London Broncos & London Skolars

[Jughead]

11 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

There's plenty to criticise Broncos for, but it gets a bit tiring hearing people involved in other failing semi-pro clubs constantly talking down about them as if they can do better.  Hemel and Skolars people are terrible for it.  And both clubs have failed terribly at going pro no matter which way you look at it.  At least Broncos have offered a great pathway to fully pro for loads of players from the SE.  And there's a number of very succesful fully pro players who would probably never have made it without Broncos if they were just relying on Hemel and Skolars.  Clubb, Sarginson, LMS, Dixon, McMeeken.....

And where would those pro players come from if it wasn’t for Hemel, Skolars, etc? I don’t think “yeah, but look at them, they’re also bad too” is the way to look at this. 

Broncos are utterly shambolic as an organisation. The only thing they’ve really got going for them is an Academy. 

[welshmagpie]

1 minute ago, Jughead said:

And where would those pro players come from if it wasn’t for Hemel, Skolars, etc? I don’t think “yeah, but look at them, they’re also bad too” is the way to look at this. 

Broncos are utterly shambolic as an organisation. The only thing they’ve really got going for them is an Academy. 

They have Jake Watson on media too - he’s superb. The more he can do in rugby league the better. 

[OriginalMrC]

27 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

There's plenty to criticise Broncos for, but it gets a bit tiring hearing people involved in other failing semi-pro clubs constantly talking down about them as if they can do better.  Hemel and Skolars people are terrible for it.  And both clubs have failed terribly at going pro no matter which way you look at it.  At least Broncos have offered a great pathway to fully pro for loads of players from the SE.  And there's a number of very succesful fully pro players who would probably never have made it without Broncos if they were just relying on Hemel and Skolars.  Clubb, Sarginson, LMS, Dixon, McMeeken.....

That's a false equivalence though as the budgets those clubs operated under are not even a fraction of what Broncos have spent (wasted) over the years. Equally I'm sure those clubs also have a list of ex players who were given a chance in the pro game and a pathway to success. 

A strong Broncos is good for the game but big changes are needed. I'm hoping the introduction of the IMG criteria will focus the club so it can move forward 

[steve oates]

18 minutes ago, Click said:

I would say - Generally speaking yes, Marketing works. Does every type of marketing work for every type of business? Far from it. If you think that the Broncos have ever been marketed properly or correctly in its existence then I am not sure what to say. 

I am not sure if you are saying for them to pack it up or not now? They are sub 1k crowds, I am not sure how you could possibly gain any traction and start to gain more fans without marketing. The club barely has a working website, the twitter and facebook seems to be run by a volunteer who if he doesn't show up, then there is now social media output - This is basic marketing which barely costs a penny but they fail at the basics.

I am not sure if you are saying that if the club had a website, and were on Twitter and facebook with a competent person pulling the levers that would somehow revive their fortunes??

Do remember Ernie Clay set the club up at Fulham with the fanfare of BBC news decades back and after some decline money bags Branson re-booted them with some success including Wembley, but again things fell away notwithstanding a couple of big supported games in the Anglo-Aussie competition.

Is your social media plan going to make the people of London sit up, and take notice and go to games in any sort of numbers that can save the club??? IIRC Mr. Hughes has lost  many £Millions over the years since he himself admitted the club was not and never would be economically viable.

How would social media output make any difference??

[steve oates]

2 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

A strong Broncos is good for the game but big changes are needed. I'm hoping the introduction of the IMG criteria will focus the club so it can move forward 

How is a strong Broncos good for the game? It would really have been good for the game if Hughes  had say showered his £Millions on say Oldham.   What do you mean "focus the club"? It's only Hughes pockets that keeps them alive.

We have Perez mucking about in Cornwall, Hughes money and Perez's marketing expertise would be really good for the game.

Having clubs miles from the heartlands isn't as great as people think it is.........

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 minutes ago, steve oates said:

How is a strong Broncos good for the game? It would really have been good for the game if Hughes  had say showered his £Millions on say Oldham.   What do you mean "focus the club"? It's only Hughes pockets that keeps them alive.

We have Perez mucking about in Cornwall, Hughes money and Perez's marketing expertise would be really good for the game.

Having clubs miles from the heartlands isn't as great as people think it is.........

Cornwall is a success so far

[steve oates]

12 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Cornwall is a success so far

The point is someone like Perez can do far more for the game in the north than he can 370 miles away.

[Tommygilf]

15 minutes ago, steve oates said:

The point is someone like Perez can do far more for the game in the north than he can 370 miles away.

Yet he continually chooses not to, why?

[Cb2]

1 hour ago, OriginalMrC said:

I disagree here on two of the points. Skolars have never quite recovered from Broncos poaching their coach and most of their squad a couple of years ago. They've had to try to rebuild and that's hard on a limited budget. Broncos really did do them over and don't appear to have done anything to help in return. 

Secondly I don't think Broncos have any idea what they are doing. They've poured money down the drain for years and alienated their fan base. They are in a stadium that allegedly costs £200k a year and average crowds of a few hundred. They've sacked a succession of good coaches and other staff and yet retained an underperforming management team. In short they are one of the worst run clubs in the country 

Ah but the truth there is if you listen to the Skolars hierarchy - Coleman was about to be removed as their head coach and then Broncos hired him. Whilst it’s true Skolars lost players - that again was the decision of the coach taking them to Broncos. Skolars problems run a lot deeper than that - examples - 1 full time staff member in the whole club. Only two coaches who run first team and reserve side. Broncos can’t be blamed for the way Skolars operate as a club.
 

Should they work together for the betterment of London RL - absolutely. 

 

[Click]

49 minutes ago, steve oates said:

I am not sure if you are saying that if the club had a website, and were on Twitter and facebook with a competent person pulling the levers that would somehow revive their fortunes??

Do remember Ernie Clay set the club up at Fulham with the fanfare of BBC news decades back and after some decline money bags Branson re-booted them with some success including Wembley, but again things fell away notwithstanding a couple of big supported games in the Anglo-Aussie competition.

Is your social media plan going to make the people of London sit up, and take notice and go to games in any sort of numbers that can save the club??? IIRC Mr. Hughes has lost  many £Millions over the years since he himself admitted the club was not and never would be economically viable.

How would social media output make any difference??

It is called having the basics done before you can even think about doing any more.

London has 1 "professional" club, that club is run like it is amateur and has been run that way for many years.

If Hughes thinks that the club could never be economically viable, that is fine for him to think that, but he has shown he doesn't really know how to run a competent sports team. For however talented and amazing he is at, (what is it Oil Trading he does?) He doesn't know how to run a sports team.

The Broncos were steadily improving when they had Lenegan involved, it was doing quite well when we were originally linked up to the Harlequins, since Hughes has taken more of a role the club has gone backwards. 

The Branson days were fine until he decided that RL was small time and he couldn't get money back out of it instantly, in those years we still went to the CC Final, and we had decent attendances at Charlton.

My comment on social media is that if Hughes says that marketing doesn't work, but he also doesn't know that for a sports team to even think about building a fan base, it should probably have some avenue for communicating with potential fans, then we really are lost.

[Tre Cool]

2 hours ago, Jughead said:

And where would those pro players come from if it wasn’t for Hemel, Skolars, etc? I don’t think “yeah, but look at them, they’re also bad too” is the way to look at this. 

Broncos are utterly shambolic as an organisation. The only thing they’ve really got going for them is an Academy. 

They wouldn't have had a local pro club to play for at a decent level of RL. I agree Broncos have their problems but the pathway they offer has been great for SE players and helped produce/develop international players for the game.  Hemel are an amateur club who failed miserably at going pro.  Skolars are the worst 'pro' club in the game at the bottom of the third tier playing in a dump of a ground in front of a couple of hundred fans.  It's fine to criticise Broncos, but I think people from those two clubs should maybe worry about themselves first instead of implying they're somehow superior than a club that produces excellent players, has played in a challenge cup final, finished 2nd in Super League, beaten Canberra Raiders in a competitive game, played in front of 8k fans at home matches and consistently played in the top two tiers of the sport.

[OriginalMrC]

3 hours ago, steve oates said:

How is a strong Broncos good for the game? It would really have been good for the game if Hughes  had say showered his £Millions on say Oldham.   What do you mean "focus the club"? It's only Hughes pockets that keeps them alive.

We have Perez mucking about in Cornwall, Hughes money and Perez's marketing expertise would be really good for the game.

Having clubs miles from the heartlands isn't as great as people think it is.........

You can have both you know. Its not a choice. We could have a strong Oldham and a strong London and a strong Cornwall if we really wanted. 

And if you can't see why having a successful RL club in the biggest city in the country is important then I'm not quite sure what else to say 

Edited July 18, 2023 by OriginalMrC

[RugoBy]

On 18/07/2023 at 11:11, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Cornwall is a success so far

The fact is that someone like Perez can contribute much more to the game than he can. Have you been watching rugby?.

On another note, England vs Wales is coming up soon whose watching it on rugby league on tv?

Edited August 15, 2023 by RugoBy
spelling mistake

[Click]

3 hours ago, steve oates said:

How is a strong Broncos good for the game? It would really have been good for the game if Hughes  had say showered his £Millions on say Oldham.   What do you mean "focus the club"? It's only Hughes pockets that keeps them alive.

We have Perez mucking about in Cornwall, Hughes money and Perez's marketing expertise would be really good for the game.

Having clubs miles from the heartlands isn't as great as people think it is.........

I am not sure how you could think people putting money into the game outside of the heartlands is bad.. 

I don't think Hughes thought to himself - It is either London or Oldham. Creating new and viable clubs outside of the heartlands is incredibly important in creating new pathways for people to get into the sport.

London has produced numerous players that have gone onto play at various SL teams as well as a few that have played for England, including one that is being talked about as one of the talents of his generation as he heads to the NRL. 

The RFL should be looking at re-instating their development officers in places like London to get back to the participation levels RL had 10 + years ago in the Capital.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

2 hours ago, RugoBy said:

The fact is that someone like Perez can contribute much more to the game than he can. Have you been watching rugby?

 

Is this an AI that has replied to me?

[The Daddy]

9 hours ago, steve oates said:

How is a strong Broncos good for the game? It would really have been good for the game if Hughes  had say showered his £Millions on say Oldham.   What do you mean "focus the club"? It's only Hughes pockets that keeps them alive.

We have Perez mucking about in Cornwall, Hughes money and Perez's marketing expertise would be really good for the game.

Having clubs miles from the heartlands isn't as great as people think it is.........

You're off your head. 

[steve oates]

23 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Yet he continually chooses not to, why?

I am not sure. Corrections welcome but didn't he drop in at Bradford and then leave to set up cornwall.

Maybe his alleged "talent" lies in expansion rather than ressurection 

[RugoBy]

On 18/07/2023 at 16:49, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Is this an AI that has replied to me?

I was about to be like what the hell are you talking about. But I accidentally replied to the wrong person

I can see the confusion I've caused  

[Man of Kent]

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[Angelic Cynic]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/16/london-broncos-making-capital-gains-as-they-target-super-league-return

[Rapscallion]

“But the landscape is changing, we don’t know what’s coming with IMG and we need to know how our money is best spent. Where is that resource best invested into? That’s something the club is looking into at the minute.”

There are no words for this kind of behaviour. It’s not even amateur behaviour because the NCL is run well and you know what you need. 

[Man of Kent]

The Broncos are on fire, Fev is terrified.

[Archie Gordon]

2 hours ago, Angelic Cynic said:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/16/london-broncos-making-capital-gains-as-they-target-super-league-return

These daft Guardian articles about the Broncos seem to appear every 6 months now. They have no off-field operation, no sponsors, no assets, no fans - so, yeah, a shoo-in for SL.

The academy bit is fair comment, however. Just come back from London Origin u14s and u16s where the standard was so-so but the £ invested is obvious. Hemel was bustling too; a shame the stand isn't fixed up so that they can open it.

[Man of Kent]

I hadn’t realised that the Broncos squad has no Northerners at all. Remarkable. 

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Edited September 17, 2023 by Man of Kent

[ATLANTISMAN]

Was talking to Stevo at length at the Dragons yesterday and he reckons the Broncos can do it as well would be an incredible achievement if it happens.