Whether or not other clubs have been keeping Wakefield aloft, there are a string of disappointed creditors who have effectively been keeping Wakefield aloft in one shape or form - including HMRC.

Montreal and Toronto, along with Toulouse, could be the salvation of rugby league in the Northern Hemisphere. These three clubs could finally turn rugby league into a credible international game.


I look forward to the day, 20 years from now, when we talk about the Big Six: Australia, New Zealand, England, France Canada and the USA. Papua-New Guinea and Fiji will be just outside the Big Six.

It will never be credible internationally until there is a successful team in London

I used to travel to France a lot in the early 90s, pas de calais is very under-rated. I found a back street bar in Calais that i'd pop into. IIRC it was called bar du rugby or possibly 'match', it was one of those typical small, smoky men only joints.
It was adorned with rugby memorabilia of the 15 a side variety and they definitely knew what rugby a treize was.
As far as expansion, any sustainable expansion outside of the traditional heartlands is good an should be embraced.

You are probably correct.

As a principle i like the idea of a northern hemisphere league involving teams from Canada and possibly the USA.

As a sport we have to be very cautious though. I don't think we can just put a Canadian team in unless we return to franchising, they should earn the right through promotion like every other club assuming the model stays the way it is now. If they were put in they would have to be protected from relegation otherwise it is a pointless venture.

Long term I'd love to see a northern hemisphere competition with teams from the US, Canada, Celtic nations and other European countries however it would have to run as a franchise with feeder leagues in each country, this then runs the risk of alienating a lot of clubs and their supporters.

It's about time the RFL set a long term direction and plan for the sport and actually stuck to it, this HAS to include a set international calendar.

I agree.

The major plus point with franchising should have been the option of being to add any new/strong clubs that could sustain a competitive club in the comp, together with dropping any failing franchises.
Unfortunately, we have now moved to a whole new convoluted system which in theory allows for promotion and relegation but, this becomes an automatic barrier/deterrent for any new players.
Of course, many wold argue that clubs should be in the top flight on playing merit and maybe this is right but, it all depends on whether we want the game to expand and compete seriously for advertising and TV revenue.

Lets face it, despite being told that we have a cracking TV deal with Sky, we are getting very little from advertising and TV rights compared with other sports.

What we have done with the sport over the past few years, is to reduce the number of clubs in the top flight and make it more difficult for any additional clubs to join the party and this is at a time when the party line, is to expand the sport

The problem was that there weren't enough strong clubs to sustain a 14-club league. In the future there might be.

Admitting clubs into League 1 seems like the right way to go, allow them to earn their way to SL.

One thing that does need looking at is the Salary Cap. We have clubs competing with each other in the Qualifiers on different caps, and Toronto will have a different cap to anyone else. We need to try and make it as consistent as possible, perhaps even levelling the max cap across all 3 leagues, but with clubs only able to spend a max of 50% of their revenue on player wages? I'm not sure, but doesn't seem fair at the moment.

Superleague teams sorted, what about the canadian team!

Well Jean, 20 years is an awful long time, and there's a reasonable chance I won't still be here then, but I've copied this and put a reminder in my calendar for May 2036. Let's see how things lie then!!

Because, people tune into Sky to watch us, no one cares about watching Wakefield except the 45 rugby league fans in wakefield. This means that SKY get the audience share they crave which means Wakefield get money from the SKY deal.

Kind regards

King James

By 'us' do you mean St Helens?

Using the word parochial in every other message doesn't make you appear more intelligent ....

Not before Quebec has it's own league.

If only this guy posted more often and not your moronic persona.

I actually (finally) agree with something you say.

I think it would be great if it came off, but I do think we should be looking at a conference style competition, where teams play predominantly their more local rivals but mixed with a smattering of games in other conferences, in the same way that baseball and American football works.

In fact, I wrote an article about a similar idea back in April, as a discussion point. A conference system would suit very much a worldwide game. [urlhttp://seriousaboutrl.com/super-league/rl-new-era-going-well-so-far[/url

Suckers!

It's gonna happen. The RLWC was a sellout simply because of the excitement of foreign players/teams.

All of those naysayers that say it wouldn't shouldn't happen are lost. There's enough second level players in the NRL from different nationalities to start populating new teams around the globe, together with UK players.

Likely teams :

1 x more from France
1 x more from Canada
2 x USA

Likely outcomes :

- more TV rights into the game
- bigger crowds in the UK, over time
- more interest in more TV games / RFL revenues grow
- strengthening sponsorship
- a stronger global competition
- something for younger players to aspire to, bringing more into the game
- competition to Rugby Union in England, France, Canada and USA

C'mon guys, The times are changing. Get behind it.

Good article on a website I have never previously heard of! I think there is some merit in the conference idea that you suggested. I like it!

Indeed, a conference system as part of a worldwide game is so obviously the answer.

Id definitely back a conference system, perfect way of developing teams and would mean that those teams could get a place in World Club Series which would get some decent publicity.

One place I have mentioned a number of times on here is for a team in Spain, specifically Barcelona. Catalans played there a few years ago and got a decent crowd in and the national team is really coming on, reaching the last stage of the WC qualifying after only existing for 3 years. Would be a perfect marketing tool when they played Catalans to really big it us as a derby and at least get people talking about the game in Spain. Plus there are loads of ex-pats there so some of them might go along, especially when English teams went there.

It would be better if all teams had a second team instead of farming out duel reg. players.

Italy could have teams in the French comps without much trouble you would think.
Some northern Italian towns are spitting distance away from the areas where league is played in France, and Northern Italy is where the majority of Italians in Australia hail from.
Italy already has a couple of comps, but they could lift their standards by playing sides like Toulouse and Pia.

I'd like to see a mixture of P&R with licensing in a conference system.

Eastern, Western and World.

The World conference to be licensed, so the likes of Catalans and Toulouse can be protected and can grow the game in their areas.

Eastern and Western conferences to have P&R via a MPG between the bottom team in each conference.

8 team straight knock out playoff between the top two from each conference and the 2 teams left with the most points (or the top of each each group and 5 teams with the most points thereafter).