Well to re iterate and I will leave it here right now.

I have nothing against Wigan. I just do not see why my club has signed an official partnership with ANOTHER. Be it for St.Helens, Leeds, Wigan or Balmain Tigers - I don't care who it is. My stance would be exactly the same if we had signed an official partnership with any club. I can not be clearer.

We are all entitled to our opinions and I respect everyone's opinions on here regardless if I agree. I'm becoming very frustrated that some choose to twist all counter debate reasoning on twinning clubs into some kind of 'We hate Wigan mentality must stop'

That is not the real issue.

Frank again what you say is 100% right , this morning i attended my Monday Hydrotherapy session in Wigan

a former Wigan player was there and said exactly what you have just posted

.

In the pub on Thursday, I was talking to Terry Gorman he played two games for Leigh as he was brought in on loan from Huddersfield in 1962 (?) because we needed cover for Bev Risman, now that’s a little before my time I only started going a few years later.

What crowds did we get then?

It seems to me on and off we’ve always had a loanee or two, but that’s not the issue, or its not my issue anyway. Nor am I calling for the board to step down. We all make mistakes, and even pretty big ones, I once run up a 3.5k bar bill (not on my own mind) and on another occasion got my Company secretary arrested (that was funny

)

Nor am I slagging people off for having another opinion.

But I’m really struggling to see a reason why this Partnership is good for my club?

Neither do I - But you will probably be told to stop hating Wigan Glow for asking that on here. Not that I believe we really do

I posted my reply to that one on about page 5 of the 40 odd page thread.

How was the Whiskey? Mines empty, think it must have evaporated

Glow , good afternoon , our crowds back in 1961-62 were around 5000- 6000 this is only a guess though , and the matches were on Saturday afternoons , i dont think many Leythers watched Soccer then either , i gave up my weekly trips to the Tanner Rush , at the Sems and Regal for Leigh RL .

And you are right loanees were around in those days to , though nobody would lend me owt



.

They weren't bad then and I am pretty sure that was the season we made top 4 in a league of 30 clubs.

Wakefield Trinity where the best in the league at the time but we beat them at Leigh 12-7. Actually it could have been 1964 .

I can remember crowds of 22000 v Wigan 18k v Wire and 16500 v Swinton Lions.

Fwiw I don't think we needed an agreement with Wigan either as last seasons arrangement was working well anyway. For me though the position is exactly the same as last season.

It's called voting with your feet, Frank. So effective Mrs Thatcher tried to make it illegal. I have nothing but admiration and praise for the players, but something needs to be done. You say we need another 1000 spectators and I agree but this isn't the way.

Mish, I have upmost respect for the work you do.

However if that is the opinion of the PSG et al then we have serious problems as they have totally underestimated the views of the general Leigh public.

That's fine if we have 1000's of fans and we can afford to ignore them, mock them, treat them with contempt and call them 'silly'. We havn't.

Look at the screen grab on the website. It's still there.

'Leigh Centurions Announce Official Partnership With Wigan Warriors'.

Straight away the fans are angry, confused, dismayed, disheartened; eyes and ears closed, 'la la la la la dont want to listen anymore'.

Whether the fans are right or wrong is actually irrelevant. As someone else has said [i'In business perception is reality'[/i.

This isn't a historic 'I am not going whilst XYZ is playing/wearing the blazer/robbing the club blind' moment.

This is serious.

Mish,

Has anyone at the club any idea of the severity of this ? Not to mention the implications that will follow.

This beggers belief when people are leaving LISA and the touchdown club then just because TB puts a video message out and thinks its going to go away, especially when not too long ago he stated this would never happen.

Where is the honesty and transparency in that?

This needs to be handled very carefully, dont underestimate the effect it has had on the supporters, dont forget without them Leigh Centurions will not survive very long.

I'm sorry but I don't speak for the PSG, nor do I know their opinions on this matter because it hasn't been mentioned in any of the meetings we've had (we only meet once a fortnight and the next meeting is tomorrow). The first I heard of this was when I read the statement from the club at the same time as everyone else saw it.

I'm just speaking as I see it from a personal point of view. I can't say I'm a big fan of it myself but there's obviously a reason behind it so I'm happy with that. I don't run the club nor do I want to - I'm just a fan who tries to do my bit, so in that respect I don't think I really have a say in how it's run, just like when I go to Asda and I see loads of working practices I'm not keen on but just because I shop there, it doesn't give me a right to say how it should be run.

Harold, I don't have any connections with TB or any of the BoD other than via the same routes as anyone else, ie email or Twitter.

However, as my day job is helping SMEs going through difficult times to make the best of their situation, I would hope that if I contacted them they would give my proposals some consideration!

Maybe not though...

People would be surprised how many businesses keep ploughing the same furrow despite the best advice - if anyone has watched the BBC 2 show "The Fixer" they will know what I encounter consistently!!!

Ps - I'm not saying our BoD are like this!

Of course it is. It is easy to be wise after the event but I think we should contact Wigan RLFC and say we must annull our agreement because too many of our fans will not attend our games if we don't.

This is not a big business. Voting with your feet here will just destroy the club. If the leagues are re-jigged next season a reformed club in CH1 is not the place to be.

Salford Lad, your comments are fully agreed with, you do have the club at heart.
In reply to Mish, I have total respect for the voluntary work you do with Leigh Life and also the radio for all the games.
As for the PSG, well other than overseeing the club accounts (and if we are not careful,and quick to act, the need to overlook accounts won't be needed) I honestly cannot see what they actually do to help the club progress, apart fron Alan who does a fantastic job with the matchday programme.
Trevor always goes on about PSG, they are just retired people, who talk, but do not seem to carry out any positive actions.
We must not keep relying on these or any other volunteers.
Volunteers will only do so much, and at a slow(retired pace)
We have to put in place a proper marketing strategy to sell our club to the people of Leigh, and also further afield.
This now has become even more important, after what has been said over the past few days.
We as a club must be looking to pay a Marketing Executive, we cannot rely on the LSV to market the club,they have their own marketing to do, and that obviously comes first for them.
Bite the bullet, speculate to accumalate, all businessess have to do this, it is a gamble, but one I feel we must take. Move forward with confidence to help rectify the wrong doings of the last few days.
Before anyone bites my head off, I realise we have a General Manager in place, but he is being asked to sell the club on his own, a job he is not yet fully familiar with. Given time I am sure Rob Parker will excel in the role, but at the moment he needs help in the post.

Sorry, but despite your comments about me and the programme, you are speaking in total ignorance and it's attitudes just like this that make me want to chuck the lot in. I respect other folks' opinions, I really do, but when they make derogatory remarks, in absolute ignorance, I honestly don't feel it's worth it!

Do you know where the radio station was developed from? How about the Junior Centurions? Who calculates/submits the salary cap? I wonder where the Centurion TV came from? Where did the Player Pathway start out? And so on......

Agree Alan.

When the club gets a tick in the box for good governance and the like from the RFL, it will be the PSG who deserve the credit.

Alan.
I must apologies if you think I don't respect what anyone does for our club to help it progress.
I have nothing against the PSG whatsoever, it just seems that IF the BOD + CEO are being transparent, would it not be good to highlight what the PSG are doing for the club.
You never know, the knockers on this forum may actually start to praise them for the vital work they do.
My main points were to state about marketing the club in a professional manner, and bring much needed positive publicity to us, in the way of sponsorships and advertising.

I trust this clears some dodgy points up for now. Thankyou.

Trevor, and members of the PSG have highlighted regularly, what they do, at Fans Forums and in the press. However, rather like the announcement about the agreement with Wigan, many people will only hear/read what they want to. Perhaps they are too attuned to hearing bad news, to be able to realise good news when it's put before them? It almost seems like the 'good old days' were better, when there was no communication at all - at least fans couldn't then jump on what they perceive to be bad news!

I can't speak for the rest of the PSG but, believe me, the prospect of not doing what I have been doing, and just turning up for games, holds great appeal for me at the moment. I must be getting too old for all this hassle!

It might not be a big business Derek, but it is a business none the less. Leigh Centurions do not have a God given right to get the good people of Leigh to go and watch them. Like any business they have to win customers....and also as for any business if the customers don't like what they are being sold, they won't go.

Alan.
I have total respect for the work the PSG, of which you are one of, do for the club.
We will always have the negativity hunters on this forum, but there are still many who wish to help the club in any way, large or small that they can.
What we have to work towards is getting all the doubters back on the positive side, carry on moving forward, and hopefuly stem the cash flow problems we have at the moment.
Creating a positive marketing department for the club, will increase confidence around the town and club, and hopefully ease many of our current financial problems.
Thankyou.

Totally in agreement with you there.

PM'd you Alan

It's only for home games , and seeing that some people don't need much of an excuse not to go to the game , is providing them with live internet commentary of the game doing the club more of a disservice than a good service ? .

Wouldn't it suit both parties better to have delayed broadcasting of the games ? , better for Leigh life as the people who actually went to the match could listen to it and the non attendees could still listen albeit a few hours after the final whistle , and just maybe they may turn up and actually pay to get in which would benefit the Centurions ? .

I can recommend Dave & Derek's unbiased commentary and views on the match . I don't listen to the game over the internet if I haven't gone to the game and wouldn't listen even to a delayed replay for purely reasons of my own but I'd rate D & D much higher than them teats Eddie & Stevo .

I listen from Hull, unfortunately I cannot afford to travel back to Warrington every week so the commentary is invaluable to people like myself. I don't think I have ever met a supporter of a sports club who has elected not to attend a game because it is on the radio.

In this day and age when you can follow live updates via twitter etc there would be very little point in a delayed broadcast.