Statement from Beaumont suggesting they are struggling and need investment to survive

Regards

King James

Leigh Centurions owner Derek Beaumont has issued the following statement:

It was with a heavy heart and tear in my eye that the realisation sunk in that we would not make the Qualifiers. I have said publicly on numerous occasion and privately to the group that my position as owner of the Club would become untenable should that happen.

The Club will receive circa £200k in 2019 from £1.25m this year and circa £1.7m in 2017 and that is a drop too far to sustain the Club in its current form. To that end I must act in the best interests of the Club’s ability to survive going forward and in the short term to fulfil this season’s fixtures and also to reduce its commitments to make it more attractive to any party that may express an interest in taking it forward.

This week is deadline week and therefore an ideal opportunity for players to be able to secure their futures elsewhere and at the same time reduce the Club’s obligations. I can confirm there will be a large number of exits and that may bring some opportunities for others but that will be ongoing this week right up until deadline.

I am committed to ensuring the Club reaches the end of the season and hope during that time a new investor or group of investors can be attracted to take the Club forward. I will be making a more detailed statement at the beginning of next week and until then will not be in a position to comment further. I apologise to our loyal fans and sponsors for this failing which ultimately has to rest with me.

Beaumont is a complete knob. His club come across a tough period so he decides to sell like a kid who has had enough of playing with a toy.

Well his actions inflated the wages of second tier players so maybe a master of his own downfall.

It's hard to criticise the Leigh owner, without appearing to revel in the woes of Leigh fans - which I most certainly don't...

BUT

This is the guy who oversaw a massive project to buy his way into SL, which failed, and now he's jumping ship and leaving the club in a parlous position; and with Salford in a similar state, it does call into question the viability of allowing mega-wealthy individuals to use RL clubs as their latest hobby. There's been a catalogue of failures in recent years, including the Pro-Biz conman at Cas, Glover (who was only pretend wealthy) at Wakey, various people at Bradford, and now these two pillocks at Salford and Leigh.

I'm not sure what the answer is - but surely the governing body has a role in controlling the worst excesses of these people?

Some strange takes in this thread from that statement. Gutless pond life?
Derek might be outspoken at times and as a Bradford fan I have plenty of reasons to dislike the bloke, but he loves Leigh and all he ever wanted to do was see the club prosper.
God only knows how much of his own money he has invested in the club over the last few years and whichever way you look at it, the squad Leigh put together this season should have been enough to see them make the top 4.
Yes they probably paid over the odds for some players but that is the risk you take in this league structure as I have already commented on in another thread.

These will be a difficult few months for the Leigh club and its supporters. I've been there before only too recently and I know how much it stings so they have my sympathies.

Bodene Thompson to Wire confirmed

Rumours are...

Hanson and Hall to Widnes

Matautia and Thompson to Cas

Crooks and Hood to HKR

Just goes to show how bad the current administration of the sport is. How can a man like that, who's business model with Leigh was basically a roll of the dice, be allowed to run a club? They can let idiots like him in, but are talking about rejecting Toronto because they're not sure about sustainability?

His continual bleating about increasing the salary cap looks so bad now doesn't it. Perhaps if they'd left the cap for the Championship where it was, we wouldn't be about to lose another NW club? Salford and Leigh are both on life support, the IV lines into them are infected and there are no visitors giving them moral support either. How about the RFL grow a pair and tear up the registrations for both clubs and auctions them to the highest bidder?

Makes those criticising Elstone and his mob look rather silly too

When your league standings determine your future funding - to such a drastic level as we're seeing here - every single club in the lower leagues is rolling the dice to some extent.

Thompson to Leeds

No he doesn't love Leigh, he loved the reflected glory. I love Wakefield and I could go in there with a load of borrowed dosh and for a few month all would be great then bang that would be it. I'd have thought as a Bradford fan you'd know this kind of club ownership doesn't work and would have learned a lesson - clearly not which frankly beggars belief.

Rubbish and certainly not like this posturing fool.

Leigh won't be the only club taking risks, but you only ever find out when it goes wrong. Like I've said elsewhere this league structure was a disaster waiting to happen.

I don't think it does in the slightest. Unless you want to keep using the RFL as a lightning rod for problems at club level (which, granted, seems to be a popular thing to do).

There's a common theme across all of the clubs that have recently issued financial distress calls - they aren't generating enough revenue, not enough people are watching them, and they're spending too much.

What Elstone and Lenaghan have proposed doesn't change any of that. They're pinning their homes on improved sponsorship and TV deals that I genuinely don't believe will materialise because these changes don't address the fundamental issues as to why we don't have those things in the first place - that the TV and advertising landscape has changed, and we don't have the audience to be able to demand those things.

There's some merit in what Elstone and his puppet-master are proposing, but there are also enormous flaws that they have failed to acknowledge or address.