Rugby fantastic kit appalling.The only way the rebranding can be a success is if it attracts further investment not sponsorship but some real backing from one of imgs many partners otherwise we are built on sand a dose of reality with rfl announcing losses

Just trying to think which clubs aren’t built on sand ?? Most soccer clubs have currently massive over valuations when looking to P/E ratios etc many have huge debts secured on those valuations, and local clubs not in PL with recent admin issues. We need an extra 1000 paying fans, if we can’t find them then we don’t deserve a seat at the table. All sports that are not truly international are struggling for the scraps

an extra 1000 on top of what 6/7000 for what break even make a profit pay off debts what is imgs end game we dont want derek to sell and our club to move and die

Mention should be made of another part of the rebrand. Well done to the Leopard ladies today, in trying circumstances.

5.5K home fans dont pay for the current squad....

DB stated in 2017, that Leigh made a profit from smaller attendances. Obviously the matchday costs have gone up with the entertainment put on, and the chances are Leigh are close to the salary cap (even with a small squad) and probably paying for 2 marquee players.

Revenue is up on attendances and sponsorship, but DB is still very much bankrolling the club. Apparently the club are missing out on online merchandising sales with the website down for 9 months and stocks low at the shop. People seem to like anything spotted (who would have thought).

Last year was the key and that is where Derek bank-rolled the club with no guarantees, players like Asiata, Lam, Amone, Ipape and O'Donnell are the bedrock of this team and they all Championship rugby last season. This group are now stars of the Super League, but it was far from obvious that this would be the case.

I am guessing money is not an issue to Derek when things are going well, and things are going exceptionally well.

i think even without the outstanding event entertainment the operating costs of matchday will have risen beyond belief from the LSV management since 2017; increased % of matchday tickets, unbelievable amount of unnecessary stewards, operation of 4 stands, traffic management - the list is probably endless from them... hopefully significant increase in membership take up for 2024 will reassure all at the Leopards that its certainly worth providing for

Does the Sky money not pay for the squad, thought that was the equivalent of the salary cap

It was but somebody called Elstone negotiated the SkY money down from 40 Million pounds to 25 - and got paid and thanked for it by the RFL.

It used to. I believe Salary cap £2.1M and Sky money £1.8M. In previous years Wakefield and Castleford were able to run teams under the cap and trouser the rest. They certainly did not spend on ground improvements.

The same people that brought him in (Bongser suspects but has no proof) have brought in IMG.

Maybe soon the SkY money won't pay for a blade of grass!

Sorry, Sev, crossed in the post.

i think the current deal drops in well short of the cap and when you have marque player(s) then it defo doesnt cover it...

This from Gledhill tweets yesterday:

"Good to learn clubs have finally received their IMG/RFL handbooks which shows clubs the thresholds of where will be assessed against to gain points from the five key strategic pillars. I’m just going through the handbook now and will provide an update later this evening.

For example on Attendances:

Average attendance of 7,500 over three years = 2.5 points.

Average attendance of 3,000 over three years = 2 points


Average attendance of 1,500 over three years = 1.5 points.

Average attendance under 1,500 over three years = 0.75 points.

The Bradford Bulls would score 2 points based on their average attendance over the past three seasons. That’s the same as Huddersfield, Castleford, Leigh, Toulouse, Wakefield, Widnes and Salford."

Massive gap from 3K+ to 7.5K+ for an extra 0.5pts. Based PURELY on that, the rebrand has made no difference to attendance.

Personally, Friday evening kick-offs at LSV have knocked a big hole in Bongser's attendance rate. Many others, both on this forum and others, have said that they'd prefer 3pm Sunday as an ideal. Should broadcasters want to shift a particular game to a Thurs/Friday, fine - it is what it is. Sundays for most allow an early lunch, a trawl round the pubs in Leigh where one can talk blox with other fans and a no sweat stroll to LSV in plenty of time for KO.

Is it the rugby and the fantastic results at the top table that have increased the gate, or is it the pre-match entertainment? Regarding the latter; were Bongser in a local band and not a rugby fan, he'd persuade his band to play a stadium like LSV on a matchday/night for expenses only (if that). Much better to get the exposure and, if well received, better paid pub & club gigs thereafter. Barring the whopper and/or televised matches, prefer and promote those bands and take the money saved off the stroll-up entrance fees. A lot of families are struggling and if dad 'n' lad go to the odd "treat" game it's two more bums on seats for those games. There are lots of missus 'n' lasses as well - all grist to the mill.

The difference will still be hard to make up after three years of increased attendances. This goes again to show that IMG's remit is to keep an Elite and a "Rest" (if, indeed, The Rest, survive!!)

looks like rl will be getting less from sky next time and are hoping to make up the difference by deals with other broadcasters future viewing platforms will be different to what we have now how that will add up in revenue streams is the key i guess. how much if any will be free to air. all games being covered will dictate when the games are played.img must have some masterplan once the criteria has been applied is that the only plan or do we have anyone at hq with a vision will the distribution be dictated by the math of the plan above.anyone know any holywood superstars/pro golfers/ basketball players with a leyth connection

Average attendance of 7,500 over three years, will not be even remotely possible for Leigh until there is 3 consecutive years of Super League. I think Leigh only just scraped above 3000 in the Championship last season.

In Super League there is a core at the LSV of about 6000 with some bumper local games (Warrington, Wigan and St Helens).

The ideal solution will be to have all games televised. This will fix one of the bugbears of not having a video ref at every game. It would be nice to see IMG promoting games, because at the moment they don't seem to be doing any marketing of the sport.

That would work against getting 7.5K+ crowds on wet/cold days/nights, Sep.

Having all games televised is the last thing we want. Any game that is televised should not kick off when other games are being played. Watching other games on TV should be a bonus not a negative effect on your team’s attendance.

How many fans stay at home when their game is on TV?

Doesn't matter what Leigh do or how successful Leigh are, with the current set up nothing will change. With Friday night KO and high prices both for attendance and refreshments, 5 to 6000 will stay the average gate and some of those are away supporters. You would expect for a 1st CC semi-final since 1987 that we would have easily sold 5000 tickets but what have we sold, about 1500 so far? Please correct if wrong.

Sunday 3pm KO and lower pricing may add to gate but then again it would only be by about a few hundred if that (and as you know, my gripe is for the ridiculous so-called £24 senior concession to stand up in the North Stand). The fact is that there are only about 5500 fans when in SL. 3500 when in Champ. How Leigh get 10000 paying fans is what Leigh need to concentrate on. Obviously, the fantastic success and style of play and pre-match entertainment isn't increasing the crowds. If I was DB, I would be employing a professional marketing team to bump the attendance figures up for which they would be paid a commission. Because the mainstay of Leigh's marketing is to put a few posts on Twitter, which isn't good enough. Adrian Lam and his players deserve a full house every game.

And as has been said on a previous post, we still haven't got a working website which, in view of all the excellent work being done at Leigh, is a major gaffe in losing money from merchandise and doesn't project a professional image for the club... something that needs addressing with IMGs licensing now fully approved. I also agree with another poster, what on earth have IMG done yet to market Rugby League ... sod all... zilch!

https://www.rugby-league.com/uploads/do ... %20Version).pdf Interesting read, and so many missed opportunities (thankfully this is a dummy run year). As previously stated many times, Leigh Leopards are missing out on so many facets of Social media. I have just looked up Tik Tok an app not designed for someone of my vintage - 28 Followers 51 Likes and 2 postings No website, even though DB promised me it would go live last week. Some people on this forum questioned my insistence on improving social media - saying it was more important to have a good team. We now have a good team, can we have world class social media to go with the success story of the season.

https://www.rugby-league.com/uploads/do ... %20Version).pdf Interesting read, and so many missed opportunities (thankfully this is a dummy run year). As previously stated many times, Leigh Leopards are missing out on so many facets of Social media. I have just looked up Tik Tok an app not designed for someone of my vintage - 28 Followers 51 Likes and 2 postings No website, even though DB promised me it would go live last week. Some people on this forum questioned my insistence on improving social media - saying it was more important to have a good team. We now have a good team, can we have world class social media to go with the success story of the season.

I understood from the Leopards’ Facebook page that Leigh had sold out the West stand for the semi-final with 3,000. Also, the last allocation of 1,200 for the South stand is reportedly on the way. So there should be many more than 1,500. I can’t be there and will have to watch on TV. But if Leigh do get to Wembley I aim to be there. I was fortunate to be at Wembley in 1971 and Whitehaven in 1982. So fingers crossed that 2023 will equal those great years.

Thanks for the correct figures Essex Leyther. The full info isn't available on their Twitter feed, which is the only one I check now and again. At the moment, we won't score very well with IMG on our social media and website presence. This is such a shame with all of the excellent work being done elsewhere. Come on, Leigh. Don't give IMG any excuses.

We sold our first allocation of 5000 and got 1200 extra south stand tickets when it was segregated. Those sales exclude corporate.

Hahahaha just laughing at Maurice the Boris