David Hughes

[ricky]

.

Edited October 20, 2024 by ricky

[Click]

2 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

That's on the Broncos, not northerners. If playing for London Broncos isn't enticing enough, you won't get northerners coming down to play - not when they can get the same or better in their home towns. Why would you bother?

It's absurd to turn it into a question of character. Have you seen how many northerners of all ages play in football clubs all over England and beyond. They're quite happy to move away from their mother's apron strings, when the money and opportunities are right.

Clearly you have not been around the London Broncos.

We have had plenty of Northerners over the years that have had to be released on "compassionate grounds" as they were homesick.

That isn't on the Broncos.

[17 stone giant]

5 hours ago, Click said:

Clearly you have not been around the London Broncos.

We have had plenty of Northerners over the years that have had to be released on "compassionate grounds" as they were homesick.

That isn't on the Broncos.

So your conclusion is what exactly? That northerners can't cope with living in London and being away from their mams?

[JM2010]

1 minute ago, 17 stone giant said:

So your conclusion is what exactly? That northerners can't cope with living in London and being away from their mams?

It’s not far off. I wouldn’t want to live in London

[Dave T]

10 hours ago, Deadcowboys1 said:

We already know from bitter experience, that on the whole, players brought up in the North struggle to stay in the capital & one having signed, ran back home before the season started, he missed his mother's apron strings so much. Or, another who said he needed to be nearer his family to get a release, then signed for Toronto. Not many have the character shown by Rob Purdham or Danny Ward. That is why our team needs to be built around Londoners & Aussie/Kiwi/PNG players. 

This suggests that maybe London Broncos are a bit sh** to work for.

[Dave T]

6 hours ago, Click said:

Clearly you have not been around the London Broncos.

We have had plenty of Northerners over the years that have had to be released on "compassionate grounds" as they were homesick.

That isn't on the Broncos.

We've also had plenty of overseas players leave Northern clubs for the same reason. 

But let's be honest, playing for London Broncos doesn't appear to be a dream job for an RL player.

[Ivarr the Boneless]

11 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

So your conclusion is what exactly? That northerners can't cope with living in London and being away from their mams?

Some settle. Some don't. The same holds true Southerners who moved north and other people who move around.

I moved south in 1991. Due to the employment situation then a lot of friends from Liverpool Uni moved south. Most are still in the south, some went home very quickly after finding London wasn't for them. Fair enough. 

[langpark]

£6,480 pledged so far towards £200,000 target. No doubt this will get a lot of hate on here. 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-london-broncos

Edited October 21, 2024 by langpark

[Worzel]

14 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Surely it would cost far more than $3m a season to run a London SL club?

I agree with the principle though and as I suggested, as a softly softly approach, running a club in League 1 or the Championship and being responsible for grass roots development and youth performance pathways could be done for $3m a year easy.

$3m per season net, I.e in subsidy to cover the losses, you’d have revenue coming in so the overall budget would be greater.

Broncos lost less than £1m last season so even assuming you didn’t grow revenues (and clearly that would be the objective) that $3m total subsidy would still give you a wage budget at least £1m greater than the team had this year. That’s quite a step-up in class. 

[Worzel]

11 hours ago, The Future is League said:

There is zero chance of the NRL taking over the running of Super League and why would they.

They would see a competition that puts bumps in the road for any team from outside the M62 like the Catalans and Toulouse if they was to win the Championship grand final and what have they done for the London Broncos.

Look at the RFL itself. Quite happy to let South Wales and the London Skolors more or less go to the wall, and didn't give a 2nd thought to let Manchester Rangers into league 1.

Yup, I know in reality it’s a daft idea. But of course if they had come in, then you’d be highly likely to see the RFL change its behaviour, so there’s no point comparing the governing body’s decision making now with how they’d act under this hypothesis. 

[Henson Park Old Firm]

As much as I love the Netflix biopic of David Hughes on here "A tale of too many Stadiums" but does anyone know what is actually happening behind the scenes?

[Ivarr the Boneless]

Given how much usually leaks around the club, this one is being kept surprisingly quiet. There's a fans forum soon, we should be told more there.

I think pretty much everyone accepts the slashed fan base won't raise £350k inside a month, meaning external investment / throwing money into a black hole is critical. Without that, there's probably no club. The fact the recent statement suggested they weren't in advanced negotiations with anyone was worrying tbh.

The lack of activity on X by Broncos plugging the memberships etc seems a little worrying too.

Hopefully they pull a rabbit out of the hat and present a new owner at the forum. If not...

[Worzel]

2 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

So your conclusion is what exactly? That northerners can't cope with living in London and being away from their mams?

In my decade or so as a member, I saw quite a few of those situations, yes. 

[Sports Prophet]

14 hours ago, Deadcowboys1 said:

To quote John Heywood, there are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who chose to ignore what they already know.

What the hell do you think has happened for most of the last 10 years or so? London players have been cherry picked by SL teams going back to the days of McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Clubb & Dan Sarginson. That continues to this day & would therefore never allow a London team of predominantly London & South East players to build a SL club unless they are in SL. There would be no future for a team just of Aussies though.

We already know from bitter experience, that on the whole, players brought up in the North struggle to stay in the capital & one having signed, ran back home before the season started, he missed his mother's apron strings so much. Or, another who said he needed to be nearer his family to get a release, then signed for Toronto. Not many have the character shown by Rob Purdham or Danny Ward. That is why our team needs to be built around Londoners & Aussie/Kiwi/PNG players. 

London of course, particularly under Hughes' ownership have never bothered much with marketing & the results are clear for everyone to see. That is not how you go about building a following. 

I don’t know if you are trying to argue with me or not, but I never disagreed with much of what you have said, although I think your blanket statement of northerners handling life in the big city barring a few exceptions is a little over done.

Players cherry picked… that’s life in professional sports. London Broncos have a responsibility to themselves to ensure the club is an attractive proposition for London players to sign for. 

[Damien]

I'd have thought the biggest issue for northerners playing in London would be the money on offer. London are easily the poorest payers in SL in terms of spend and that is before you factor in the cost of living in London. Factor that in and its hard to see any northern player moving to London unless they are getting at least double what they can in the North (unless of course they've got some overwelming desire to move to London). Even at that they'd probably be considerably worse off.

Edited October 20, 2024 by Damien

[Click]

11 hours ago, Damien said:

I'd have thought the biggest issue for northerners playing in London would be the money on offer. London are easily the poorest payers in SL in terms of spend and that is before you factor in the cost of living in London. Factor that in and its hard to see any northern player moving to London unless they are getting at least double what they can in the North (unless of course they've got some overwelming desire to move to London). Even at that they'd probably be considerably worse off.

Indeed, which is why we had a incredibly minimal "London Weighting" for our SL previously, even if it only really mattered for a few seasons where we actually paid the full SL Cap.

I remember the current Leeds 9 being released from the Broncos as he was "homesick" to then sign for Toronto mere weeks later. 

It's a funny ol' life, being connected to RL.

[Click]

15 hours ago, Dave T said:

We've also had plenty of overseas players leave Northern clubs for the same reason. 

But let's be honest, playing for London Broncos doesn't appear to be a dream job for an RL player.

It's a bit more understandable when they're 20 + hours in a plane away, compared to 4 in a car.

[JohnM]

57 minutes ago, Click said:

Indeed, which is why we had a incredibly minimal "London Weighting" for our SL previously, even if it only really mattered for a few seasons where we actually paid the full SL Cap.

I remember the current Leeds 9 being released from the Broncos as he was "homesick" to then sign for Toronto mere weeks later. 

It's a funny ol' life, being connected to RL.

"It's a funny ol' life, being connected to RL."

That's one way of putting it, though funny hardly describes it. It's a good job this forum does not give a true representation of the opinions of the wider "fandom"..or at least I hope it's not representative.

If all the world's negativity, misery, nay-saying, doom-mongering,  defeatism, LCD-seeking sentiment was to be made into one pile, it'd be dumped on here.

Edited October 21, 2024 by JohnM

[Ivarr the Boneless]

Looks like we'll know more later today. Mile Eccles is on Talk Sports at 14.30. The fan forum is at 20.00.

Hopefully today will see a new owner announcement. Sadly my money would be on we need to X by date Y or the club fails announcement.

Fingers crossed.

[Dave W]

16 hours ago, Ivarr the Boneless said:

Some settle. Some don't. The same holds true Southerners who moved north and other people who move around.

I moved south in 1991. Due to the employment situation then a lot of friends from Liverpool Uni moved south. Most are still in the south, some went home very quickly after finding London wasn't for them. Fair enough. 

Wasn't there a Halifax player this season or last who got released on compassionate grounds because he had to travel from Pontefract?

[Ivarr the Boneless]

There's been a few released over the years in the semi pro game, after a journey to training which looked ok on paper from work turned out to be impractical in rush hour. A change of work location / hours has been cited before now too.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

17 minutes ago, Dave W said:

Wasn't there a Halifax player this season or last who got released on compassionate grounds because he had to travel from Pontefract?

No, it was Castleford.....

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, Dave W said:

Wasn't there a Halifax player this season or last who got released on compassionate grounds because he had to travel from Pontefract?

It makes it easier when they are not very good at rugby as well.

[Dave W]

1 hour ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

No, it was Castleford.....

Sorry about that. Three miles out - my bad.

[The Future is League]

18 hours ago, Worzel said:

Yup, I know in reality it’s a daft idea. But of course if they had come in, then you’d be highly likely to see the RFL change its behaviour, so there’s no point comparing the governing body’s decision making now with how they’d act under this hypothesis. 

A leopard doesn't change its spots and under the administarion running the game they want contraction and not expansion.

IF in the VERY UNLIKELY event of the NRL taking over the RFL them Dinosaurs at the RFL would be shown the door rapidly