Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:36 pm  

Partisan wrote:

... if you can the investment, How about we all pool together and buy the club?

The 2 guys I have spoken to will only consider investing if there's no Relegation. As for Buying the club? What is there to buy? The only 'ASSET" the club has is about 120 season ticket holders and a store-room full of unsold replica kits. Hughes would have to simply walk away and leave a debt free entity. As it is, if the NRL give us a second side the 2 guys will probably spend their money here, where there is a detailed plan for self sufficiency from day 1.

When discussing the 2 codes here in NZ with people who have already invested in the game and who would look to invest in London, they are stunned at how badly the game is administered as a business and how much money was wasted in London whilst the RFL looked on. Regardless of the millions flushed away by the owner every year, there was the 1.8 million of central funding that was being wasted too.

Rugby League at the top level is dead in the Capital until there is total change at the top of the RFL. Whilst we have narrow minded northerners running the business for the benefit of small northern towns then we'll attract pay as you go sponsors and partners, be told what and when to do by SKY TV and will be mostly ignored by the media.......too which the narrow minded northern fans will cry that it's a RFU/Establishment conspiracy

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:03 am  

thanks for the in site.
Store room full of shirts and 120 season ticket holders.... So why is Hughes still hanging on (That's the one thing I can't get my head around)... just doesn't make sense? Sell the club for a Pond and you got yourself a bargain

But if there was no relegation how would you expect London to make it back to super league?

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:02 am  

I do not think they even have the shirts, they belong to Barnet.

Without doubt the RFL have not made too much effort to help The Broncos, They can put themselves out for a club if they choose to. look at Bradford.
For the good of the game, Woods, Barwick and the rest of the board need to go. Bring in people from other sports to inject new blood and some direction to the sport.

Gus Mackay need not apply.

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:50 am  

So what are people watching this Sunday?

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:43 am  

Barwick, what the hell has he done for the game? He was brought on so he said to engage the London centric press and make use of his black-book of contacts. He lives in the south east, is on the games board .....

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:25 am  

Bostwick wrote:

I do not think they even have the shirts, they belong to Barnet.

They must have deposited them in landfill then as they certainly weren't in the club shop when I attended a game a couple of weeks back.

Perhaps Mellifera can update us on the whereabouts of the missing kit?

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:52 am  

They were on sale in the shop at every game. Both current and old strip. On the last game you would have thought they would have reduced them, but no.
They did put a " Last game at the Hive " programme on Ebay as a collectors item. Priced £ 7.99. This was on Saturday before the game.
I would think they we sell the shirts on Ebay over time.

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 6:58 pm  

There was a serious attempt to put a consortium together in the 2014 season. Not sure why it failed but those involved were known RL names and have the money. Some of them are funding RL elsewhere which may be why it didn't happen.

The leading story on the local newspapers website in Aldershot as I type is that some of the French RU team were shopping here today. Aldershot is home to Army RL and was home to Quins / Broncos academy. Shame no-one in Aldershot knew as no-one ever bothers to tell the local press. Just another symptom of the malaise which impacts southern RL.

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Wed Oct 07, 2015 7:32 pm  

Partisan wrote:

thanks for the in site.
Store room full of shirts and 120 season ticket holders.... So why is Hughes still hanging on (That's the one thing I can't get my head around)... just doesn't make sense? Sell the club for a Pond and you got yourself a bargain

Hughes is still in it because he is stubborn. (and I suspect a little bit guilt ridden of what he did in 2013) It is this stubbornness that has decimated the club as he makes "instant" decisions without thinking them through and the steadfastly refuses to accept he was wrong.......there's a long list of ex-employees who prove this but I suspect there's no need to name them as it will only inflame those who'd rather forget the past and plough ahead with the same bloke steering the way

Partisan wrote:

But if there was no relegation how would you expect London to make it back to super league?

As I said, the game would need to return to Licensing and London, under new ownership could apply. We don't have masses of P&R in sport down here...the NRL has it's sick puppies but seems to plod on OK without having to chop and change the system every 3 years, but the guys at the RFL are experts at protecting their own jobs......they have achieved exactly NOTHING this year with the extra games across the top 24 clubs. No new fans, no new sponsors and if anything, existing fans were no more or less engaged by the whole process and viewing figures are down. Now we have them "adjusting" the system......because owners of clubs who hailed the system now dislike parts of it and because none of the pre-season targets have been achieved.....the entire RFL is geared for self preservation and that means small town clubs and small town chairmen influencing national and international policy making.......and we wonder why we are ignored by the media?

If RL is to succeed in the UK as a full time professional sport, then a lot needs to change...starting with the people we employ to run the game!

Re: This Sunday I am mostly watching ... : Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:13 am  

There was a serious attempt to put a consortium together in the 2014 season. Not sure why it failed but those involved were known RL names and have the money. Some of them are funding RL elsewhere which may be why it didn't happen.

The leading story on the local newspapers website in Aldershot as I type is that some of the French RU team were shopping here today. Aldershot is home to Army RL and was home to Quins / Broncos academy. Shame no-one in Aldershot knew as no-one ever bothers to tell the local press. Just another symptom of the malaise which impacts southern RL.

Half, the French RU are training on Queens Avenue. In the past they have hosted Fiji RU for the previous world cup held in UK, The British Lions RU prior to a tour, Harlequins RU (not just the juniors) and of course the Broncos juniors (Jonesey lived in Farnborough). Eng RU use Sandhurst for secret training sessions. (they don't have a great deal to hide)

The Army facilities are brilliant for training; fields, pitches, gyms, pools, running tracks, combat gyms, weight rooms, restaurants.......... The Broncos at one point were looking to move there training to Aldershot but chose to use a public field with a toilet block on the A3!!