The biggest problem is changing the attitude of the stay away fans.
The number of times I hear...... "I'm not going while .... ...... is involved in the club" or "the board just rob the club blind"
Rightly or wrongly these perceptions have built up over many years and the unfortunate truth is sticking a poster in a shop window or letting kids in for free isn't going to bring these fans back.

The trailer one of the directors bought should have been being used in my opinion in the town centre players onbroad= best advert we can provide, we also need to bug the council/staduim co to let us have use of the EAST stand foc and change to a family stand, shove a bar underneath, and use it, instaed of being stuck there doing nothing.

Our crowds are steadly growing, we cannot expect another 500 - 1000 over night. We are better supported than most of the other teams in the championship, and the away support at Fax and Barrow has been tremendous. No plaudits on the clubs web site about that though. Lets build on the positive's of this season, we are moving forward.

From a marketing point of view. I see very little advertising in the surrounding towns, Atherton, Golborne, Tyldlesley and Westhoughton are only a mile or two away and should be area's the club are targetting for new support.

Also the French are coming Bradshawgate and the Spinning gate should be full of banners and flags promoting the challenge cup fixture, and lets not forget the local supermarkets where thousands of folk visit every week. Advertising in the local papers needs to be increased, yes there is a match report, but you have to read it if you want to find out the next fixture. There is not stand out advert for the next game. If it is a new supporter, we need to catch there eye.

The club needs to get out and touch the public more if we are going to generate more interest in the local community. Like I started with, we are moving forward, lets focus on the positives.

Or maybe we could do it instead, who free next weekend to go into the town centre giving out posters advertising the game, as the club will give you the link to download them. Im sure theres stuff a few of us could do? Anyone fancy it?

I realise that it costs to market our product and I realise it could be wasted expenditure, if the apathy/antipathy towards the club is rife. I also realise that our benefactor is funding the club up to the hilt already, and may well not want to spend even more, on the gamble of getting folk interested.

However, I hark back to what the Widnes Commercial Manager said, when the Vikings last returned to Super League. He said that, in their first season, they made the huge mistake, of just expecting people to flock to the ground, now they were back in SL. Belatedly, they were forced to the conclusion that they had to ram information about the team/fixtures, down the throats of their 'supporters', to promote interest.

I guess you have to speculate, to accumulate.

Lots of big talk again as usual but when Linda asks for someone to help her there are zero offers typical big talkers all spout no do, unfortunatly I will not be in town that weekend Linda or i would give you a hand and the flights from Morrocco are expensive and the girl friend wouldn't be too chuffed either.

I will if we can get a bunch of us together (wearing our replica tops etc).
I'll do ASDA if we can get permission to give out flyers just outside their doors (again provided we have several to join in as the more fans / colours the more we get noticed).

Some ideas ...........

Ring South Lancs Travel or Jim Stones and ask if they want to become partners in a totally beneficial way to each other.
We give them free publicity in our matchday magazine / sponsorship of a player / space around the ground Pre game , they spray part or all of a bus up advertising Leigh Centurions (we could split the cost if able).

Family stand and family tickets.......I've covered this many times, its still a non event and weekly revenue is being lost, we are improving on this but are only just realising we are sat on a gold mine of revenue in Child tickets (speak to all the clubs that do well on this - plenty of Football clubs do it, and someone go to Keighley or Bradford and speak to those that know how to do a good job in this area).

Get in the town/area EVERY weekend, out of sight = out of mind...even its a couple of reserve lads (they'll love being centre of attention) , lets keep our club in the minds of the Leigh public.

Feature a game - really push a certain fixture (Catalans immediately jumps out , what a fantastic opportunity), target the schools, shops , community centres, get all our sponsors on board and push this fixture as a 'Must attend' game, get the premises decked out in our colours and shops with Leigh Centurions ' good luck' messgaes in there windows, build the community spirit with the club being the focal point for that community - its broke in Leigh, fix it over time but start now .
A banner in Leigh town centre over the main road advertising this fixture (no council would refuse a sports club trying to attract the youth of the town off the streets and into healthy lifestyles by backing sport approval of this).

Selective Boards around the area advertising games (Pub Carparks etc), we have Northern Rail as a main sponsor - have we ever worked with Northern Rail to advertise our fixtures at Bolton or Atherton - I see Wigan do at Preston....., a simple posters attracts the eye of bored commuters and will be seen by literally thousands daily.
Facing ASDA , Roundabouts - all good places to put up a banner - Get the towns pubs involved (give a complimentary if they help us out, scratch my back I'll scratch yours)

Give out 2 tickets in a draw every week for as many local Pubs/ clubs to include in there Thursday night pub quiz, ensure when doing this a fixture list is visible within the pub as 'part of the deal'.

Support a Pub/Club night - along the lines of you scratch my back again, get a pub or community centre (or suchlike) to help us out and do a Centurions night in the pub with 2 members of the club doing a Q&A session, the pubs numbers will be swelled by (thirsty) Leythers so its a win win, ensure that pub uis named as a Leigh supporters pub - especially on match days.

L.I.S.A. - The most underused bunch of Leigh fanatics, involve them in pushing the club and doing / helping with some of the above - they will do it for free and a award of a meal with the players or a meeting with Ian Millward / Robbie etc, etc is worth more to them than any kind of 'payment', make them part of the club properly.

If we are having a offer allow 6 weeks of pushing it / selling it before releasing it - the half season ticket is a great idea - it won't be a success as many won't have heard of it / get the money ready in 7 days - plan accordingly.

Start 'Fans night forums' at the LSV, Involve the club and ground with the fans - no LSV = No Leigh , No Leigh = No LSV , I'm sorry folks but the excuses of 'its there fault' are what poorly run companies do - make it work, use Andy Burnham or the council as the middle man if we can't get joined up thinking, the youth of Leigh needing sport and are suffering because of this will be a angle that might prick the councils conscience.

Don't do press release that look like they don't appreciate the current support, they know we need more support - they don't need telling, makes us look like a split club and again theres not much advantage / thought in it , do any of the things listed above first then tell them we are not attracting support and can we have your help as your our '14th man'.
Tell your fans (customers in daft PC speak) they are the best, are appreciated and in no way (however unintentional it is) rile them or get there backs up by making them feel that what they are doing is not enough, its counterproductive, we are in the leisure business.

Having said all that............

The club IS getting much better at trying things out and is still very inexperienced in the area of having to sell itself, after all we have a fantastic team on the field so fans should come, unfortunatly though the amount of competiton we are up against (and I'm not talking RL clubs here) for our leisure pounds is massive - and many of these have vast marketing budgets, I suspect we are won't have apenny for it.
However we can do better, but as someone else has said, the positives coming out of Leigh Centurions at the moment in time are massive, we are having a hard sell based on the league we are in but lets not forget we are one of the best supported clubs outside the top flight - no mean feat considering we are the only 'big' Championship club that has spent so little time in the top flight in the last 20 years or so - we are punching above our weight.

These are good times to be a Leyther.

I doubt there is a single rugby fan in town who does not know how well we are currently doing.

If he/she cannot be bothered to get off their backside to watch it, what good are posters and banners?

The town needs to ask itself if they want a decent team because we've got one and there is still a barrel of excuses why not to come.

Jenky - good post. Marketing needn't cost owt, we have 1800 footsoldiers to do the graft we need 1 decent ideas man to motivate them.

I will too but my printer does not work. I shall talk to Lynda about it this evening at the Poker night.

Fickle fans who come on a good deal to watch us play Catalans will not attend again should we get hammered, no matter how good we think we are, sorry to be negative and all that, just a realist I suppose

Agreed but the ideas are right, for me the Train cup semi would be a better target game, and then hopefully a town centre good luck etc for the final and build from there.

Not disagreeing with what you say but they can help our cause.
I went watching Fylde RU based on seeing one advertising there game, not a massive Fylde RU fan but a occasional watcher, heard they had done well, lost touch , saw the advert , spent £35.00 on the day.
Will be going again.

Have to say the posters / banners are more useful in trying to tell those who don't know about us who we are so in a way it targets 2 sets of people, lapsed support and new support.

Lets be honest a poster on the bypass (like we used to have) would be a massive move in the right direction if only to keep our club in the eyes of the thousands of motorists who drive past it.
How many people have read the quote '(re)living the dream' whilst driving down the bypass ,a poster around there would be handy