2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:06 am  

So then

Featherstone (or TOULOUSE), Bradford, Batley, Halifax, Whitehaven, Widnes, York, Dewsbury, Newcastle, Sheffield, Barrow and A.ANother.....13 sides and we need to finish above 2 of them or face the Abyss.......

The ones in Bold are the ones we need to be beating twice..........I see 10 points as being the bare minimum needed to survive.

Given we don't know:

Where we will be playing
Who will be playing for us
What level of investment Hughes has put aside
What level of central funding the club will receive
IF other clubs will survive the reduced funding
What the plan is for 2023

.....................................................................it's hard to surmise what needs to happen at the club in the next 4 months, but the longer radio silence is maintained, the les the chance of us having more than a mini-bus worth of regular fans to cheer on the side and help pay the rent, wherever that may be for.

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 6:33 am  

It's reached the stage where I'd be happy just to have it confirmed there will be a Broncos next season. David must have all but singlehandedly funded this season, given the slashed central funding and shocking gates. If I was him I'd be on the phone this morning telling Jason enough is enough and there's no money for next season and that he needs to find more funding fast.

The sad truth is the last season at Oxford RL was a dispiriting waste of time for all involved, and of £75k central funding. I sincerely hope the club put forward a sensible plan for next season, not just build it and they will come, or I fear groundhog day looms.

Time for the club to talk and not just the normal platitudes they deign to occasionally throw our way.

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:09 am  

I see the club have spoken!

On Twitter they are congratulating Whitehaven on qualifying for the playoffs. That's ok then.

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:56 am  

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

I see the club have spoken!

On Twitter they are congratulating Whitehaven on qualifying for the playoffs. That's ok then.

In fairness that was the right thing to do but it does show how easy it is to put pen to paper if they want to. I agree with those who suggest they need to do so ASAP. I don’t want the next time I hear from them to be sharing the good news that we have fought off stiff competition to sign JyMel and Paulos Latu. Bearing in mind I probably account for about 5% of their current ST holder they’ll need to do something impressive or competent pretty soon- as said before Wimbledon is a long old drive away and there are other things to do of a Sunday in London.

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:19 am  

The issue is you have a circular dependancy.

FACT 1 :- our squad will be much weaker than this year, and we only managed 7th
FACT 2:- It will be harder for us to manage with less Central funding than northern clubs, as the cost of living in London is much much higher than in the North, and also the point that we will not be able to pay as much per match as Union clubs down here, and I don't see hords of northern players coming down to play for us.

So bottom line is how much will David pay for the squad once he has paid 200K for renting a palace when all we need is a shed? I think very very little. So where will other revenue come from.

1) Potential ST holders are only going to buy a ST if we know how strong the squad will look like. Most people are not going to shell out £200+ for a season ticket to see us get hammered week on week by Barrow, Whitehaven, Dewsbury, York etc
2) If they give Dons ST holders free access (or reduced access) how does that help get money for the squad? All this will do is improve the atmosphere, not actually make us be able to get a stronger squad to compete with Dewsbury, Barrow, York etc.Still dont see the Dons reducing the rent now we are Part Time, which TBH is what we need.
3) If the club is expecting to build the squad based on ST revenue, they will get little to zero ST revenue as most ST holders want to see the backbone of a squad before committing money. So David will have to go on the assumption of 100 to 150 ST holders MAX for 2022, and then build a squad around that, with gates of 200 - 300 apart from maybe the first game where you might get 500.

However with relegation pretty much certain for 2022 (unless we have been promised a place in SL2), I dont see anything here changing.

When we left Barnet and went to ealing, even though we had reduced status, I felt the club still had a future, and could rebuild. This feels more like the final moments before the doors finally close. I still think its 50/50 we will even start next season, I can't believe DH wants to Pay 200K a year to see 250 people watch a team of 18 year olds + skolars rejects trying it out for a bit of cash getting whalloped by 50 points each week.

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:04 am  

orangeman wrote:

So then

Featherstone (or TOULOUSE), Bradford, Batley, Halifax, Whitehaven, Widnes, York, Dewsbury, Newcastle, Sheffield, Barrow and A.ANother.....13 sides and we need to finish above 2 of them or face the Abyss.......

The ones in Bold are the ones we need to be beating twice..........I see 10 points as being the bare minimum needed to survive.

Also Leigh will be in there. If the mood music is correct and it is to be two 10’s from 2023 along with P&R maintained throughout all divisions for 2022 (so daft that it will likely happen) then they’ll be 3 coming down from Super League into the new 10 team championship and one coming up from League one. So there is going to be one hell of a bun fight for just 6 available places for the current championship teams. About the worse possible time for you guys to tie your legs together by going part time and also a massive shame, rugby league is a better product with a strong London team. Mind you your plight is a microcosm of they current state of the game in general, a complete mess. I wish you guys well

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:59 am  

Sacred Cow wrote:

Also Leigh will be in there. If the mood music is correct and it is to be two 10’s from 2023 along with P&R maintained throughout all divisions for 2022 (so daft that it will likely happen) then they’ll be 3 coming down from Super League into the new 10 team championship and one coming up from League one. So there is going to be one hell of a bun fight for just 6 available places for the current championship teams. About the worse possible time for you guys to tie your legs together by going part time and also a massive shame, rugby league is a better product with a strong London team. Mind you your plight is a microcosm of they current state of the game in general, a complete mess. I wish you guys well

We have an owner with form for this - when he threw his infamous hissy fit and almost shut the club down, it was going into the season where SL was being reduced from 12 clubs to 14.
Somehow we managed to survive this, but this time..........................

Re: 2022 and beyond... : Mon Sep 20, 2021 10:18 am  

BigTime wrote:

In fairness that was the right thing to do but it does show how easy it is to put pen to paper if they want to. I agree with those who suggest they need to do so ASAP..

Sadly we should not be pleading for the Club to speaking to all of us, and not as currently a select few.