Ivarr the Boneless

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...

More away fans present at Ealing that day from memory? Barnet was a disaster for the club tbh

The alleged recipient has provided enough information to suggest it is either legitimate or that someone has gone to great lengths to smear the Broncos employee. Both scenarios are troubling. It has been suggested he provide the evidence to the club. If this is a malicious hoax, the employee absolutely has the right to have that made clear.

Yes, a Broncos employee. I'm seriously considering walking away from the club over this. Another fan of 28 years has already said that's it for them. A line has been crossed here.

Sadly there is another report emerging on the other forum of a club employee trolling fans. I sincerely hope this is false.

Broncos are aware of concerns and were trying to sort a deal like the one they had with a school at Brentford. They have promised an announcement before the season starts.

Broncos stated they do retain some match day revenue as part of the groundshare deal. Understandably nether party has made fuller details public.

I agree, 10% is ambitious. I would add that, with the exception of a bit of a token effort at Quins, Broncos didn't really seem to try to convert fans at the other clubs. I'm assuming there is going to be a properly thought through and funded fan engagement strategy aimed at the core Dons support. If not, a 1% conversion rate is more likely...

Realistically Broncos will target Dons season ticket holder and members. If we finger in the air that at 3,000 people, a 10% conversion rate, which would be impressive to my eyes, is 300. I'd be stunned if they manage to drag back old Broncos fans much beyond the 1k level - and that would be a good response. The others are too long gone now Add those figure to the 2021 gates and you are well short of 5k. I can only imagine the club are expecting promotion within three years (therefore more away fans) and lots of locals,being dragged in via the community work. Few clubs generate thousands of new fans through community work in three seasons, it's typically a slow burn. It's certainly a very ambitious target. Not impossible with the proper investment and strategies. We currently don't have any real insight in to how the club plan to drive this transformation.

If there aren't over 1,000 at the first properly marketed game - there may be an argument for a soft launch v Widnes to root out any teething problems - Broncos should urgently call in someone with a background in this stuff. It'll cost but frankly the club can't afford not to. As it happens, a prominent Dons fan markets himself as a fan engagement guru. Perhaps he's already involved?

Nail. Head. Hit. Which is why they need bums on seats fast. Good luck running an event vibe with 8,700 empty seats. Personally I'd consider a 10% Dons fan conversion rate a success, 20% out of this world.

No it hasn't. That's part three. That will be very slow burn. Broncos need bums on seats fast - 300 at that stadium will be a dire experience. The most likely way to get fast conversions is Dons fans. The second is lapsed fans. The least likely is total outsiders. There's plenty of studies on fan engagement to back this up.

It seems the main target group is Dons fans. Experience, at Broncos and elsewhere, says that won't be slow burn. Broncos will realistically only have two shots with them. The first time they target them and the second time they target them, post football season. ( To pick up those who won't / can't commit to sport on Saturday and Sunday in football season but will watch when there is no football on.) If there isn't a substantial conversion rate at those fixtures, history says it's unlikely to happen. Edited to say if you build momentum in those two events you can then get a slow burn. Dons fan A says to Dons fan B / his mates that he's enjoying RL and do they want to try it. The critical bit is getting quick advocates. Lapsed Broncos fans will be a slow burn. The third strategy should be non Dons/Broncos sports fans locally but that's likely to be very slow burn and the club are right to target the other two first. Without a substantial Dons fan base building up behind Broncos I struggle to see 5k in 3 years. They'll do well to get over 1k of the old support base back to my eyes. Can anyone think of a club who have gone from 300 ish to 5k in three seasons? Salford City perhaps but that was an exceptional set of circumstances.

I actually think most fans would be happy with the current folks if it became clear they were on the right track. For a few it's personal now, for most I suspect evidence the club have learnt from their errors would suffice.

Suggesting it's not currently possible to make a sensible comment on the 5k in three years target is not short termist idiocy. It's good to see the club have set out a defined, measurable target. What they haven't yet set out is what the plan is to get there. Magic beans? Something viable and realistic? We will know much more a few games in. What we do know is the main drive seems to be converting Dons fans and winning back lost Broncos fans. The first part is likely to show through pretty quickly whether it's working. It's fair to say Broncos track record in converting host clubs fans is not good, details around this strategy will be particularly important. The second part is likely to be more slow burn. I do find it a bit concerning the club seem to think the collapse in gates last season was simply due to Covid. Hopefully that's for public consumption and they are a bit more realistic internally when planning how to get lapsed followers back.

I believe Trailfinders was effectively rented by the hour. To rent that sort of level facility non-league football stadium in London for a matchday you are looking at a few grand. Throw in extra rental for academy games, training for all sides, women's games etc and my bet is it totalled well shy of £200k p.a (The minimum rental figure p.a. according to information from Dons Trust from memory.) I'd also be surprised if Dons have negotiated this down. The part time decision was made a while back and Dons probably knew. We are also told they had other sides wanting to share, why should they reduce the figure. £200k for a ground of that standard in London, and a cut of some facility takings, is not outrageous. For next year you also need to add on the rent at Richmond, Rosslyn Park and - if Broncos announce northern day tripppers - a northern training base to make a fair comparison. It seems likely the outgoings on rent are up considerably at a time central funding has been slashed and the support base devastated. If Broncos generate a new support base it will be a good move. If they don't...

Coventry isn't in the Black Country. What is widely recognised as the Black Country is quite a small area geographically. Having grown up in the area people tend to think of themselves as en East or west midlander than a midlander to my eyes. However the folks behind the club have a pretty impressive track record to date and clearly believe this is the way to go. Good luck to them.

There were plans to grow the community game in Oxford. The basics of the work actually began but as crowds declined what little money there was went towards keeping the senior club alive. For the record the bits I recall were links to Oxford Cavaliers, a short lived U21 team and links to an attempt to drive RL in local schools which saw several schools adopt the sport. This work was led by a local teacher with support from the club. Oxford RL were also big on the Sky Try RL scheme with another southern club complaining too many resources were dedicated to Oxford. There were hopes and plans. Yes they were largely unfulfilled but it doesn't mean there weren't plans.

It has been widely reported the travel grant has been scrapped for the coming season. I've not seen a primary source but many reliable secondary sources have stated this to be the case

Truro were very bullish about targeting the league s few seasons ago. Then they hit problems and had to play at Torquay for a while, got relegated etc. It's not beyond the realms of impossibility they'll dream bigger if the new stadium comes off. By which time we may see the Football League accepting some non grass pitches. There is increasing pressure as clubs ripping up existing pitches to install grass are often ripping up big community outreach schemes too, which isn't a great look for the Football League. Artificial pitches would also help the viability of some existing clubs.

Yes. It's been a long rocky and at times controversial road to get this far. Then Covid hit which didn't exactly help the fund raising climate. A Tesco store proposed for the site of the current Truro City ground fell through, wiping several million off the revenues. They remain optimistic but the simple truth is they got something like £10m less in public grants than they hoped for - post Tesco - leaving a substantial funding shortfall.

Broncos were reportedly trying to arrange something like the school they used at Brentford. It's been confirmed there is no non blue badge parking at the stadium and fans living nearby have said non resident parking nearby is not plentiful.

I believe the driving force was from the Old Golds side but at least one key Oxford director was onboard when it first went public.

Ex Oxford fan here. It was basically a new club wrapped up as a merger to make the disappearance of two clubs less embarrassing. Not every director from Oxford was on board. No idea about Old Golds. They were looking into training bases, had a 2018 coach lined up etc then it was decided it was too rushed and they would enter in 2019. One key figure behind the scenes pulled out during the year out, to focus on another club, and that was the end of the club that never was.

They thing everyone who has watched the club for years knows is the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We've heard all sorts of promises and witnessed numerous false dawns. We need to know more about the squad - will we have 17 players and some kids or will we have a proper squad? We need to know what the plan is to attract new fans and to win back lost fans? 250 fans rattling around at Plough Lane won't pay the bills. Then we need to see how it goes on and off the pitch in the first half of next season. The fact we are hailing a Broncos squad that looks like it might not be totally out of its depth in tier two shows just how desperate the position has become.