Ivarr the Boneless

Growing up in South Staffordshire I gained an interest via Grandstand. George Fairbairn seemed to feature every week if my memory is reliable, probably not. Whilst watching Oxford a few years ago George popped up as match commissioner, recognised him immediately despite the passge of time. I went to Liverpool Uni and marked every RL ground in my A-Z but never went. Watched Prescot Cables at football, I'm from Wolverhampton...... Went to one London game a season or so after moving south. When Highfield became Prescot I jumped on a train and watched their first two league games and was hooked.(v South Wales and a shock win v Barrow.) Started jumping on trains to watch them at Doncaster, York etc despite living around the corner from London's ground. I've had season tickets at Broncos, Skolars and Oxford since hen Sadly I seem to be drifting away from the sport. Hopefully the fire will return soon.

London City Royals were featured on the BBC London news in some depth on Friday. They were set up to keep kids off the streets and have shot through the ranks. Can't remember the last time either Broncos or Skolars got that sort of coverage on the same show. That sort of coverage would be very helpful. A few years ago I was walking to the Stoop behind a Southern English young twenties lady and her Aussie boyfriend. She said " If I hadn't met you I wouldn't have known they played rugby league in London. ' As an aside, why on earth did Skolars double header and Broncos at home get put on the same day? That immediately harmed the gate at both. If at all possible the clubs should be scheduled to play alternatate weekends. (I accept stadium availability may make that impossible. Well done to Skolars for making the best of it though.)

I doubt many Broncos fans who do live locally drive there. I also doubt many Broncos fans live locally (personally I'm Hampshire and I know others travelling much further. I do tend to go by public transport, about 105 minutes each way. Driving is about 45 minutes. Perhaps unsurprisingly the other fans I know who live out here usually drive.) This is partially a legacy both of the regular moves across London. I lived in South East London way back and started watching Broncos regularly at Charlton. It's also related to the fact Broncos are the only top level club for miles so if you live down south and want to watch that level you travel. Clearly if Broncos put down long term roots the hope would be to build a more local fan base and at that point parking may be less relevant. However as long as Broncos have a dispersed fan base and large numbers of away fans travel by car, I would expect strong objections from local residents to any substantial increase in capacity. Whether parking is a material planning point will depend on Ealing's local plan, which I haven't read.

Wikipedia is wrong. There were discussions about merging the two and becoming Bristol however a key figure backed out. The idea was then dropped. There was no merger and I'd be very surprised if Oxford's parent company still exists to merge with anyone. I hope to catch a game or two at Hemel this year so hope whatever is going on is in the long term interests of a southern club who actually own their own ground.....

Mike Gooley is the main man at Ealing, David Hughes is the main man at Broncos. Ealing Trailfinders were anchor tenants when Broncos moved in and I have no reason to believe that has changed.

ETRUFC don't own the ground. They are the lead tenants. It is owned by Traildinders charitable wing and there is currently no reason to believe they want to cash in on the site. Rumours elsewhere suggest further expansion to 10k may follow if ETRUFC are promoted. Given the location, lack of parking etc I'd be surprised if that got permission though they obviously know more about their links with the council than I do.

Not on Twitter or Facebook. TBH I think both phoning - they have a v-mail system - and e-mailing should be sufficient to get a response given the timespan. Thanks for the idea though, and to whoever suggested the Facebook link. It's appreciated. Given the mixed needs of Sky, Ealing RU, potential weddings, the need for cash from away fans and player recovery I suspect Broncos will be playing on various days next season so hopefully I can make a few games at least.

Well today is the deadline for seat renewal / early bird pricing. I've decided to chance it and renew - my suspicion is we will be playing on varying days next season and I'll be able to get to some of the games. My missus however has decided not to renew given the uncertainty about game day. A fan probably lost for the sake of a phone call or e-mail. Not good when you consider how few of us there are to start with. I first contacted Broncos about this on October 9th and have not had any contact from the club since. Very disappointing. Worst case scenario I guess it is off to Hemel in the Southern Conference. Saw some cracking games there v the likes of Crawley and Ipswich back in the day. Bring back that sort of quality and we'll be happy enough down there with a few northern jaunts thrown in.

I am very unlikely to make 8.00 kick offs on a Friday due to work commitments given where I work and live. It's the date and time that is the issue. Whilst Broncos have previously played a few games at that time - which I have missed - it has never been a regular day so it's not been a big issue for me and I've bought season tickets knowing I may not be able to make occasional games. In recent years Friday has become almost a normal game day in Superleague, that's why it's now a potential issue for me if Broncos were to make it their first choice fixture date. I have no desire to take 13 days a year out of my annual leave to watch Broncos home games. I have been able to haul all over London, Leicestershire, South Wales and even France to watch home games as I don't work weekends. If Broncos play Saturday or Sunday I'll probably be there. If they play Friday I won't be. I'm currently unsure about whether to renew our season tickets as I don't know if we will be able to use them. If they do play weekends I fully expect to miss a game or two due to TV, that's life and it won't stop me renewing, but I'm not too keen on buying two season tickets and then finding out we can't go to the matches. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an answer to the question when they are asking me for money, even if that answer is they don't really know yet or - and I suspect this is more likely - they will be playing games on different days of the week next season. .

I was a joint Broncos / Skolars season ticket holder when I lived in London but surrendered the Skolars one on moving out of London as I didn't want to spend most weekends hauling in and out of London. Skolars are two hours away from me now. Truth be told I also think I'm done with watching RL at athletics track grounds after two soul destroying seasons at Abingdon. White Hart Lane is a vastly superior facility but it's still a mighty long way to go to sit a long way from the action. Hopefully Broncos will respond tomorrow otherwise me and the missus will be making a choice as to whether we renew or hit the motorway for a few weekends away next season. Throw in a bit of National Conference on the Saturday or perhaps a steam railway and we'll be more than happy doing that.

To be clear, I would totally accept and understand if London reply "we don't know yet." Not replying is poor. Why the rush to know? The deadline for existing season ticket holders to renew is tomorrow. After that seats can be re-allocated. Prices also go up. Why a possible move to Friday? Recovery time, as cited by other clubs who have moved though I note two are trying to move back next season. To be clear I don't expect the club to arrange their fixtures around me. If they can sell out by shifting to Friday's I'd fully support that. The sport is more important than an individual fan. Why might I walk away? Because I'm tired of the club treating me like this and because I think there may be another way to enjoy my RL more rather than watching a club that doesn't seem to care whether or not I go. Until recently I was a dual Oxford and Broncos season ticket holder. Next season if Broncos can't be bothered to answer I may well pick some games up north to watch, whether or not they feature Broncos. Happy to watch good games as a neutral. Wigan v Saints or Wigan v Broncos,, easy choice. It's 90 mins to Ealing for me so a trip up north isn't that much more. Hull was easy enough last weekend for example and we had a nice weekend away.

Anyone out there have any idea on when London will play next season. Friday's are an issue for me due to where I live and work which makes season ticket renewal interesting. I have made several calls to the club and e-mailed them but haven't been given the courtesy of a response. As it stands they may be losing a season ticket holder of approaching twenty years standing due to their failure to respond. Not good.

One of the many reasons Oxford went was that least some of the key people believed League One would be gone within 5 years and were not willing to fund short term losses believing there wouldn't be a medium to long term future to recoup their losses. Looks like they were pretty much bang on to me sadly.

Not linked to the potential Bristol RL at semi pro level at all. Bristol Sonics weren't happy with the community wing of All Gold's or the RFL from memory. No disrespect to the Sonics players but they weren't the players the semi pro outfit were targeting. Best wishes to Hemel. I saw a few cracking games against the likes of Crawley Jets there. Hopefully they can rebuild and get the community side during on all cylinders and then take if from there.

Richard Branson bought in on a whim, reputedly his son liked watching the sport on TV. He assumed he could sprinkle gold dust on the sport and it would work. Like several brands branded Virgin it didn't. Sorry but dragging a bored stupid Tiny Hadley to sing pre match and see him announce he wasn't watching the game but was off to the bar was hopeless. And that Virgin Records signed band who never had a hit only to walk out and say nice to see both of you to a crowd of 3,000. Far bigger than they ever pulled probably. He did invest money in players assuming locals would flood to watch Jason Hetherington and Ritchie Barnett etc. Sadly most people in London didn't have any idea who they were and no money was spent on marketing them in order to educate people. There are people lurking. I hope they have done more research than Richard Branson. It's hard to over state how important the next year or so is to London RL.