Re: Leeds : Mon Sep 02, 2024 8:11 pm
I really enjoyed the game as a neutral. The quality wasn't particularly great but entertainment wise, it had a lot and then throwing in the madness that is Golden Point, the 80 minutes rugby was great value and the atmosphere in the bar and around the food trucks with a DJ playing in the late summer sun, it was what rugby league should be about and surely what Super League was invented for.The Broncos are a real complex. They're an example of why and how promotion and relegation works yet also prove and disprove the idea of grading clubs. A run of twelve wins from fifteen, culminating in away wins at Featherstone and Toulouse with a part-time team, largely made up of blokes from places like Maidstone, Tottenham and one bloke who was playing rugby league in parks across London barely two years before, that in itself is something any credible filmmaker would laugh at as a storyline, let alone any possibility that those part-time players go on to push all year and are going toe-to-toe with a full-time team, no doubt committed to spending double what Broncos, it's something that wouldn't even get considered to be made for a film. It's probably one of rugby league's greatest storylines in the Super League era but I think that London Broncos have not got the credit they've deserved for what they have done on the pitch because everyone is talking about what is happening off the pitch.
As for IMG, it's a real mess. If you looked at London Broncos subjectively, it's a club that has little to no assets, a relatively small fanbase and hasn't really shown any signs of growth. If this was Halifax, Wakefield or Batley in London's current position, I don't think anyone would care that they're going down at the end of the season. That said though, London have engaged in marketing this year (the first time I think I've ever received weekly emails from them, let alone ticket offers), they're in a stadium that is more than suitable for Super League, have a matchday experience that is the scourge of nearly everybody else, are playing 10+ of their own academy products every single week and have attracted decent crowds in doing so, despite the cards they were handed then surely there is a very good case for Super League in London.
I didn't get the sense of it being a final dawn for the club at the weekend, it seemed more of a party than a funeral, but maybe it was partying the club rather than pitying it. As I've said elsewhere, a reasonable priced season ticket in the Championship being offered via email and I may well just get one next year, that is if there even is a next year.