gutterfax wrote:True...we will suffer on merchandise sales and othe residuals, but we have one thing in abundance that all of the Traditional clubs struggle between themselves for........a massive catchment area. LMS (and to a certain extent Tony Clubb) would stroll into the majority of teams in SL at the moment. We are suffering with crowds (please feel free to read all my marketing based rants when you have a spare month ) but we are getting it right in other areas. Read the 7th paragraph. It may not be much to shout about in the north, but 300 odd is a step in the right direction. We are developing an identity as Harlequins Rugby League now and it can only get better. the youth development is the biggest positive of the whole club, you just have to hope that the club can survive long enough to bear the fruits of its youth development (Ie the current crop reach 25-30 and peak) the other issue seems to be the amount of Quins fans who seem unhappy with your boards lack of marketing and the whole 'everyone in 1 stand' thing, you really cannot lose many more 'diehards' and survive.

gutterfax wrote:True...we will suffer on merchandise sales and othe residuals, but we have one thing in abundance that all of the Traditional clubs struggle between themselves for........a massive catchment area. LMS (and to a certain extent Tony Clubb) would stroll into the majority of teams in SL at the moment. We are suffering with crowds (please feel free to read all my marketing based rants when you have a spare month ) but we are getting it right in other areas. Read the 7th paragraph. It may not be much to shout about in the north, but 300 odd is a step in the right direction. We are developing an identity as Harlequins Rugby League now and it can only get better. the youth development is the biggest positive of the whole club, you just have to hope that the club can survive long enough to bear the fruits of its youth development (Ie the current crop reach 25-30 and peak) the other issue seems to be the amount of Quins fans who seem unhappy with your boards lack of marketing and the whole 'everyone in 1 stand' thing, you really cannot lose many more 'diehards' and survive.

Agree 100% and I think the club might just know my feelings about this .

The Kids are already coming through. O'Callaghan (played and scored against the PROPER Manly team) was born about 5 miles from the Stoop......as were a fair few of our reserves and academy players. It won't be long before we are in a position to play 17 Londoners......and the conveyerbelt is looking pretty good as well.

ok , were averaging just under 10,000 this season.
approx 5,500 season TICKET holders, approx average of 1,200 away fans = nearly 4,000 on the day fans.
A core support i would say of 6-7000 fans.
call it 8500-9000 giants fans - buying things like match day programmes, replica shirts, lottery tickets, merchandise etc etc then i think that just possibly may blow your theory that we rely on Away support !

and on the issue of how we can afford decent players - its called our coach who has coached these players into being decent players - not to mention the ones we have 'raised' ourselves.

if you want to have a pop at the Giants make sure your argument is relevant to 2009 and not 1999 please.

something needs to be done about quins crowds, they are supposed to be a top flight club.
Id be happy to see the rfl give special funding to london and cc to support better awareness raising. their crowds are embarrassing the game imo.

You'll obviosly have a better grasp of the 'marketing' for want of a better word, though from my own experience of being in the capital (I've worked/lived down there for a short while, know the Kingston area quite well, and still have a fair few friends dotted around the capital), the impression I always got is that most sports fans know about RL but it comes way down the list of 'interesting things to do at the weekend'.

One interesting (but equally disappointing) comment from a close friend who lives in Erith was 'they're making my boy play your poxy northern game at school when all he wants to do is play football'

Yes, there is bigotry from Union fans, there is football, there is a massive amount of non English people there who wouldn't know a rugby ball from a medicine ball.

But there is a reason the daily papers and regional media down there dont have as much coverage of the game as we would like, and its not just because the Editors are toffee nosed rugger buggers.

Is the market there? You would think so; if they can fill Wembley for a game of glorified tick and pass with crash hats on, and fill Twickenham for the opening of an envelope, then I don't see why not. But either someone isn't marketing it correctly or there is very limited interest.

After 20-odd years, SL exposure, and a CC Final I honestly think its the latter and I dont get any satisfaction from it either.

Are you for real?

yeah ! work it out sunshine - ask someone from West Hull to help you if its too hard for ya .

Does anybody else think the faux-concern bordering obsession of RL’s parochial tendency with attendances in London is what’s most embarrassing to RL? It creates the impression of RL as a petty, parochial sport. I’m not aware of Arsenal fans winding themselves up into a mock frenzy because attendances at Portsmouth, Wigan or Blackburn are a third of those at the Emirates. Nor am I aware of RU fans getting so obsessed about other clubs crowds, although perhaps these other sports are more self-confident and less inhibited by small time parochial concerns?

As has already been pointed out by the smarter contributors to this thread, an obsession with headline attendances carries limited information about revenue streams and the cost base. Everyone knows that Quins RL need better attendances, those who pay attention, or have been following the club for some time will be aware of many barriers in the way, just pointing out the bleedingly obvious goes nowhere.

But the big question remains; does anybody from the parochial tendency seriously believe that RL can survive as a modern fully professional sport by pursuing a “back to the heartlands, local sport for local people” strategy?

nah......it's just coz northeners have small c0cks
HTH

anyone who's been to our ground would not be surprised if we made a fair amount of wedge from our bars