makes me smile

[urlhttp://youtu.be/Hc8usPlAYbg[/url

Good old college football - fantastic day out. Marching bands and tailgating - not forgetting the football, whats not to love? I know Starbug's mentioned tailgating on here before. But whatever aspect of it you think about - the sport itself, the TV coverage, the pathway to the pro game via the draft system, the matchday experience etc - the big college teams fill 100,000+ seater stadia, so they've definitely got summat right.

The yanks are so far ahead (in all their sports) when it comes to matchday stuff, and maximising opportunities to take money off your punters - its different in each sport, but go to any game over there in any sport and it just doesn't stop.

And if the college marching band thing floats your boat, search in the same place as the previous clip for "Notre Dame Band" and watch some of the clips that look like they're shot from the upper tier, with the band doing formation stuff. Very impressive.

The thing about American sports is that they only have about 10 home games a year, whereas over here folk are expected to fork out every other week for 9 months as a bare minimum, and then away games on top of that.

Not saying that aren't a huge amount of things to learn from them, but it's a different culture altogether.

Bloody hell, that was a long time ago



Ultimatly you need to look at all forms of marketing and ways of improving the match day experience to find what suits best the aims of the club and sport going forward

Then how best to utilise them given a finite amount of money to spend, in reality picking out a set number of matches, making them a ' themed event ' and making them a success

Everybody has been to parties, some good, some bad, if it was a bad one, next time you are invited you probably wont go, so if you are going to throw a party, make sure it is a good one otherwise you are just wasting money

Beer and Lobby party anybody?

I was watching a program on beeb 3 or 4 about Fleetwood Mac and part of the program featured "Tusk" and the money it cost. When they showed it being played they had the marching band all dressed with " Centurion Helmets" on and with the beat of the drums i just smiled and thought imagine this at the LSV, and fwiw classic rock, mod, blues even country but nahhhhhhhhhhhh not marching bands "floating my boat"

But did you notice the attention to detail? , it was a night match but they all had sunglasses on ' Cool '

I would suggest that those college marching bands have budgets similar to the turnover of a mid table SL club ,



Personally I'm a big fan of Brass Bands, the LSV might just about allow a dozen people onto their precious grass

As Matt states the culture in the US is completely different ,but there is much to learn

Steve as far as i see it the USA and sports events / days are a whole different ball game (pardon the pun). done to a whole different scale for a much larger population and even bigger catchment area. As you said which i was totally unaware of the USA only have in the region of 10 home games so less chance of the event becoming stale or tired if you know what i mean . I think i may be right in thinking that the Marching bands are evolved from activities started at school which as far as i am aware we don't have to much of here, and i would love to know how the day s entertainment is financed . but thats not to say that with a study and research we couldn't adapt a match day experience to fit our town/ areas needs.

The Mets v Phillies baseball match we attended was certainly an eye opener. There were a multitude of opportunities there that I am convinced could also work in Rugby League.

I know you was particualy excited about 'The Kiss Cam' especially whilst sat next to me but that is not one I was thinking about.

It does however explain why I left you to watch the match on your own whilst I wandered round the other end.

This ' Multitude ' , have you passed them on to anybody at the club at any time? , or even put them on here

No I have not but then I very rarely post on here,.

They will involve all the partners working together not just at the club. This includes LSV, caterers and bringing in sponsors for spectator participation in return for prizes. Maximising big screen and PA systems is integral to it all. You just got to make a day of it.

it is all relatively small things that collectively enhances the match day experience substantially for all.

I will post more but I am leaving now for the match.

Can't argue with any of the above really, well - apart from the kiss-cam. I think you'll find that was Mick's favourite, not mine.

I don't think you can pick any one specific detail to copy, and some would work, some wouldn't. Overall I think you have to do what Starbug says and just go all out to make it as good and fun an experience as you can within the budgets & limits you've got.

What it does need, though, is a "can-do" attitude - so for example rather than list the reasons we can't recreate the USC Trojans or Notre Dame bands, do we know a local community band that would be prepared to learn "Tom Hark" and "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and rehe in front of a rugby crowd 4 or 5 times a year, for the price of travelling expenses and a few new instruments for the band? That wouldn't be beyond us and again could be seen as the club putting something back into a community music project at the same time.

Re: number of games - American football (pro and college) don't play a lot of fixtures thats true. But looking at other sports my Basketball side the Spurs just lost the NBA finals last week after a season including 4 home preseason, 41 home regular season & 10 home playoff games. Regular baseball season also includes 41 home games, so they regularly have to put on matchday experiences 3 or 4 times a week in both of those sports.

Basketball in particular is unbelievable - every stoppage in play (which is a lot of stoppages, albeit most only 20 seconds at a time) has some sort of giveaway, video clip, mascot antics etc - one time it'll be a video or audio clip starting a crowd chant, the next 1 row or selected seats getting given free hotdogs or free coffees, another it'll be dancers, the next one £20 Walmart (Asda) voucher giveaways, half time fan participation competitions, then some cheerleaders, then a video clip encouraging the fans to get behind the lads, then another giveaway... And so on... It takes a lot of putting together but there's also a large element of freebies being donated by local and national supermarket and food chains, and particularly the stadium food/drink franchises. Again, it's about the ideas and what we could do in a similar vein, rather than replicating the magnitude of it and every single detail to the letter.

I think the club need to look at our HT entertainment, nothing personal against them.

It would seem the biggest issue/problem with any initiatives planned for inside the stadium will be the refusal to allow anybody on the actual grass other than the players and refferees

Noticed today the soliders had to match alongside the touchline, really pathetic that!

Who is making the rules about the playing surface?

Seemed common sense to me - they marched in front of the crowd to take the applause

I think we should have a balloon race, red & white of course!

LSV have been very helpful in recent weeks and are working with our commercial team to help enhance the match day experience and are being more than fair at the moment so long may things continue. I think we all realise that in order for the whole community to benifit and succeed we need to address every facet of the club and its simple if Leigh Centurions suceed so will LSV and ultimatley the community will benifit so it has to be a two way street. We can't build Rome in a day but we are working hard to negotiate all the hurdles and challenges running a rugby league club in resession brings. LSV seem happy to see a BOD that are looking long term, have a vision and are willing to put up finance and professional services and time to make SL a realistic goal. What we need now is the whole town and community to back us and get behind us on this exciting journey starting Thursday night as we get a chance to compete for honours which is what sport at all levels is about IMO.

350 strong Marching Band it is then Andy





So sorted for next year, 4 th July against ( new ) York, American themed day with a band ( of sorts ) ,Cheerleaders ( proper ones )

, a ' Grid Iron ' festival and half time mini match,

Maybe we could announce our ' Independance '

What ever happened to Crommie v whalley

Great idea.

Announcing independence could offer a way for LISA to get in on the day as well.

I've said on here umpteen times, we have the best facilities in RL, and don't use it to our advantage.

The big screen should show the players as the teams are announced. as Sky do.
It could show the crowd after tries are scored, (even if this is only photo's from a previous game) kids love to see themselves on it.
See if LSV are still offering a free stand, fill it will local schools/junior clubs, and get Parky to see which one of them can make the most noise.
The match day mascot could be interviewed before the game, which school do you go, who's your favourite player etc.
Bit of fun/variety at half time, Kick and catch competition, (Crompton V Whalley

) a kids game, every dance school in the area, A funny clip for Centurions TV.
Post match speech by MOM as Sky do.

Steve I'm your right hand man on community special projects mate you come up with the ideas I will get them past our FD and LSV mate don't worry about that

You were mentioned in dispatches as well last week mate Steve is coming for you and your street very soon

Steve has lots of good ideas


















And some bad ones.