Attract the missing 400 fans from last season or the 1000 from 2 seasons ago. Asking LISA or the Touchdown Club to continually cough up more isn't the answer.

I've said for 18 months the hike of £110 to £200 has turned people away from watching in a league that means nothing.

So Mr Freer and Mr Barton what is your plan to get people through the gate? Do you have one?

It's a genuine question as I can only 2 solutions from our current board :-

1) Ask LISA or Touchdown Club for more

2) Increase the admission even more

With no p&r etc it is difficult to get new fans interest in the game. The question I would ask is - if it was £5 to watch leigh how many people would turn up? The chairman needs to evaluate admission price with likely attendance and make a decision.

The club perhaps need to reduce admin prices next year but this may also mean reducing costs which would result in the team budget being cut. Would fans be happy with finishing 7th / 8thin the division?

In terms of a marketing strategy I agree that there doesn't seem to be one. Are there any fans involved in marketing who could help the club with their ideas (Maurice springs to mind). The ideas need to be built around the budget available though. It's no use suggesting that that the club spend thousands they don't have.

What ' BUDGET ' ? , they dont have one

Reduce prices and you will lose money , watching YOUR team/club is not a money issue , it is all about getting the 50,000 citizens of Leigh who have never set foot into the LSV to sample the match day experience , it was built as a COMMUNITY venue , so lets start to get the community IN it , it really is that simple , but it wont work overnight and the longer you wait before starting to do it , the more damage is being done , and closer to the point of no return you get

While we are into correcting mis-information, the club DOES have a painstakingly calculated Budget, these days. Costs are fairly easy to calculate but the problem of course is on the income side of that budget. As soon as gates, sponsorship, advertising etc. fall below expectations, something needs to be done. And that's where we're at now.

By the way, is there a worthwhile prize to be won, for answering the question you keep asking?

Read the post I was replying to Alan , it states the ' marketing strategy ' and ' budget available '

Which I think gives you the answer everybody seems to be scared of stating

Agreed with reducing prices.

Also agreed with getting the 50,000 citizens of leigh into the lsv. If it was free how many would turn up even if we were in sl. We have to understand now that rl is a major sport in the eyes of the youngsters. They are much more interest in football and computer games not to mention Facebook and twitter.

Anyone who could successfully get the younger generation to watch rugby league regularly deserves a medal & the job of CEO of the rfl.

Drat - I did know the answer! What was the prize?

So why is everybody scared of actually stating the obvious ? , a bit like the ' Kings new clothes ' , everybody knows whats wrong , but all are scared of breaking rank

The thing is Ste , it isn't 400 or 1,000 , its the missing 10,500 we want , and we wont get them chasing 400 , or 4,000 , we have 40,000 to go after on our doorstep , time to start inviting them , after all , it is THEIR stadium

Not many I admit

I assume you missed out the ' not ' , and yes footy is the big draw , but how many actually attend ? , no reason why they cant watch the footy on TV but still watch ' live ' RL , as for twitter and facebook , they are there to be exploited , they are not competition

Its time the RFL appointed an official ' Championship Director ' with the health and progression of the lower tiers as their only priority regardless of SL and the amatuer game

If it is truly a community stadium the council need to have a community day at one if the games were anyone who lives within the Wigan borough gets on free. This obviously needs to be promoted effectively. The club would be a few thousand pounds down on the gate, but should be compensated from lsv due to increased food & drink sales.

An incredibly risky strategy to attempt , fill it and the benifits could be fantastic , still only draw 2,000 and you damage the club drastically

By all means offer the ' invite ' by way of a " we'd like to invite everybody in the town to 1 game every season , please e. mail us to obtain your free family ticket to a future game announcement in the press , all subject to ' conditions ' of course , but then the hard work starts , it involves giving them extra reasons to attend via schools and community programmes

You then need to communicate with your existing support base the reasons you have to make the offer , very difficult as the mentality of the fans is exactly that , a ' Fan ' , they expect everybody to want to come and watch already , and to pay for the priviledge

But chasing 400 will get you 20 if you are lucky , and by that time you will have lost another 40

Agreed it's risky but it would show the true support from the community for a rugby league club in leigh. If it wasn't 't forthcoming with the community day then the club should seriously reduce their aspirations. We should then only spend what we take. If that means championship one then so be it. The town would have made their decision.

In reply to the OP this was the point I was making on Friday however, certain people seem to think that just saying 'come and watch us play or we won't have a club' is the answer' which it simply isn't.

Partly because if they have stopped watching this will not encourage them back and partly because 95% of the local area will more thank likely be completley oblivious to the fact this message is being sent out.

They need to activley target people but for whatever reason they are not and just want to rely on the current fans bringin a friend and raising next to nothing from a beetle drive

A new idea - definitely not tried that one yet!

Alan

Just a thought it may be "barking up the wrong tree" however, what seems to be the in thing right now is gambling in any shape or form.
Its all over the TV ,adverts for foxy bingo, bet365, poker sites etc etc

LISA poker raises over £2000 a year with just 12-24 people playing every week.

Now what about the ladies, could we not do a "Bingo" evening, bear in mind I dont know the gambling laws on this

Also at Hilton Park we had a bookmaker at some point, would it not be possible to have this on match days where people can bet on first try scorer etc?

A bonus ball competition could be run every week with the payment being done via the LISA paypal account?

Could be worth looking into maybe, could you ask at the next PSG meeting perhaps?

Alan ive heard about Beetle Drives for years

do they still have em ?

Lynda you are so right about Gambling being a big part of Sport and fundraising , in Australia a very big slice of Rugby clubs income is generated from Gambling , mostly Fruit Machines , there are none in the LSV , but im not to sure about what the rules are in getting them installed , but they do make money , we had a couple in the Mick Martyn bar at Hilton Park .

And we all know about what the forcast money used to make , as you say maybe a first try scorer , i always had a bet a Hilton Park , makes the game and result more interesting , and is worth thinking about .

Also over in Aus and NZ they have "pokie" machines in all the clubs and a bookies they make a fortune over there through these sources.

Re the first try scorer it wouldn't be hard to run, just need to set it up on the LISA website or set up a new site just for it and a volunteer to run it, which would not be very hard if we took the payments at matches or via the paypal account we have for LISA.

You could also run special tipping comps on special race meetings maybe?

Not to sure about "Pokie ", machines Lyndas

but the Fruit Machines are very popular , maybe one in Legends and one upstairs in the Bar , worth a try .

I've circulated it to the PSG folk.

You're asking the wrong one there charlie. Much like frankb, I lead a sheltered life!

All these competitions etc will not get the extra fans we need. They will just be supported by the usual few who will sooner or later get sick of keep digging into their pockets or begging friends to come.
The Directors MUST come up with something - it's amazing how many of those on here have some good ideas yet nothing appears to come from those running the club. All we get is "Bring a friend" or "LISA, we need some money".
Also, when we have this push on bringing a friend could someone let the players / coach know - it may work if they joined in !!!!

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Must admit this did make me laugh, though, Im sure they'll reward us on Sunday at Dewsbury with 3 points.