Not only do Fev lift the League Leaders Shield for the third consecutive year but also lead the way on how to run a championship club!

Their average attendance this season for the Co-Operative Championship is 2,283 which is a 38% increase on 2011. To achieve this average attendance and to have 1,000 season ticket holders shows how quickly the club is growing.

Commercially, they have had record bar sales as well as sold out hospitality at many of their home games, that’s what happens when unlike us they own their own stadia!

I think it’s about time the Leigh Centurions board stepped up to the mark off the field like our coach Paul Rowley has on the field, I might add a coach our board didn’t want until pressure at the fans forums made them re think.

In stark contrast to what the board at Fev are telling their fan’s at the last fans forum all we heard is Trevor Barton patting everybody on the back like he always does but we still have a massive overdraft of some £90K, the bank is reducing our overdraft facility, we can’t pay a £9k tax bill and all this is because our crowds are down, averaging 1,500 instead of the 1,800 -2,200 as in the budget.

To top it all we are told we lost 350 season ticket holders but because we increased the price we didn’t lose any revenue! I wonder why? Perhaps losing our Sunday afternoon games and choosing Friday nights instead, not rocket science is it!

I have heard so much this past year and its fantastic what Paul Rowley is doing on the field as well as off it securing a squad that has bags of potential to take the club forward.

However my message to the Leigh board is get your act together! Firstly by stopping the loss of fans and season ticket holders because once you lose a fan it’s 10 times harder to get them back.

I know the board are trying with their recent questionnaire but stick to what you know works and when a business is in trouble you never jeopardise a steady revenue stream as the board did by changing our games from Sunday afternoons, even after the fans were told we would be playing on Sunday!

It’s been said so many times but the club has to improve the match day experience because it’s still dire! As fans we have raised this so many times and people are not going to part with their hard earned cash to get what is being dished up at Leigh before and after the match, and to top it all be ripped off with exorbitant beer prices! £3.20p for a can that cost 80p less that 500mtrs outside the ground! (Morrison’s)

I know I hear the board saying it’s nothing to do with them beer and food prices its LSV. So at the last fans forum they told us how well it was working with LSV co so let’s see just how well it is working by asking them to do something about it to help the club and themselves attract more fans.

Unlike other clubs whose board members invest in their club our board members are not putting any money in the club. It’s down to the fans and their generosity, like supporting LISA and the lottery that is going to keep the club going with the ultimate goal of the club being self sufficient.

I think the plan will be with the money we get from the RFL next season it will clear the overdraft etc. But never count your chickens until they hatch if that is the plan.

Perhaps I have missed something this season but apart from cutting cost and a lot of patting each other on the back I am still trying to see what the board has really achieved.

Measure of a good board is hitting and exceeding budget, driving growth and maintaining financial stability none of which the Leigh board of directors have achieved.

I am sure if the team’s performance was the same on the field changes would be made!

I wonder what changes the board is going to make to address these problems for next season and beyond. Or like this season is it going to be the same old same old, excuse after excuse.

I think a good start would be to set a realistic budget, increase sponsorship whilst attracting new revenue streams and a better match day experience to bring back the fans and season ticket holders we have lost!

See its not only on the field we need to step up to the mark with Fev but off it too!

Please don't think I'm trying to knock your 'negatives'. You are not alone in voicing many of them. I am just trying to shed a little light on some of them.

Negatives.

1. No idea still how to 'sell' the club or communicate past the inner circle - Surely Comms have improved? i.e. (Radio station; two websites in parallel; (LC & LeighLife) better coverage in local paper.) Nevertheless, there is always room for more improvement. - =#0000FFCommunication is about getting the message across to as many as possible, effective communication is about buy in to that message. IMO we have a lot to learn here to get folk talking about Leigh RL again
2. Stupid fixture days/times. Some of those days are as a result of other factors - Thursday TV coverage; (an awful day to have a match imo) Pitch maintenance for five weeks; sharing a stadium with another Championship team. The current questionnaire is addressing fans' choices - it'll be interesting to see what the split of days is. - =#0000FFIt was our choice to play outside Sundays
3. Dwindling support - A huge problem that we must try to solve - and then bottle the solution and sell it to others! -=#0000FF Sheffield, Fax and Fev seem to be on the increase - maybe we buy theres instead
4. Stupid ST policies - Hopefully S/T ranges/prices will be simplified for this coming season, and announced soon - =#0000FFHopefully thought out, announced and sold

IMO our attendances have suffered due to the number of north west teams in the league, there are 8/10 Yorkshire teams in the league and only Halifax and Swindon bring a decent following to the LSV

Same number of NW teams last year, one less Cumbrian.
Fev and Batley brought a few also, confident it would have been a lot more for Fev, Fax and Batley on a Sunday, great following from Wiltshire though.

Don't think we are arguing opposites here - although I wouldn't want to 'buy' Sheffield's plan for increasing attendances. Theirs went down too, and are only averaging 1178 for Championship games.