Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 9:06 am  

Leyth Bent n Bongs has a population of well above 100k. 10k for the opener with all that is planned is very achievable when you consider the gate for the MPG at a game that has no season tickets and a premium price. Salford will bring 1-2k more than Batley and it will be advisable to buy tickets early imo

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 11:09 am  

maurice wrote:

Leyth Bent n Bongs has a population of well above 100k. 10k for the opener with all that is planned is very achievable when you consider the gate for the MPG at a game that has no season tickets and a premium price. Salford will bring 1-2k more than Batley and it will be advisable to buy tickets early imo

Salford in 2022 had an average crowd of 4,529 at the AJ Bell - despite the short journey to the LSV, and the first game of the season, there is no chance they bring 2K supporters.

Leigh need to fill the house with home supporters if they want anywhere near to 10K.

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 12:34 pm  

Sadly, Bongser sees all too many Wiggin shirts around the pubs in Atherton. It may be the reason for the Wiggin Walk - it's a fair way back to Bent for their teas. He also sees too many Salford shirts.

Leigh are suffering attendance-wise because, in 27 (is it) seasons of SL, Leigh have only been a top tier side for three. This will take time to reverse but survival next season would be a long stride in the right direction.

Now, about those props, Mo. Are they so enormous that they're actually jammed in the pipeline?

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 12:55 pm  

Septimius Severus wrote:

Derek often speaks to the press and is always very cryptic and can be easily misunderstood.

"Beaumont said: “The new name distinguishes us a bit. The rebrand also distinguishes us from Wigan."
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

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 7:05 pm  

Good post Pieman, but I do believe 10k is very achievable with what will be going on. Salford fans get to LSV quicker than Barton, so always travel well to LSV - 2017 they brought as many as Wigan if not more. Hopefully Wigan travel this time.
Forget the rebrand for a minute - if we sell more than 2017 when most SL clubs are saying sales are well down then you look at whats different? Rebrand is the biggest gain as Fans will still buy irrespective of Branding, I know nobody who has not bought a ST due to the rebrand but plenty who wont buy the shirt and go 'retro' etc instead.
The rebrand is aimed at folk without allegiance with easy access to LSV and that is quite a number, the fairer sex seem to be more into the Leopard print btw and if you go to a kids game of any sport on a Sunday its the mums who are with the kids.

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 7:17 pm  

I keep hearing about what will be going on at the first game of the season , as it’s a televised game it should be something to get the fans talking and shocked , that said I’m going for a major A list celeb performing from the Pop World , ie the real Rod Stewart ,or maybe one of the Gallagher brothers ,what about the Cheeky Girls, for me it’s the only way we are gonna get anywhere near 10,000 in the LSV , and then it would have to be advertised.
I’ve seen and heard Bongser sing his Opera Arias , maybe he could give us a rendering of the Drinking Song .

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Tue Dec 20, 2022 9:25 pm  

Against Salford, probably get 7 to 8K at most because folk are missing their rugby. Can't see 10K against Salford. Can only see average of 6K over the season. There's a diehard 3K supporters as was noticed in Championship. Add another 1K of lost supporters due to SL and then add visiting supporters, if the entrance fee plus Friday night M62 drive doesn't put them off. That's roughly a 6K average. Just being realistic.

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:04 pm  

The Charlie Caroli wrote:

I keep hearing about what will be going on at the first game of the season , as it’s a televised game it should be something to get the fans talking and shocked , that said I’m going for a major A list celeb performing from the Pop World , ie the real Rod Stewart ,or maybe one of the Gallagher brothers ,what about the Cheeky Girls, for me it’s the only way we are gonna get anywhere near 10,000 in the LSV , and then it would have to be advertised.
I’ve seen and heard Bongser sing his Opera Arias , maybe he could give us a rendering of the Drinking Song .

I remember the days Charlie Knew.

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Wed Dec 21, 2022 1:10 pm  

maurice wrote:

The Charlie Caroli wrote:

I keep hearing about what will be going on at the first game of the season , as it’s a televised game it should be something to get the fans talking and shocked , that said I’m going for a major A list celeb performing from the Pop World , ie the real Rod Stewart ,or maybe one of the Gallagher brothers ,what about the Cheeky Girls, for me it’s the only way we are gonna get anywhere near 10,000 in the LSV , and then it would have to be advertised.
I’ve seen and heard Bongser sing his Opera Arias , maybe he could give us a rendering of the Drinking Song .

I remember the days Charlie Knew.

Yeah so do I , I’m more of a listener these days , but in all honesty I feel to get a 10,000 plus crowd against Salford something has to be planned to excite the fans , and I have a feeling maybe an A list recording artist is planned by Derek , deffo a watch this space job.

Re: Is the rebrand in order to sell on as a franchise? : Wed Dec 21, 2022 1:45 pm  

I was hoping for another rendition of Suspicious Minds. Now that would be an amazing comeback if Elvis was to perform.