WARRINGTON Wolves supporters felt heartened by the words of Peter Deakin and a colleague from Saracens RU Club at a 'sport in the community' forum staged by the Warrington Collegiate Institute.

The event gave fans a glimpse of how the Wolves plan to move forward as a community-linked club.

Deakin, the Wolves' chief executive, revealed that the Super League outfit will be raising its profile following similar methods introduced by him at Bradford Bulls and most recently at Saracens Rugby Union Club.

Tim Lawler, Deakin's replacement as Saracens' supremo, told how average 'gates' had leaped from 2,800 to around 8,000 inside eight months with more than 3,000 of the supporters now being season ticket holders.

Saracens' attendance success was down to the work of the Vicarage Road's community development team, for which the London club won a national award.

Two particular areas of their work which stood out was the use of players for promotional work and the cashback scheme.

Since August 1997 Lawler said there had been more than 300 player visits into the community - reaching more than 32,000 children under the age of 16. It equated to making contact with more than 50 future investors every day.

Their cashback concept involves charities, amateur sports clubs and voluntary organisations selling match tickets on behalf of the club and reaping the rewards by being given back half of the ticket revenue for their own funds.

The event was organised by Warrington Borough Council's RL development officer Neil Kelly and Collegiate student Adam Jude. It was backed by the council, the Collegiate and Warrington Sports Forum and attracted members from a variety of sports clubs and bodies from all over the north west.

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