Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 10:58 am  

jbuzza wrote:

Hughes target was 5,000 in 3 years. Ain't going to happen without big changes both on and off the field.

You ain’t wrong.
It seems to me that realistic but challenging 3 year targets would have been average of 2000 for Championship and 3000for Super League (bit of black humour there). Those might well be doable with an inventive marketing push and infrastructure in place i.e staff. The former is easier said than done but the latter is a must. If you ain’t got it don’t make up figures. As the club knew there was no infrastructure in place at all it was foolish and disingenuous to offer the figure . It’s fairytale stuff designed to make them and possibly the wider RL world feel good but it won’t be deliverable. Even on my figures, or indeed theirs, a majority of PL would still be unused. It gives every indication, in the absence of detail, of being a back of a fag packet estimate.
If we drop into L1 (and continue) what then? Crowds would drop obviously and STs would take a hit bearing in mind all the discounting but the away fan bounce hasn’t really happened anyway and 50 people taking up free tickets is really the same as 200 taking them up this year in respect of the bottom line. I’d expect maybe 500 paying spectators and another 50 free as an average. Not really much different from where we are now. But our chance to make a good impression in a new area would be gone and very difficult to see how to turn it around. Possibly a real charge at L1 title?

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 11:20 am  

I suppose it is fortunate that we have no home games until July.
I may have regained some enthusiasm by then.

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 11:37 am  

BigTime wrote:

It seems to me that realistic but challenging 3 year targets would have been average of 2000 for Championship and 3000for Super League (bit of black humour there). Those might well be doable with an inventive marketing push and infrastructure in place i.e staff. The former is easier said than done but the latter is a must. If you ain’t got it don’t make up figures. As the club knew there was no infrastructure in place at all it was foolish and disingenuous to offer the figure.

The 5,000 target in itself was not the problem and was needed to justify the move and more generally to become more sustainable.It would also be viable if we were to get back to the competitive SL level we were at before Hughes took sole charge.

The issue is the way the club have set out achieving the target. Recruiting our worst ever squad was incompatable with hitting any improvement target never mind this one.

That coupled with a lack lustre effort to attract people to games and offer a match day experience tells you that we have management that is both incompetent and hypocritical.

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 1:06 pm  

We could be the side with the highest points total relegated (super league 2019) and the lowest survival points (2022 Championship). If we just beat Dewsbury and Town twice, we could end up staying up with as little as 9 points.

Although I expect Dewsbury to win a couple more games, so I don't think 9 points will be enough, 13 should be however

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 7:11 pm  

940 and a full gold lounge will keep Loubser employed, but how mustard stays in a job is a mystery.
Newcastle are bang average.....to lose wasn't unexpected but a home hammering is unacceptable.
As for Hughes being "out if the country"....he has a responsibility to the fans whether he likes it or not and should "man up" and tell the London Broncos faithful what his plans are going forward......I can still see some shenanigans afoot in terms of the IMG deal.....they will most assuredly see a huge benefit to a London presence in monatising RL so maybe that's why we seem content to tread water.......but it's a cruel thing to do to regular fans

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 7:25 pm  

My suspicion all along was that the move to PL was to get a London team into the 20 team structure. Maybe someone has had a word somewhere?

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 8:18 pm  

Hockley Bronco wrote:

My suspicion all along was that the move to PL was to get a London team into the 20 team structure. Maybe someone has had a word somewhere?

You may well be right Hockney but it’s a shame that person didn’t make it clear that being one of the 20 best clubs was the best way to make the cut. We really are a shower at the moment and if Skolars were better they could steal a slot at the big table ahead of us although as we have basically hoovered up their 1st team squad in a way they have.

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sat May 14, 2022 10:14 pm  

Hockley Bronco wrote:

My suspicion all along was that the move to PL was to get a London team into the 20 team structure. Maybe someone has had a word somewhere?

I can only think that that is the reason we are being served up this drivel on the pitch.

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sun May 15, 2022 8:31 am  

Looking at this from a commercial sense, if your a London Broncos accountant masquerading as a CEO, if you have been told you will be certain of being in the 2x10 structure if you move to PL, regardless of squad and League status, why would you tell the fans that you would be playing a shell team for the next 2 years as we are assured of being in the 2x10. If you did the most fans would say ok, we will be back in 2024, we will spend our money on other activities, and you end up with gates of 200 hard core who don't mind losing by 60+ each week.

They must have known they would lose fans with the joke squad this year, but at least they would have the Season Ticket revenue for 2022 in the bag.

After all I think they abandonded their existing fans, and hoped to replace them with Dons fans, plus new locals. But thats not going to work with a shell squad

Re: Newcastle -Home fixture : Sun May 15, 2022 9:15 am  

crashmon wrote:

Looking at this from a commercial sense, if your a London Broncos accountant masquerading as a CEO, if you have been told you will be certain of being in the 2x10 structure if you move to PL, regardless of squad and League status, why would you tell the fans that you would be playing a shell team for the next 2 years as we are assured of being in the 2x10. If you did the most fans would say ok, we will be back in 2024, we will spend our money on other activities, and you end up with gates of 200 hard core who don't mind losing by 60+ each week.

They must have known they would lose fans with the joke squad this year, but at least they would have the Season Ticket revenue for 2022 in the bag.

After all I think they abandonded their existing fans, and hoped to replace them with Dons fans, plus new locals. But thats not going to work with a shell squad

It seems entirely possible the club thought along these lines but for every £ they are saving on players they are spending on facilities we don't currently need. The smarter accountant might have found a way to secure PL but not move until we actually needed to. The reality of the situation is that we won't make progress towards Hughes 5,000 target with this squad. He isn't even turning up himself. If the club has sacrificed this season it is a very cynical move and those locals who have showed up will have had a pretty bad first impression. I can't think it is helping retain long term fans either. Hughes even seems to be screwing over Skolars as well.