Mention should be made of another part of the rebrand. Well done to the Leopard ladies today, in trying circumstances.

5.5K home fans dont pay for the current squad....

DB stated in 2017, that Leigh made a profit from smaller attendances. Obviously the matchday costs have gone up with the entertainment put on, and the chances are Leigh are close to the salary cap (even with a small squad) and probably paying for 2 marquee players.

Revenue is up on attendances and sponsorship, but DB is still very much bankrolling the club. Apparently the club are missing out on online merchandising sales with the website down for 9 months and stocks low at the shop. People seem to like anything spotted (who would have thought).

Last year was the key and that is where Derek bank-rolled the club with no guarantees, players like Asiata, Lam, Amone, Ipape and O'Donnell are the bedrock of this team and they all Championship rugby last season. This group are now stars of the Super League, but it was far from obvious that this would be the case.

I am guessing money is not an issue to Derek when things are going well, and things are going exceptionally well.

i think even without the outstanding event entertainment the operating costs of matchday will have risen beyond belief from the LSV management since 2017; increased % of matchday tickets, unbelievable amount of unnecessary stewards, operation of 4 stands, traffic management - the list is probably endless from them... hopefully significant increase in membership take up for 2024 will reassure all at the Leopards that its certainly worth providing for

Does the Sky money not pay for the squad, thought that was the equivalent of the salary cap

The same people that brought him in (Bongser suspects but has no proof) have brought in IMG.

Maybe soon the SkY money won't pay for a blade of grass!

Sorry, Sev, crossed in the post.

This from Gledhill tweets yesterday:

"Good to learn clubs have finally received their IMG/RFL handbooks which shows clubs the thresholds of where will be assessed against to gain points from the five key strategic pillars. I’m just going through the handbook now and will provide an update later this evening.

For example on Attendances:

Average attendance of 7,500 over three years = 2.5 points.

Average attendance of 3,000 over three years = 2 points


Average attendance of 1,500 over three years = 1.5 points.

Average attendance under 1,500 over three years = 0.75 points.

The Bradford Bulls would score 2 points based on their average attendance over the past three seasons. That’s the same as Huddersfield, Castleford, Leigh, Toulouse, Wakefield, Widnes and Salford."

Massive gap from 3K+ to 7.5K+ for an extra 0.5pts. Based PURELY on that, the rebrand has made no difference to attendance.

Personally, Friday evening kick-offs at LSV have knocked a big hole in Bongser's attendance rate. Many others, both on this forum and others, have said that they'd prefer 3pm Sunday as an ideal. Should broadcasters want to shift a particular game to a Thurs/Friday, fine - it is what it is. Sundays for most allow an early lunch, a trawl round the pubs in Leigh where one can talk blox with other fans and a no sweat stroll to LSV in plenty of time for KO.

Is it the rugby and the fantastic results at the top table that have increased the gate, or is it the pre-match entertainment? Regarding the latter; were Bongser in a local band and not a rugby fan, he'd persuade his band to play a stadium like LSV on a matchday/night for expenses only (if that). Much better to get the exposure and, if well received, better paid pub & club gigs thereafter. Barring the whopper and/or televised matches, prefer and promote those bands and take the money saved off the stroll-up entrance fees. A lot of families are struggling and if dad 'n' lad go to the odd "treat" game it's two more bums on seats for those games. There are lots of missus 'n' lasses as well - all grist to the mill.

The difference will still be hard to make up after three years of increased attendances. This goes again to show that IMG's remit is to keep an Elite and a "Rest" (if, indeed, The Rest, survive!!)

looks like rl will be getting less from sky next time and are hoping to make up the difference by deals with other broadcasters future viewing platforms will be different to what we have now how that will add up in revenue streams is the key i guess. how much if any will be free to air. all games being covered will dictate when the games are played.img must have some masterplan once the criteria has been applied is that the only plan or do we have anyone at hq with a vision will the distribution be dictated by the math of the plan above.anyone know any holywood superstars/pro golfers/ basketball players with a leyth connection

Average attendance of 7,500 over three years, will not be even remotely possible for Leigh until there is 3 consecutive years of Super League. I think Leigh only just scraped above 3000 in the Championship last season.

In Super League there is a core at the LSV of about 6000 with some bumper local games (Warrington, Wigan and St Helens).

The ideal solution will be to have all games televised. This will fix one of the bugbears of not having a video ref at every game. It would be nice to see IMG promoting games, because at the moment they don't seem to be doing any marketing of the sport.

That would work against getting 7.5K+ crowds on wet/cold days/nights, Sep.