Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:02 am  

Huddersfield1895 wrote:

So another Broncos "HOME" game poorly marketed?

This is london what were you expecting?

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:56 am  

A poster on the TotalRL forum claimed that an Esher club official said to her/him (nice PC touch there!) that we were playing the Bradford game on their ground as well. I don't know whether to take any notice of this, but if it is true could we have played our last game at the Stoop? Just a thought.

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:15 am  

Prepare for the Bulls game to be either at Esher or Reading!!

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:28 am  

ld not have a problem with another game at Esher great little ground, good atmosphere friendly officials, plenty parking if you choose to drive and need less spending money in the pocket. Easy journey from waterloo, clapham and vauxhall and not far from hersham station, only a few minutes walk

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:33 am  

I appreciate its a nice ground and they were very hospitable but unless we are dropping a tier its as we know a non starter for Super League.

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:38 am  

The Chronicler of Chiswic wrote:

A poster on the TotalRL forum claimed that an Esher club official said to her/him (nice PC touch there!) that we were playing the Bradford game on their ground as well.

A steward I recognised from Twickenham Stoop told me we were "likely" to be playing Bradford at Esher. Must admit if it's a dry night I wouldn't mind that. (Travel time is pretty neutral for me fortunately.) A couple of thousand at Esher would be far more enjoyable than a couple of thousand rattling round in a 16k seater stadium, though Twickenham Stoop would be more appealing on a wet night. Obviously the Bradford game switching would be subject to RFL/ Superleague permission as they only gave permission to switch one game from what the club said.

I suspect the club might be quite happy to switch too. We don't seem to make much match day revenue under the new deal (bar, burger van takings etc) and would probably get a far bigger refund out of Quins for not being able to play there than we'd pay Esher to go there. Despite that I don't think there is any chance we have played our last game at Twickenham Stoop, why would Quins want to release us from the deal given that income will already be in their budgets and we'd still have to get RFL / Superleague permission and I don't see that happening.

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:04 pm  

I firmly believe there is a drainage problem at the Stoop the weather did not cause that kind of damage and it will not be a quick fix problem. Its more likely to be a couple of weeks before the drainage is resolved and then the pitch has to repair itself. That is probably why they didnt want to back up matches. If necessary I will travel to Esher I enjoyed last night. It is no where near the quality of the Stoop or SL standard but at least they wanted us and welcomed us. Couldnt we buy into it and develop it along with Esher RU. It could be a price we can afford for our own ground and Esher comes under Greater London and London weighting allowance trains are easy with the connections and probably not much worse (mayne even easier ) for a lot of fans

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:30 pm  

stayinlondon wrote:

Couldnt we buy into it and develop it along with Esher RU.

Esher are currently in the very early stages of their own redevelopment plan which would see "a new stand / stadium on the car park side of the ground."

Doubt we have enough money to get involved with it sadly but there are precious few new stadiums likely to be built in London in the next few years so not too many options for us really. Not totally sure Esher would want a Superleague standard ground either, wouldn't be cheap to maintain and could be a bit soul-less for their games given their crowd size and it's hard to see them growing their support base much with Quins on the doorstep.

(New grounds I can think of are AFC Wimbledon probably, Brentford FC but Wasps look like moving in with them, Barnet FC being finished now but a low capacity for SL. If Ealing Trailfinders RFC keep progressing they may need to redevelop but again surely not to SL standard.)

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:37 pm  

probably wouldnt cost much more than 3 years rent at the Stoop and we would have a say in it bet the rnets niot cheap at Twickers t's in Hersham not Esher so in a cheaper bracket

Re: Catalans game moved to Esher RFC! : Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:53 pm  

I'm sure I've heard the figure of £250k p.a. rent muttered. I suspect Esher would want a lot more than £750k for a share of the freehold of a site that big in that part of the world. I'm not an estate agent though and may be wrong.

The fact that we are leaving Twickers basically because we can't afford the rent (Forty-20 magazine) suggests that competing in two years time will be an achievement, never mind owning a share of our own ground.

Please please let me be wrong...........