The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Sun Jul 28, 2013 6:22 pm  

Yes doom and gloom after Saturday- bit still a loyal band of die hards at Leigh- well done for being there.

My thoughts

1. LB will be in Super League next year- why - World Cup few months away - do the RL want a club 'failure' on the news stands prior to the 'big 'event

2. LB will play at the Stoop next year - to take their chance with the relegation option- if they go down it will be with a RL parachute payment as they move to their new ground ( sorry Centre of excellence! ) as the RL must maintain a presence in London- ( due to all the junior work) and despite Barwicks comments

if they stay up - the RL will be vindicated with their support for a development area , if they go down - it will solve one of the relegation slots- but again bouyed by the parachute payment junior R League remains 'strong' in London with the Centre of excellence - win win !

3. Based option2 financial interest & support grass roots rugby could be achieved ( Olympic heritage!) - more so than funding a SL team

4. The marketing of LB Skolars Hemel becomes easier if LB are relegated - local derbies etc - so again worth the RL throwing some cash at the model - and allow LB to plan to return to SL with a bigger pyramid below them

I have a degree of optimism

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Sun Jul 28, 2013 7:28 pm  

daiboy13 wrote:

Yes doom and gloom after Saturday- bit still a loyal band of die hards at Leigh- well done for being there.

My thoughts

1. LB will be in Super League next year- why - World Cup few months away - do the RL want a club 'failure' on the news stands prior to the 'big 'event

2. LB will play at the Stoop next year - to take their chance with the relegation option- if they go down it will be with a RL parachute payment as they move to their new ground ( sorry Centre of excellence! ) as the RL must maintain a presence in London- ( due to all the junior work) and despite Barwicks comments

if they stay up - the RL will be vindicated with their support for a development area , if they go down - it will solve one of the relegation slots- but again bouyed by the parachute payment junior R League remains 'strong' in London with the Centre of excellence - win win !

3. Based option2 financial interest & support grass roots rugby could be achieved ( Olympic heritage!) - more so than funding a SL team

4. The marketing of LB Skolars Hemel becomes easier if LB are relegated - local derbies etc - so again worth the RL throwing some cash at the model - and allow LB to plan to return to SL with a bigger pyramid below them

I have a degree of optimism

I think you're placing a lot of unwarranted faith in the RFL- there's been no recent indications that they actually still think it's important to have a London team in the SL anymore, and if they did, surely they would have intervened or at least made their views on the issue clear by now given our very obvious predicaments.

Also, not sure what the RFL has got to do with the "Olympic heritage".

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:05 pm  

Never underestimate the sheer parochialism of northern rugby league clubs. Most northern club boards (a few honourable exceptions like Leeds), measure the importance of a different club solely by how many fans it brings to home games once a year.

Last time London had a crisis, it only survived through the threatened resignation of Richard Lewis. This time, Lewis is gone, and we have a large solicitor from Halifax in charge instead. There's no cavalry coming.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:12 pm  

I've heard even Hetherington has had enough now. What will be will be but as we stand the club is a shambles on and off the field and its hard to see it turning around under the present regime.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:19 pm  

Sadly I'm hearing we have managed to alienate the key figure at another SL club that have traditionally backed us.

We may be running out of friends as well as fans.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:40 pm  

Simply put, David Hughes through his own attitude when dealing with the RFL and through the totally unqualified personnel he hired into key areas has completely loved the club up.

It's one thing having money and throwing it at a hobby, but he has never laid any foundations on which the club could survive without him. It's almost unthinkable that he has lobbed 1.5 million a year at the club for the last 5 years since IL was made to leave and will have only witnessed 30 wins from 121 games in that time. Furthermore, after IL's back door investment through shirt sponsorship dried up, we had a period with a Text company who pulled out sharpish and nearly 2 whole seasons with no major shirt sponsor.....we have shed about 1,700 off our average attendance and yet all DH wants is to turn up on match day and feel important.

The club is dead in the water. The only thing that can save them now is a new investor.....be that an individual or group, or the RFL themselves. As has been said already, we have burnt bridges with allies and the RFL don't seem too bothered about us.....their statement regarding our history of not bringing away fans points to them being glad to see the back of us.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Mon Jul 29, 2013 4:59 am  

There is no guarantee of any parachute payments. Nothing has been decided yet. LB need to work on putting a competative side out on the paddock for 2014.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:22 am  

Agree with Gutters.

The signing of Jamie Soward sums up the whole problem.

Craig Gower leaves, presumably freeing up £40k (?) in wages. The team has no realistic chance of finishing better than 13th or making the Cup semi. Regardless, £££ are then spent on hiring Jamie Soward. Why waste the saving made on Gower by burning the money on another player's salary when it cannot possibly make any difference on-field? In fact, Hughes might well have literally burnt the savings made on Gower in some ceremonial bonfire at the next home game - that would have been no worse value for money.

The management seems to willfully ignore the fact that the club is primarily a business and not just a bunch of highly-paid underachievers coached by an old pal of the owner.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:51 am  

Apropos Ian Leneghan, he walked along the front of the stand and gave us a wave on Saturday, DH walked at speed from the team bus into the players' and officials' entrance not looking right or left and then stormed out at half time.

Re: The Most important Club in Superleague !!?? : Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:35 am  

Colly2 wrote:

Agree with Gutters.

The signing of Jamie Soward sums up the whole problem.

Craig Gower leaves, presumably freeing up £40k (?) in wages. The team has no realistic chance of finishing better than 13th or making the Cup semi. Regardless, £££ are then spent on hiring Jamie Soward. Why waste the saving made on Gower by burning the money on another player's salary when it cannot possibly make any difference on-field? In fact, Hughes might well have literally burnt the savings made on Gower in some ceremonial bonfire at the next home game - that would have been no worse value for money.

The management seems to willfully ignore the fact that the club is primarily a business and not just a bunch of highly-paid underachievers coached by an old pal of the owner.

I wonder if you would have said that if Soward had played a stormer on Saturday and guided you to Wembley in doing so. Suddenly London are in a cup final which will be played on their doorstep, surely a massive opportunity to pick up a load of new fans. Even if that didn't happen, he's still bound to have put a few bums on seats by playing for you in the league games, if not you need to let people in London know he's there!

It might not sound like a balanced trade off, £40k for a few new fans, but I wonder how much the average fan is worth to the club over a lifetime. I bet I spend at least £350 a season on Wigan between my season ticket, replica shirt, beer/food, home play offs and home cup games. Not to mention revenue from away games, finals and regular games than I bring friends to. Times that by the 12 years I have been watching Wigan, then add on the 50 or so years I'll continue to watch them, then consider I'm only one person out of thousands, and marquee players don't look like such a bad idea after all. I bet he more than pays for himself if he only brings in two new lifelong fans