Ivarr the Boneless

Get the thousands of fans who were going to turn up due to it being a shiny new stadium to turn up - and pay - and you should be able to fund an entire new spine to the team for half a season on part time wages.

I presume Richard is unaware that the club used to have a very active volunteer base, which the club chose to disband, saying they weren't necessary.

Not seen anything formal but some media outlets are reporting Jermaine Coleman has been sacked. Not all Broncos fans are convinced he's the root cause of the problems this season. It'll be interesting to see if the change makes a difference or whether this is just a variant on the "it was the location of the ground that caused all the problems, our new one is perfect" line we've heard a few times.

The player pool is already struggling badly in Southern junior RL from what I'm seeing / hearing. Quite where Broncos Academy will be able to recruit from, if it survives, is becoming a real issue

Tom spent time on loan at Oxford so has experience of commuting south to play. If his personal life/job still permit commuting at weekends, this could be a good call.

A fair chunk are already dual club fans. I was a dual season ticket holder when I lived in London but dropped Skolars on leaving, to avoid spending my life hauling into London. I fear what is going on at Broncos is driving many fans from the sport. Personally if Broncos go that's it, I don't fancy a three hour round trip to an athletics track stadium to watch Skolars. I'll go to the Challenge Cup Final whilst it's in London, the odd game up north if on holiday but no more. It's back to football for me realistically. The journey time to Skolars will be an issue for others too. Many Broncos fans aren't local, will they do the travel for another team? I suspect not in many cases Given I used to watch Prescot and Oxford, as well as having 20 or so Broncos season tickets, Skolars will probably be delighted to hear my reverse Midas touch won't be landing on them again...

Totally correct. Both services fly people in from around the world for Challenge Cup games etc. They won't do that for an entire standard season. The army typically get people in Tuesday/Wednesday, train during the week, play Saturday, disperse Sunday. A few years ago a Navy lad flew in from the Middle East on Thursday, trained Friday, played Saturday and flew out Sunday A.M. It would also knacker up internal army RL competitions, which wouldn't be popular. I live in Aldershot and watch both the Army and Navy when possible. Neither are good enough for League One.

The overall attendance may mask a few issues. I didn't see it for personal reasons but am informed: - The much vaunted community stand held a smattering of people. This, given the strength of the opposition compared to Widnes, was a key game to push. This suggests the community drive may already be wobbling. The club ran a cheap kids tickets offer but then failed to put on anything to appeal to kids. The fan zone was closed. The opportunity to use that facility was one of the key arguments of moving to Dons. Hopefully Broncos haven't already given up on the opportunity to create an "event." Unless new offers emerge Haven was the last opportunity for Dons fans, and others, to get in for a quid. How many will return at £22 for a league game given the offering bon and off the pitch?

A little birdie tells me they are trying to shift up to 500 community stand tickets per game. Ambitious, I sincerely hope they can deliver and that it is structured to get future engagement and not just the same people each week getting in for free, I've seen too many sports teams vanish down that particular rabbit hole, which invariably alienates season ticket holders.

David has suggested the plan is to keep the club under family control, his son is big on Broncos. If his investment remains as Directors loans, the club is unsaleable / couldn't be given away unless they were written off. If the plan is for his son to take over, there's no real incentive to write off any Directors loans on the off chance the club can repay some of the money further down the line. All the signs are there will be no change from Hughes family control, though the person with control may change.

Has Rob Powell definitely left? When he was promoted to head coach at Richmond, their press release confirmed he would still be working at Broncos. Has that changed?

I'd agree with the above but the fact the sport sank it's Sky money into wages without any attempt to regenerate an aging support base is the sort of thing I was driving at. I'll leave it at that as we are veering off the original topic

I would add the RFL were guilty of a massive governance fail in permitting Oxford to start season five. I upset a few people at the club during season four by saying there was no point in continuing. The club was a busted flush playing at the wrong location. It was beyond the stage it could be turned around without unrealistic levels of money being thrown at it. By this stage the central distribution was adding no long term value to the sport at all and would have been better used employing and funding a development officer. As a simple fan sitting in the stand it was blindingly obvious. How did the RFL not spot it? The club were sending enough reports to the RFL and Brian Barwick lived a relatively short drive from Oxford... The way TV and central funding has been used is questionable at all levels of the professional game. Speedway is in big trouble after losing its TV money, having blown the dosh on higher wages and not fixing the ceiling. RL is on a two year TV deal that seems to be declining in value. The RFL need to learn lessons from speedway and fast

It's worth remembering Oxford etc joined a development league. Their financial and development plans were based around that. Then the RFL re-organised and the league ceased to be a development league. The money that had been intended to go on development was diverted to try and keep the first team afloat in a stronger league. Suddenly the links with Oxford Cavaliers were useless - too big a step up. The short lived U21's went, too big a step up, there was less money to work with schools etc. Yes the central grants at Oxford did leave depressingly little legacy but this was not just the club's fault. Why did the RFL promise Oxford RL a development officer would be employed for the area and fail to deliver? This offer was withdrawn literally days after Oxford RL went public as new entrants to the third tier. The game totally failed to see the bigger picture. I was an Oxford season ticket holder. When they folded a key man told me that if they'd known of the re-organisation of League One they would not have founded the club. They wanted to grow the sport at low professional levels, and below. That was impossible post the re-organisation.

I live in Aldershot and regularly watch the Army RL. The gate rarely rises into three figures even though about 16k soldiers - plus families - live in Aldershot Command. Forces RL is hugely undersold, they generally don't even advertise fixtures in Aldershot. I hope things move forwards but there's no chance of Army RL rivalling RU for spectators. That boat has sailed. I'm not a burglar but if I was I could retire on my takings from the date of any Army v Navy RU game at Twickenham. Aldershot sees a mass exodus. Most have no idea of the final score, but they have a nice day out...