[url=http://www.leighjournal.co.uk/sport/leighcenturions/5075997.Ian_Millward_comments__Leigh_Centurions_v_Whitehaven/LEIGH JOURNAL[/url



Footy fans staying in to watch Utd???

Saw this when I was at my mums. Hope people read it and come.

Thought Leythers were going to hit the 5k mark this season?

if we keep on winning and man u are not playing the same afternoon

Has the season finished?

A lot of teams are struggling this year, Barrow cant seem to get over the 2,000 mark and Leigh havent started to well on the crowds front. The Widnes gates seem to be dipping around the 3,000 mark now.

Lower league rugby in trouble? you bet ya, the sooner you get out the better.

Thought Widnes were going to make 5K?

Don't remember anyone saying that! We should be looking to push as hard as we can for a 4k crowd mind you!

Litten Tree was packed with footy fans as was several others. We always seem to clash with Utd/City. That's why I recommend we move to Saturdays 6.30pm. We may clash with a SL game but I think only the big games may keep a few fans at home.
What Mr Millward must understand is that it will take more than a couple of wins to get fans back to pay £16 after the rubbish we have been served aover the last few years. I think crowds will increase if we continue winning but clashing with big footy games will not help. Why have SL teams moved to Fridays? Barrow play Saturday evenings. Let's at least give it a try. You could build up the eveninmgs game throughout the day in Leigh town centre.

Scorelines yesterday don't do us any harm, but would have been better if we'd have really got out of the straps early and ended posting 50+ to nil. It needs a couple of results to make stay-aways realise we're back. We're not quite there yet, but a win against Fax might just provide the tipping point.

funny really as some stay aways cited a lack of competition from when we were posting those sort of scores regularly

True Fred, and yesterday's opposition was very poor and it could have been an embarrassing score. All I'm saying is that it might take a couple of stand-out results to make people realise that things are very much on the up again.

you cant have stand out scores AND competition, if you post 50 points+ wins how can the other team have been good competition.
do you think utd fans would stop going if they trounced everybody all th time and their opposition was no competition?
i say shame on those that so called say they are leythers but stayed away to watch 2 football teams who are not in leigh

From a personal point of view I much more enjoy the league being tight the last two seasons, even if it does mean loosing to Batley once or twice a season lol.

As you say with some RL 'lovers & fans' you can't win... you have people who say they don't want to pay to see Widnes hammer a bunch of part timers, yet when you have competitive games they wont come for the opposite reason... we should be dminating every game!

Heard 2 fans in front of me talking about "low" crowds whilst walking back into town after the game:
Fan 1 : "Once word gets round Millward as got them playing decent rugby, they'll start coming again "
Fan 2 : " Quite possibly, but's it's a bloody expensive place to watch this standard of rugby isn't it ? "

Get the feeling BOTH are right.

If people want to find an excuse they will simples.

Out of interest what are Leigh's crowds numbers so far this season? There does seem to be low ones all aound in honesty!

Just under 2,000 on yesterday, don't know what the average for the season so far is though.

=================================================================
Thats the answer ...... We are paying more or less the same to watch Leigh as SL supporters do... Plenty people in Leigh go to watch Wigan , Saints Warrington, differant standard of RL
for more or less the same dosh.............
Its gonna be hard to get people to watch the standard of RL played yesterday against Whitehaven with those admission prices...
Dont fool ourselves ..
We have to encourage the youngsters around the district with free tickets and more family tickets to try and increase attendances...........

I said on the Quins thread I was more concerned about our crowds, than there's.

IMO we need a major re-think and some marketing, we can blame the weather, football (it'll be more or less all season with the World cup), other RL clubs etc but they aren't going to go away, we need to work around/with them.

SL or local soccer teams season ticket holders, perhaps discounted tickets?

TBH not much poin criticisng Quins crowds when yours are lower, same with Widnes' just being a little higher atm!

Surely the only way forward is to get people in with "lower" priced tickets.......be it a tenner / fiver or whatever (?)............quite simply from the clubs point of view freebies don't work...........sure, people will come for nowt (we all love a freebie let's be honest ! ) but actually getting them back at FULL price after that is another thing altogether !

It's another myth too that if they come on a freebie they'll buy programmes.draw tickets, shirts etc...........it does'nt happen.....the only one's who will gain (slightly) is the catering company and their proffit's are not related to income for the Centurions.

Opening the South stand @ Kids for a Quid is another option ( no Dave I would'nt want to steward it...

)...........but sorry fella's giving free tickets away does'nt improve the situation either long term or short term (in my honest opinion).

Maybe the club should try a one-off "pay what you think it's worth" experiment like Mansfield FC did.

Worked for them!

You could bet we'd end up with a few Euro's if that happened !!

If they were notes we could change um.