Buying a rugby league club in a city that already boasts more than 15 professional football clubs and a handful of union sides seems optimistic. Investing in the worst team in the country’s professional leagues seems like lunacy. But, by taking a majority share of London Skolars, that’s what Australian sports management company ARC is doing.
ARC has previously specialised in boxing but, with former Australia international David Shillington and one-time England player Shaun Lunt on board, they are making a third attempt to expand their empire into rugby league. Steve Scanlan, who owns ARC, and Tony Feasey, who led the takeover talks, were part of the group that set up New York City RLFC, which collapsed during the pandemic, and also wanted to take the Jacksonville Axemen into the British system.
Both of those ventures failed, but ARC has a new plan: buy perennial League 1 strugglers London Skolars and make them the biggest rugby league club in the capital. The local businessmen who own the club expect the takeover to be concluded in time for the team’s daunting trip to the unbeaten leaders, Dewsbury, on Sunday.
Neither party has declared how much ARC is paying the current directors for the vast majority of their shares – the current owners own 408,671 shares, valued at £1 each – but one former director claimed it is a low six-figure sum. “It’s an opportunity for new investors to come in rather than the existing investors selling out and making any money,” said the Skolars secretary, Andrew Jackson. “It’s taken a very long time to get there.”
The club are understandably cautious: Toronto Wolfpack promised to invest in Skolars four years ago, only for the deal to go cold when the dollars were due. And running a professional club in London is an expensive business.
London Broncos are £26m in debt, most of which is owed to long-term owner David Hughes, the oil magnate who plugs a financial hole of around £1m a year. After 43 years, the Broncos – currently 10th in the second tier – do not own a stadium, a training ground or even offices. Nor do Skolars.
An Australian company taking over the worst team in British professional rugby league? So what, you may well ask. Well, it could be a turning point for the sport in London, which is currently at its lowest ebb in the 20 years since Skolars made the bold move from the amateur leagues to the lowest of the RFL’s paid ranks.
ARC sound ambitious. They want to turn Skolars into London’s premier rugby league club and they consider the Broncos low-hanging fruit. It is 15 years since the Broncos were in Super League’s top 10 and their performance last year – 11th place in the Championship – was their worst since 1989. Back in January, Feasey told corporate diners at the pre-season friendly between London’s two clubs: “Broncos: we are coming to get you!”
It was a bullish statement and Broncos’ management were apparently sufficiently startled to seek talks with ARC about taking them over instead – a deal that would have given ARC a Championship club that is likely be graded Category B by the global media company IMG next year, as opposed to the Category C Skolars in League 1.
IMG considers London an important market, one the RFL has failed to exploit: there have been just a handful of major fixtures in the capital since London Broncos were relegated from Super League four years ago, with no England game planned for this autumn either. The lack of joined-up thinking was epitomised when the two pro clubs’ last home games were played at the same time, watched by a combined attendance of just 600 people. There is no professional match in the capital this coming weekend. A fresh attitude and new investment would be extremely welcome.
“Without sounding arrogant, we want all of London,” says Feasey, although he remains vague about plans. Whether ARC are buying the club’s RFL licence to launch a new entity in the capital remains to be seen. The investors have not ruled out changing the Skolars’ name and they have looked at potential new homes, including two where the Broncos have played.
In contrast to the wandering, chameleon-like Broncos, Skolars have played in red and black at New River Stadium in Wood Green for a quarter of a century. The Skolars brand has roots: the lives of thousands of people in Haringey have been touched by a working class, proud club with a greater BAME presence on the pitch, sidelines and in the stands than any other club in the country. As the club’s founder, Hector McNeil, once said: “We reflect London. We represent the city.”
The plucky Skolars team that unexpectedly pushed Rochdale Hornets all the way at the New River stadium last week was typical: a core of local lads from different ethnic backgrounds, a couple of northern players, two Australians now living in the capital and four on loan. Their captain Aaron Small, an HGV driver from Hackney, started playing league in a Skolars’ community programme and has now racked up 100 professional matches.
If ARC wants to grow the club, though, a move may be necessary. Watching Skolars at the council-run New River can be both dispiriting and comforting, a warm welcome from old friends in an otherwise desolate pub. Labelled a potential white elephant by local press since before it even opened in 1987, New River remains down-at-heel, invaded every fortnight by Skolars’ regulars – an incongruous mix of former players, friends, league addicts – and a busload of visitors. The Rugby League Yearbook reports that their average attendance was 300 last year; that must have included the players and officials.
ARC will have to start with marketing. Match days at New River are a commercial vacuum, with only a couple of (temporary) advertising boards and little to buy besides fine New River Ale and jerk patties. Notably absent are food stalls, beer tents, 21st century music or any of the Greek culture of neighbouring Bowes Park or the vibrancy of Wood Green. There is nothing to suggest money is involved. But Toronto Wolfpack showed what could be done in a tired multi-purpose council ground, drawing attention away from the crumbling concrete and on to a winning team on the field and a hipster-packed beer village behind the sticks. ARC has an almost blank canvas on which to work.
While you might assume the two London clubs work closely together, contrary to what is said publicly, the relationship is fractured. Last year, having lost a swathe of their best players to the Broncos, Skolars used an astonishing 40 players in just 20 league games, nine of whom also appeared for the Broncos. So far this season, Skolars have yet to receive a single Broncos player on loan.
“I’m in a privileged position, having come from Skolars as a junior, played for the Broncos and now coaching Skolars,” says Joe Mbu. “The partnership should always be a close one, helping each other out. We’re no longer a million miles from the Broncos’ level. Our aim is to win League 1, get promoted and have two Championship clubs in the south. Hopefully we live long enough to see serious derbies and a real rivalry.”
Not owning their own ground could give Skolars an opportunity to do something different – and it would save them the rumoured £20,000 per game that Hughes is spending to rent Wimbledon’s smart new ground for the Broncos – but, with just one full-time employee and a handful of over-worked volunteers, Skolars is a club hanging on by its fingertips.
That being said, ARC can probably buy success in League 1 by doubling the current playing budget of around £100,000. “The only way the club can ever do anything other than survive in League 1 is to make significant investment,” says Skolars chair Adrian Fraine, who is expected to stay on the board. “The current shareholders don’t have the resources to realise those aims. The new owners share our view that London has much untapped potential.”
Bottom of League 1 having lost all nine games so far this season, Skolars need new talent before considering changing names or stadiums.
