Widnes average this season is no where near 5K

Widnes average this season is around 3,700 but this is mainly due to us playing Friday/Saturday which hasnt worked. A return to Sunday next year should see us put another 300 or so on the gates.

So despite winning a cup and quite possibly completing the double you average 1700 more fans than us?

Because if we don't then we're not going to be given a franchise unless they decide to increase the number of teams (which they won't because teams won't want to share their slice of the money pie). Unless we have a large following at this level, how do we show the RFL that we'd be a better option than say Salford or Wakefield?

Did you not read my post, if we would have played on a Sunday you bump that average up around the 4,000 mark. Crowds are not everything though and i think most would agree Leigh have major problems at chief exec and Marketing levels.

How did anyone else get a license who get less than a 5K average?

They come from outside England.


Simples.

I'm talking about 4-5000 as a aim for after 2012. To get in for 2012 we would have to be finger licking good compared to rest we are against. Which is why I say 5000 and winning everything by the time its decision time for 2012. We have no chance for 2012 even had we stayed up. We can't run a club at this level never mind being in the limelight of a bigger stage.

Time will tell, we are 24 games from winning the double and starting the 2011 season in Champ 1

Forget the 2008 round of licenses. It's now twice as hard for non-expansion clubs. They now have to set themselves apart from clubs already in Super League. ie, =blue"We are a better prospect than Salford because our average attendance is higher by 2,000" - that sort of thing.

Hope not - that's where we are starting the 2010 season!!

After a few pints you forget what these leagues are called!!!

They were already in there and the RFL didn't have the cojones to kick them out. For Salford they played the 'Conurbation' card. For Celtic they played the location card.

What do Leigh have in the 'Conurbation'/Location stakes? We're surrounded by Warrington, Wigan, St Helens and Salford location-wise and Leigh as a 'conurbation' has a population of around 60,000.

Unless Leigh start churning out GB Internationals by the bucketload, or the people of Leigh start backing this club in the region of 4-5,000 per home game at this level then we can forget Super League.

Would only be a good thing if this was used to clear out the large quantities of dead wood at the club, unfortunatly this will not happen and although there may be plenty of wins next season, crowds will fall as prices wont.

Look at the RFL Operational Rules - they call them Championship One and Two, as well!

No it won't affect our 2012 ambitions.

Yes it is a disaster.

Are you underestimating the likes of oldham, swinton etc just like rowley and co have done with batley, gateshead and barrow.

Walk the league? Found our level more like. And do you think millward really wants to endure the embarrassment of the press following him to skolars and blackpool?

He's done it before. If SL clubs won't touch him based on his previous then what choice does he have?

I'm with Ste on this one. For next year, I anticipate...

1) Winning the overwhelming majority of our games and finishing top (the players and coach we have signed should be enough to have some reasonable expectation of this)...

..meaning..

2) much bigger crowds as people like watching a winning team...

...meaning..

3) much better atmos at LSV, which is 'autocatalystic' (great word - happening at all makes it happen more)

...meaning..

4) the players and the club and the crowds will all be on a high...

...meaning...

5) it's not entirely daft to suggest we've as much chance of winning the NRC from NC2 as we have from NC1 (remember when we made the JP Cup semi from Div 2? or how Donny made the final 2 years back? and the gap between NC1 and NC2 is FAR smaller than the gap between SL and other divisions)

OK maybe this sounds wildly optimistic... but my bet is we're comfortably back in NC1 by 2011, and that we'll have generally much bigger crowds by the end of next year than we've had for this (barring Widnes, who we might well meet in the NRC, and Fax)... and that's we'll have a decent run in the cup next season, too....

...ultimatlely, it doesn't affect our chances of a SL app, except insomuch as we miss out on a couple of chances to tick a 'performance' box.

Didn't want to go down... don't think it's a sensible decision of the RFL to relegate a third-bottom team as opposed to denying promotion to the second-top team below given the Tolouse position... but all things considered, I reckon this could work out in our favour over the medium term.

6) plus we'll have three local clubs coming to Leyth, plus Blackpool

Well we'll see.

If someone in the club had brains, or opted to ask someone who had, they could use the situation to their advantage.

History would suggest that we're better at making sow's ears from silk purses than 't other rode round.

As to your auto-catalysis (hyphen definitely req'd) theory - I reckon that's wildly optimistic. IMHO I don't think much positive will ever happen at this club whilst a certain family has such influence. To make up another word, knowing your pre-declared circumspicion I wouldn't expect u to comment.

Is it also not a bit harsh to deny promotion to someone who has earned it? Once special rules are made to exclude one team then someone undeserving will always cop it instead.

look what happend to man utd when they got relegated from what was
then div1, look where they are now ???
look what happend to man city when they got relegated from div2, look
where they are now ???
most of our players with contracts for next year are all the younger ones

Ask him that when we have knocked a few of the Championship clubs out of the Challenge Cup and won the NRC.

Jesus, the relegation seems to have elevated peoples spirits higher than they've been for ages.

Now I'm a famously miserable bar steward who seems to keep having his expectations met.

Maybe Millward will make the difference and get a direct route through to AT.

Hope u r all right and I wrong.

And yes, the NRC will be interesting.

Autocatalysis is a chemistry term and no hyphen is required. It means a process that has the ingredients necessary to speed itself up once the reaction has started.

I stnad crrected.