Give over. There were more fans at Toronto that Leigh will ever get in SL

Define the word "fan", Steph, pretty please. Is it:

a) a paying season ticket holder, replete with merchandise from the club

b) a person that gets to as many games as they can (work/personal circumstances permitting) and gets palpitations towards the end of tight matches as a win for their club means so much to them

c) an idle and only vaguely curious passer by who is press-ganged into the ground

d) an opportunistic social net-worker

e) a sot that doesn't even witness the drama unfold

f) a figure in creative accounting?


If your answer is A or B and you still maintain your stance, we can only assume that you heard this from your mate who is "never wrong" and told you that The Bulls would definitely get the 12th spot. Regarding said "singular" mate, as well as his all white rig-out, does he have a Canadian accent, smoke Marlboro and have the letter K tattooed on three knuckles of each hand?

Whatever your answer to the first question (sorry to bamboozle you with two) you should ask "Drop Dead Fred" to help you to change your signature - surely he won't get that wrong!

Fan is short for fanatic. To be a fanatic you have to be prepared to pay money to watch games and you have to be interested in the games enough to pay.In TWP's case they had some fans, some people who were fans of Beer festivals, and some people who wandered in because it was largely free to get in.

The club failed to find a single NA player, nor a single cent for televising their matches which they promised and on which they were admitted to the game here, so they forgot all that and started boasting of big crowds.

Calling leigh fans "Fairweather" is nonsense as the 6000 Leigh fans actually all pay to get into the grounds and I say grounds plural as they take a good following to most leigh away games and create a great atmosphere.

Fairweather fans are the sort that turn up when their club is winning easily every week and who disappear when they start losing. Which is the position Toronto Wolfpack were heading for when they lost all their Superleague games. However before they were due to go back to Canada with a losing team their number one fan fled the club......

This is just a general comment (I haven't checked your quoted stats) but surely there would be a dip in average attendances as the majority of visiting Super League clubs would bring more away supporters than the majority of Championship clubs.

That's certainly the case.

Looking at the stats an all leigh fans crowd (e.g. the sort you would get against catalans) in Superleague was 5,600.

The following year Leigh.v.Batley was 3,200

Having said that whilst in the Championship Leigh fans away support has provided clubs with their best attendances at times doubling gates, so for me the criticism is one eyed,

Toronto let most people in for free that’s the reason the fans were inflated, and that’s possibly part reason they don’t play rugby now

Evening H, how are you? Well one would hope.

There was no inference that genuine TWP fans were in any way less than other fans, merely that they were FEWER than reported (as admitted by several senior staff at the club).

Wanderer (another bad result today, mate) made a genuine point about lower gates at LSV following relegation to which may be added a factor from my own experience. I was able to attend far more games when Leigh were in SL as I have work commitments on most Sundays.

Harking back to my earlier question regarding the definition of "fan", it was directed to Steph and was mainly rhetorical but everyone started shouting answers from the audience.

NO MORE HELPING THE CONTESTANT, PLEASE!

Are you saying that Catalan brought 2.4k to the attendance? I seriously doubt that.

If so, why the drop the following year if not fairweather fans?

Catalans brought between 20 & 50 fans *was difficult to tell* & in that regard was similar to Toronto fans in Championship *about 20* & so your point is very valid.

There is always an 'uplift' in home & away support attendance from Championship to Super League as their is from Championship to Premier League in football. It appears that our average attendances almost doubled, Toronto's attendances also increased but less dramatically. Look at any before & after promotion average attendance stats & you will find uplift or good time Charlie's increasing the numbers !

You may have an unwitting point about "fair-weather" fans, SH. The Batley match was played in early February 2018. Here is the first line from the match report from The Centurions website:

"Leigh Centurions opened their account for the season with a six-try victory at a wintry Leigh Sports Village."

Many other matches were called off completely

Leigh's 2017 home game against Cats was played in April, poisson!

The point is that, whilst every club experiences a downturn in turn-up (copyright Bongser) upon relegation there are so many possible variables that it is not right to pin the difference's colours to one mast only.

Another very painful watch! Going to go down as the worst team in the Club's history at this rate. A small number of decent players but far too many not of the right standard.

Apologies for the thread drift but only courteous to respond ...

I'm good thanks, hope you are too.