Quote: Septimius Severus "Derek often speaks to the press and is always very cryptic and can be easily misunderstood.
"Beaumont said
Two bits of info from the opening statement - Leigh needs to be a unique brand, so by choosing a moniker from the Big Cat world Derek wants to achieve this, when already we have Castleford Tigers, Wakefield Trinity (Formerly the Wildcats) and from the Lupine world we have Warrington Wolves. In the lower divisions there is the Swinton Lions and Keighley Cougars.
Already we have Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls with strong brands. Choosing animals is not unique in Rugby League or Sport in general, and besides Leigh Leopards does not trip off the tongue despite the deliberate use of alliteration.
A need to be different from Wigan seems to be overriding factor in Derek's thinking. The old joke goes along the lines about Wigan and Leigh merging to form a new club - called Wigan, that play in Wigan but wear Leigh's colours.
Wigan is not an exciting urban metropolis, it is like Leigh a former pit and cotton town in Lancashire, any superiority that the Pies might have is in the success of it's Rugby Team. If you want to better than Wigan, do it on the field not creating a franchise.
“People can say, ‘We were first with cherry and white.’ If we were, tough as we’ve been absolutely smashed by Wigan, there’s no denying they’re a much bigger club".
Who can say ‘We were first with cherry and white.’? Wigan formed in 1872 and Leigh in 1878, does Derek know what colours they originally wore, but I am guessing both chose Cherry and White, as was the pattern for most Lancashire teams (St Helens, Wigan, Leigh and Oldham). Who was first, is just minor bragging rights.
“What the rebrand has done has made us more appealing to a wider audience. Look at the NFL, it’s not the Dallas Cowboys or the San Francisco 49ers anymore, it’s just Cowboys and 49ers."
"Cowboys" does not denote Dallas, most people would have an image of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, not the Dallas Cheerleaders. 49ers does at least link into a historic event based near to San Francisco. Leigh will never be synonymous with Leopards. "Go Leopards" is a chant that will never be heard from the North Stand
“People go on about the geographical spread of our sport – ‘we need to be out of the heartlands, we need to be here, there or wherever.’ - “It doesn’t matter whether you’re based in Leigh, London, Wakefield or France.
I am guessing this is the bit that spooked Wysiwyg. Essentially as Vanners pointed out Rugby League and Leigh are not on a par with the NFL and Oakland. The UK is not open to franchise moves, the only one I remember is Wimbledon moving to Milton Keynes. It was a good idea in principle but fans will not drift naturally with the franchise. Wasps RFC was initially successful but large loans to cover the move never got paid, resulting in administration this year.
If sport becomes about Television and not the match day event, then franchise sports teams becomes possible. At present Rugby League is about surviving on relatively small attendances and some Television coverage. With IMG I believe that all games will ultimately be available, with streaming of the less exciting fixtures appearing on Our League or an alternative service. Leigh TV will become a thing of the past (not that it is currently functioning). When Media becomes the main source of revenue only then will franchising to new areas become a reality. London have always struggled to maintain a solid core fan base because they are always on the move.
“The facts are in the figures. We’ve got our biggest ever sponsorship deal for the front of the shirt as they absolutely loved it and what it’s about. “Most of the other partners stayed on at increased cost and we’ve attracted new ones. There are also more memberships – we did 2,000 by mid-November, last time in Super League, we did 1,200 season tickets.
This statement from Derek, assumes cause and effect. Leopard re-brand is successful because of increased sponsorship and larger season ticket sales. The same could be argued that Leigh have a successful team, the majority of the team has been retained and some real quality has been brought into the club. There is stability with a strong management team and the team are not favourites to be relegated.
Leopard skin print clothing seems popular at the moment, but only as a female fashion statement. Plenty of other people believe that as a style it is a bit naff. If Leigh sell more merchandise for women and kids (and possibly the LGBTQ+ community), then I guess that is job done, on the side they might start a line in retro Cherry and White hoops for the adult male supporters.
"And as he targets a 10,000-plus crowd for their opening match against Salford, Beaumont is looking well beyond finishing 11th next year."
First game of the season against poorly supported local rivals Salford, with 10,000 on the gate and Televised on SKY sports. This sounds like Derek has been on the sherry again.'"
as a Wiganer, it feels like there are some really good points made here Septimus
has the rebrand directly led to increase in ST sales, IMO, no. You played some good rugby, some decent recruitment, although losing fergusson and Macdonald wont have helped your plans. The club has felt bouyed (i have family relations who are ST holders) over the last 12 months, and realistically, given how poor Wakey were last year (i know this gets said regularly) must be in with more than a fighting chance of avoiding relegation straight back down, and i reckon could finish realistically 10/11th
Club kit. we have people complaining every season at Wigan about the kits for a whole host of reasons. You cant always satisfy all fans, but with the full rebrand, it must have been difficult, as he really risk alienating a lot of fans. I personally dont like it, but i wont be wearing it. If Wigan did produce something like that i simply wouldnt buy it. It hits the club in the pocket with reduced sales etc, so, i would buy a retro kit or training kit
Attendance v Salford, always going to be a tricky one to predict. You've not had a home game for 5 months so the anticipation is building, but Salford dont travel, so you may get 500 from Salford there, and not the bumber 2k as someone else suggests. I think 8k 1st home game, is a realistic target, and if you perform / get a result, could be the benchmark for the season. The majority of fans of all clubs are fickle (not a dig at Leigh), so attendance for 2nd game, will depend upon performance in 1st game, especially when it comes to the floating fans(non ST holders). if you play well, the weather, time of kick off, costs all suddenly become less of issues, but perform poorly v Salford, and its any reason not to go
onto IMG, and i wouldnt read too much into the franchise thing in terms of it being geographical. I am all for expansion, but it has to be right for the game, not just for the sake of it. Catalan has been successful, have a solid home attendance, good weekend away for the away fans, so can be judge successful, flip side is lack of away attendance for our games, and lack of atmosphere etc that follows it
Could DB just pick Leigh up and move them elsewhere, because of the rebrand, IMO no, he could have done that with Centurions, so doesnt make any difference. i've posted on the Warriors fans forum previously that the criteria for franchise (if it ultimately goes that route) needs to be clearly defined, and what needs to be in place to achieve grade A, B C etc, but equally if a club is graded B, what do they need to do to achieve A. That should be the target for IMG and all clubs. How do we get the best out of the sport that we all love? lets set the bar high (we may not have any Grade A clubs), but that shouldnt stop us from aiming for that. For far too long RL has been getting a kicking from inside and outside the sport. We have a fantastic product that should be getting far better coverage, and players who earn more attractive salaries from being professional sportsmen
