Quote Old Darlin="Old Darlin"Not you.
Just what our problems come back to...including yours at Quins.'"
As many will tell you on the Quins Boards, I have banged on about this for nearly 10 years now.......and even after meetings with both the club and the RFL the club failed to do anything of any substance......as much as people can blame media bias as a root cause to the lack of coverage/exposure, you really have to put in the effort and sadly, Harlequins Rugby League and the London Broncos failed miserably to do anything about this.
For many years I worked in Sales and Marketing which has now morphed into just Marketing.......I have heard every excuse in the book from sales guys who miss targets, but David Hughes recent plea to the RFL is up there with the best.......fact is, the club has been badly managed from top to toe...nobody has ever been accountable for the terrible crowds and I can only hope that the RFL, as part of their "assistance" to Quins RL take 100% control of the marketing of the club.
With regard to uk League in General........the RFL have turned the game into a profitable entity.......the next step is to kick on and get more fans through the doors......there should be a central marketing team in place and every club should be made contribute equally to it's finance. This team should be responsible for working with the clubs individually and as a group to raise the profile of the game......I would suggest that poncy marketing degree students who have worked in cushy jobs are not suitable for a role in this team.....but hard and heavy hitters who would be paid on performance.
11.500 is about the average for SL games over a season.......15,000 should be the target IMO...25% increase over 3 years.
As for the Media.......f()ck'em. there are enough amateur clubs and players, existing fans and local people who have simply stopped going to games ALONG THE M62 to fill every ground for every game.......word of mouth, friend get friend, commission to amateur clubs for ticket sales etc......mobilise what you have before you start handing over money to "the smoke and mirrors brigade". If everybody who goes to a game brought 1 person with them...........you'd have an average gate of over 23,000 per game.....only premiership wendyball would be bigger in the UK........and the 3rs in the media would soon be sitting up and begging. IMO that is.
......the result of a load of hard work was a crowd 25% up on the last League test played at the cake tin...
