Londonbornirishbred

According to the latest company report, he is now the majority (as in only) shareholder. Hughes is retired and has little interest in spending any more money badly....

"A little" won't be good enough. They need to invest in office staff for Marketing and Communications, matchday experience, corporate sales and loads of other stuff that has been ignored for 16 years+ Hughes and his son won't invest unless they're given assurances and they won't get them, so you get this long lingering death. The move to Wimbledon isn't working. The money they're wasting on training ground rent and office rent as well as travel would be better spent on promotion whilst they train and play at one ground like they did at Ealing. The move south was badly thought out, is expensive and delivered little if any benefit in the eyes of IMG. Hughes has 24 more home games to deliver his 5,000 fans. He's that delusional he probably still thinks that's achievable.

I don't see the fascination with comparing League to Union crowds at club level? Neither sport is directly competing with the other for fans, as there seems to be a "love it/hate it" when it comes to each games fans attitude toward the other. Proof of that was when 12,000+ Quinn fans were allowed to stay and watch the QuinsRL v Huddersfield game and 10,000 didn't bother. What is worth noting is that clubs like Quins and Sarracens see "events" as key to their growth. They try stuff to spread the net and attract new fans. RL clubs, especially in SL, have for too long sat back and taken the sky cash and lived hand to mouth. Not all, but a fair few. Clubs like HKR have really had a go over the last decade and are to be applauded for getting their gates up and trying to increase the revenue streams that they control. Wire and Catalans are another 2 sides that are maybe 2k off where they need to be crowd wise. If IMG are to make any difference to the games financial state, then they need to look at helping get clubs away from reliance on central funding. As an aside, I think English RL does very well attendance wise, but with a little more effort and some joined up thinking it could be so much better.

London Broncos have been a shambles for over a decade now. As for attempting to touch base with the new investors at the Skolars, that is contemptible behavior and should be looked into by the RFL. Fit and proper is what RL club owners are meant to be, but neither of those terms describe the current ownership. He's fallen out with successive landlords, employed unqualified people into key roles and has alienated thousands of fans.

London Broncos will score 5/20 and will be a Championship/L1 side. What surprised me (in a nice way) was that IMG have only allocated 25% of the 100% to the "what ifs" and are counting the major points on the "now". This would explain why London Broncos decided to suddenly trying to engage with fans after a dozen or so years of ignoring them, but does pose the question as to the viability of the Wimbledon move, given they score badly in that section not being the major tenant nor having a big screen and only using the stadium on matchdays, with their offices being in Richmond and their other sides training at west London Union grounds. It certainly is an interesting time to be a Rugby League fan!

I'd expect it it rate very well if it gets onto FTA TV. The NRL is popular amongst "most" Kiwis, who don't all support the Warriors. I have friends here who are bunnies and Sea eagles fans and I see plenty of Penrith shirts around too. On the topic of the "podcast". It's a tad "rose tinted" in it's outlook, but there nothing wrong with positive thinking. I will say that the best RL players are still be snaffled by Union and that the Wellington RL comp sometimes struggles with a real lack of support, but this is a problem for the NZRL and others to tap into the huge NRL fanbase down here.

I was pleasantly stunned with the number of SOO shirts I saw when I first moved here. Origin will rate well if it hits FTA this year. Down here in Wellington, there's a healthy cross club support for clubs with the

I took my 12 year old daughter to a play off game at KRoad in 2003(?).....best and most welcoming fans in SL in my opinion. Banter? Yes...aggression? Nope.. A few idiots on the grog doesn't portray a club.

Genuine delighted that you and your mate had a good time, but you now come across as one of those with their head in the sand. There were no more than 700 in attendance on Sunday. Even if were to don your rose tinted glasses and call it 1,000, that's a drop of nearly 50% from week 1. As others have posted, the championship attendances are UP after 3 weeks compared to 2022, but not london. 3,953 was the combined attendance for the first 2 games at Plough lane. The number this year is at least 25% down. I get your blind devotion, but believe you need to grasp onto reality with the same passion, because when the move to Wimbledon is exposed as yet more of the emporer's new clothes, there will be fewer than 250 of you left to populate the gold lounge.

Number of things here. First up. "London Haters"? The days of conspiracy theorists from Keighley complaining about brown paper bags of cash and the Broncos getting special treatment are long gone. The most critical of comments regarding London these days are about the shambolic way the club has been run under its current owner. Many of these comments come from some of the 4,000 fans the club has shed in the last 15 years, including members of the LBSA who still attend games, raise funds for the club and offer to help out, even after Hughes and his employees treated them like trash. Secondly. The reason for the move to Wimbledon was given as a need to control and earn from corporate hospitality. Yesterday, corporate hospitality was £20 if you took advantage of the 2-4-1 deal offered, which essentially shows how the #1 reason for the move was wrong. They're giving it away at £20, because that included the match ticket and a meal and a match ticket is £20.00. Thirdly. There are now 11 games this year and 13 next, by which Mr Hughes target of 5,000 fans is to be met. Needless to say, there's a very vested interest in the progress being made in terms of attendances and the reluctance of the club to publish these is a concern. Given the Cherry Red is a shiny new stadium, I find it incredulous that they don't know how many were in there, let alone how they manage to get a fire safety certificate if they don't know how many are there. "London haters" aren't haters per say, just tired fans who have been repeatedly lied to by an owner and his staff who between them are not fit to run a pub side, as the lack of Twitter activity on Sunday showed. But I suspect any criticism of London Broncos will be pigeon-holed into whatever group you choose, whilst ignoring the reality that Hughes has pretty much killed the Broncos as a brand whilst flushing £30,000,000 of his own cash as well as about £20,000,000 of Central funding as well. I'm into my 3rd decade as a Broncos fan, but it gets harder each year to justify the effort.

Simply by "being there", IMG are forcing clubs to think long and hard about how they'll generate additional revenues. I've no doubt that some clubs will be nervous regarding a return to licencing and the harder they are seen to be working on fan engagement the harder it will be to cut them loose. Things like London and Bradford handing out thousands of tickets isn't new, but I've no doubt that IMG being involved has played a part in the activities of those clubs as well as across all 3 divisions. 9,900 is the SL average so far. That's up 1,600 on last year and whilst it may drop a bit, all the clubs seem to be working harder this year.....except London, who yet again did OK for the opening game, but have apparently already reverted to type with no social media activity on game day and a sub 600 gate.

I've been saying for over 20 years that "fans at games" has been the single most important factor in the UK games survival. I believe that all clubs who aspire to the top level should have a target of a 10k average and if we want TV stations to pay top dollar, then we need a product that is "must see". It's early days yet, but it would seem that IMG's involvement is paying dividends.

I just hit Google maps and it gave me two options when I searched cherry red records stadium.....one of which was the old AFC ground. It's a bit slack for AFC Wimbledon to allow that, but common sense would dictate that a professional transport agency would research the best routes, parking options etc and even talk to the host club?

Option 1. Walk to St Pancras <5 mins> jump.on the train to Haydons Road <30 mins> then 5 minutes walk to stadium. Option 2. Jump on the northern line to colliers wood <30 mins> and then the 493 bus is a 5 minute trip to the stadium. Buy your tickets inadvance as its cheaper and food and beer is varied but as others have said, it ain't cheap

He has a valid point though. Harlequins Rugby League used to do things like this all the time, then Hughes employed unqualified people to run the club and low and behold, 15 years later they're at the foot of the 2nd tier in a rented football stadium with a few hundred fans. The club have reignited this youth scheme as well as the fan engagement this year and whilst welcome, neither should have ever been allowed to be extinguished in the first place. Neither are expensive, but both take a lot of hard work and for all the talk of "the right culture" at the club, there really does seem to be a feeling that they want IMG to give them a leg up. Going on the behavior of the owner over the last 15 years, I'd say they're not deserving of any special treatment. 10,000 tickets given away may well be counted across the remaining games, so expect some amazing attendances announced (but very few pictures of the crowd)