IMG break silence on London Broncos and make ‘central support’ claim and Melbourne Storm comparison

London Broncos needs ‘full central support’ from rugby league if the sport is ‘serious’ about growing the game in the capital.

That is the view of IMG’s Matt Dwyer, who has broken his and the company’s silence on the Broncos as they prepare to exit Super League and return to the Championship next season – and has drawn comparisons with the journey of Melbourne Storm as to how rugby league can best maximise its potential in London.

The Broncos have won many admirers throughout 2024 for the way they have applied themselves on the field, despite knowing before a ball had been kicked this year that they would be relegated no matter what.

In the end, they did finish bottom of the table – but only on points difference behind Hull FC. Their coach, Mike Eccles, and owner, David Hughes, have repeatedly spoke out throughout the summer about the need for London to have an exemption in the gradings system to give the club a chance of growing.

And Dwyer, speaking to Sport Business, admitted that London as a growth market needs huge investment from the game if it is to succeed in the years ahead.

He said: “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. 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.”

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Dwyer insisted that the priority of the sport short-term must be growing its commercial and revenue streams – which would then enable the game to be able to offer more central support and funding to the Broncos to allow them to prosper: a situation similar to what Melbourne Storm experienced when they entered the NRL over 25 years ago.

He said: “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.”

“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.”

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