Leicester Tigers’ players and staff to take 25% pay cut during Coronavirus outbreak

March 24, 2020 by Leave a Comment

By Samuel Gill

Leicester Tigers have joined six fellow Premiership clubs to announce that they will take a 25% pay cut during the Coronavirus pandemic in order to help the club through what will be a barren period for most sporting clubs across the country.

On Friday (MAR20), Gloucester, Saracens, Wasps and Worcester all announced a similar move from next month, while Bristol Bears also confirmed a separate deal with an undisclosed amount being cut.

This comes after all levels of rugby were postponed until at least 14 April due to Coronavirus and in a statement, executive chairman Peter Tom CBE said that the aforementioned measures are ‘necessary’ to help the club survive.

He said in a statement: “Faced with a situation where we cannot generate income from rugby activities while still having our own costs to meet, regrettably the Board believes it is necessary to reduce both working hours and salaries by 25% for all staff and players with effect from 1 April.

“The loss of income from ticket sales and other matchday activities costs the Club a figure of between £300,000 and £400,000 per home game; taking lost revenues beyond £1million solely for this period in March-April when three home games have already been postponed.

“Measures of this type are not restricted to Tigers, with many clubs and businesses elsewhere having to implement similar plans during this period of disruption and we will work closely to find solutions where this decision causes exceptional hardship for any staff member.

“The players and staff remain at the heart of the Club and this is an extremely difficult decision to make, but it is felt this is the only appropriate course of action available to protect the current workforce and maintain the strength of our Club for the longer term.”

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Leicester Tigers’ own Tom Brady reacts to the Super Bowl

February 14, 2018 by Leave a Comment

By Tyler Arthur and Sophie Sandberg

Tom Brady is a winger for the Leicester Tigers rugby team, but he is also a big fan of American football, and has been following his namesake’s team, the New England Patriots for five years.

The 27-year-old Tigers winger shares his name with the GOAT, the Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, 40, who has won five Super Bowl titles throughout his 17-year tenure at the Boston-based club.

The Leicester Tigers player has a bit of fun with his shared forename, and he often has some banter on his Twitter account with confused American fans, who seek ‘TB12’ online, but end up instead tweeting the rugby star overseas.

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Tom Brady – not that one. The Leicester Tigers’ self-proclaimed ‘Silver Fox’.

“I throw a few tweets out sometimes, just fish for a few reactions, get the American supporters onside, up my follower count,” he laughed.

In Super Bowl LII, the New England Patriots were toppled by underdogs Philadelphia Eagles, with a scoreline of 33-41, after they were able to hold out against a final drive from the Patriots, who were attempting to win their second back-to-back championship.

Leicester’s Brady said: “I wanted it to be a close game. I know last year there was the huge comeback, but I thought I’d like a nice competitive game, where I could enjoy some end-to-end stuff.

“At one stage it was quite open, maybe a gap of 10-12 points or so, but it was very close in the end so I did enjoy the game,” he added.

His namesake, the NFL’s MVP, put up historic numbers in his greatest ever Super Bowl performance, even though his team took the loss.

The Leicester player is currently looking to pick up form and get back on track in his own side’s Aviva Premiership season, while the Patriots’ quarterback  is hoping to come back better than ever next year.

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Tigers build team chemistry with Leicestershire firefighter drills

November 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment

By Mark Farmer

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Leicester Tigers dressed in firefighter get up.

Leicester Tigers spent the afternoon practising team building exercises with firefighters from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue on Monday 14 October in a bid to boost team spirit.

The entire first team squad, which includes the likes of Tom Croft, Manu Tuilagi and Freddie Burns, were taking part in the tasks at Leicester Central Fire Station.

The challenges saw them pit themselves against the firefighters of Leicester Fire and Rescue, as well as their teammates as the squad was split into four groups, competing against each other.

Leicester Tigers’ Press Officer, Andy Mann, said: “It’s about getting the players to think about problems and how they can solve them quickly.”

The players were said to have immense respect for the work of the firefighters.

Mr Mann said: “The players had a lot of respect for the firemen before they arrived but the challenges have really tested them.

“They have even more respect for them now.”

The tasks saw players compete against their teammates and the clock in order to come out on top.

One challenge saw the them build a shelter on the ground, which would have to cover them before water was fired at them from a cherry picker at 3,000 litres per minute.

The entire squad took part in the task, and with only a large plastic sheet and four ladders to serve as protection, they had until the cherry picker and water cannon was in position to take cover.

“It was great fun and the team really enjoyed it,” Mr Mann said.

He added: “It has been a real insight for the players to see how the fire services operate and the team know a lot more about their work now.”

Mr Mann believes the exercise day, which was organised by Director of Rugby, Richard Cockerill, should see improvements on the field as the Tigers’ aim for a for their eleventh Aviva Premiership crown.

He said: “It’s all about bringing the group closer together and improving the reliability between them and their teammates.”

“This should hopefully see some benefit on the pitch as well, as the team grows closer.”

Tigers’ will be hoping this is the case for their next game at home to Harlequins at 3pm on Sunday.

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Secrets for Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road stadium revealed to DMU Sports journalism students

February 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Tigers reporters see Sian

BY SIAN BREWIS

Journalism students at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) got an inside view of life working for the biggest rugby club in the country.

Leicester Tigers’ head of communications Gary Sherrard took the third year Journalism students on a tour of the famous Welford Road ground before taking the hot seat for a grilling as life running the club’s media office.

As the UK’s biggest club with international players and European fixtures, Gary and his two staff deal with international media, national press and regional media, as well as briefing players and advising coaches.

Leicester Centre for Journalism, part of Leicester Media School, offers unique placements for third year Journalism students with Leicester Tigers press office and Leicester City. Students submit a CV and are invited to interview before being chosen.

Two students are working at the Tigers once a week while one is working in the press team at Premier League leaders Leicester City.

John Dilley, Director of the NCTJ-accredited Leicester Centre of Journalism, said: “What the placements do is provide an experience and knowledge of the job which you just cannot teach.

“Many of our students have gone on to sports journalism or to work for the club’s press offices and we are grateful to people such as Gary, Anthony Herlihy from Leicester City and Dan Nice from Leicestershire County Cricket Club for giving up their time to speak to our students and pass on their expertise.”

Gary said: “I gave the students an insight into how the press office operates, how things have changed and the skills they will need.

“In the six years I have been at Leicester Tigers the changes in media have been absolutely enormous.

“Six years ago, you used to update the website first thing in the morning and last thing at night, now it’s a 24/7 operation. We’re not just doing match reports and media interviews, we’re doing video, corporate work and advising coaching staff and players on how they should answer and interact with media.”

Tom Malloy is one of two students working with Leicester Tigers press office. He said: “I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. I’ve had the chance to work on match days, press conferences and be part of the team. It’s something that I definitely want to go into.”

Leicetershire County Cricket Club’s media manager is DMU alumnus Dan Nice, who studied Journalism here. He joined the club after works on the sports desk at the Leicester Mercury. He will host the students this week to talk about running a press office in a sports club – as well as working with Elton John’s press team for the superstar’s concert at the cricket ground later this year.

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