David Hughes

[Archie Gordon]

2 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

TBF I thought it was a good move. A brand new ideal sized stadium on a relatively long lease - all good.

It obviously came at the expense of a lot of other good things at the club and didn't take into account the prospect of the owner taking his ball home after two seasons there - very not good.

Ealing was working very well:  modest crowds admittedly but they were growing yoy. Improvements had been made to the ground. The club was developing a strong youth system. The Wards were investing a huge amount of time and effort (in the community game too). A new junior club had been started in the area.

Out of nowhere really the club then decided to (a) move, (b) go part-time, (c) let some important staff go, (d) push the LBSA to one side, (e) become a Skolars tribute act. Not all fans were happy; any of them saying so on SM were deleted/banned/told to move on. These were the kind of people who might have put their hands in their pockets to support the club at any other time.

[OriginalMrC]

Nearly £1m to run the club for the season seems very high. Not many clubs in the championship will be running a budget that high. They didn't go out and sign a superleague squad last year on superleague salaries so hard to see how they need that much to keep the club going.

[Archie Gordon]

2 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

Nearly £1m to run the club for the season seems very high. Not many clubs in the championship will be running a budget that high. They didn't go out and sign a superleague squad last year on superleague salaries so hard to see how they need that much to keep the club going.

£200k+ for Plough Lane.

[OriginalMrC]

1 minute ago, Archie Gordon said:

£200k+ for Plough Lane.

Bonkers! Presumably they also have high travel costs but even so a budget of £1m is high

[Ivarr the Boneless]

39 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

Not all fans were happy; any of them saying so on SM were deleted/banned/told to move on. These were the kind of people who might have put their hands in their pockets to support the club at any other time.

It's difficult to explain to anyone not involved in the club how damaging that was. Good people who would have been fighting now to save the club were driven away, formally banned in some cases, for making critical comments - not offensive, just critical.

I survived, I was a low profile fan and the club had no idea who I was. However I decided I no longer wanted anything to do with the club after 20 years as a season ticket holder. I was far from the only person to make that call 

[17 stone giant]

1 hour ago, Ivarr the Boneless said:

It's difficult to explain to anyone not involved in the club how damaging that was. Good people who would have been fighting now to save the club were driven away, formally banned in some cases, for making critical comments - not offensive, just critical.

I survived, I was a low profile fan and the club had no idea who I was. However I decided I no longer wanted anything to do with the club after 20 years as a season ticket holder. I was far from the only person to make that call 

It's sad to hear that.

Do you think there's any way that you and others like you can be enticed back?

What would it take for that to happen?

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

2 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

Nearly £1m to run the club for the season seems very high. Not many clubs in the championship will be running a budget that high. They didn't go out and sign a superleague squad last year on superleague salaries so hard to see how they need that much to keep the club going.

Fev's expenditure was around £800k pa (without player costs) some 6 years ago so £1m seems entirely reasonable.

 

[Henson Park Old Firm]

Can they please please please go back to the original London Broncos badge... Not the futuristic Red Dwarf Horse

[OriginalMrC]

22 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Fev's expenditure was around £800k pa (without player costs) some 6 years ago so £1m seems entirely reasonable.

 

Fev were one of the bigger spenders in the league. £1m isn't reasonable if the future of the club is at stake. You would tighten your belt and spend less. 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

34 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

Fev were one of the bigger spenders in the league. £1m isn't reasonable if the future of the club is at stake. You would tighten your belt and spend less. 

That was without player costs. There are plenty of other business expenses to run a club besides players' wages. 

[Ivarr the Boneless]

1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:

It's sad to hear that.

Do you think there's any way that you and others like you can be enticed back?

What would it take for that to happen?

The club needs a total reset off the pitch. If it survives that will probably have to happen tbh.

The support base is fractured, the more recent fans view long term fans as old moaners. When Broncos won the million pound game two seasons ago one posted "I wonder what the old moaners will find to complain about now." We could see this coming. Truth be told we probably made our exasperation at their naivety at the off pitch position too obvious. What's happened has been coming for a long time tbh. If the club survives, the fan base needs to come together.

I was incredibly lucky to see the likes of Barnett, Moran, McLinden, Hetherington. I'm genuinely sad the more recent fans will probably never get that sort of pleasure. Sadly I'm also not sure they have any gasp of the reality of the financial side of the game. (Obviously this is generalised, it's not true of all)..Will they be prepared to watch a struggling second tier outfit?

If the club survives, will I return? I'll certainly try to catch occasional games. Would I become a season ticket holder again? The club would have to change substantially off the pitch. I wouldn't want to commit so much time, money etc on a club as badly run as the recent set up has been.

However this ultimately isn't about me and I genuinely hope the club survives.

[crashmon]

5 hours ago, gingerjon said:

It was too expensive - and London, owing to their unique take on managing things, ended up renting three grounds that year.

The issue, and why I think it killed off the last remnants of goodwill in most of the long term fan base, was always that every equivalent move had failed and there was no reason to believe that setting ablaze all the foundational work at Ealing would be worth what would happen at Wimbledon.

And so it turned out.

I remember having words with a certain "Man of Kent" that moving from Ealing to Wimbledon and going PT at the same time was insanity beyond madness.  And was told I was a doommonger (amongst other things).

Not seem Him for a couple of years, maybe he has a couple of Million in Dons shares he could sell and fund the broncos

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Just been e-mailed my "Back the Broncos" membership package for 2025 at £ 175.

However before I part with any money to a club that has said only 24 hours previously it needs to raise £350,000 pronto. What assurance do I have that I will get that £ 175 back if this target is not reached which is more probable than not. For what is currently a club without an owner or ownership group.

 

 

 

.

[Ivarr the Boneless]

Worth checking whether paying by credit card would protect you?

 

[Deadcowboys1]

1 hour ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Just been e-mailed my "Back the Broncos" membership package for 2025 at £ 175.

However before I part with any money to a club that has said only 24 hours previously it needs to raise £350,000 pronto. What assurance do I have that I will get that £ 175 back if this target is not reached which is more probable than not. For what is currently a club without an owner or ownership group.

 

 

 

.

Somebody still has the Shares, they were in the name of Jack Hughes so it's reasonable to assume there is technically an owner. 

[Ivarr the Boneless]

Jack is David's son, and a Broncos player last season. It's very unlikely he will keep the shares as David has gone.

It's quite possible he has already signed them over, probably to its officers as interim owners, and Companies House hasn't caught up.

Either way I struggle to see the club surviving if another sugar daddy doesn't emerge. Presumably an appropriate % of the shares would then transfer to them, irrespective of which name the shares are currently registered in. 

I can't see the fans alone raising £350k in a month. If they do, there should be serious consideration given to transferring to a fan owned club. I'm probably more likely to see a unicorn than that though.

[creditwhereitsdews]

Just bought a membership though I doubt I'll be able to get to more than two or three games as I'll be too busy watching my first team. Fond memories of watching the Broncos when I was living in London and even remember watching them as Fulham so thought it was time to give something back.  Hope they can make a go of it and that people get behind them. RL will be in a very sorry state without them.

[Magic XIII]

22 hours ago, crashmon said:

I remember having words with a certain "Man of Kent" that moving from Ealing to Wimbledon and going PT at the same time was insanity beyond madness.  And was told I was a doommonger (amongst other things).

Not seem Him for a couple of years, maybe he has a couple of Million in Dons shares he could sell and fund the broncos

He was and probably remains an idiot. He will have focused his non sense on some other unfortunates now. 

[Magic XIII]

23 hours ago, Ivarr the Boneless said:

The club needs a total reset off the pitch. If it survives that will probably have to happen tbh.

The support base is fractured, the more recent fans view long term fans as old moaners. When Broncos won the million pound game two seasons ago one posted "I wonder what the old moaners will find to complain about now." We could see this coming. Truth be told we probably made our exasperation at their naivety at the off pitch position too obvious. What's happened has been coming for a long time tbh. If the club survives, the fan base needs to come together.

I was incredibly lucky to see the likes of Barnett, Moran, McLinden, Hetherington. I'm genuinely sad the more recent fans will probably never get that sort of pleasure. Sadly I'm also not sure they have any gasp of the reality of the financial side of the game. (Obviously this is generalised, it's not true of all)..Will they be prepared to watch a struggling second tier outfit?

If the club survives, will I return? I'll certainly try to catch occasional games. Would I become a season ticket holder again? The club would have to change substantially off the pitch. I wouldn't want to commit so much time, money etc on a club as badly run as the recent set up has been.

However this ultimately isn't about me and I genuinely hope the club survives.

I am with you. I've seen the heady heights and have always felt I was a proper supporter for years, home and away, good and bad times. But the PL / PT decision was the last straw. I have been to two games in the last two year and one was the final in Toulouse.

Can I see myself throwing in £175, I am not sure, but there is a fans forum on Monday next at PL and I will go and see what's said. Please convince me to believe in you LB.

 

[crashmon]

6 hours ago, creditwhereitsdews said:

Just bought a membership though I doubt I'll be able to get to more than two or three games as I'll be too busy watching my first team. Fond memories of watching the Broncos when I was living in London and even remember watching them as Fulham so thought it was time to give something back.  Hope they can make a go of it and that people get behind them. RL will be in a very sorry state without them.

This

very unlikely I will go to any games next year, (if there are any games), but might buy a membership just to donate the money to the club.  I've spent money on more stupid things in my life.

 

[sam4731]

I notice on their promotion for season tickets, there isn't any indication what league you're getting tickets for.

[Barley Mow]

19 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

I notice on their promotion for season tickets, there isn't any indication what league you're getting tickets for.

Although we can all have a good guess, formally no club knows which division they are playing in next year yet.

[langpark]

It is great that they have come out with some hard facts and figures. 

£175 memberships. 

£350k is the target by Christmas. So that means they need to sell 2000 memberships. Difficult I know. But I really hope they can pull it off. 

But yes an investor is definitely needed. Does anybody know anything about that consortium that was meant to take over the London Skolars? I forget the reasons that it fell through, but could they be an option?

[Tommygilf]

This sort of situation is a massive dereliction of duty by both David Hughes and the RFL.

The former has hollowed out the club to nothing, no assets, less supporters, less success*. He's burned bridges with places where others could have ran it sustainably (Ealing etc), and burned bridges with a lot of fans. Going part time for a daft move to Wimbledon even decimated the only other semi pro RL club nearby which was holding on by a thread. He's made the club more dependent on him as time went on, not less. And in this final season in which I have no doubt he should have known was likely going to be his last, he has made zero succession planning before the last week. No networking, no bringing potentially interested parties to the club, no proper forewarning to fans or the wider game. It's a complete dereliction of duty as a responsible owner.

The latter have sat by and allowed this to happen to what, under every regime and structure, has been deemed an area of strategic importance to the game. 

*Hughes is a fan of saying that the Broncos have been in SL for 20 of 27 years iirc. Since his sole ownership and control of the club though that record must be much worse?

[fighting irish]

15 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

This sort of situation is a massive dereliction of duty by both David Hughes and the RFL.

The former has hollowed out the club to nothing, no assets, less supporters, less success*. He's burned bridges with places where others could have ran it sustainably (Ealing etc), and burned bridges with a lot of fans. Going part time for a daft move to Wimbledon even decimated the only other semi pro RL club nearby which was holding on by a thread. He's made the club more dependent on him as time went on, not less. And in this final season in which I have no doubt he should have known was likely going to be his last, he has made zero succession planning before the last week. No networking, no bringing potentially interested parties to the club, no proper forewarning to fans or the wider game. It's a complete dereliction of duty as a responsible owner.

The latter have sat by and allowed this to happen to what, under every regime and structure, has been deemed an area of strategic importance to the game. 

*Hughes is a fan of saying that the Broncos have been in SL for 20 of 27 years iirc. Since his sole ownership and control of the club though that record must be much worse?

I think he did it deliberately.

He's treated us all, including the RFL just like he's treated everybody else with an interest in the club. ''I'm doing it my way and if you don't like it, you can lump it!''. The sheer effrontery of the RFL/IMG trying to impose ''standards'' on him, something he failed spectacularly to establish, on his own. ''How dare they?''.

So knowing (for at least 12 months), that they weren't going to be in Super League, he's pulled the plug in a way which he's carefully contrived to cause the maximum damage to the club, disruption to the league and embarrassment to the RFL.

Thanks Dave, thanks for nothing. Good Riddance.

I just hope we can find someone with a little more humility, some genuine love of the game and more than a mere modicum of business acumen.