er, not yet. Don't think we're that bad. Look, if you could get promoted buy winning a GRAND FINAL this season, finding a new chairman/backer would be a helluva lot easier. But 'off the field' apart from Widnes, we're all in the same boat - but on the field, we are the CLEAR winners up to now. It's a shame that this Great season has potentially (that is all) has been derailed. If we can just tick 'one bl00dy box' this season, then that will be ok I guess, until we find a new backer.
We are all batting for the same side, sod buckets, just me being sarcastic.

Made me think we are short of about £300k a season. Hope I am wrong.

I shall try to bring 4 a week Thursday including my 5 year old grandson who thinks he is a star

I think so too.

If we are £300k a season short then something is badly wrong , no way with AT callin it a day was AT putting that amount of capital into Leigh Centurions..
I would say a big amount of the money we need is because of the cost of hiring the ground ect
We get quiet a decent amount from the RL then gate money , lisa money lottery money ect
so why on earth would we need a extra 300k ???

how much dom we get from the RFL?

How much you tell us Fred you seem to know the ins n out of the club
How much does it cost per season to run the club
How much revenue comes into the club.........

One things for sure if AT was putting in a huge amount of his own dosh to finance the club something was drasticaly wrong...........

If no further significant financial investment comes in next season, then we should look at having a good playing team of 17 only plus dual codes & not a large squad of 25+ where quite a number of players hardly get a 1st team game. What's the point of paying for a 1st team player to have them in the Reserves week in week out.

If there are injury's then with the dual codes plus youngsters in the reserve team it should be enough to get us through, and saves 30% outlay on playing staff.

Also, they will have to look at paid non playing staff and if any savings can be made, plus the outlay of running teams other than the 1st team.

At the end of the day, what brings people to the games is not a superb academy or reserve team, it's the 1st team only. That's been proved from the start of the season to now.

Plus a number of players whose contracts are due up Robbie, Bibey, maybe Nash who are prone to injury's and on a significant salary could save the club a lot of money.

Don't forget,even if we do get the so called "tick all the boxes", it doesn't mean we will get in next time, so there is no point in the club getting into serious debt when there is only a small glimmer of light at the end of the SL tunnel.

Leigh doesn't have any big businesses anymore where the owner has untold wealth and is an avid Leigh supporter. Time to be realistic.

There's only so many rugby league supporters in Leigh, and the dedicated ones already watch Leigh.

Also, when I went to the match last week one of the Miners teams were playing at exactly the same time. You're more likely to get amateur RL players watching Leigh than not, but not if it coincides.

I'd say you are a bit out there frank , it isn't that much , and to tell the truth sumising on here probably isn't the best thing to do , all it will do is start a rumour mill that won't help

The club are making it clear that there is a shortfall , one way or another that shortfall has to be bridged if we are to continue at the current levels of performance , both off and on the pitch

Unfortunatly I don't think this announcement will galvanise the people of the town , so what the future holds we will have to see ?

' Badly wrong ' ? , in what way , we are trying to operate in a way to win a franchise , that is part of the problem , we are too ' hung up ' on box ticking to try to win some ' magical ' place in a competition we are far too weak to even play in

First off, well done to the Club for making this detailed statement - that's what we were all asking for, wasn't it? Obviously they can't give us more detail yet, as complex discussions are ongoing and probably will be, for some time. Inevitably, most of us seem to have been able to find the negatives in the statement, yet there are positives - they are even talking about an Under-18's side and, as 'Starbug' will tell you, that won't come cheap!

I do have one concern about the statement, and that is the bit about increasing the 'gates' to 3,000+. Our average in the Championship, is slightly below 2,500, and the Club would like us to encourage another 500 to come, and boost that figure to 3,000.

However, it's worth bearing in mind that the current average includes some healthy numbers brought by some of our opponents - especially Widnes. If you assume that we have a good 2,000 Leythers watching the games, we probably need another 1,000 per game, to get to 3,000, bearing in mind our remaining opponents at LSV - Halifax, (on a Thursday TV game) Dewsbury, Sheffield, York, and Toulouse.

No way will we get those attendances without some incentives, given the Home matches we have left.
Apart form Fax, and that game is on a THursday on TV none of those clubs have many away fans.
So we will get our 2000 diehards and maybe another few hundred, who are coming because were playing good.
What could help however is that the round ball season is over and weve no competition on Sundays.

And if you are giving incentives than you are not making revenue out of the additional people

Correct, you can give incentives to increase the average crowd above 2500 (ticky box) but this does not help the financial situation at the club.

Football seasons over so lets market the rugby in the town to give the football supporters something to do/ follow during the off season.

I still think that all championship clubs should meet to discuss away travel and how they can provide this at budget costs to entice more fans to other/ their clubs.

It has been tried , but they are all too stupid to understand that the only way any of them will survive is by working together

Get lost Matt, i am holiday for the semi final.

"The Directors feel that if we can increase the attendances relatively modestly by 500 people"

Fax did that - in fact - we got a 700 increase (which has now gone again because of our crap form!!)

However - that 700 increase took about 18 months to get - playing expansive and entertaining rugby and appearing in two GF's on the bounce. People [uwill[/u turn out to watch a top side but it takes time to build it up. If you don't maintain it on the pitch, that increase disappears quicker than Paul Simon out of Widnes. Gone!!!!

Good luck with it.

tut tut catogary E for you ian



you should cancel your holiday if we get there

Mean't to say semi final Ste.

So am I

Your always away you are Fred.

Overriding feeling after reading this was that the plan is still hinged on someone finding a golden ticket on the flying pig to cloud cuckoo land.

Millward's statement in the paper about being impressed by the growing crowds is far more effective in making people wonder what they're missing.

There is absolutely no way that we will get 3000 in for the remaining games, with the holiday season coming.

The statement also infers that it's the fans lookout to increase the gate further without saying what they're going to do about it.

Unfortunately - it comes across as a bit clueless.

Do they not have anyone to sanity check this stuff before it goes public?

Which explains that they were just fairweather gloryseekers in the main , not what clubs like you and us really need , as at the first sign of a drop in form they will be gone

It is the basic fan base that needs building , and that takes time money and effort , all things in short supply when trying to run a sports club

Semi final's just as important

I know mate, slapped hands for me.

All they have to do is look at SL to see how that can work LOL