LONDON BRONCOS have been told to improve “across the board” after being ranked 24th among professional clubs under the indicative gradings.
Barely a week after winning the Championship Grand Final, the Broncos’ bubble was burst by a grading which suggests they will almost certainly drop out of Super League after 2024.
They are the lowest-ranked Grade B club, on 8.07 points out of 20, and would likely need more than four extra points this time next year when the gradings determine who plays in the top division for 2025.
While playing in Super League next year will give them an opportunity to grow not only their score for on-field performance but their fandom and finances, it will almost certainly not be enough to challenge for a place in the near future.
When the sport’s strategic partner IMG first revealed their club-grading proposal, they identified London as one of the key markets for growth.
However, their vice-president of sports management, Matt Dwyer, admits the Broncos, and Rugby League generally in the capital, have a long way to go.
“Across the board, across all categories, London need to improve,” he said.
“If London has aspirations to be a long-term Super League club with category A status, they need to improve across all metrics in the grading. That’s what they should be working towards.
“London (the city) we identified as a clear focus for a couple of reasons. One, from a demographic perspective it’s the largest market we have in this country. The other factor that was important was that both interest and participation is quite high.
“It still has that base, and that should make it a core market going forward. Nothing has changed from that perspective.
“All that really has been identified by the grading is the challenge that we have in front of us to grow that London market, based on the score that we’re talking about for London Broncos.
“But I don’t think that was a surprise to anyone. The feedback we got originally was that that’s a hard market to crack. We’ve been trying as a sport for a long time.
“It has the right ingredients to be a large market for this sport, but we need to put those ingredients together.
“There is a lot of work to be done for London to be the relevant market that we all want it to be.”
Broncos chairman David Hughes said he accepted the lowly score given.
“We will now look to work together as a club to improve on this score with the long-term ambition of achieving an A grade,” said Hughes.
“Following the magnificent success of securing promotion from the Championship last season, the club now looks to build on the strong foundations we have built in Wimbledon and last year’s achievements on the pitch, as we look to establish London Broncos as a Super League club now and in years to come.”
