London Broncos seek early Super League answer to remove major roadblocks

You’ll struggle to find a club that has more riding on Super League’s moving landscape than London Broncos.

Under new ownership, the Broncos have made great strides. They are unbeaten in the Championship, crowds are up around 300% on last year and they have started nailing down commercial partners.

But by the admission of Chairman and co-owner Grant Wechsel, there is a limit to what they can do while the pathway to Super League remains unclear.

There is scope for the Broncos to make a top-flight return next year. With growing talk of a 15-team competition, coupled with NRL CEO Andrew Abdo talking up the importance of the Broncos amid ongoing discussions of a partnership between the two competitions, there does appear to be an appetite to bring London back to the top table.

But as it stands, there is no guarantee. Right now, Super League will be a 14-team competition determined by the IMG gradings system, and irrespective of their on-field success, there is nothing to say they would be able to climb into one of the coveted spots.

That uncertainty is ultimately holding London back, and Wechsel is hoping clarity will come much sooner than October to ensure they can continue their rise.

“No doubt the biggest thing that will have the strongest impact for us will be being in Super League,” he told Love Rugby League.

“To be clear, we’ve been given no assurance by either the NRL or the RFL. And we’re speaking to both of them. We’d like to know sooner rather than later.

“Obviously, the grading system is there and we’re working as hard as we can to make sure we put ourselves in a position at the end of the season, not only winning on the field, but with the IMG system to put ourselves into Super League.

“With the amount of opportunity there is in London as a city and the potential to bring high-quality players in and create something special, finding out in October or November is not going to be ideal for anyone.

“We have spoken to Peter (V’Landys) at times along the way to express our goals and desires for London, just like we’ve publicly stated that we want Super League.

“But I think what was exciting was him speaking about London, not just in terms of our role as a club, but the role of the city like we’ve talked about and whether they can bring a game here. There’s been talk of that, none of these things we know are going to happen yet, but just the talk around it is certainly heading in the right direction.

“So, hopefully, if they do go ahead with something with the RFL, then hopefully we find out much sooner than the end of the season what that looks like. And probably the second part to that is we’ll be continuing to have discussions with the RFL about the same thing, that we’d like to progress discussions on how we can find a way sooner around the 2027 season, whether that’s as a 15th team or what scenarios they might consider.”

From an on-field perspective, London want to build a squad that can compete in Super League straight away. Crucially, they have the financial muscle and the appeal to make that happen. They have several NRL-quality players in their squad this year, and there would have been more if they secured a Super League spot.

But without that, they’re likely to run into the same challenges again.

“The depth of your squad is really important, to not just participate, but be competitive or even make the finals. You needs as much time as possible to build that, especially for any kind of marquee or high-profile signing. You can’t wait until November to tell them if you’re going to be up next season, and you can’t put that sort of squad together by February, it’s just super tough to do.

“We still are seeing interest from big names and that has prompted us to try and push to find out sooner rather than later.

“We’ve had calls from people because the guys here speak so highly about it. Obviously, word does get back to people in the NRL. There’s pretty semi-regular interest about coming. The London piece is obviously attractive too, which we’ve talked about. Partners are attracted to going to London.

“I don’t think we’ll have any trouble recruiting if we know our destiny in time, that’s for sure.”

Off the pitch, the challenges are similar.

“I would say there’s not much more you could do in the Championship than what we’re doing. We’re busting our arse to try and improve the club.

“I think we’ve done a great job of improving the visibility of the club and the rebrand and its position in London, but we need to be in a competition that we can grow and thrive in. I think until we’re in Super League, we won’t be able to fully complete that mission.

“There’s a lot of things you could do, even the scale of artists you could get to play at your games. All of that stuff does boil down to the commercials of Super League, crowd numbers and all those type of things.

“I think now we’re getting to the point that, because we get so much international interest in Australia and PNG and Darren’s involvement, we can attract partners at values that are more Super League-like than Championship. As the owner, I’m definitely looking forward to being in the Super League and being able to attract more commercial support.”

Beyond that, the club is also considering relocating from its current home in Wimbledon, though that isn’t something they will look at in greater detail until the Super League conundrum fixes itself.

“Conceptually, I’ve looked at it. I haven’t looked at anything in particular as yet, and I’ll probably wait until those mid-seasons, around late May to July, and I would love to have a bit more guidance on where we sit.

“Something the fans have made clear is that they’ve moved around a lot since 1980, and some of that was by choice and some of it was from struggles and a variety of reasons. What we need to do is be able to give people a home for the club that we can stick at that is suitable for Super League. I think Wimbledon’s been great, the size of the stadium isn’t really an issue.

“Our biggest issue there is they tear up their pitch for eight weeks in the summer, which if you think about what London’s going to have to offer, is a prime time for us to be playing at home in summer, and we’d love to be playing while the Wimbledon tennis is on. All the things that are attractive for people to go out in London and enjoy a day out.

“It’s not something that I can work around in the Super League scenario, being away from home for eight weeks. That’s the key consideration for us. We’ll look at the options mid-season, but whether we stay there and work something out about the pitch, or we move somewhere else, we want to be doing it for a long-term basis and have some real ties around it so that the fans can understand that it’s going to be a long-term thing.”

What is for certain is that if London do return to Super League, Wechsel has no doubt at all what kind of impact they could have.

“If London is successful, it ties back to things like TV rights deals and money into the game and more fans. Andrew Abdo spoke a lot about fans when he was over there and how you can grow the game. We always said that London is an obvious market to grow in.

“In that regard, it’s good for us up front and probably pretty good for the game and the other clubs to follow if all those metrics work out.”

And if they do have to wait to find out their fate through IMG gradings, he’s confident they can make a push for promotion through that.

“We are confident. We have to assume at this point because we’ve been given no firm news either way from anyone else about how we progress, so we’re putting a lot of effort into those metrics.

“Social media is through the roof compared to what it was. Obviously, the financials are a lot better than what they were. The changes they made this year do assist a bit in terms of the on-field too, winning the Championship.

“There are more points than there were in the past. It’s definite that we’re going to be improved on what we were. I guess some of it comes down to what the 13-14 type teams are going to produce themselves in the Super League.”