FORMER USA President George H W Bush was the subject of a 1987 profile in Time magazine when, as the Vice President, he was considering a run for the presidency.
When pressed about what his potential agenda might be, he referred to the need for a broad, defining purpose or political agenda as “the vision thing.”
That phrase proved to be an albatross around his neck for the rest of his life.
Nonetheless, I was delighted to be invited to the Australian High Commission on Wednesday, 21st May for a presentation by Gary Hetherington about the future of the London Broncos club.
We were gathered to hear Gary’s version of “the vision thing” for the capital city club.
It was a wonderful venue for a major announcement and it was hosted quite excellently by the Sky presenters Brian Carney and Jenna Brookes, with the two of them interacting with good humour to give Gary the platform he needed to explain his vision for the London club.
Gary has taken ownership of the Broncos from its previous owner David Hughes and he set out a vision that he hopes to fulfil in the next five-year period.
To cut a long story short, that vision is of the club being in Super League while playing in front of substantial crowds with strong sponsorship and corporate support and supported by a thriving infrastructure in the community game.
The vision is a strong one, but the question is how it will be achieved.
It will take money – probably quite a lot of it – and the cooperation of a lot of quite diverse people, all of them striving for the same ends.
So will Gary be able to pull it off?
He’s done it before at Sheffield Eagles and Leeds Rhinos.
He founded the former club and dramatically improved the fortunes of the latter as chief executive.
So can he make it a hat-trick?
I hope so.
No one has more belief in rugby league than Gary has, but of course it’s now more than 40 years since he launched the Eagles and it’s arguable that it will take at least as much energy to revive London Broncos, not to mention the financial investment that will be required, which Gary will have to find from elsewhere, although he seems confident that he has some investors in the background.
And not the least important question facing him will be the branding of the club.
Should the club continue to be called the London Broncos or should it be rebranded with a different name, as has been widely suggested, although Gary seemed to say that no final decision had been made in that regard.
For what it’s worth, my advice to Gary is not to change the identity of the Broncos.
The club may not have enjoyed the success over the years that we might have liked, but it does have an established identity that it would be easier to build than to replace.
Some people seem to believe that a London-wide branding doesn’t work and that a name that reflected a London suburb – Wimbledon, for example, where the club currently plays most of its home matches – would work better.
That’s an argument that I don’t think stacks up.
After all, what would happen if the club moved from Wimbledon to another home? Would it change its name again?
The London name, on the other hand, would still be relevant regardless of where the club played in the capital city.
The name of the club isn’t the major problem.
The real problem is that those in charge of the club have never been able to formulate a marketing strategy that would generate more support for the Broncos.
David Hughes is thought to have spent anything up to £30 million on the club since he acquired it from the Virgin Group in 2002.
I can only admire David’s commitment, while regretting that his investment failed to stimulate any significant growth for the club.
Investment is the first requirement, but a clear marketing strategy probably comes second, even ahead of the need to recruit a strong playing squad.
Gary’s ownership of the Broncos is an exciting prospect and it’s vital that it succeeds for the good of the game as a whole.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 509 (June 2025)