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.

The attendances at RL games have for years been affected by the level of club "loyalty" some fans have and the desire for other club fans to watch a higher grade of sport.

It's a free country and if someone wants to buy into a Superleague season with Leigh that's their choice, if they don't want to watch second tier Rugby league that is also their choice. If we ran Leigh it would be a thank you very much to anyone who crossed our palms with silver to enter LSV. If a Leigh fan went missing for a season in the championship and then came back for SL and placed £20 in your hand to watch a game would you really say [i"you can stick it good time Charlie keep your money"[/i

The other nonsense always dredged up is about "away fans" where clubs as businesses are not supposed to count these fans as relevant. I wonder when clubs are going to start banning away fans and maybe neutrals too??

What you missed in the post we are talking about Ste is the posters usual attack on Leigh fans to wind them up.......You will also find this posted on another thread

"My opinion is that the current Leigh squad is the worst in SL history"........... when clearly it is not.

So to summarise Leigh get promoted and out comes the [i"rubbish team and rubbish fans"[/i nonsense. The reality is Leigh are a Great club, great owner, great history, great ground, great fans.....

Well go ask Bradford why they are no longer getting 10k+

I've heard some say that when we hit the bad times we all went back to watching Halifax and Huddersfield. Its apparently where most of the fans were poached from. It would explain why our gates dropped at the same time there's swelled back to epic proportions.