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
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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.
is the problem becoming clear?
