Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:53 pm  

It's so frustrating. Today - i switch on the telly and see blanket coverage of a frikkin' boat race, with the banks of The Thames packed with spectators. Tried Rugby Uinion on Sky Sports: and i mean really tried - to see the qualities in this game. You can see the difference in skills and fitness compared to RL. it's a total bore-athon. Yet, this game is head and shoulders over ours in terms of presentation and take-up and media coverage. I feel like doing this ........

It is incredibly frustrating. I don't know if its been covered on these boards before but what I find particularly baffling is that there have to be at least 100,000 people within 90min to 2 hours of the Stoop who are ex pat heartland club supporters / followers or who watch the game regularly on Sky. I can't back this figure up with demographic or census survey information so its very much a guesstimate. If correct and if these people just attended one game a year they, coupled with the hardcore support, casual support and away support would take the attendance average to over 10,000 for each of the seasons Superleague home ties, if they bought one friend or family member then we would sell the Stoop out every week! However it would appear that they are just not interested in watching live Super League if London are involved. Poor London team, aside I have still seen some terrific rugby played there and the odd upset makes for a fantastic day. Cost cannot be an issue £15 for a ticket, £8.50 for a travel card if coming from within London and no more than £20 by train even if travelling from the sussex south coast. Strange.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Sun Apr 08, 2012 4:54 pm  

sanjunien wrote:

no mate,seriously - you win

It's a pointless operation trying to convince someone with such inflexible ideas that the Broncos or whatver the latest product name will be is anything other than a great success !

you win,hands down - I have no argument

just to say about SKY money - that is a constant,along with salary caps and the number of tackles allowed in a set etc etc which,by definition applies to ALL clubs - all my perceived failings with the Broncos are just pie in the sky

no really,I apologise,you are quite correct - my best wishes for the success story which is the eerrghh Broncos

I would just like to repeat and earlier line which passed without comment - my nephew who lives just down the road fromp the Stoop at Strawberry Hill (about half an hours walk) attended the Catalans game (he's from catalunya and went to support the french) and he reckons there were less than a thousand speccies present (certainly not 1869 or whatever) which means absolutely nowt as of course crowd numbers aren't an important factor it seems.

It is because of my flexibility in thought and my understanding of how rules work that I can see that you are wrong, you're being inflexible by continuing with your arguement that the London team are not worthy of the spot yet have failed to point out any credible arguement to back it up that could then not be applied to other teams both past & present.
I always knew sarcasm was the lowest form of wit and I'm glad youi've upheld that for me, it shows even further that you cannot hold a debate properly, I see little benefit in going forward as you've clearly got some sort of an agenda & will not be swayed one iota despite the fact you're so clearly wrong.
thanks though because it's been an enjoyable few posts clearing up matters with regarding the Broncos 'worthyness' maybe next time you should pick your arguements better when you actually have something solid to put forward otherwise I'm not sure I see the point of making yourself look 'silly' (your words not mine)
And in case you didn't know I'm a Hull FC fan, I've never supported Broncos/Quins though they are my closest club geographically.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:30 pm  

As far as attendance figures are concerned, on Friday the gate given out for Saints - Wigan was 17980, 20 short of the official capacity of Langtree Park. To my eyes there were a damn sight more than 20 empty seats in the stand opposite the cameras alone and yet, funnily enough, I haven't read any comments about this.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:39 pm  

knockersbumpMKII wrote:

It is because of my flexibility in thought and my understanding of how rules work that I can see that you are wrong, you're being inflexible by continuing with your arguement that the London team are not worthy of the spot yet have failed to point out any credible arguement to back it up that could then not be applied to other teams both past & present.
I always knew sarcasm was the lowest form of wit and I'm glad youi've upheld that for me, it shows even further that you cannot hold a debate properly, I see little benefit in going forward as you've clearly got some sort of an agenda & will not be swayed one iota despite the fact you're so clearly wrong.
thanks though because it's been an enjoyable few posts clearing up matters with regarding the Broncos 'worthyness' maybe next time you should pick your arguements better when you actually have something solid to put forward otherwise I'm not sure I see the point of making yourself look 'silly' (your words not mine)
And in case you didn't know I'm a Hull FC fan, I've never supported Broncos/Quins though they are my closest club geographically.

is it important that you are a Hull fan ? what's the relevance ?

it does explain your inability to be able to spell correctly though ! (worthYness ? arguEment ?)

keep up the good work and maybe actually try to read my posts and come to tangible conclusions without trying to guess what my thoughts are

thanks for the entertainment - now I understand why you have no idea of how the real world works - do you spend a lot of time around Springbank maybe ?

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:02 pm  

The day that David Hughes figures out that INCREASED FAN NUMBERS= INCREASED REVENUE STREAM = INCREASED INTEREST FROM INVESTORS = MORE INCREASED REVENUE = NEARER FINANCIAL STABILITY, then London Broncos can start the process of becoming self sufficient.
CC Final 1999.....Play-offs in 2003 and 2005 and cockney players in the England team are all well and good, but when David Hughes walks away and if the RFL/SKY don't step in, then that will be that........

Alas, since I first met the then Marketing Manager ( a players wife IIRC) in a port-a-cabin at the Stoop in 1999, the club have always maintained that they couldn't afford to market themselves...that there was no money available.......and this consistant denial of funds to the one area that could have helped the club build towards self sufficiency is now resulting in the situation they have now.

Rugby League is not a mainstream sport, especially in the eyes of the Southern based Public and this is where the various owners of the London team have gone wrong. You need to market the game to attract fans...you can't expect ex-pat Northerners to adopt us as a team or Aussies here for a year to fork out money they'd rather spend in Prague on a weekend away.......you need to build an identity with a community and then invite people to come and watch.....

Whatever the club try now they are pretty much damned to failure.....after Dewsbury in the cup, it's nearly 2 months until they are back at the Stoop.....if they continue to get spanked on the park, does anyone realistically expect their gates to get better?

2012 could well be the last year for the club in ESL.......and like the fans of Bradford, it is only the fans of London who will deserve any sympathy.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:44 pm  

GF no offence but you might as well quit calling it ESL - in reality it's not been the European Super League since 1997, and 13 British teams + 1 French is hardly a 'European' league. Expansion will never take off like some hoped, time to face the truth I'm afraid.

Keighley or York for SL 2013.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:02 pm  

The Chronicler of Chiswic wrote:

As far as attendance figures are concerned, on Friday the gate given out for Saints - Wigan was 17980, 20 short of the official capacity of Langtree Park. To my eyes there were a damn sight more than 20 empty seats in the stand opposite the cameras alone and yet, funnily enough, I haven't read any comments about this.

That was down to health and safety restrictions or whatever as tickets were like gold dust having been sold out 2/3 weeks in advance.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:22 pm  

The Chronicler of Chiswic wrote:

As far as attendance figures are concerned, on Friday the gate given out for Saints - Wigan was 17980, 20 short of the official capacity of Langtree Park. To my eyes there were a damn sight more than 20 empty seats in the stand opposite the cameras alone and yet, funnily enough, I haven't read any comments about this.

the same at Gilbert Brutus there was a full house though there were about 200 empty seats in the main stand - this is due to the new hospitality lounge now being open in the new stand and all the sponsors & invited visitors etc spending the game in the lounge rather than in the stand - very nice work if you can get it !

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:33 pm  

sanjunien wrote:

the same at Gilbert Brutus there was a full house though there were about 200 empty seats in the main stand - this is due to the new hospitality lounge now being open in the new stand and all the sponsors & invited visitors etc spending the game in the lounge rather than in the stand - very nice work if you can get it !

As the gaps were dotted about the place, you're probably nearer the truth - being RL that didn't occur to me. I was talking to a Stoke supporter at Wrexham yesterday (!) who said that when it's a televised game there some supporters watch it on the TVs in the concourse as you're not allowed to take alcohol back to the seats.

Re: Can London Broncos survive much longer? : Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:46 pm  

The Chronicler of Chiswic wrote:

As the gaps were dotted about the place, you're probably nearer the truth - being RL that didn't occur to me. I was talking to a Stoke supporter at Wrexham yesterday (!) who said that when it's a televised game there some supporters watch it on the TVs in the concourse as you're not allowed to take alcohol back to the seats.

well,before the hospitality lounge was open this season the seats were always occupied by the sponsors, visiting club members and the like ,players & WAGS etc but now it's completely empty - the players not taking part in the game (injured or dropped etc) are usually seconded to the hospitality lounge to look after the sponsors etc - it's good business for the club but strange to see so many empty seats !