Leigh Genesis Supporters Association
Meeting 3
Monday 3rd November 2008
Abbey Street Labour Club

LGSA chairman Tony Marshall gave credit for Saturday's match (FA Trophy against Cammell Laird) and explained the club's current position. He thanked Donna Middleton, James Stand, Mary Croasdale and Steve Bleasdale for all their work and for attending the meeting. The subject was raised of the club's historical debt, with these debts being settled once the sale of Hilton Park has been confirmed, with the club debt-free from then on.

How to get money into the club?

A board meeting will be taking place tomorrow [November 4th], the board may take over as they did before Dominic Speakman was involved. Tony expressed his feelings that he doesn't believe the board can take on the debt however it was explained that the club will be debt free once Hilton Park is sold.

It costs approximately £6782.50 per week to run the club and it was pointed out that our club doesn't have the biggest fan base in the league. Anybody who has any ideas is urged to come forward and present them. Many football clubs have a trust fund, supporters pay money into this to subsidise the cost, local businesses and fans can pay, run by a committee. We need this money to pay wages, travel etc, with a general aim of having 100 people paying in to this fund each week.

Kit sponsorship was raised and how it may be a better idea to sponsor individual kit such as socks, shirts rather than whole kit as a more cost friendly way; this was left for the club to decide upon.

We need to maximise sponsorship opportunities as much as possible, aiming to ensure that all matchday sponsorship packages (match, ball, players etc) are covered.

The LGSA and LGFC Staff have to get the name about in both the town and internationally and push as hard as we can to gain support of all varieties. The people invited to the board meeting are people named in the programme such as Gary Culshaw, Stan Walker and Bill Taylor. Now that Dominic Speakman has left Genesis are getting spoken about like when RMI finished 5th in the Conference, we now have to utilise this.

Future

LSV was then spoken about and the possibility of moving in. We are not sure about volunteer stewards, other clubs in the league do this we should push as much as we can to get this granted. The free training courses were reiterated, these were brought to our attention at last months meeting by Mary. We need to get as many people a possible volunteering to do this. It enables these people to become qualified to a certain degree which is what is needed however it was advised that it be checked with LSV before people enrol as it may have to be ‘policed' by them for legislation rules etc. £600 per match is obviously a big chunk

Steve mentioned that Dominic's timing was poor and that had he waited until after the game against Cammell Laird "he could have won the club £3,000". Tony said that it may have been better to pull out gradually rather than in one go. Steve also said that, had he and the players been given prior notice that the club were in financial difficulty, he would have been able to keep them but at half of the price that they were currently paid. However, Donna made us aware that the players have bills to pay etc and they need to find alternative clubs as soon as possible and settle down. Steve said it would cost the club £2,500 to stay in the league and if it was possible the board could pay this. Whether this could be met by the board would be unclear until after they held their own meeting.

Phil Taylor spoke about how the club has gone forwards but at the same time also gone back. He told us that some supporters had left because of the way the club has gone. He stated that the club hasn't got anything and are supposed to be moving into a 10,000 seat stadium. He said the club can only afford what X amount of people who go through the gates pay for. In addition to this he told us how every season the number of fans decreases by approximately 15%. Phil didn't think that playing at LSV would be feasible if it costs £1,000 per match with such a small fan base although there are a lot of people who put a lot into the club.

It costs the club around £500 every time we play a home fixture at Chorley; however, not many people want to travel there and by the end of the season this wouldn't be a sustainable position. We have to be realistic - if the team doesn't win games, then it is unlikely that many fans will continue to attend matches and we will be stuck in another vicious circle.

The possibility of a potential merger with neighbouring clubs was cast aside as other clubs will not want to lose their identity, and the same could be argued for ourselves.

Steve said he has a team that want to play for him and so a budget of £2,500 is possible.

Our main disadvantage is that we don't have a club house to generate money unlike other clubs in our league and this is something that we need, in turn with generating extra regular streams of income.

People were asked if they wanted to join the board. It was questioned as to what the criteria would be to join the board.

Support used to come from the board and strength lay there and players and fans felt as if they had ownership and control of the club.

Stan Walker informed the meeting that an extensive press campaign had previously been pressed forward to try and find people to join the board who could offer, but it had been met with no response. Of the previous committee, Stan Walker and Alan Leach are in regular contact with the club, while Bill Taylor continues to attend matches on an occasional basis.

Something that we have learned is that if the structure is there and the work is put in we can get somewhere.

Reverting back to the clubhouse issue it was noted that this can be the centre of community and for a smaller club like us it is a big deal to go and meet the players and have a chat with them.

Many years ago we didn't have a lot of money however a sense of community was built and there were a lot of fans.

There has been a fall from this since finishing 5th in the Conference in 2001 because nobody took advantage of the situation. We know they could be in trouble if we don't complete fixtures and was compared to the position we were faced with in January when the board seemed happy to plod along and didn't want to move forward.

It is largely up to the supporters of the club to go in to the community and to try and generate as much finance as possible. Phil Taylor had previously written to 280 individual businesses asking for them to support the club, yet he received no responses from any of them, even though he would generally expect a response of 10-15% from similar initiatives with his own business, with this situation worsened with the current financial recession.

Mary told us how she had spoken to (Leigh MP) Andy Burnham and he had said that he had a meeting with (LSV chief executive) Steve Jones. Phil had attended some of the meetings that took place early in the LSV planning stages and they have broken many promises that they made to him concerning disabled access. On Mr. Burnham's website features the LSV project but only mentions Leigh Centurions and not Leigh Genesis.

Donna Middleton informed the meeting that the planning of the stadium had been done in conjunction with NADS (National Association of Disabled Supporters) and that it was to be one of the most disabled-friendly and well-equipped stadiums in the country. A situation has arisen whereby the stadium's emergency ‘blue route' actually runs through a section of disabled car parking spaces, and as such the stadium would risk losing it's grant from NADS as it isn't an option to operate without an emergency route.

Keith Latham (Leigh East ARLFC chairman) then spoke to us about his experience with the LSV management company. When negotiations first began in 2001 and 2002, Leigh East were assured that they would have a clubhouse, 2 full size ‘3G' artificial pitches and 4 grass pitches for the sole use of Leigh East ARLFC, with this situation changing completely in the time taken to complete the project. Of the promised facilities, Leigh East currently only have one full size artificial pitch, one full size grass pitch and a clubhouse whereby a percentage of income is taken by the LSV company. Keith said how they were first to be ‘hoodwinked'; now it's us (Leigh Genesis) and next it will be Leigh Centurions. Leigh East currently have a solicitor employed to examine what exactly Leigh East were promised when they signed up to the project and are working with the LSV to resolve this issue.

The ‘partnership' of the LSV was said to be very poorly run as the individual partners in the project have never had a full meeting at any point since the planning process began, with the impression that the LSV are attempting to ‘divide and conquer' in order to manage the site, whilst also limiting expenditure as much as possible. It's a local government stadium done by the book, and Leigh East is now close to signing their lease after two years of very stressful negotiations between themselves and the LSV/Wigan MBC. Keith suggested that we do the same and get what we can afford.

In the past, there used to be a collective nature between the individual management committees/boards of directors at both Leigh RMI and Leigh Centurions, but in recent seasons that relationship had deteriorated. It is of grave importance that this relationship is repaired as soon as possible in order to present a united front to the LSV/Wigan MBC and ensure the best deal possible for all of the stadium's partners.

The council built something for us and we have to tell them what WE want (not £3 per pint), with LGSA encouraged to push as much as possible for a ‘social' facility to be provided for supporters. LSV are supposed to tread water, financially speaking, rather than work towards making a profit, with non-matchday events supposed to provide the bulk of the stadium's income. It was suggested that, if Leigh Genesis don't move in to the new stadium, the LSV would be ineligible for FA and Football Trust grants that it had already spent.

We have invited the LSV committee to observe league fixture at opposition grounds to illustrate how a typical UniBond League club operates on a matchday. For example, several clubs provide post-match catering for the players by simply making their own drinks and sandwiches, but unfortunately the LSV haven't taken up this offer and continue to insist that they must provide all of the on-site catering.

A Facebook group was started for fans who may wish to ‘own' the club with 400 members joining this group in one week. It was raised that this is at a greater rate than the club's official page, although it is accepted that a lot of this will be curiosity. Those in control of this group feel that they can comfortably achieve 1,000 members, although it questioned as to how the scheme would actually work and how finance would be collected. We cannot generate enough income in the town of Leigh and the people interested we have to push for the further market. The last thing the club want to do is what Runcorn did and sell the ground, move to a purpose built ground and then go bust.

A representative of local business Dave Rowlands was at the meeting and passed on his details directly to the club with regards to Mr. Rowlands being potentially interested in investing in the club.

Other things to look at

It was suggested that Leigh are the only club who fail to regularly secure lucrative pre-season fixtures with local Premier League clubs, although the uncertainty over the club's home ground largely accounted for the club of any lucrative friendlies this past summer.

Other clubs manage to obtain signed memorabilia from local clubs, for example Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic, which are then sold on for a profit at auction.

Steve Bleasdale suggested that it should be the LSV that ‘chase' the club for it's occupancy rather than vice-versa, although a question would remain to any alternative grounds to call home in the medium-term.

It was stated that the stadium management company would be unable to operate without the income provided by Leigh Genesis and Leigh Centurions, with the whole idea behind the stadium being rather pointless if neither club played there, and as such the LSV should be more understanding and reasonable in their financial demands.

Atherton Laburnum Rovers was mentioned as an alternative home venue, but the UniBond would only allow the club to play a small number of home fixtures at Crilly Park, and even then only as an emergency measure. Such a groundshare would be largely unfeasible as the high volume of fixtures taking place when considering each club's reserve side would be detrimental to the state of the pitch, although this would be preferable to continuing to play home games at Chorley and therefore make a loss on each game, particularly when considering our away following of c200 to a friendly at Atherton Collieries was greater than the attendances we currently attract to ‘home' games at Chorley.

REITERATION AND REMINDER THAT THE SCHEDULED HOME FIXTURE WITH OSSETT TOWN ON 22nd NOVEMBER HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO OSSETT'S CONTINUED INVOLVEMENT IN THE FA TROPHY.

It was mentioned that organising another meeting after the board had met possibly next week would be a good idea so we don't have to wait a month before we clear up some issues.
The point of a supporter's trust fund was raised. Many non league clubs have one of these and how this is more feasible especially for younger fans who want to make a contribution as you can give over time and not in bulk.

Steve once again says how a local ground is needed to generate more cash and fans.

We can sponsorship by allowing people to sponsor set pieces of kit. Did the club aim too high by offering bulk sponsorship that isn't really appropriate to the type of team we are? In defence the sponsorship packages were geared towards the early move into LSV and now the club has had to completely change and go back to basics.

Donna told us how the staff at the club can only do so much for a limited time as they have to find new jobs and it takes a lot of time and work to run the club which people may not realise. It is now a question of who will take over these jobs but we should be able to get enough people to volunteer to do these jobs. If we find money and very fast we may be able to keep hold of some of the players but we do need to get enough.

It was said that getting a shirt sponsor could raise some funds even if we only do it on the team kit. Last season around £7,500 was made which could go to paying wages for several weeks.

The final point was that we do need the expertise of the staff to carry the club forwards, with the meeting finishing at this point.

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