london broncos

[mustang]

70-4 v leigh
I think london broncos are essential to the super league will surprise a few and will finish in the top 8

 

[Phillips]

leigh are coming last arent they?

 

[Evil Homer]

Yes,although London haven't been brilliant recently.Certainly not 70 points good.Leigh had a shocker by all accounts.

 

[bartman]

Welcome Mustang.

They are essential to the future of Super League. Unfortunately London can just as easily get beat by 60 points this year as they can win by 60, so I'm not sure they'll knock anyone out of the top 6?

But new signing Feleti Mateo showed a lot of talent at Parramatta last year, and if he's come here to really play, he could be a great asset for them.

I'm still worried that last week (vs Salford) London drew a smaller home crowd than York City Knights did in National League Two on the same day... Surely in a city the size of London someone can be funded to do the work with schools, young people, backpackers, anything that can get them a league crowd bigger than 3,000?

 

[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]

I do Marketing at TAFE! Fly me over, i'll work for them!

 

[terracesider]

Part of London's problem with attracting fans is that they no sooner get settled in one place than they have to move on.

The relatively few fans they have got are loyal enough; they have to be when even a home game can involve a couple of hours travelling.

 

[bartman]

Current fans are great, don't get me wrong. But to survive in London they need to look to grow from that loyal 3,000 to have a fan base of around 10,000.

A good, stable, accessible home base would help, but seems a long way from happening?

 

[terracesider]

I think it is a long way off Bartman. I'd guess it's all a question of finance. In the north sympathetic local authorities and European Union grants have been available to help build new stadiums.

 

[bartman]

Yeah, seems crazy but that funding does seem easier to come by in smaller cities than in London itself. I don't know what the short-term answer is for them...

 

[Phillips]

while on London

can anyone tell me how Lee Hopkins is going??

 

[Dakink]

From the sounds of it they are a bit nomadic in their playing grounds. To attract punters they need to find one ground and stay there. What about appealing to the Aus and NZ working in London. They make up a large number and would happily support a team like the Broncos. Possibly a way to attract better numbers for TV maybe making locals look at the crowd and go mm perhaps this is worth a look after all.

 

[JasonE]

while on London

can anyone tell me how Lee Hopkins is going??

He started the season well but seems to have taken a backseat lately to Broncos' backrower Rob Purdham who is in superb form and is one of the most under rated players in SL.

 

[MjM]

From the sounds of it they are a bit nomadic in their playing grounds. To attract punters they need to find one ground and stay there. What about appealing to the Aus and NZ working in London. They make up a large number and would happily support a team like the Broncos. Possibly a way to attract better numbers for TV maybe making locals look at the crowd and go mm perhaps this is worth a look after all.

Although at the moment doubtless any fan is London Broncos kind of fan, does going after the Australasian market really make sense with a limited marketing budget? Although some do stay in the long run, most Aussies might be there for 6m-2 years. They cannot by definition prove to be the long term fan base that London need. Of course their support is welcome, but the Broncos need local, hard core fans who will stick with them throughout the next few decades, not just the next few months.

It is so hard penetrating a modern sporting market and London, as with most other "newly created" sports teams to be fair (yeah I know they've been with us for 20+ years, but they are still trying to establish themselves to their locale), have failed miserably in this regard. But hope springs eternal. They really do need something special though - in the north, getting a winning team usually does the trick, but the Broncos need a lot more than that - they need to establish a culture and an appetite for League and that is so much harder.

 

[bartman]

Good point about short-term Aussies, especially in London. (I'm one who is 14 months in, but living up north, and hoping to stay for many years to come.)

Even if the Broncos could manage to double their regular support to 6,000 (some of which may be transient) with that culture and appetite before 2009 then that would be a great result, and something to build on. Hard to achieve, but something to aim for and hopefully not unrealistic?

Surely a privately-owned club comes with a business plan which realistically sets out a plan and timeframes for solving the nomadic ground issue, which will enable them to establish a culture and long-term support? And if the marketing budget is their main limitation, then I'm suggesting they might need some "help" in that regard...

(Unfair in some ways as they're a privately owned club, getting special treatment etc, but also important for the ongoing success of league, in the way the game is heading?)

 

[terracesider]

Even if the Broncos could manage to double their regular support to 6,000 (some of which may be transient) with that culture and appetite before 2009 then that would be a great result, and something to build on. Hard to achieve, but something to aim for and hopefully not unrealistic?

They've come a long way in the 20 years since their away support was four people in one car but 6,000 is probably realistic only in the very long term. Over the last decade, it's doubtful if they could have achieved more on the field: they've consistently had a half decent side and been to Wembley.

Picking up MjMs point, I'd guess they just have to keep going with their community programmes and slowly change the culture which currently is dominated by soccer and, to a much lesser but still significant extent, Union.

 

[THE*STORM*IDENTITY]

I went to my first Broncos match against Leigh the other day and really enjoyed the day. However IMHO, Brentford is a bit far to go out from Central London and I'd like to see the Broncos either play their games at Loftus Road or Craven Cottage (both easily accessible from Central London).

Saying that, I'm definitely going back to the Broncos vs Giants match in late July.

 

[Evil Homer]

It's a shame that London's pitch needs to be reseeded and a few games are being taken on the road.It hinders the push for crowds and also London are quite poor away from home this year.

 

[terracesider]

It's a shame that London's pitch needs to be reseeded and a few games are being taken on the road.It hinders the push for crowds and also London are quite poor away from home this year.

Wan't Wigan their first away win for about 9 months?

 

[Giallorosso]

I was over in london last year for 6 months and living in Pimlico I was pretty central to everything .


I went and watched all the football,Arsenal,Spurs West Ham even friggin Chelsea and all I saw was massive crowds every game virtually a sell out,huge media coverage there was pages and pages of football in every paper plus endless coverage on TV and radio unbelievable.

However when the football season ended and the rugby league was starting I went along to the Bronco's but it was embarrassing to say they had a crowd of 3000 would have been an out and out lie there could only havebenn about 1200 tops there I could'nt believe that londoners have not become fans of Rugby league the greatest game of all...