4:22pm Friday 20th March 2009
By Stuart Amos
New York hip hop trio De La Soul once sang that three was the magic number, as all things happen in this pattern.
Harlequins RL unveiled a new general manager in Paul Blanchard this week, with the intention of securing 5,000-plus average gates for rugby league at the Stoop within the next three years.
Forgive me for being cynical – I am a rugby league fan and would love Quins RL to be a major force in the game on and off the field – but I have heard this phrase many times before.
If I had a pound for every time a football club, rugby team or cricket side said they had a plan in place for promotion/financial security, I reckon I would be quite a rich man.
Since the London Broncos moved to the Stoop (for the second time) in 2005, they have been talking about the need to raise average gates.
Crowds have grown to about the 3,000 mark, but you have to take into account the number of free and cut-price tickets that are dished out ahead of each home game.
But perhaps they have at least a chance by picking the right timeframe.
Brentford lost on-loan hotshot Jordan Rhodes for the rest of the season this week when he broke his fifth metatarsal, becoming Bees striker number three to see their campaign wrecked by injury as they bid to reach the third tier of English football.
London Scottish director of rugby Brett Taylor’s men eased past Bridgwater & Albion on Saturday to all but secure the National Division Three South title.
The Exiles received a £1.5m injection at the start of the season, with the intention of getting the Exiles to the brink of the Guinness Premiership within the next three years.
With the playing and financial resources – not to mention a potential link-up with Scottish RFU – at their disposal, you wouldn’t bet against them.
Perhaps to prove a point, when Derby County appointed Billy Davies as boss in 2006, he had a two-year plan to get the team into the promised land of the Premier League.
His first mistake.
Having got the side into the top flight in his first year, the Rams were promptly rooted at the foot of the division the following season and he was given his marching orders in November 2007.
By the end of the next three football seasons Davies – whose current contract runs for three-and-a-half years – could be preparing for life in League One with two-time European Champions Nottingham Forest.
The omens aren’t looking good.
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