Exactly!! We're 1 or 2 games into the season and we're already the worst team in the competition??? I don't think so! Look at the stadium Quins play at - one of the top 3/4 in the league. Go somewhere like St Helens and you don't even have a roof or sink in the toilet! Then you add the mass development of numerous junior teams in the Capital and surrounding areas...Quins are up there with the top few teams on their community work.



So Quins have lost (with 70% of their first choice team missing) the first couple of games and sit at the bottom of the league. I don't really think this constitutes Quins being the worst team overall if you're looking at Licence renewals in Super League.



In fact, only crowd numbers are the main issue.....that and Ian Lenegan doing sweet FA to sell his shares in the club. Other clubs have large crowds but face equal problems elsewhere in their Licence renewal bid...

Its the fastest growing sport in the South East of England. More local and junior teams are being set up than anywhere else in England. Maybe this guy needs to actually LOOK for a team instead of just saying there isn't one....I mean, there are sure loads nearer than "up north"!

You can set up all the clubs you want , but that does not mean those players/officials/coaches will go down to watch Quins , Leigh have two of the top amatuer clubs in the country less than half a mile from the LSV , but very few players and officials from those clubs follow Leigh Centurions to any great degree



Playing and watching sport are two entirely different situations , and getting people to watch proffessional sport is a totally different problem to getting people playing it

Do you really think it is the best chance? A proper London club in its own stadium and with proper finances could be massive, Harlequins don't really have the potential to be any bigger than they currently are IMO.

Lewis is a pleb.



"Once we get people there, they will come back because it's a great sport."



Well they have had some big crowds and the people haven't returned. Why? Because the ground setup/atmosphere and more importantly the quality of rugby on the pitch is dire.



The proof is in the pudding, people have been to quins and not returned it is going to take huge effort to get people back.

Yet moronball is even worse and they attract loads!!!



So your point is........

Isn't "development" a different thing to "recruitment"?

I named 3 reasons, if you still can't understand my point then you are a pleb

You still have to recruit the 12/13 year olds to the scholarships, with the way the rules are going this side is going to become ever more competative. Wakefield and Cas are doing fine jobs but if they weren't around Leeds would pick up the pieces, although I agree with the point that the fertile area of the WMDC and the West Yorkshire region does need a good amount of clubs to service the supply.

one outpost club with little money, they do well to survive.



crowds are poor and arent growing.



still if they ever really do kick on, imagine the media they could get for RL.



for a london RL club to work i feel you need a RL club in the midlands because they are too far on their own.



having a succesful welsh club helps.

would be masive for the game.

Correct. Hackney Marshes is full of amateur soccer clubs on Saturday and Sunday and these players are on the park when the local professional clubs are playing....

Quins (I am getting very tired of saying this) need to market the game properly, something that has NEVER happened in my opinion.

Australians are an odd bunch. They think nothing of travelling 12,000 miles to pull pints in London or spending £400 on a weekend in Prague, but the whinging that went on after last years game v Manly, about Twickenham being tough to get to was ridiculous. F*)k'em...if they can't be bothered, then forget them.

The trick is to market to the audience on the doorstep....250,000 + residents of the borough and the 1,000,000+ of the surrounding boroughs (Ealing/Hounslow etc) and not the Population of Greater London.

Quins need to bite the bullet financially........£10 for seats, £100 ST's, £250 family ST's, free seats for local residents on production of a power bill/proof of address, adoption of a pub on Twickenham High Street (not 2 miles away).....sponsorship of the Railway Station........50,000+ people a day use it....

Crowds are worth 2 points in the licence application (3 if you count financial viability) and these are the points that Quins need to address more than any community/development issues.......

I have said it elsewhere...quins will get 1 more chance and if they are still getting sub 4k crowds in 4 years then they will be booted out of SL. Moving the team again between now and then would be stupid....IMO that is.

That's all well and good but there is already a massive brand that have been marketing the area for years, I would have thought that pretty much all the interested locals will already be Quins RU fans and the rest will not want to watch rugby. This does seem to be the case seeing as there have been no real increases or decreases in support over the last 10 years - give or take it's just the same people. I know that financially there isn't much choice, but being affiliated with Harlequins is absolutely ludicrous in pretty much every respect other than youth development, and the club should move as soon as possible.



The best thing for the game in London would be a new club with a permanent home in an area with fewer sporting alternatives. This could be massive and easily average 10,000 or more. Obviously the issue is finding a home and a backer. If we could have got a Russian billionaire or something to apply for a SL licence out of the Olympic Stadium, that would have been ideal. There's no reason that RL can't be massive in London, but the professional club have been so poorly run for so many years, and are now in a situation where they have little hope of ever expanding. It's no wonder really that people don't go and watch them, I would not watch them if I lived in London.