wire-quin wrote:
The Challenge cup weekend has just been and gone, and was attended by fans from clubs....big and small. I attended and saw three Quins shirts and not a single London amateur club shirt. It isn't working down there, lets just accept it and move on.
Is that how success is judged these days
No but it's not a bad inidactor for the level of interest in the game...which we are always being told how massive and growing it is down there. Yet at one..if not the biggest and most traditional Rugby League event on the Calendar, this massive interest by Londoners just isn't there!
Well how shall we judge it? What actual measurable factor whall we use to judge if it is / has been successfull down there?....because every angle which the realists look at it isn't working! Ok we hear on tv a few persons saying how well it is taking off in the background...all the youngsters playing the game etc etc...yet there is nothing physically to support this suggestion, were there any London schools in the Schools finals before the Challenge Cup??? - NO!. Are these just pundits employed by, or saying the right things by SKY etc....possibly?
The factors that we use, are those that we can actually see.....not claims! actually physically see as facts.
Attendances at their home games - Poor, an not seemingly growing either!
Attendances at their away games - almost none existant!
Attendances at the big community finals Challenge cup or Grand Final - Rarely!
Financial viability - Clearly failing!
........So where is this most illusive of support? After 20 or 30 years and we are still not seeing it, it's not unreasonable to think that it doesn't exist and that it is just talked up hype and tripe!
For the few fans who do genuinely follow the Quins...credit to you. However, in terms of their eligibility for Superleague....all they do is tick a box for the almighty SKY, whose pocket our game now lives in!