Main sponsor withdraws LGFC funding

By Matt Lawton
January 26 2010

Leigh Genesis have been hit with the news that their main sponsor will be withdrawing his financial support from the club as of the end of January, with the future of the club now lying almost solely in the hands of the club's supporters and remaining board members.

The board is aware of the unrest among its supporters regarding the future of the club and this is well founded considering the problems that the club has been faced with over the last couple of years and in particular since the move from Hilton Park.

The Board does not pretend to admit that the situation is indeed a serious one and for the sake of clarity will summarise the current position;

Leigh Sports Village and Ground Issues
The club has been struggling to secure all home games at the LSV stadium; the reason for this is a combination of three main factors:
1. Business Plan. In order to be considered as a serious partner at the stadium the club would have to provide a robust business plan acceptable to the LSV management; despite making every effort to put measures in place to provide this an agreement with any longevity has not been reached
2. Regularity and guarantees. The games which have been hosted by the LSV stadium have been played under very favourable terms to the club however this provision cannot be offered on a long term basis nor with any guarantees of dates other than those now set.
3. The Volume of games (league, FA Cups, League cups and county cups) is relatively high and in excess of the number of home fixtures expected by the stadium.
4. Future seasons. In view of the clubs financial position and their inability to host the number of games that we play, the LSV will not give assurances that any of our matches will be played there next season, however, an alternative modified ground close by is being considered.

Finances
Funds from our main backer will be withdrawn as of the end of January; shortfalls to date have been met, in the main by the Board.
Without a ‘home' the club has no natural, physical money-generating facilities such as a social club, bar, catering etc. And although we are extremely grateful for the sponsorship that has been so generously donated over the course of this season the reality is that the costs associated with running a club at this level demand in the region of £2-3.5k per week on average

Season Ticket Holders
The club appreciates that supporters bought tickets at the start of the season with the intention of attending all home games at ‘home' at LSV stadium; the club in turn sold these tickets in good faith and with the understanding that it could deliver on this promise. The club will therefore issue a refund to any fixtures not played at LSV as asks season ticket holders to contact the club via email info@leighgenesis.com to claim their refund. The board wishes to thank its loyal fans for committing to buy season tickets and apologises sincerely for the disappointment that these circumstances have caused.

The Future
It is difficult to put in a nutshell exactly what the future may or may not hold for us; that to a large extent is dependent upon what you the supporters want to achieve. We feel that the best way of approaching the issue is to split it into the short and long term:

The Short Term - Season 09-10
No matter what the long term future holds for this club it is absolutely imperative that this proud and respected club fulfils its obligation to complete the season it committed to last August.

The immediate problem we face is putting a strategy in place that will enable us to do this; figures have been drawn up that reflect the ‘essential' costs after all expenses have been stripped back to the bare minimum. It will now be up to the board, with the help of the supporters to raise the necessary finance to meet these costs. The obvious route is sponsorship and we believe with a little effort this is certainly achievable.

The long term - Season 10-11 and beyond
There are several options open to us, from the very bleak to the very optimistic; all have merit and we feel that a public meeting would be a most appropriate method of bringing all points of view to the table; a date, time and venue for such a meeting will be announce shortly

Contact
There is clearly much to be discussed and the board would welcome any comments, suggestions or questions that its supporters may have. Please feel free to contact any of us via info@leighgenesis.com

Main sponsor withdraws LGFC funding

Posted by: LG-SA.co.uk (IP Logged)

Date: 26/01/2010 22:22

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