Off the field they have been incredibly impressive, hopefully they can keep the momentum up throughout the season. I still think we have made a big mistake making them play in league 1 rather than the Championship. https://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leag ... deal/40047

Off the field they have been incredibly impressive, hopefully they can keep the momentum up throughout the season. I still think we have made a big mistake making them play in league 1 rather than the Championship. https://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leag ... deal/40047

Quote Sir Kevin Sinfield="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Off the field they have been incredibly impressive, hopefully they can keep the momentum up throughout the season. I still think we have made a big mistake making them play in league 1 rather than the Championship. https://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leag ... deal/40047'" If they make it through League 1 this season, which most people expect them to, there will be nothing lost. Indeed, they will have had 12 months learning about the logistics of playing trans-atlantic RL. The real test will come next season. Money alone will not guarantee promotion to the top flight and they would need to strengthen their squad substantially to mount a serious challenge, which will empty the pockets of their backers.. There is something really exciting about the Canadian venture and if it proves successful and a workable model (in terms of the travel involved etc), then it has to be good for the game and it would seriously lift the games profile, which should help attract some higher level sponsors.

Quote Sir Kevin Sinfield="Sir Kevin Sinfield"Off the field they have been incredibly impressive, hopefully they can keep the momentum up throughout the season. I still think we have made a big mistake making them play in league 1 rather than the Championship. https://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-leag ... deal/40047'" If they make it through League 1 this season, which most people expect them to, there will be nothing lost. Indeed, they will have had 12 months learning about the logistics of playing trans-atlantic RL. The real test will come next season. Money alone will not guarantee promotion to the top flight and they would need to strengthen their squad substantially to mount a serious challenge, which will empty the pockets of their backers.. There is something really exciting about the Canadian venture and if it proves successful and a workable model (in terms of the travel involved etc), then it has to be good for the game and it would seriously lift the games profile, which should help attract some higher level sponsors.

Spot on there in terms of learning about logistics. Next season will be so much harder anyway due to more fixtures as well as harder opposition.

I am glad they started in League 1 as it gives at least 7 teams the opportunity to go over to Canada cost free!

Absolutely correct putting them in League 1 first rather than the Championship. It would be trying to run before you can walk throwing them into the Championship straight away. No need to mess this up because of impatience.

Putting them in league1 is the dumbest of the RFL's ideas their squad will likely walk league 1 as toulouse did last year. It's no wonder league 1 struggles as it does, it's incredibly uncompetitive.

They will play in front of next to no-one away and then try and sell the worst standard of pro rl that exists to an unfamiliar public.

Then next year they will spend huge sums trying to get out of another semi-pro league where a third of the fixture list isn't decided until midway through the year leaving either 4 semipro clubs or 4 SL clubs possibly planning two trips to France and one to Canada within 2 months at no notice.

It would be laughable if it wasn't RL actively damaging itself and one of its best chances for growth in a long time

For the way to expand a sport see Super Rugby. It started as the super 12's with teams from Australia , New Zealand and South Africa.

It is now a league of 18 teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Japan.

If Toronto manage to survive long enough to make it to Super League, it will be in spite of starting in League 1 not because of it.

So you don't think they'll have any teething problems in their first year.....as a whole club not just the on pitch side of it.

what possible teething problems would be solved by playing in League 1?

IF we were seriously looking at expanding SL to include 2 French clubs and 1 Canadian club, the current structure is quite ridiculous.
The system has already increased instability in the top 2 divisions and in the event of any club making it through the promotion lottery, there is no certainty that their new "status" will last.
Surely, there has to be a return to some kind of franchise model ?

For clubs to survive and grow it is absolutely has to. How are Les Catalans/Toulouse or Toronto supposed to go out and sell tv rights when they don't know which competition they are in?

We could, quite easily, in only a year, be looking at trying to shoehorn 3 different countries in 2 different continents and 3 different timezones in to a competition which forces upon itself instability as a selling point.

It's looney tunes level nonsense to think that you can have a professional sport operating in Canada France and the UK (and eventually elsewhere) with the inherent instability and short termism of P+R, especially this form of it.

Sticking with any format of P+R would tell us the RFL/clubs are either A) stupid to an unfathomable or B) only paying lip service to growth and expansion.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.
Although there were issues with "franchising" previously, if we have any aspirations of expanding the game beyond the M62, it is the only sensible means of growing the game.
Of course it would curtail the aspirations of clubs like Featherstone but, the game needs to decide where it is going and then work out the best wat to get there.
For Toulouse and Torontro to succeed, you simply couldn't have so many "maybe's" for them to overcome, the game just isn't bige enough.
The "traditionalists" may point to the faliures of London, Paris and Crusaders and say "look what happened before" but, IF we are trying to achieve a top flight including Toulouse and Toronto then ,lets get on with it and make it work.

Toronto might have the money to compete at a higher level right now, but they wouldn't be doing it with any North American players. They have some players ready for this level, but need time to get them ready for the next step..