London Skolars New Owners

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

14 hours ago, IM2 said:

Most interesting comment was they said Broncos will no longer be no 1 in london and Superleague is the only target. 

If it happens I'll be surprised 

.

[EssexRL]

36 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

Sneaky question. Did/will you see any return on your investment?

Not sure what the price will be as not a Director but expect not and as you can imagine I didn't buy the shares with any expectation to make money! 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Just now, EssexRL said:

Not sure what the price will be as not a Director but expect not and as you can imagine I didn't buy the shares with any expectation to make money! 

You (part) club owners are all the same 

Looking for a cheap return at the expense of fans 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

[The 4 of Us]

9 hours ago, IM2 said:

from what I understand the investors have already been signed off by the RFL before. 

Not Andrew Chalmers and co is it. Was involved with Bradford? Just with the NZ references.

[Gomersall]

48 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Emojis are now a waste of time BB.

[EssexRL]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

You (part) club owners are all the same 

Looking for a cheap return at the expense of fans 

I trust you are being ironic. I put £5000 into the club (plus £1k each year sponsorship and STs) with zero expectation of any return. Every one involved in this club did it for the love of the sport certainly not for profit, fame or glory. Some have lost six figure sums over the years. Skolars has survived due to that. To survive longer term and grow the club needs more money than the current owners can muster. This deal, whatever it is, is our best hope and frankly the best hope for RL in London at the moment. If I make a profit I will donate it, not that it’s anyone’s business.

[DI Keith Fowler]

2 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

If it happens I'll be surprised 

.

I mean the bar is on the floor.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

22 minutes ago, EssexRL said:

I trust you are being ironic. I put £5000 into the club (plus £1k each year sponsorship and STs) with zero expectation of any return. Every one involved in this club did it for the love of the sport certainly not for profit, fame or glory. Some have lost six figure sums over the years. Skolars has survived due to that. To survive longer term and grow the club needs more money than the current owners can muster. This deal, whatever it is, is our best hope and frankly the best hope for RL in London at the moment. If I make a profit I will donate it, not that it’s anyone’s business.

 Of course I am !!

Like all Broncos fans I'd be delighted if Skolars take off 

Most of us are fans if both anyway.

Weirdly the dream is that we end up successful enough to hate each other and wish each other ill 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

16 minutes ago, DI Keith Fowler said:

I mean the bar is on the floor.

True.....the Hunslet ARFL loss was a low 

[Jughead]

I hope League Express (though not Clickbait Cal) are planning an interview, once everything has gone through. Would be an interesting read, I reckon. 

[The Daddy]

Really positive news, fits in well with IMG's strategy of a greater presence in London for RL. 

Somebody mentioned that the club would have to move stadia if they wanted to play in SL, I disagree and think the ground and site as a whole is ripe for development if the funding is available. 

A few years back the local authority was trying to sell the site so I hope that opportunity is still there and it can be taken advantage of.

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Really positive news, fits in well with IMG's strategy of a greater presence in London for RL. 

Somebody mentioned that the club would have to move stadia if they wanted to play in SL, I disagree and think the ground and site as a whole is ripe for development if the funding is available. 

A few years back the local authority was trying to sell the site so I hope that opportunity is still there and it can be taken advantage of.

And if not Spurs’ ground is around the corner  

 

Edit - it’s a shame sarcasm can’t be indicated with emojis any more. 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Eddie

[EssexRL]

3 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Sorry BB I had not picked up on the emoji thing. I am occasional visitor here these days...clearly they help with understanding and would have saved me rattling the post I did off. LOL. (There is probably an emoji for this!!)

[EssexRL]

23 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Really positive news, fits in well with IMG's strategy of a greater presence in London for RL. 

Somebody mentioned that the club would have to move stadia if they wanted to play in SL, I disagree and think the ground and site as a whole is ripe for development if the funding is available. 

A few years back the local authority was trying to sell the site so I hope that opportunity is still there and it can be taken advantage of.

I think we are the anchor tenant and have a long term lease so there is some stability there and yes as any one who has been to New River knows there is a long of old terracing around the pitch that could be developed although presumably that would be costly. Important I think that the Harringay/North East London identity is maintain and built on whatever the future holds. I think there is real value is being a club with association to a part of London.

[Jughead]

33 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Really positive news, fits in well with IMG's strategy of a greater presence in London for RL. 

Somebody mentioned that the club would have to move stadia if they wanted to play in SL, I disagree and think the ground and site as a whole is ripe for development if the funding is available. 

A few years back the local authority was trying to sell the site so I hope that opportunity is still there and it can be taken advantage of.

I think they’d have to move or stump up to buy a sports centre, which would not be cheap. The athletics track and other athletic sports facilities (shotput etc) would have to be removed if there was any development and I can’t imagine that happening at a sports centre.

 

[BJW]

1 minute ago, Jughead said:

I think they’d have to move or stump up to buy a sports centre, which would not be cheap. The athletics track and other athletic sports facilities (shotput etc) would have to be removed if there was any development and I can’t imagine that happening at a sports centre.

 

Why would the athletics facilities have to go? Sheffield was happily accepted with the running track? Midlands with their SL ambitions have just had approval to move to an athletics stadium?

As for the local council, handle with care is all I'll say and mention the rugby pitches across the road and how they handled their running!

[IM2]

5 hours ago, Eddie said:

Any idea what went wrong last time they were signed off, ie why they didn’t invest in a club? 

They passed I believe. It was a new club but I don’t know the full details but they passed 

[IM2]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

 Of course I am !!

Like all Broncos fans I'd be delighted if Skolars take off 

Most of us are fans if both anyway.

Weirdly the dream is that we end up successful enough to hate each other and wish each other ill 

This is exactly right 

[IM2]

3 minutes ago, BJW said:

Why would the athletics facilities have to go? Sheffield was happily accepted with the running track? Midlands with their SL ambitions have just had approval to move to an athletics stadium?

As for the local council, handle with care is all I'll say and mention the rugby pitches across the road and how they handled their running!

Personally I think new river is perfect. 50 acre site in zone 3 and could be reconfigured easily. Easily good enough for L1 and with limited work Champ. With a SL plan for later. With spurs redevelopment tons of money gone into the area as well. Plus not far from Highgate and Muswell Hill Winchmore Hill etc all well heeled areas 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

14 minutes ago, IM2 said:

Personally I think new river is perfect. 50 acre site in zone 3 and could be reconfigured easily. Easily good enough for L1 and with limited work Champ. With a SL plan for later. With spurs redevelopment tons of money gone into the area as well. Plus not far from Highgate and Muswell Hill Winchmore Hill etc all well heeled areas 

It's fine in my view too. Just need to fill the stand!

[Oxford]

I'm really pleased that Skolars have new owners and would love there to be two London sides and three french ones in SL.

 

In the meantime I'm really looking forward to all the reasons why it won't work, can't possibly work and we may as well give up now on the forum.

[Archie Gordon]

New River is fine and can be developed a little. The Skolars surely won't make the error of the Broncos in thinking that a shortcut to building a fanbase is to move to a shiny stadium. In any case, they already have a clubhouse/bar/shop on site so it wouldn't make sense to lose that foothold.

I've previously said that there aren't the resources for 2 p/t professional teams in London - but happy to hear what the new owners' plans are (and, more importantly, who they are). 

[Toby Chopra]

18 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

New River is fine and can be developed a little. The Skolars surely won't make the error of the Broncos in thinking that a shortcut to building a fanbase is to move to a shiny stadium. In any case, they already have a clubhouse/bar/shop on site so it wouldn't make sense to lose that foothold.

I've previously said that there aren't the resources for 2 p/t professional teams in London - but happy to hear what the new owners' plans are (and, more importantly, who they are). 

Your Broncos point is of course true, but the flip side of that is that any London project will rapidly become a money pit unless paying crowds can be built up quickly to fund a full-time team. So a larger ground, or a costly redevelopment of New River will be needed in short order if the Skolars are to break out of the eternal trap of poor results=poor crowds that rugby league in London faces. 

I too look forward to hearing the plans of the new owners - it would be hard to be any worse than the current Broncos strategy. But I think we know now that the worthy sounding "build up the club slowly" strategy doesn't actually work in London. For either club to survive, they need to fund a step change, and I hope the owners realise this.          

Edited January 21, 2023 by Toby Chopra

[Archie Gordon]

4 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

Your Broncos point is of course true, but the flip side of that is that any London project will rapidly become a money pit unless paying crowds can be built up quickly to fund a full-time team. So a larger ground, or a costly redevelopment of New River will be needed in short order if the Skolars are to break out of the eternal trap of poor results=poor crowds that rugby league in London faces. 

I too look forward to hearing the plans of the new owners - it would be hard to be any worse than the current Broncos strategy. But I think we know now that the worth sounding "build up the club slowly" strategy doesn't actually work in London. For either club to survive, they need to fund a step change, and I hope the owners realise this.          

I don't fully agree. Of course, a large capital investment is required but I think that the 'build slowly approach' is the *only way* it will work in London. Ironically, this was happening at Ealing between 2016-2019 - all aspects of the club at one location, incremental stadium improvements, crowds growing, local community side started - but just not fast enough for Hughes. I don't care that some fans think Ealing was sub-par as a venue - other people were taking their place at a faster rate than they were leaving.

Skolars have something that the Broncos don't - a property that allows them to make money (I'm assuming they own the clubhouse?). Hughes's folly was never to own anything at all. Hemel should have been the blueprint. Skolars is next best.

I don't think Skolars need to redevelop New River until they have a side that pulls in >2k. That is some way off and so I don't think infrastructure investment is needed in the near term. Catering for crowds way, way bigger than you're getting (or going to get anytime soon) is the (failed) Broncos approach.