www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/23592326

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/23592326

Not in the stands it's not.

Well done.

And he's right.



In terms of everything but the professional club at the top of the pyramid, the game in the south-east is at its strongest in living memory.



Course there will always be those happy to write off London as a no-go area for rugby league, even while their own club is picking up the fruits of the development work being done with young players.

Just for you roofs.....and only on principle.



In 2012 HKA averaged 7,546 fans over the 13 home SL games at Caravan Park meaning that 98,098 people came through the turnstiles that year.



When London came calling, only 6,713 fans bothered showing up....this had a number of effects.



1. The SL average for the 12 games excluding London would have been 7,615...we'll call that 1% higher.

2. 833 less than the average gate was the attendance..11% down on the average.

3. If all 833 were full paying adults, then at £22 a pop, the loss in revenue was £18,326.

4. All SL clubs turn over in excess of £4,000,000....so 0.0046% of your clubs turn over was lost due to London being in SL.

5. Your bloke Hudgell reckons HKA are leaking over £500,00 a year in losses.....London are responsible for 3.7% of that.

6. Widnes (-2%), Bradford(-1%), Castleford(-3%), Salford (-5%) and Catalans (-6%) all brought less than average crowds to Caravan Park too...another 5.6% of your £500,000 yearly losses.

7. London have no debt. They are 100% bankrolled by an individual who gets little if any support from the RFL.

8. London's lack of fans has no impact on the funding or finances of HKA...it has a direct impact on the funding and finances of London though.

9.You'll miss us when we're gone.....

So, as well as the Broncos, we've got the Hemel Stags and London Skolars. We've also got a massive host of grass roots being played.



Would there be a positive reaction if a regional representative team, say Greater London or The South East were formed to play a fixture against, say, Cumbria?



Players like Sarginson, Dixon, Clubb, LMS complimented by players from the lower leagues against a cumbrian side including Kyle Amor, Lee Mossop and a host of championship players?



The Skolars ground has a capacity of 5k. It would be interesting to see if it could be filled. I'm sure it could with the right marketing.

I've suggested the same thing, but to play it before the Exiles game. The people involved in London RL need to be positive and do something about the public perception rather than crying about negativity.



We could put together a really good rep side and that would be an excellent way to showcase what we are producing and offering to the game.

These comments (which I am in agreement with) are a further nail in the coffin of London Broncos. If the game is doing well at the lower levels without a competitive team in Super League, why bother having them there? It seems "because Sky want it" is the only remaining justification, and how long that will last when they are rarely on TV anyway - because they are so uncompetitive - is the next question.

Having a successful SL team isn't a key part of junior development in the area, but having a SL team is.

London Broncos are the only full time club in the south and are a huge part of the development of these players.



If there's no fully pro club in the south you wouldn't have many of these players.

an article which backs up some of the good work being done...from a publication which you wouldn't really expect to run such a story hereisthecity.com/2013/08/08/rug ... s-the-eye/

an article which backs up some of the good work being done...from a publication which you wouldn't really expect to run such a story hereisthecity.com/2013/08/08/rug ... s-the-eye/

The rfl would better dumping the broncos, saving that mill grant and developing a London jnr academy set up and snr school programme instead. That 1mill could be far more usefully spent developing the amateur game than tipping into a forever failing prof club year after year.