crashmon

You will find most of the Broncos fans who post on here have known something is seriously wrong before the 2021 season even started. For most of the remaining broncos fans, we feel its 50/50 if we even start in 2022, its not nailed on we will play at PL as 200K is too high rent for a PT team, we have a unknown part time coach who has 2 other jobs. So when we say that avoiding relegation next year will be a huge success for us, we are not joking, Even finishing the 2022 season would probably count as some form of success

Avoiding relegation is the aim for the Broncos next year nothing more. On that front have experienced championship players will help, as just going in with acadamy kids will see us thrashed week on week. We need some experience to help the kids through what will be a tough season with few wins and many thrashings, so seeing them at least start to get some experienced faces in will be good. For me if we finished 11th or 10th next season that would be a success. Yes its aiming low, but that I am afraid is where the current mgmt of the Broncos have taken us

I have to be honest my last few posts have been nothing but doom for London, but for the first time for about 12 months, I am finally seeing some hope that we might actually be building a squad which will compete in the championship Yes IIlnes and Lewis are not world beaters, they would not get into Leigh, Fax, Fev squads, but these are the sort of players that if we can get more of the same quality, might have us finishing in the 8-10 range with Sheffield, York etc, and not bottom 3-4 Two players do not make a side, but these signings at least show London might have enoough next season to get to mid table, and if they do that would be an achievement

They will be lucky to field a team the number of players they have lost Corrected it for you :).. The only team we will be competitive with will be the skolars and WWR, but it will be 2023 when we play them

If London even have 17 players signed up for the 1st game next season it will be a surprise, unless they are mainly students who have student accomodation / student loads, and use RL to supplement Student income (other than working in a bar \ shop etc)

On the plus side to all of this Premier Sports are not going to show a game in front of around 200-300 fans in a 9k Seater stadium, where the home side is beaten by 60-70 points, and the only question will be, will the home team score or be nilled. So from where I am sitting, I'm not actually expecting any home monday night games for my team(if they even make next season with all of 2 players signed up)

London hopefully will only have one home game (vs Sheffield probably)... Although the one London away game will probably be newcastle or Barrow

Oh to have 6 players signed London have one signed, and he is also a teacher... Not sure how that works for Monday night games in Cumbria......

at the bottom end, expect London to be scrapping it out with dewsbury and the cumbrian clubs. I would imagine York, Newcastle, Sheffiled will have too much to go down, but not enough to challenge the top 6

Its very debatable that London will even be around this time next year. Not unless RFL provides funding of some type. David Hughes is not going to fund a side getting hammered every week, while paying 200K for the rent at the same time

Thats my point.... This I feel is the end

Last game for London as we know them losing heavily to York... This is the end even if they put a Part time squad out next year they are not going to attract fans losing every week with a squad which will be significantly weaker than what they have now. And what they have now is losing 30-6 to york. Thanks for the memories, but London are done :(....

With any other owner I would agree with you, but David Hughes has history for throwing toys out of the pram when things don't go his way (see Barnet for last time this happened). He agreed to this before his disastrous decision to hike ST prices up from 99GBP to 250GBP saw a core support of around 800 drop to 300, before he alienated the long standing supports club (LBSA), by setting up an offical supporters club who shall we say do not like critsism, before the RFL decided to pull the plug on central funding. before the "squad" he assembled to challenge for promotion was getting there asses handed to them by whitehaven, halifax, bradford etc He now has decided we are going PT next season, I don't think he was planning that at the beginning of the season when he agreed the 200K with Wimbledon. So is he prepared to pay the rent? based on all the changes above.... I'm not convinced he will pay more than 1 year 2022, if the squad we have next year are in a relegation battle rather than challenging at the top.

The issue is not Plough Lane, as we all agree its a much better venue than Ealing. The issue is London right now can't afford 200K for rent without going out of business. Now if there was a way that London could play at Plough Lane for say 80K in 2022, with the assumption if they get into SL2 in 2024, then rent could then increase based on what type of attendances we have, then you would have a lot more supporters here. Is not that we don't want to move, its that we know that 200K kills us. Thats the problem, if we could play at PL for the same cost of Ealing then you would find everybody happier. But Wimbledon (quite rightly) is a business, and you also need to get something out of the relationship

Yes for a part time Club with <300 remaining followers yes its completely unaffordable, and I think your the only person on this forum who thinks 200K is affordable. Most of the Super League teams would not be able to afford 200K rent. This puts London out of business, as we all know it, and thats why you have so much resistance to the move

Did Hemel try for a season with a northen based player base which only travelled down south for the games? And we all know how that turned out for them

I live in a 2 bed semi... I would love to live in a 4 bed detached, but I don't because I can't afford the rent. If I was to do that I would soon have no home at all. Yes we want better facilites than ealing, but we also have to be able to afford the rent. PL is too expensive at 200K a year, and that will kill the club. I see alot of responses from you about how great PL is, but it really does not matter. Its just not affordable for the Broncos long term, and will kill the club within the next 24 months, as I don't believe DH will fund London for much longer, and London without DH cannot afford 200K a year rent. I really dont care how great PL is, because the base figures do not lie. London Broncos part time cannot afford 200K a year in rent and survive. So when Wimbledon reduce the 2022 rent costs to take account of the reduced status of the Broncos then I might get more convinced of PL. But how nice it is does not matter at 200K it kills the London Broncos club now there is no central funding.

Featherstone, Bradford, Halifax, Batley, York are not planning to play next season with an acadamy squad with 300 fans in a stadium which they are paying 200K just to rent. Some of those clubs may also have the same problem with loss of central funding, but they are not going through the same upheaval that London are

Making the statement now is hoping that other clubs will come in for our players while there are two games left, so the players can put themselves in the shop window, and the Broncos have more of a chance to off-load some of them to interested clubs. I don't think the playoffs have any bearing at all. Its all about trimming the squad as much as possible before 2022

Just a question for you, and please don't take this the wrong way. Would PL still be a good move for Wimbledon if you ended up relegated and potentially playing in the conference? Would PL still be sustainable for you at that level? or a White elephant (this is just hypothecial, as I do hope the dons make it upwards towards Premier League)

Thats the whole point. If nobody is watching why do you move to a stadium where you are paying 200K rent a year if you dont have the product or the fans for it? It really does not matter how nice Plough Lane is. It could be the mecca of football, and you could have people flying in from Brazil doing tours of the stadium, and the queen could be in attendance every saturday eating Cavier. AT 200K a year it is far far to expensive for London to play there considering London are Part time with 300 fans. This is the key point, and the only point that matters. We are paying far far far far far too much in rent to ever be in a position to make the club sucessful. If you really wanted London to be a success, then you would not be expecting them considering where the club is to pay such a large propertion of income in rent. I dont see any noises coming out of wimbledon that they will reduce the rent in 2022 as London have lost the central funding. Now I will be the first to hold my hand up if I see a Wimbledon statement reducing the rent now we have lost our central funding, but I don't hold my breath

In this scenario, PL only makes sense if the RFL have told David Huhges that they will fund some of the 200K outlay for the privilege to play there,as you won't get fans coming to watch an acadamy squad getting tonked by 50 points by Whitehaven. Which means no money to improve the squad so you will lose the fans, and have a death spirial.

Ok lets look at this from various perspectives 1) PL is much much better than Ealing in terms of ground facilities, TV viewing etc. Nobody is doubting that. 2) However in case I missed something, what brings people to follow clubs is success on the Park, not the facilities they happen to play at. 3) Lets say Wimbledon get 10K fans at each home game. Then they get promoted from L1 to Champ to Premier League, will they still be stuck at 10K fans, or would they have more likely get up to 15K? 20K? 4) at the same time if Wimbledon had multiple relegations, would they have 10K fans vs Staines town in conference south? More like 2-3K probably So lets say the dons project that if they get into the Premier League they will get 25K fans. They then realise PL is not big enough for 25K fans, so do a deal with Chelsea or Fulham, and plan for 25K fans as they feel they will be in Premier League in 2 years. At the same time they get rid of all the key players in the squad, and plan to run a conference level squad, increase the prices three fold, and just assume that Chelsea \ Fulham fans will turn up to support them. Result would be 3K Dons fans rocking round Stamford bridge vs Staines, while paying vast sums of money in rent so they can't improve the squad if they tried. This is why the move makes no sense at all from a London Broncos fan. Its not that PL is better, its that the Broncos are not ready to play in a stadium as expensive / large as PL. They need a stadium at the level they are aiming for, and for Part time PL is too expensive and too large for us to play at. We need a much cheaper stadium than 200K a year

we can't make sun, but we made sure we was at the Sheffield Game. It was nice to see them win it. That won't happen Sunday. Its a real shame, I have lots of good memories since 2000 when we started to follow them (when I moved to London), times at Charlton, Brenford, The stoop, Barnet (tbh can't remember much good times on Barnet), and finally trailfinders where we actually felt the club was on its way back... ar well, Egham Town here we come.... In a way looking forward to watching a team who play less than a mile from where I live, even if its foodball, and in the depths of non-league

on the plus side, I would not be surprised if a few more fans turn up on Sunday to say goodbye to the club, they have followed through thick and thin over 20-30 years. I'll be amazed if London actually start the 2022 season.... I just don't see it TBH.