IMG chief speaks out on London Broncos’ future and plan of action

Rugby league needs to grow before it can give London Broncos the central support it needs to thrive. That’s the belief of IMG vice president of sports management Matt Dwyer, who has spoken out about the situation London find themselves in as they prepare to be relegated back to the Championship.

The Broncos finished bottom of the pile in Super League this season after picking up just three wins all season. They pushed Hull FC extremely close in the race to avoid picking up the wooden spoon, but ultimately a hammering at the hands of Warrington Wolves last weekend proved decisive.

Irrespective of the position they finished the season in though, it seems the Broncos were always destined for a short stay in the top flight, with their IMG grading in 2023 placing them some way short of the standard required, at 24th out of 35 clubs. There’s been debate and outrage about whether the Broncos, who remain one of the only English outposts away from the heartlands, should lose their place in the top flight as they strive to grow on and off the field in the capital.

Ahead of the new IMG gradings which will be released in just a few weeks, London’s apparent fate remains a talking point and Dwyer has moved to explain his vision for the club and how believes the sport can help them grow.

“London is a growth market for the sport of rugby league but it needs to be a focused area that we as a sport invest in,” Dwyer told Sport Business. “You can’t just leave a team in an area and expect it to grow a whole market for you. That is not how successful expansion happens.

“Look at the NRL when they did the Melbourne Storm. That was centrally backed for an extended period of time and that is the prism through which we are looking at it. If we are serious about growing the game in London, which we all are, it needs to have full central support to do so.

“The reality of the game at the moment is that it needs to grow commercially in order to fund the investment required to grow that market. The London Broncos situation is a challenging one. You can see by their current grading score just how much the sport needs to do to cut through in the London market at the professional level.”

He added: “The war chest that [the NRL] now have behind them, and to now see their expansion into Perth, a second New Zealand team, or Papua New Guinea, that takes money in order to be successful,” Dwyer says.

“That’s what we want: if you’re going to expand into a new market it needs to have full central support, including the funding.”