London Broncos 2024

[JM2010]

21 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

I'm guessing we're talking about the same thing but, yes, a decision has been made and the lads have been told. 

What are they doing with the scholarship and academy?

[The Blues Ox]

Just now, JM2010 said:

What are they doing with the scholarship and academy?

Sacking it off.

[JM2010]

4 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Sacking it off.

They shouldn’t be allowed to do that if they want to play in SL

[Archie Gordon]

3 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

What are they doing with the scholarship and academy?

I think it has leaked in enough places for me now not to be the one leaking it but their scholarship/academy won't run in 2024.

A disaster.

[Tommygilf]

Just now, Archie Gordon said:

I think it has leaked in enough places for me now not to be the one leaking it but their scholarship/academy won't run in 2024.

A disaster.

They're just proving time and time again why they are not fit to be a Super League club.

[Archie Gordon]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

They're just proving time and time again why they are not fit to be a Super League club.

Agreed.

In the meantime, there's now no pathway for hundreds of junior players down here. 

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, Archie Gordon said:

Agreed.

In the meantime, there's now no pathway for hundreds of junior players down here. 

A failure of the club and the wider sport.

[nadera78]

16 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

I think it has leaked in enough places for me now not to be the one leaking it but their scholarship/academy won't run in 2024.

A disaster.

Wow!

Even I didn't think they'd shut down their academy. Might as well call it quits at this point.

[LeytherRob]

2 minutes ago, nadera78 said:

Wow!

Even I didn't think they'd shut down their academy. Might as well call it quits at this point.

Hard to see how they move forward at this point, the one thing they had going for them was a core of local players. With the production line stopped, they'll have a real job attracting part time players to the capital

[Ivarr the Boneless]

The devil is in the detail but if it is a permanent shut down and there's no centrally funded replacement etc this is the beginning of the end of high standard RL in London. An absolute disaster.

[The Blues Ox]

Any chance they are trying to twist the RFL's/IMG's arm? I mean with no real hope of SL after this year what do London have to look forward to? Those schemes must cost them a fortune musn't they? Is this a way of throwing down the gauntlet to IMG and saying well if you do really value London in the big scheme of things then show us. 

I doubt they will be the last club to make some major cost cutting over the next few months.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

Wonder if Kyle Amor wants to re-evaluate his stance. What a terrible decision.

[gingerjon]

7 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Any chance they are trying to twist the RFL's/IMG's arm? I mean with no real hope of SL after this year what do London have to look forward to? Those schemes must cost them a fortune musn't they? Is this a way of throwing down the gauntlet to IMG and saying well if you do really value London in the big scheme of things then show us. 

I doubt they will be the last club to make some major cost cutting over the next few months.

I think you're assigning more strategy to a London Broncos decision than London themselves ever have.

It will almost certainly be as basic as David Hughes having an amount of money that he is happy to spend on rugby league - that amount now being somewhat eaten up by being an SL club and doing this will cut some rent and costs to get it back down to the amount he's happy to spend.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

If true about the academy, it highlights that the Hughes family finances are finite and that if IMG are serious about a London presence in Super League they need not consider central funding, but as I have called for before, to find an owner orr ownership group that will take on the club and be sufficiently cashed up to avoid a repriese of Toronto Wolfpack, Celtic Crusaders, Newcastle Thunder and the merry go round at Bradford Bulls.

Vetting any prospective owner is important, but any owner / ownership group amy want certain assurances from IMG and the Super League which will eventully boil down to a decision by the other 11 Super League Club owners.

The London Club got a boost from comments by outgoing Wigan Chairman, Ian Lenagan who said;

Quote

“So, the balance that IMG have struck where first of all they’ve said what the strategy is, particularly in terms of London and France, no more than two years ever in London and France maximum, until we expand beyond the 12.

“But London are an important target, is absolutely right. And the M62 corridor solitary view is not the way forward for the game, in my opinion.

“I’m pleased to see RL Commercial and IMG think the same

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/exclusive-outgoing-wigan-warriors-chairman-ian-lenagan-says-img-right-to-protect-big-clubs-super-league-is-90-per-cent-of-rugby-league

Incidentally, if you wonder why David has often made bad business decisions, consider that he is not a businessman per se but an Oli Futures Trader and a retired one at that - Check the link to see what this involves.

https://www.ig.com/uk/commodities/oil/how-to-trade-oil-futures

London's promotion is financially challenging for the Hughes family it seems.

[Archie Gordon]

Hughes will have a much bigger wedge from CF (+£1.1m?). Expenses will go up in terms of upgrading the floodlights at Plough Lane and the squad will be more expensive. Will that eat up the extra CF? I guess it's possible that those floodlights are very expensive.

[sam4731]

If you knew that your team was basically about to have a dead rubber season next year, wouldn't you stop caring about things like academy and scholarship. Let's be clear, this is a failure of the RFL/IMG. Realistically, London know that from the position they are in, SL, long term is just not a realistic option so why not shut down operations that they don't feel are benefitting them. Mark my words, if they knew they could fight for their place in SL next year, they'd have a wildly different strategy.

[Click]

I was quite excited about this upcoming SL season, even with knowledge that we are going to lose by 50 most weeks.

If they are shutting up the academy/scholarship then I might be done.

You can't proudly boast about how all these London/Southern players got us to SL while shutting down the pathways they came through.

[Ragingbull]

Time to fold the club i think.

[gingerjon]

22 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

If you knew that your team was basically about to have a dead rubber season next year, wouldn't you stop caring about things like academy and scholarship. 

That's kind of an inverse of reality. If you knew you were going down regardless, why wouldn't you invest for the future by ensuring your talent pathways are working, and by blooding players in the top division when you have chance. Increasing their experience and your depth. So that when you've addressed everything else - which London have claimed they are going to do - you don't have to spend money getting in extra players because you will already have that depth.

[sam4731]

2 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

That's kind of an inverse of reality. If you knew you were going down regardless, why wouldn't you invest for the future by ensuring your talent pathways are working, and by blooding players in the top division when you have chance. Increasing their experience and your depth. So that when you've addressed everything else - which London have claimed they are going to do - you don't have to spend money getting in extra players because you will already have that depth.

They were 24th in the IMG gradings. It would take a monumental effort to get anywhere near SL in the near future. I think this is a sign of London basically giving up and why would they put the effort into an organisation that has basically given up on them?

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, sam4731 said:

They were 24th in the IMG gradings. It would take a monumental effort to get anywhere near SL in the near future. I think this is a sign of London basically giving up and why would they put the effort into an organisation that has basically given up on them?

Again, to repeat what I said earlier, you're already putting more thought into it than London will have done. The Broncos take ridiculous decisions all the time. The last time they wanted to be Super League ready they made the squad part-time and moved to a ground (three grounds in fact) that sent their rental costs through the roof.

[Ovenden Grunt]

57 minutes ago, Ragingbull said:

Time to fold the club i think.

Bradford?

[Archie Gordon]

I am pretty sure this is Hughes saying that, from 2025, we're nowhere near SL and so why would we fund an academy to develop players that will get picked up by SL clubs for next to nothing? [Expletive] off.

It's short-sighted but it makes a point. The academy licences don't work for clubs outside SL and outside the heartlands. Newcastle also announced they weren't running an academy in 2024 quite some time before bringing down the shutters on the club itself.

I have some sympathy with Hughes on this. But it's an awful outcome.

 

[ATLANTISMAN]

300K a year to run it no IMG grading points no players produced for several years and no RFL support

[Archie Gordon]

2 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

... no IMG grading points ...

And, on the timing, this was a decision taken after the IMG gradings were published. Until then, it was full steam ahead for scholarship/academy in 2024.