.....they really are. It's just that we never ask them to come. How can the RFL claim 50% of their London Event attendees are from the Capital and half the TV audiences are from the south, but we were chugging along at 4k?
October 2009 we welcomed a full house of over 12k to the stoop for an anzac test and took not one detail of anyone there.......3 months later we got 3,688 for our opening game of the season and averaged 3,200 that year?
Sticking posts in the ground, announcing the KO time and declaring we are THE GREATEST GAME is not marketing.
Going large with a multiple week (expensive) run up campaign, doing radio interviews, local papers ads and advertorials, distributing tickets to all and sundry, organising a beer festival, decent half time and full time entertainment and collecting the resulting data.......that's what Toronto Wolfpack were doing from the minute they were told they were in League One.......they were dropping and following up press releases for every signing, they produced a cable TV show....all of this didn't come cheap, but look at the TENS OF MILLIONS that have been wasted on administration costs....our SKY cash covered the 1st team wages, so pretty much all of the other revenue including Mr Hughes investment was on red tape....and don't give me the rent red herring either.....it was 200k a season and even at our lowest times we were covering that on the gate.

I know this is going over some of the old basics, but it is very unfair and I believe unfounded to say we have neither had a backer or fans, because we've had both. It's just one is myopic and as such hasn't seen or cared as the others have drifted away to the tune of about 3,400 over the last decade or so...that's an 85% drop in fans attending games.

So what you are basically saying us established rugby league fans in london area need a personal invite to the games to know they are on.
Utter tosh.
Toronto are a totally different concept, brand new sport in a whole new region hence marketing! The majority of Toronto home fans don't have a clue what a quality game if rugby is and why should they?
You could market as much as you want in london, the fans ain't going to come flicking back because of a Pieter on the underground or in the metro or the standard.
You mention the Anzac test, do you seriously think emailing texting calling all those fans would result in them rushing down to watch Swinton play? La la land dreams.
Yes I have met David Hughes
Have also met mr kougash, let's have a look how Salford get on now it's a "trust" without his money.
It's the nature of sport in this country very few pro clubs in any sport can stand on there own two feet without a backer!!!!! No amount of marketing is going to change that.

What I said was that the RFL claimed half the 67,500 who came to the big-bash semi in 2013 were from London......so if we say 30,000 of those are in London, why aren't they bothering to come to club games? Have they been asked? No point in asking you "established fans"...why preach to the choir?

I'd say that whilst Union has a higher profile in London, it's unreasonable to say that Toronto and London Broncos are totally different concepts. They are actually very similar in that they were virtually unknown at their conception and up against other more established and more ingrained sports.

I don't think I've ever suggested tube posters (sic) or METRO or Standard and certainly not in this thread???

Again, that's not what I said. What I did quite clearly say was that [uthe then club[/u failed to get details for those people and then contact them in January the following year to invite them to come back...with an incentivised offer....the only thing that that club and the current club have in common dovetails nicely into.......

Good for you. I asked because it's well over 20,000,000 that he's dropped into the club, but as yet the penny hasn't!

Again...an irrelevant comment with no bearing on what I said?I don't care how Salford go. They're not my club...and if they were, then the Owner shouting at me and deriding me for not going to games wouldn't really classify as a warm invite.....would it to you? Rarely to "wealthy egotistical fans make good owners" as they take no heed of warnings or advice as they know better.

Well on that we agree......no amount of marketing has certainly not worked for the Broncos, because that's exactly what they did.....no amount, nothing, nada, zilch!

Toronto and london are very very different. When rugby league started as a pro club in london it was not a new sport!!!! Rugby league as we know has been played in the uk for well over 100 years, so people know the game.
Toronto, the Canadians it's the introduction of a new sport, so you are trying to attract a whole different audience and the market is totally different. As I said, the majority of Toronto fans probably would not spot a decent game of rugby league if it came and kicked them up the butt.
So as Toronto and london are similar in that they are/were new clubs, london was massively different in that it was not a new sport being offered it was a known.
You can't market the product in the same way in the UK, you are highly unlikely to attract the virgin type fans that Toronto can, why because they are not there!!!!!
You say my reference to kougash is irrelevant why? Constantly you talk about the club being a rich mans folly or toy, look at nearly every RL club, they all are!!!! So it's very relevant, when the man with the money walks away, or is pushed away, look what happens to the club, so as a comparison it's very relevant.
You asked if I had met DH I simply answered, so why the sarcastic response? If you don't want an answer why ask the question?

If you take a step back and look at the club, it over performs on the pitch and underperforms off of it.

How does it over perform. Its a full time squad in a PT league.

Sadly have to agree with bosty actually I think we are over performing at the level we are playing at.

How do you come to that conclusion?

2 decent full time teams and we came second. 1 full time team in Div below and they knocked us out of the cup. Lost to a number of PT teams. Is that over performance. Fax and Fev over performed if anyone did

Calm Down pal.....and breathe.
London and Toronto are not as different as you claim in my opinion and the level of marketing activity done by the wolfpack is directly linked to the attendance's they got.......and if you're Right then getting 7k to our games should be a piece of pi55 given that all Londoners know about the sport.....

I reckon we perform (not over-perform) as expected on the park and have never performed in any way shape or form off it.

On it we are a Pro team in a semi-pro league and in reality should have finished 21-2 at the end of the season, but as happened to HKR, we got turned over by 3 part time sides who are no doubt doubly motivated when playing the full time sides....even Toronto got turned over for 3 points and they were arguably a near SL quality side in a division below us. We did as well as expected, but not as well as the owner expected!

Off it, whilst we whine, bitch and moan about who is responsible for marketing the game in the south...either the old SL Broncos or the RFL, a combination of both, or any other group or individuals, the Toronto outfit simply decided that the'yd invest heavily both on and off the park and go at it all guns blazing and the year 1 results show that they achieved an average of just shy of 7,000. To put that into perspective, SL averaged just over 9k.

I'm not apportioning blame here, just pointing out that "under-performs'" is not a phrase we have earned the right to use in terms of the off-field activities of the club and I'd say we just about "perform"on the pitch.

Just an aside the 7k claim for Toronto is quite interesting, the stadium holds 9, every game on to there looked to be an awful lot of empty space. But yep they have blown us out the water in comparison. Toronto marketing, they are selling a product that is brand new to Canada, london was trying to sell a product that the country knew about, with all its prejudices so sorry dog massively different

NB but London are selling a product that is heavily marketed in uk by Sky and BBC through weekly games, CC coverage and SL show etc

Seat counter eh? The Beer tents are rammed all day.....but hey, don't let that upset a good "conspiracy theory'




Nope.....Londoners....and I mean 99.9% of them wouldn't have known one egg chaser from 'tother!


Indeed....Quins welcomed us TWICE to kill us.









I get it Norvern bloke......it's NEVER OUR FAULT.....

You don't get it though do you dog! The challenge for Toronto will be when they start coming up against decent opposition. When they start losing games will those stood in the beer tent keep coming?
The difference when london broncos first started all those years ago, rugby league was not an unknown. As for the 99.9% of Londoners knowing one egg chaser from another! They still know rugby! And if they were not interested in yawnion why would they be interested in league, the Canadians have very little to compaire too

Oh I get it NB. If you don't market yourself, then you and your product will die, regardless of if your product is already known about or not.

I have no idea NB.......I don't own a crystal ball, but when it comes to predicting things in terms of the Broncos I have been depressingly accurate.

I am afraid it was a essentially "northern pastime" consigned to occasional Challenge Cup games on the BBC....maybe Londoners knew about it, but it was just that it existed and was played by whippet owning pigeon fanciers from Yorkshire.

At the time Union was known as an International game.....but Met Police v Bedford would attract 500 at best and there was little to play for other than the Pilkington. Neither game was of any relevance to the ordinary Londoner.....

Alas they do....as both the International Union and League sides have attracted media interest and decent sized crowds......admittedly not enough to shake the Hockey or Baseball teams, but maybe about as much as your average cockney not giving a flying about the Challenge Cup nor Pilkington Cup games over the weekend....and Canada RU have defeated Italy, England, Scotland, France, Wales and Argentina over the last 30 years whilst their League counterparts have seen crowds of 7k in Toronto for games

Going Warrington

The word is that Warrington have offered the assistant coaches job to Hendo. They want an assistant with experience of the British game and feel he is the best person for the job.
We will have to see what happens.

Signed already. Really pleased to have him on board.

A few of our fans wanted him at head Coach

Is that official or just a rumour?

If Andrew does go to Warrington, then give his job to Jamie Langley. He knows the club and in my opinion would do a fantastic job.

Would be a hard act to follow. Confess I will be really disappointed if AH does leave, especially if he is going to be an assistant. Wonder how David Hughes will take the news and what effect it will have n long term strategy??

Langley has done a great job, but does he have the experience for the coaches job?, the Rob Powell episode wasn't a great example. Jon Sharpe?

Cant help but feeling we are going to struggle next season as it stands. We have big holes in our squad and now this. The top 2 will be sewn up next season (Leigh and Toronto) leaving us to fight with Fax, Tolouse and Fev for top 4. With AA and WB going we now have 1 senior Hooker in the squad (Having lost the aforementioned two, plus Pointer and Boubeza). We have no HB cover and we are still light up front (as we have been since we ended up in the Championship). Losing AH is a massive blow to us

Have you watched the way that the team Jamie Langley coaches play. I would say he would slot right in and carry on the good work. Hendo after all was some what dropped into the head coaches job, when Joey jumped ship. So I am sure Jamie can do the same, given the chance.