now thats just silly lol,as long as the club had links with leigh i could live with that and it would be better watchin a rebranded club than none at all.

You are entitled to your opinion mate, but for me if the word Leigh's not in the teams name, you may as well go and watch a team outside of Leigh, that's my opinion anyway.

RFL subsidies maybe?.

Their club level is the Super 14 which is the best players from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa so understandably it's a very decent level with the cream of the players from those three countries.

I can imagine the Newton Heath supporters at the time up in arms saying, I'm never going to watch them again if they are called Manchester United it will never work!!

You could rebrand the team to Leigh Dinosaurs because that is what Leigh is facing - extinction. As Leigh or Swinton, neither team will ever get to SDL, they will only become amateur teams being watched by a few hundred supporters. There is a chance now for both teams to gain entry into SDL with a Manchester name. All companies rebrand their company name or products when they are facing difficulties and they get through those difficulties and survive. Any top businessman or top coach would definitely agree with me. You either change and survive or you carry on as you are and become amateur or even extinct. It has to be done now - not in a year or two but now!

Do you really think that Leigh or Swinton will be going into SDL in 2015!!! And what happens after that when you have another 3 years of being in the wilderness and the tumbleweed is blowing through Leigh. There won't be a team or a fan base in Leigh. Like it or not the Manchester concept would work and we would have investors and publicity and we would be in SDL in 2015 if not before.

You lot who disagree really are dinosaurs.

Fan wise though what would change, we would still be in Leigh with a different name, in my opinion the fan base will be the same, and we still would not get into SL as we are are still to close to Wigan, Saints, Wire, Widnes, and Salford.

We could play at Agecroft

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With your vision you will be heading for Marsh Playing Fields. You do talk the utmost garbage on this board Starbug so you haven't disappointed me yet again.

How many people in Leigh support United or City - thousands. They don't seem bothered about a name. Luddites the lot of you. There's another good name for you lot - Leigh Luddites.

Nobody likes change but a merger between Leigh and Swinton and rebrand to a Manchester name and we would be invited in.

At least we'd be closer to Manchester then.

Talking about folks who spout utter garbage, you are up there with the best.

Another Luddite! Rebrand and survive or become an amateur feeder team. The choice is yours. Not garbage just being realistic. Any businessman or any of the top coaches or CEOs would definitely agree with me. You lot just don't like the stark truth and the only realistic option available for survival.

Everything would change. I support Leigh, not some Manchester hybrid. Would be lucky to get crowds in three figures.

Well after reading this post the logical answer must be , get ready for a move or ready for anything we agree will do us no harm ,this poster must be encouraged to express his innermost feelingsas he may feel unwanted or unloved which happens from time to time the reason being some say negative comments and i feel this guy is not what he may seem .

Leigh Dinosaurs it is then. Get the buckets and raffle tickets out. Leigh cant attract investors a Manchester team will attract investors and we would be in SL no doubt about that. Leigh are heading to Ch1 and oblivion unfortunately.

No WYSIWYG is the only person on this thread who has grasped the reality.

No, really. Seriously............................ LOL


I think Hull have just shaken off the Sharks tag, how much "Leigh Lions" would we take from everyone else?

We'd not gain any fans, we'd just alienate a large portion of our own support, and Swintons fans would just give up IMHO

Reality check time. Championship clubs next season will get less than one premiership players weekly wage. RL is a minority sport which only gets in the public eye when our 'leaders' make ridiculous decsions, or clubs go bust. The game of RL is governed by SL, proven by their money going up and Championship clubs monies going down.

It is no longer a case of saving a club here and a club there. We have to save our game. Personally I have no idea where to start, but as long as SKY have the game by the knackers, the game will suffer a slow, painful and embarrassing death. We will be left with 14 pro clubs and nothing below. You no longer earn your right to play in the top division, you simply buy yourself in (and make sure you do all the paperwork/accountancy right).

I despair at what we have seen over the last couple of years. While I am not there yet, the time is going to come when I say "Is it really worth it". Over the last few years lots RL fans have already got to that point and beyond.

I think i may have worded it wrong Matt, i meant we wouldn't get any better crowds, and, we in my opinion still wouldn't get into SL even with Manchester in the name, has i said in an earlier post i wouldn't go to watch them.

...and the RFL would have one less member

And that would bother SDL clubs because???

And to WYSIWYG I am a Leigh supporter and have an interest in Swinton's results but that doesn't mean I would ever support a team called Manchester in ANY sport!

It wouldn't bother them one bit. I almost think that the aim of the RFL is to rid themselves of as many clubs outside SL as they can.

Does anyone actually think that people from Manchester will drive out, past Salford's new ground, down the Lancs turning left into Leigh and not right into Warrington? Of course not. While I think if you are going to do expansion it should be IN the big Northern cities like Manchester and Liverpool if definitely won’t work with another club with no connection either culturally or geographically just changing its name. What Leigh need to do is become a bigger part of the Leigh community not less. Once the money is sorted Leigh Centurions and a group of other local businesses, clubs and charities should all work together to have some sort of Leigh day and have the players there in the town centre with all different attractions doing some sort of rugby thing. We need to make is so when people say Leigh people think about the rugby team.

Agree 100 percent sparrow , a couple of simple questions

Who owns the LSV ?

Who was it built for ?

One simple answer

The people of Leigh

An open invite to the people of Leigh , come to and use YOUR stadium at least once per year , even if that involves letting them in for free ( if we can find a way to do it )

Have to say that if the Leigh public and those within a 5 mile radious cannot be tempted then the future is a short one regardless of name or a merger !
Presuming the club gets out the mess (and I'm hoping the silence on what is going on is actually a positive) then it needs to appoint someone or a group of people with fresh ideas who has just one aim - to increase the Clubs profile in the town and surrounding areas and to drum up support on match day.

We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and realise we are nowhere near a SL club as we get shocking gates.
Comparrisons with whichever Pet project RL club that is in vogue with Lewis and Wood whilst acurate is totally pointless ,yes its wrong whats happening in RL at the moment , yes its not what sport is about and yes the game is suffering - so lets prove these two individuals wrong, or do we roll over and let the decisions they make become easy ones ?

We should be averaging 4,000 fans in the town the size of Leigh - especially when you factor in just how many people live 15mins drive from the ground.

The ground, league we are in, quality of opposition, quality of league, lack of progression are all used as reasons we are underachieving off the field- all justified, and yet we could play Wigan in a Pre season friendly and get 5,000 Home fans in paying top whack for a totally meaningless fixture versus some youth players.

Lets stop the excuses, maybe ignore the bigger picture ,the politics and the injustices and concentrate on making Leigh the biggest & best club outside SL.
If we do that then we will be in control of our destiny - not some faceless consultant in a hidden room in Leeds somewhere on franchise day.

Another spot on post , we control our destiny , not others