So exactly what has been achieved? : Fri Dec 20, 2013 11:07 pm  

All I can see is that we moved location yet again, and for what? We have not gained a new investor, lost most of the players and staff and from a straw poll I had on Facebook and Twitter will loose over 50% of ST holders. The chief exec makes some bold statements in his BBC piece but all I can see is that we seem to have reduced some overhead cost with this move. However if we had built the crowds at the Stoop rather than shed them like leaves in Autumn then would the move have been necessary.

Still no word about anything and we find out about a pre season game from the opposition web site. Forgive me for being slightly underwhelmed and confused by these events.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Fri Dec 20, 2013 11:37 pm  

I'd love to disagree but I'm not sure I can. We gained another year, minimum, of Superleague in London. Beyond that I'm struggling. As I've already said I have bought an Oxford season ticket next season. After a decade plus of being a season ticket holder, and living in Hampshire, that says a lot.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:37 am  

Gus has kept his job going for one more year.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 11:31 am  

Well, we still exist, so we have to thank Hughes I guess.

We still have MacKay so we can still hurl abuse at someone.

We're playing Leeds in Bailey's testimonial, but will 'prolly need to play 7's, lmao.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:12 pm  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25454472 It's a shame we can't persuade Kleanthous to take immediate ownership. On a positive note, providing MacKay doesn't get out of his pram, we should have a long-term home.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25454472 It's a shame we can't persuade Kleanthous to take immediate ownership. On a positive note, providing MacKay doesn't get out of his pram, we should have a long-term home.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 4:34 pm  

As far as I can tell, and I do not have any inside information.

David Hughes will not have to pay on the following:
Match Ground rent, training ground rent, back room office staff, marketing, ticketing, web site.

In return he loses his income from:
Tickets, match day sales.

I guess this has cut his losses a year from about £2.5 M to £2.0M as he is now only paying for the players/coaches/academy wages (and Gus). I would suspect he wants to cut down on that budget too. The salary cap for the championship is £0.3M, which may fit more into his retirement income budget.

So I think we get to see another year of SuperLeague and then have a sustainable model for a championship existence. This is actually a better result than I was expecting.

Obviously be great if a billionaire appeared or the Barnet connection built us into a 10,000 attendance sustainable SuperLeague club.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 5:12 pm  

Simply put, DH has saved between £500k and £750k a year on admin and marketing costs as well as rent. The top end of this, £750k could have been actually "raised" by finding an extra 2,884 fans per game paying a total of £20 for a ticket, beer and pie.
When our good buddy came on board we had 1,167 of these 2,884 fans but between his curry's, Hughes's pig ignorance/arrogance in recruiting the inept coach and players, the bad weather, the economy and the dog eating their homework, they managed to shed the fans instead of attracting them!

A quick email to a good friend at Quins FC informs us that in 2012 their marketing spend was REDUCED to £1,750,000.......IIRC the Salary cap there is about £4,000,000 and they averaged 15k with full corporate facilities.

In 2012 Broncos spent £200,000 on Marketing and £2,650,000 on the 1st team.......12,000 less average and no loving corporate sales.

It really is quite simple. Regardless of if the team is competitive or if the facilities are good, if you don't market it, then nobody will come.

In answer to paddocks question? Nothing has changed. The guy at Barnet will be pleased with the opening gate of the season and will put some posters up around the area. By the time we get to July we will be 18 rounds into the comp, on a 2,200 or so average and bolted on for last place. Late season visits of the big 4 in attendances will raise the average to closer to 3k, we will finish dead set last and if are not relegated, will repeat the dose in 2015 with between 15% and 25% less fans than 2014 because the increase in 2014 will dissolve once the RL community have ticked off the Hive of grounds they wanted to see a game at.

for anything to change, then an owner who is willing to plough 10 million in over 5 years and spend half of it on marketing is needed. All we have now is a new landlord with a new source of income and all of our revenues but no risk..... and we are paying him for the pleasure........genius!

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:13 pm  

Lol, when ye' put it like that......................

Still' the fat biatch isn't singing just yet!

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:53 pm  

So an incentivised approach for the Barnet owner. if his team deliver the crowds maybe he will bite the bullet. Surely a better exit strategy for the current owner than just doing the same.

Nice stats about differences is marketing budgets regarding Quins but spend does not always equate to delivery in sport or other fields. Perhaps previous years non delivery resulted in a different approach with a limited budget which was focused on delivery on the field bringing the results. Pity it didn't work. Not sure just spending on marketing results in 2884 extra people just turning up.

Not sure a £1m marketing budget every year is viable nor necessarily required but marketeers are never investing their own cash.

Re: So exactly what has been achieved? : Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:50 pm  

Southern Reiver wrote:

So an incentivised approach for the Barnet owner. if his team deliver the crowds maybe he will bite the bullet. Surely a better exit strategy for the current owner than just doing the same.

Nice stats about differences is marketing budgets regarding Quins but spend does not always equate to delivery in sport or other fields. Perhaps previous years non delivery resulted in a different approach with a limited budget which was focused on delivery on the field bringing the results. Pity it didn't work. Not sure just spending on marketing results in 2884 extra people just turning up.

Not sure a £1m marketing budget every year is viable nor necessarily required but marketeers are never investing their own cash.

5 Year figures for Harlequins RL/London Broncos in respect of Marketing:
Salaries £400,000
Marketing £976,000
Combined, £1,376,000
5 Year performance over that period in respect to revenue from tickets, sponsors and commercials/ against expenditure.
2008 = £705k/£308k
2009 = £670k/£288k
2010 = £577k/306k
2011 = £496k/£173k
2012 = £543/£303

The marketing of the club seems to be on area that was at least paying for itself, whilst non-team related administration costs over the same period cost over £2,500,000 and Coaches and the players at the top tier a whopping £14,000,000

FWIW, with very little marketing budget, you could quite effectively grow your audience by 10% year on year by utilising small bet effective CRM and marketing tactics. No viral videos or oyster card holders, but by utilising the good will of your existing fans and following up on their efforts.
Off course, if one of your first actions was to poop all over the good will of your loyal fans, you then need to try viral videos