London to go part-time from next year

[The Phantom Horseman]

https://londonbroncosrl.com/2021/09/07/club-statement-squad-contract-status-2022/

No real surprise there I guess, but they have found life tough trying to pad the team out with inexperienced local players and with the last of the more experienced full-time players presumably on the way out (several already announced) times could be even tougher for them, at least in the short term.

[Damien]

This doesn't really tally with the proposed move to Wimbledon. 

[Archie Gordon]

So why move to Plough Lane?!!

[Henson Park Old Firm]

18 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

So why move to Plough Lane?!!

??? Who knows

[Damien]

I thought the move to Wimbledon was London giving it a real shot again, playing in a stadium fit for Super League and generally upping their game all round. If they are going part time then they may have just stayed at Ealing, which is perfect for a part time club. It just seems like a complete contradiction and a very muddled strategy and message.

[Scubby]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

I thought the move to Wimbledon was London giving it a real shot again, playing in a stadium fit for Super League and generally upping their game all round. If they are going part time then they may have just stayed at Ealing, which is perfect for a part time club. It just seems like a complete contradiction and a very muddled strategy and message.

What if going full time doesn't make sense when everyone seems to be pssing around with the format? 

The reality of it is that the Championship clubs could lose well over £100k this year when the cloth is cut from the central distribution. Would you throw your money into a sport with no plan atm?

[nadera78]

I don't even know where to start, frankly. It's all been said so many times before.

Perhaps one of the universities offering sports business degrees should offer a module on the London Broncos under David Hughes' ownership as the  perfect example of how to destroy a club. Can you imagine making the decision to pay an extra £200K a year in rent whilst simultaneously cutting your playing budget to the extent you need to go part-time? And in the process dragging your remaining 200 diehard fans to a 9,000 capacity venue?

I'm glad I've already checked out emotionally. 

I give it 2 years before the club is wound up. 

[Toby Chopra]

2 minutes ago, Scubby said:

What if going full time doesn't make sense when everyone seems to be pssing around with the format? 

The reality of it is that the Championship clubs could lose well over £100k this year when the cloth is cut from the central distribution. Would you throw your money into a sport with no plan atm?

I'm not sure that's right. The restructure plan - as far as we know it - is about giving more support to the teams just outside the top tier, so there's a smoother transition. A full time London would have benefitted from that. 

The reality is just that David Hughes has decided to stop funding a full time team, and that's that. In the last decade or so it was only ever sustainable with him underwriting it. 

There's definitely a place for a locally produced, part-time team in London, but we know what that level is - it's the Skolars, maybe with one or two of the best Broncos academy players thrown in. 

So there's no prospect of a part time London being in the top 20 clubs, which, as others have said, makes the Plough Lane move all the stranger. 

[The Blues Ox]

This news is going to give the promoted teams this year a massive amount of hope that they can stay up. London are going to really struggle to put together a decent part time team for next season and will surely start as one of the favourites for the drop.

Its just the way of sport, eventually teams just find their level at least until the next big catalyst can kick start them again.

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, Toby Chopra said:

I'm not sure that's right. The restructure plan - as far as we know it - is about giving more support to the teams just outside the top tier, so there's a smoother transition. A full time London would have benefitted from that. 

The reality is just that David Hughes has decided to stop funding a full time team, and that's that. In the last decade or so it was only ever sustainable with him underwriting it. 

There's definitely a place for a locally produced, part-time team in London, but we know what that level is - it's the Skolars, maybe with one or two of the best Broncos academy players thrown in. 

So there's no prospect of a part time London being in the top 20 clubs, which, as others have said, makes the Plough Lane move all the stranger. 

There is no plan though, it is just some old and weary SL chairmen voicing their own views. Throw in the pie in the sky stuff from journos and old players - there in no strategy and no plan. I would be taking a step back and actually seeing what the hell the game is trying to achieve at the moment. 

[nadera78]

1 minute ago, Scubby said:

There is no plan though, it is just some old and weary SL chairmen voicing their own views. Throw in the pie in the sky stuff from journos and old players - there in no strategy and no plan. I would be taking a step back and actually seeing what the hell the game is trying to achieve at the moment. 

But if you were doing that you wouldn't be spending £200,000 on Plough Lane, plus £X on Rosslyn Park and Richmond as training grounds, when you could continue to pay a per hour rate to hire Ealing Trailfinders. Whatever the club's plan is, taking a step back and seeing the lay of the land clearly isn't it.

[iffleyox]

4 minutes ago, nadera78 said:

But if you were doing that you wouldn't be spending £200,000 on Plough Lane, plus £X on Rosslyn Park and Richmond as training grounds, when you could continue to pay a per hour rate to hire Ealing Trailfinders. Whatever the club's plan is, taking a step back and seeing the lay of the land clearly isn't it.

I'd missed they were going to train at RP - can't imagine that is going to be remotely cheap... That club is exceptionally good at sweating its commercial opportunities. I can see Richmond doing a better deal, given that the sharing situation with London Scottish is all over the place, but *both* is madness.

[Mumby Magic]

24 minutes ago, Scubby said:

What if going full time doesn't make sense when everyone seems to be pssing around with the format? 

The reality of it is that the Championship clubs could lose well over £100k this year when the cloth is cut from the central distribution. Would you throw your money into a sport with no plan atm?

It's no plan ever Scubby but you are right. 

[M j M]

Has David Hughes perhaps seen how the reaction to the Wimbledon move has apparently gone down and finally called it a day as well?

[Scubby]

7 minutes ago, M j M said:

Has David Hughes perhaps seen how the reaction to the Wimbledon move has apparently gone down and finally called it a day as well?

I would imagine the move to Wimbledon is aimed at attracting new fans - generate new interest or die. Cheesing off a few of the 200-300 Broncos fans who remain is probably the least of his problems. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

20 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

This news is going to give the promoted teams this year a massive amount of hope that they can stay up. London are going to really struggle to put together a decent part time team for next season and will surely start as one of the favourites for the drop.

Its just the way of sport, eventually teams just find their level at least until the next big catalyst can kick start them again.

This. They have a core of solid, experienced players at this level (Sammut, Aston, Fozzard, Curran, Walters, Hankinson, Miski, Richards), but much of their remaining squad looks league 1 level to me, and when they have had 3 or 4 out injured, as has happened on many occasions, they have looked very vulnerable. I can't see many of those experienced players remaining next year and they are going to struggle to recruit quality part-timers down south, so it's hard to see where they go from here in the short term.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

I can't see any way in which a part time London could afford the Wimbledon move. The idea of there being loads of people there willing to pay to watch a part time team playing a game they've only vaguely heard of, and not at the highest level either, is beyond stupid!

[Mumby Magic]

15 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

This. They have a core of solid, experienced players at this level (Sammut, Aston, Fozzard, Curran, Walters, Hankinson, Miski, Richards), but much of their remaining squad looks league 1 level to me, and when they have had 3 or 4 out injured, as has happened on many occasions, they have looked very vulnerable. I can't see many of those experienced players remaining next year and they are going to struggle to recruit quality part-timers down south, so it's hard to see where they go from here in the short term.

Egodo is easily Championship level.

[Just Browny]

Just why. Wtf. I used to watch them fairly regularly in 2017-18 and thought it was a decent set-up and that people moaned a bit too much. Everything since that 2019 season has been disaster after disaster.

[The Phantom Horseman]

38 minutes ago, Mumby Magic said:

Egodo is easily Championship level.

Yeah him too, though he doesn't seem to have played much lately, Adebeyi too who has only just returned. They just seem to have about a dozen in their squad who probably aren't quite up to this level, and they seem the ones likeliest to be there next season.

[Eddie]

A crying shame this, I know London are never going to be a big club but a middling SL side averaging 4-5k would still be great for the game, yet it seems we’re now further from that than ever. 

[crashmon]

People won't pay 20GBP to watch a part time team ship 50 points to teams like York and Halifax.

The only way PL works is for wimbledon to take control, call the club WImbledon RL and hope that enough dons fans come to watch to pay the rent.

The thing is can they back out of going to PL?  Or will they have to pay compensation to the Dons if they back out now.

I actually now think they won't be around next year.  They will be wound up as otherwise DH has to find 200K a year to fund a side with 300 fans if your lucky

[The Frying Scotsman]

1 minute ago, crashmon said:

The only way PL works is for wimbledon to take control, call the club WImbledon RL and hope that enough dons fans come to watch to pay the rent.

There's zero chance of that happening, so what you are actually saying is:

"Plough Lane is not going to work"

[newbe]

Just announced on 12o/c Talk Sport news about going P/T due to reduced tv deal.

[DI Keith Fowler]

The only conceivable way this isn't terrible news is if they've been given notice that they're in that second division of 10 no matter what happens, and are cutting costs for a year where the league doesn't matter much. I don't think that's likely though.