I know we have plenty of our own problems at the moment but looking at next seasons league set up it is even more yorkshire heavy than ever. With Fev, Fax, Sheff, Batley, York, Hunslet, Dewsbury and Keighley we are going to be over to yorkshire a hell of a lot. The only other 'away' trip is to our very own stadium to play Swinton!! At least we are now an Expansion team in the league



Also with the loss of Widnes there will be very little in the way of away support except a few from Fax and Fev. With Widnes going up to SL and previously strong teams like Barrow and Whitehaven having been relegated recently the league doesn't look as 'strong' as it has done. If we don't get ourselves sorted out financially then I can see it being a real 2 horse race between Fax and Fev, with Sheff and Batley putting out good teams as per usual.

Genuinely worried about ALL clubs in our league at the moment and not just us. The league just doesn't look strong at all, bet Widnes are glad they have got out when they did.

this league is shiite nozzy.The club will need to work really hard to keep gates wer they are.

Got to admit i am glad out of that league now.If any duals from Widnes go to Leigh or Swinton i may visit next year.Got some good friends in your lot.

The same things have been said on the Eagles forum, hopefully there will be a strong Leigh next season to compete at the top

I`ll be getting my ST as usual and the ONLY AWAY game I`ll be going to will be Swinton.

Some good points made and what does worry me is that our league does look very poor ,I do fear for the future at our level.

Thats a statement others should follow at least for one game anyway, If all the Leigh fans stayed away from the Sheffield game for example see how they like it.

Funnily enough I tend to enjoy our away games more than our home ones , and so I will continue to travel

The issue isn't , they don't come , so we shouldn't go , the issue should be , let's get more traveling

Our league looks poor , just making it poorer helps nobody

Indeed it does not just look poor but this comp is not pulling in sufficient speccies.

There will be only 9 league games and 2nrc games before the qualifying draw then if you get a home draw against a non relegation league side in the Challenge Cup their season ticket holding fans can get in for nothing which costs the Championship club money. It is crazy and short sighted of non relegation clubs to do this to championship clubs but they do not care.

Average attendances last season for the 10 teams in next seasons championship were :- 2379 2096 1652 1235 1194 1096 1042 829 792 and 643.

Ours is the first average crowd and the last one was Swinton's.

Frank will be difficult to get more than 2379 aswell.As you may not be so competitive depending on the outcome.I think the RFL should do more for Championship clubs.

The free ticketing for Challenge cup ties has been dropped frank , everybody pays from now on , another failed RFL experiment

The target is 4,000 , it will be achieved

We'll probably not get drawn against a SL team now! If we do, it should help the finances a bit, although Challenge Cup attendances are pitiful, at most clubs.

One more for the traditionalists - I hear a whisper that squad numbers are gone too!

Well that had to be THE stupidest idea they had , clubs are strapped for cash , so let's make them buy more playing kit for no reason

Unless of course they hoped that 3,000 kids in Leigh would suddenly decide to buy a shirt because their favourite player had his own number

Good re the Challenge Cup and very good re squad numbers.

Who knows the RFL might start marketing flatcaps soon.

our league may be poorer with no widnes, bit just imagine for one minute foks if we'd been in champ 1, away trips to gateshead, london, south wales, cumbria x 3 you would rack up the miles in that league, at least our longest away trip is york, and the beers good in yorkshire.

By my reckoning, the fact that most of our division next season will be no more than an hour or so's drive away (bar Sheffield/York) - wouldn't this be an ideal opportunity for all the Ch clubs to get talking to each other about sponsored, subsidised coach travel for away speccies?

Rather than just adopt the defeatist attitude of [i"well, they won't fetch many with 'em!!"[/i - lets look at ways that we can encourage more of them to attend.

It's at least worth a try - let's say for every 50 away tickets sold, we'll lay on a coach at £5 return per person......that's 250 quid per coach - balance met by sponsorship fund (half ours/half away team)?

Having not hired a coach before, I've no idea how much they are, but surely we (and by 'we', I don't mean LCRLFC but all the Ch clubs) can negotiate discounts among coach operators if we are guaranteeing them regular bookings?

It's not just about getting more people into the ground (although that is a bonus!!) - it's about creating the match-day atmosphere, and improving the profile for the entire division.

Thoughts?

Walt , why do you think I posted I enjoy the away games more ? , because the atmosphere with 300/400 leythers singing ( as away fans always ' work ' harder to be heard ) is better than at the LSV

Essentially apart from perhaps Sheffield and York the cost of a coach seat is approximately half the cost of an adult ticket , so the challenge is to bring double the number of fans that would have attended and you are breaking even from putting the coaches on

It needs a leap of faith from 1 club to start things off , I do know that Fax were considering it last year for our visit , they might be the club we can break the ice with

Not forgetting we collaborated with Widnes last year on the NRC quarter , both clubs providing the cost if 4 coaches each , that was however a split gate , and Leigh had TV money that had to be spent

It is in fact a complete no brainer , although I haven't managed to convince Trevor

Yet

And the look on his face when this subject was brought up at the lisa meeting sugests you never will.

It's been brought up again since then



And will be again , that leap of faith moment is getting closer and closer

As one of our friends from Fax has as their ' sig '

" You can learn from the past , but you cannot live in it , You can hope for the future , but you cannot be sure there will be one "

It will take new ideas to give us a future , not old ones

Why done we just sent 500 tickets to halifax to sell at ther chosen price and they send the same number to us to sell at our chosen price and both clubs keep the revenue,surely then the away club has a good incentive to sell all them tickets?.

JC imagine you are a club that knows visiting side will bring 4-500. Thats a loss on the gate of 5000 +. Now think about last season. How many visiting teams brought more than 100 fans. By letting them sell tickets they won't encourage many more unfortunately. But they will still have the 1000 quid which would have been ours. In short no team we visit will let us have 5000 quid.

I understand that mate but its not a two way street anymore,it feels like leigh ,fax and fev are being fleeced and our clubs are getting next to nothing from away clubs.

If we sent 300 tickets to the likes of batley,dewsbury etc and they sold them all then surely the sale of these tickets would offset the losses incured by sending us tickets?. plus if its cheaper for the likes of us to go to away games,there might be more people travel which would lead to bigger food and drink sales.

If Swinton play on the second sunday of the month after us and they offer a deal to leigh season ticket holders then when leigh are playing away i'll be at the lsv watching swinton rather than give my money to clubs that make no effort to give us something back.

All championship clubs need to meet and work together NOW to get some ideas on the table on how to share costs and to attract fans to a competition that is rapidly losing support.
If they don't then in 3 years time (and i'm serious) they will all be in trouble or being run as SL reserve/feeder teams.

Lets not forget that if we struggle to be competitive next year our away support will half and our home support will drop rapidly , throw in the missing support that Widnes took away and already clubs are going to be down on some fixtures unless they start to work at it.

It would cost the SL clubs too much money to run a Championship club as a reserve side or someone would have tried to change the operating rules by now to make it happen.