Ivarr the Boneless

The Athletic,usually pretty reliable, are reporting Chelsea WFC are looking at moving some of their matches to AFC Wimbledon. (Kingsmeadow is now too small.) Not the first time we've heard this mentioned but I suspect there's something it this time. Both Chelsea and, probably more significantly, Dons refused to comment. There's an obvious potential for this to impact Broncos.

Think that was the day Leigh Miners Rangers deservedly defeated Oxford, I was there. Not the only time Oxford lost to a National Conference outfit. League Two was originally defined as a development league from memory. It was a pretty open secret the top National Conference sides were superior to a run of the mill League Two outfit.

Agreed, but the difference now is the teams running up massive score have often rested a lot of players. Less true back in the days of smaller squads. Re injuries, I'm not aware of any this time, thankfully, but the risk of putting an amateur up against a full time pro is very obvious. Throw in the fact the pro teams would probably be quite happy to play one less match, which will probably see them lose money, and it's a change I can see happening.

Credit to the Broncos but I'm afraid I find the typical scores at this stage of the cup deeply discouraging. They demonstrate all too vividly how weak the UK playing base is below the apex. I also wonder how long it is before the amateur clubs vanish from the competition on safety grounds? The Bradford match looks a very interesting match up on paper.

Broncos are certainly showing more signs of life off the field than for about the past ten years put together. There's a long way to go still, but there's certainly some cause for optimism off the field. And that's about as much as can be reasonably expected this early in a rebuild. Fingers crossed for good weather and an entertaining game, to help them hook any first timers in. Edited to add this link https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jan/16/australia-legend-darren-lockyer-new-london-broncos-rugby-league Loving this quote "We want to get people coming to the ground who perhaps don’t understand rugby league, but we can attract them here in other ways and then get them hooked.” Finally, the club seem to get it.

Broncos have previously played at Esher. There were post match reports it caused ructions there, as a fair chunk of their bods were unhappy pro RL had been allowed through the door. Long time ago, things may have changed. Certainly both seem a better fit for Round Two than the Stoop.

Been doing a bit of digging. With the caveat I am not a legal professional... Banning Orders, and other controls on football fans, appear to be via the Football Spectators Act 1989. Suggesting the law surrounding that area would not apply to a rugby league fixture in a ground covered by that legislation. However I would still recommend staying off the pitch at those stadiums. I'm pretty sure the legal system could find another book to throw at you, if they wish. Breach of the peace legislation would seem to apply for starters. The difference being they have some wriggle room to tell you to go away and stop being stupid. It would be a specific offence at the same stadium for a football match

If the ground is listed under certain pieces of legislation, setting foot on the pitch without extremely good reason is an arrestable offence. All major football stadiums in England, Scotland and Wales are covered by this. (Certainly all Premier League and Football League grounds.) I presume the law applies even if it's not football being played. Anyone going into the pitch during a football event is likely to end up in court and be fined and banned from all grounds covered by the legislation for around three years. They normally have to surrender their passports / report to the police when their national football team play an international abroad.

When the club first moved there it was indicated Broncos would get some revenue from the bars etc. No idea whether that still applies today.

I seem to remember an 1,800 versus Huddersfield (possibly in their &: Sheffield era.) Possibly the low for a SL fixture there. I'm sure LBIB will have the exact figures, but my gut says gates usually began with a 3 and occasionally rose to a 5. One 8 when Castleford put on free coaches, via a sponsor, and brought pretty much their entire support base. The variability in gates has a lot to do with how many away fans rocked up.

TBH I doubt the club will be too worried about sales to date. They need to generate a substantial new interest base, and then convert that into regular support. Whether 150/200/250 existing fans purchase a 2026 season ticket is almost neither here nor there in the mid to long run. If every regular fans last season bought one, you are still massively short of the revenue needed in SL. How many new fans are hooked in by the end of the coming season is the big one.

The club will know, they will have a computerised turnstile system. H&S rules at that level of football make some demands in that way.There's also the slight matter of the taxman being interested. Football clubs are increasingly not publicly declaring either. I asked one club why and the main reason was they thought announcing poor attendances would put off potential new fans, not help win new sponsors and so on. Whether that was Broncos line of thinking last season, I don't know.

In the sports world key jobs tend to be word of mouth or head hunter approaches in my experience. There's always exceptions obviously and a newly arrived Australian consortium with few obvious links to English sport may be one. But they have a very well tapped in man in Gary Hetherington.

To be fair to Broncos, some of the likely roles are pretty specialist and the right person probably had to serve a notice period. Hopefully they have people lined up but can't say much yet.

Probably worth adding there's also been some promising signs away from public gaze. Last season a Broncos person messaged me, and has used my contact book in non-league football. They definitely exchanged ideas with Dulwich Hamlet and were looking to set up meetings with two other relatively local clubs I suggested. This was before the takeover. I'm not quite sure what that will mean for that strand of work but there were good people working quietly in the background. They wanted to learn from previous errors, which they openly acknowledged, and to learn from clubs who have successfully transformed themselves. With presumably a few bob to spend on fan recruitment now, and having spoken to people with a good track record in that area, I await what Broncos will do with interest.