London Broncos Moving Update

[Leyther_Matt]

4 hours ago, Chronicler of Chiswick said:

If they're going to use the 6 metre line for what we used to call the goal lines, then the pitch will be below the minimum length for SL, surely. Didn't Fev have this problem and had to spend a fairly large sum to put it right?

Pitch length is 111m so knock off 5.5m at each end to account for starting on the 6 yard box rather than the goal line and it’s bang on 100m within the posts as it were so pretty much ideal I’d have thought?

[westlondonfan]

On 31/03/2021 at 04:08, nadera78 said:

The Broncos have about 250 season ticket holders, and average around 900 in the Championship, so this would mean finding over 2,000 new fans. The club will claim they have a plan to attract newcomers, which is fair but unproven, but we know we always lose existing fans when we move. Given that AFCW average about 4,300 you're talking about 50% of AFCWs fanbase becoming regulars at Broncos games. That would be unprecedented in any move the club has ever made.

As for averaging 6,000 in SL, well, we've never averaged that in our 40-year existence.

It’s typical of the way that this is being presented by the club that the scenario of the Broncos being relegated down to League one rather than them achieving promotion or being licensed into Super League is not even considered as a possibility?

I stick to my initial view that leaving trailfinders could prove to be a costly mistake. 

[Toby Chopra]

26 minutes ago, westlondonfan said:

It’s typical of the way that this is being presented by the club that the scenario of the Broncos being relegated down to League one rather than them achieving promotion or being licensed into Super League is not even considered as a possibility?

I stick to my initial view that leaving trailfinders could prove to be a costly mistake. 

If Broncos are relegated to League 1 then the club is dead anyway, even at Trailfinders. There's no need, or indeed the players, for another semi-pro London club. Skolars fill that role already, and we can see what that standard is. 

Broncos are only even potentially viable as a full time club, so that means 5-6k a week crowds at a minimum. Atm Hughes makes up the difference. 

[Man of Kent]

16 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

Broncos are only even potentially viable as a full time club, so that means 5-6k a week crowds at a minimum. Atm Hughes makes up the difference. 

Exactly. That’s why Ealing was always a dead end. 

[Damien]

54 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

If Broncos are relegated to League 1 then the club is dead anyway, even at Trailfinders. There's no need, or indeed the players, for another semi-pro London club. Skolars fill that role already, and we can see what that standard is. 

Broncos are only even potentially viable as a full time club, so that means 5-6k a week crowds at a minimum. Atm Hughes makes up the difference. 

London and the South East is a big place. I can absolutely see value in more than one semi professional club, if it came to that.

[tms]

On 01/04/2021 at 17:08, Chronicler of Chiswick said:

If they're going to use the 6 metre line for what we used to call the goal lines, then the pitch will be below the minimum length for SL, surely. Didn't Fev have this problem and had to spend a fairly large sum to put it right?

NO FEV's ground's length was always up to minimum standards and wider than minimum standards    the in goal areas were also sufficient 

When they built the new stand at the raiilway end it was built behind the existing terracing during the season  the other new stand along the touchline was built in the closes season  so when they were both finished they removed old terracing bought some top soil and grass seed and VOLLA longer pitch hardly a kings ransom

hope that helps

[Toby Chopra]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

London and the South East is a big place. I can absolutely see value in more than one semi professional club, if it came to that.

It might be a big place, but - compared to the heartland - the player base is very thin. 

We can see what the quality of the L&SE part-time player pool is: it's Skolars plus the Broncos youth team, which would be bottom half of L1, where the Skolars already reside. It isn't going to be viable to run a second London club at that level. 

Any player who has more ability will head north, without Hughes' money to offer them FT wages in London. 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

 

46 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

It might be a big place, but - compared to the heartland - the player base is very thin. 

We can see what the quality of the L&SE part-time player pool is: it's Skolars plus the Broncos youth team, which would be bottom half of L1, where the Skolars already reside. It isn't going to be viable to run a second London club at that level. 

Any player who has more ability will head north, without Hughes' money to offer them FT wages in London. 

Correct but the club does plan to go part-time next season- The Commercial Manager has said as much on another forum and next years grant from the RFL will only be £ 288,000. That's why it's incredibly stupid to be paying rent to three different organisations. I can see them running out of money in Year 1.

People have to accept that as currently consituted, London Broncos is not a Super League candidate club because it's on the field that counts and the Academy products on display yesterday are not only on minimum wages allegedly, but unable to perform the basics of Rugby League Football such as tackling.

David Hughes should announce he is putting the club up for sale and if the RFL / Super League does value a viable club in the Capital then they need to approach exiled Northern or Australiasian businessmen with a view to find an individual or consortium able to properly finance the club.

Moving location on average every four years while the team degenerates is the epitomy of insanity.

[Man of Kent]

I swear there’s some London ‘fans’ on here who want the Broncos to fail to prove a point.

[Toby Chopra]

24 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

 

Correct but the club does plan to go part-time next season- The Commercial Manager has said as much on another forum and next years grant from the RFL will only be £ 288,000. That's why it's incredibly stupid to be paying rent to three different organisations. I can see them running out of money in Year 1.

People have to accept that as currently consituted, London Broncos is not a Super League candidate club because it's on the field that counts and the Academy products on display yesterday are not only on minimum wages allegedly, but unable to perform the basics of Rugby League Football such as tackling.

David Hughes should announce he is putting the club up for sale and if the RFL / Super League does value a viable club in the Capital then they need to approach exiled Northern or Australiasian businessmen with a view to find an individual or consortium able to properly finance the club.

Moving location on average every four years while the team degenerates is the epitomy of insanity.

If the club is going part-time next year then it is, I'm very sad to say, the beginning of the end. 

And to be honest, when you think about how much money our imaginary Aussie/northern millionaire would have to spend to get LB into SL and keep them there, it's probably not the best thing to spend the money on if the RFL was out fishing for investment. 

[Archie Gordon]

14 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

London Broncos is not a Super League candidate club because it's on the field that counts and the Academy products on display yesterday are not only on minimum wages allegedly, but unable to perform the basics of Rugby League Football such as tackling.

I won't argue with the first part of this but the problem is not with kids, it's the idea that you can throw several of them into the first team all at the same time when the team itself is at an obviously low ebb. It's not fair and I can see it all falling apart if there are no wins in the first 4 games. It's not clear that anyone is in charge at the Broncos in what is supposed to be a pivotal year. Why TF would we move to a new stadium in the middle of a pandemic and when we've decided to have - at the very best - a consolidation year on the field?

[Archie Gordon]

3 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

I swear there’s some London ‘fans’ on here who want the Broncos to fail to prove a point.

Come on. You genuinely think 2021 is all going to plan so far?

[Man of Kent]

Just now, Archie Gordon said:

Come on. You genuinely think 2021 is all going to plan so far?

It’s Round 1. A little bit of patience and keeping the sheets dry wouldn’t go amiss. 

[Archie Gordon]

12 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

It’s Round 1. A little bit of patience and keeping the sheets dry wouldn’t go amiss. 

My sheets haven't been dry since the team was named for the York game.

[Man of Kent]

7 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

My sheets haven't been dry since the team was named for the York game.

[orangeman]

1 hour ago, Man of Kent said:

I swear there’s some London ‘fans’ on here who want the Broncos to fail to prove a point.

I swear there's some London 'fans' on here who want to believe everything they are told because they'd rather believe fantasy than exist in the reality of what the club have become.

It swings both ways here and the pessimists now far outnumber the optimists. This is isn't through some weird fetish for the need for self flagellation, but simply by being worn down by countless rebirths and assurances that "this is the best thing for the club".

Moves, bankruptcy (nearly), new owners, name changes, affiliations with football clubs, affiliations with rugby clubs.....the club have left a trail of destroyed relationships and partnerships in their wake and you and a diminishing number of others would have us believe that this time it'll be different whilst berating those who have had enough.  

If David Hughes has spent close to £30,000,000 on the project ( I suspect more), how.much has been wasted on bad appointments and bad advice taken from those appointed?

I'm genuinely happy that you remain optimistic, but please, don't mistake the apathy and departure of the majority of fans as us wanting the club to fail. Nobody wants or ever wanted that. We just wanted to support our club, but our club apparently didn't need us because they had Mr Hughes.

[Man of Kent]

6 minutes ago, orangeman said:

I swear there's some London 'fans' on here who want to believe everything they are told because they'd rather believe fantasy than exist in the reality of what the club have become.

It swings both ways here and the pessimists now far outnumber the optimists. This is isn't through some weird fetish for the need for self flagellation, but simply by being worn down by countless rebirths and assurances that "this is the best thing for the club".

Moves, bankruptcy (nearly), new owners, name changes, affiliations with football clubs, affiliations with rugby clubs.....the club have left a trail of destroyed relationships and partnerships in their wake and you and a diminishing number of others would have us believe that this time it'll be different whilst berating those who have had enough.  

If David Hughes has spent close to £30,000,000 on the project ( I suspect more), how.much has been wasted on bad appointments and bad advice taken from those appointed?

I'm genuinely happy that you remain optimistic, but please, don't mistake the apathy and departure of the majority of fans as us wanting the club to fail. Nobody wants or ever wanted that. We just wanted to support our club, but our club apparently didn't need us because they had Mr Hughes.

Fair enough but one defeat isn’t the end of the world. Some people need to get a grip. 

[Magic XIII]

26 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Fair enough but one defeat isn’t the end of the world. Some people need to get a grip. 

I'd love to read your views on the teams performance yesterday ?

[Man of Kent]

22 minutes ago, Magic XIII said:

I'd love to read your views on the teams performance yesterday ?

Can’t comment on something I didn’t watch. I’m a general rugby league fan. If I have a team, it’s England.

Will watch games at Plough Lane though, obvs.

[Click]

5 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Can’t comment on something I didn’t watch. I’m a general rugby league fan. If I have a team, it’s England.

Will watch games at Plough Lane though, obvs.

Can I ask why you didn't pay a £5 to watch?
 

After Fridays performance I'm trying to decide if I will fork out any money to continue watching them. They played like a mid table L1 team at best.

[Man of Kent]

3 minutes ago, Click said:

Can I ask why you didn't pay a £5 to watch?
 

After Fridays performance I'm trying to decide if I will fork out any money to continue watching them. They played like a mid table L1 team at best.

Three live TV games was enough yesterday. Believe it or not, I have a family!

Ah, OK. Was it the same bunch of players ‘who can’t do the basics like tackling’ that led 2-0 at HT against York last week? 

 

[Click]

8 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Three live TV games was enough yesterday. Believe it or not, I have a family!

Ah, OK. Was it the same bunch of players ‘who can’t do the basics like tackling’ that led 2-0 at HT against York last week? 

 

The "tackling" for some of Halifax's tries was abysmal. I am not sure you could call it tackling at times.

[Man of Kent]

5 minutes ago, Click said:

The "tackling" for some of Halifax's tries was abysmal. I am not sure you could call it tackling at times.

I hear very similar things about Wimbledon! The players are inept, ‘Look, we’ve lost again, I told you they are rubbish!’ etc.

Though to be fair it usually takes a least a handful of games for the fatalists to write them off...

[Click]

2 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

I hear very similar things about Wimbledon! The players are inept, ‘Look, we’ve lost again, I told you they are rubbish!’ etc.

Though to be fair it usually takes a least a handful of games for the fatalists to write them off...

I mean, you should probably watch the game, or at least the highlights before you criticise what others have actually watched.

There were a number of tries or breaks from Halifax where players just either made no effort in trying to tackle or just fell off way too easily. 

The forward pack were completely dominated, so I can't see much coming from this season until we bring in more forwards who can actually make some metres.

Just as an example of a player that I have never actually liked since he joined us Greg Richards, I would like to see how many metres he has made post contact since joining the club, as I wouldn't be surprised if it was below 100 in the few years he has been with us.

It was embarrassing being a Broncos fan watching the performance on Friday evening. (Not something that we're too unfamiliar with)

If the plan is to play at Wimbledon later on this year, then there would have to be huge (I mean absolutely huge) improvements made, or any Wimbledon fan that does go along for a match won't be back.

I understand that we still didn't have our two main halfbacks in Sammut and Aston, but without a forward pack to play behind they won't be able to do too much anyway.

[Ivarr the Boneless]

4 hours ago, Toby Chopra said:

It might be a big place, but - compared to the heartland - the player base is very thin. 

We can see what the quality of the L&SE part-time player pool is: it's Skolars plus the Broncos youth team, which would be bottom half of L1, where the Skolars already reside. It isn't going to be viable to run a second London club at that level. 

Any player who has more ability will head north, without Hughes' money to offer them FT wages in London. 

Sadly it's worse than that. The best players would go north to turn pro. Many of the rest would go semi pro in Union - more money for less travel.

Then the next generation would not come through as it is heavily reliant on the Broncos academy system. (Skolars do work here to be fair.)

The failure of Broncos as a pro team runs the real risk of killing "professional" i.e. top three tiers RL in London in the not too distant future.

I really can't see it leading to two good semi pro sides.

I've been a season ticket holder at Broncos, Oxford and Skolars so hope I am wrong...