I feel sympathy for Toronto. Like I feel sympathy for everyone who has gone bust or struggled because of this virus. Being in Super League was always going to be a financial challenge & the latest problems have proved too much. My main concern is the that Sky might now reduce their input with less games now being shown on TV.

Or add other games instead, well i hope so


I'm in full Vulture mode at the minute looking at what scraps we can have, I'd love Brad Singleton but a cheaper possibility would be Gadwin Springer for the rest of the season. His last game he was dominating with massive tackles and aggressive runs. Could be a good oportunity to boost our forwards for the year
BUT with us signing Latu and bringing Widdop in this year and looking at our squad we more than likely don't have any room under the cap now anyway. Unless a dispensation rule comes in to affect to help Players find a club to keep them getting paid etc ?

Dom's powers of prediction are legendary, of course.

What next? https://www.timescolonist.com/sports/to ... 1.24174952

What next? https://www.timescolonist.com/sports/to ... 1.24174952

Quote ="Aldy"What next? https://www.timescolonist.com/sports/to ... 1.24174952'" Comes across as an absolute scam... anybody daft enough to throw money this guy's way needs their head examining. He's like Michael Knighton, Allan Stanford and Robert Maxwell rolled up into one package...

Quote ="Aldy"What next? https://www.timescolonist.com/sports/to ... 1.24174952'" Comes across as an absolute scam... anybody daft enough to throw money this guy's way needs their head examining. He's like Michael Knighton, Allan Stanford and Robert Maxwell rolled up into one package...

So we lose 2 points as Toronto are removed from 2020. That must mean another team will definitely be joining us in SL I thought we may run with 11 and teams getting a by against them. If they do decide to run with 11 we should get those points back.

How exactly are you working that out?

Anybody who has played Toronto has that result removed from its record. Nobody else is going to play them. Everybody then will have played 20 games come season's end - it's that simple.

Not sure how you believe we should then get those points back?

i dunno, i wish the memory of that match could be expunged from my brain, bloody awful night.

Correct. All of Toronto's results for 2020 will be expunged from the record meaning that we have played 6, won 3, lost 3. The season will now be 20 games with the top 4 playing off in a straight knock out (Semi Final / Grand Final).

Toronto had played, and lost, 6 games (Warrington, Leeds, Wigan, Castleford, Saints and Salford). The other clubs, who hadn't yet played Toronto, would have had the advantage of an extra week off except that all, apart from Hull FC and KR, have got fixtures to catch up.

Boot em out its embarrassing get Leigh or Widnes back in the top flight at least they'll fill the away more than Toronto will av...when crowds are allowed are back in of course

I imagine Toronto will be in Super League next season. I'd be very surprised if they go with 11 teams in 2021, and the RFL won't just 'place' a championship side in SL.

Toronto dropping out this season is probably the best result for all. We had too many games to play in too short a time meaning greater risk of players suffering serious injury. I imagine that the Challenge Cup is still going ahead in order to retain the sponsership money?

Toronto weren't receiving any of the TV money so their business model has collapsed. Pulling out was probably their only chance of survival (and I'm not certain that even this will be enough). We may yet see Super League clubs going into receivership before next season.

The question as to whether or not a non European, or even a non UK, club should be in Super League is an entirely seperate issue from Covid. Personally I'm far from convinced.

Yeh makes sense. Obviously i wasn't thinking about it that way. I blame working all hrs for nhs brain gets frazzled

Keep up the good work, Shaz!

Looks like Argyle is using Toronto's withdrawal from this years comp as a way of levering money for next year. Whether he would prepared to walk away and fold the club if he gets a flat NO is the question. Also would the 11 be prepared to cough up a percentage of the TV money to keep Toronto going? Unlikely in the present circumstances but also unlikely that Argyle would be prepared to throw away the enormous sum of money he has invested to get the club to where it is.

Why weren't Toronto getting the money from sky anyway.I don't really get why? Can anyone explain please?

Because they're not a member, only a guest. Seeing that Argyle is worth a cool $Billion, the central funding is just Chicken feed. He's also after a place on Melbourne Storms board. However, any money he can get his hands on, he'll take.

The more we learn of Argyle, the more I sense he is a huge chancer.

Let's face it, there's no club loyalty with this bloke, in the same way many owners of UK clubs are actually supporters of their's - this is a money making venture for a guy used to making money. The location of his 'club' is irrelevant. He would just as likely put money into Leigh or Featherstone if he believed that he could make cash from it.

The latest ploy of getting the general public to fund the club says one thing- he is fed up of throwing his cash down a hole and wants other people's cash in a last attempt to save what he has already wasted.

Time for the British RL to tell these venture capitalists to remove themselves from our league. If there is really potential in North America, then let them do it off their own back and not attempt so, whilst embarrassing our league.

If we want to invest and back expansion, then let's make it work in the UK before we dream of helping out non existent sides in other countries.

Totally agree.

I just see a feckin mess....and could get messier.
I’m not convinced Covid-19 won’t be around for sometime.
I envisage clubs going pop and SL being left with half the clubs at present. I’d even say a re-structure back to semi-pro looks to be the only way to survive, and a few championship teams Coming into SL to make up the numbers. I recon Catalan would go into the French Elite with Toulouse.
No way can I see the government bailing out sports teams a second or prolong this first time. They cannot keep directing some money away from desperation elsewhere.
That goes for football clubs too.

I'm agreeing with most of that. Even more reason why any thoughts of expansion need dashing pretty quickly and we need to preserve what we already have.

How a sport with such a poor record, in normal times, for expansion success, can believe it can achieve, with a global league, what no other sport has ever managed, is pretty baffling.

So many variables at the moment but undoubtedly challenging times ahead for RL (and a lot of other sports / industries).

When something like this happens it exposes the underlying weaknesses i.e. the businesses most likely to fail are those which were already in decline. I really didn’t have much confidence in the Toronto model and I didn’t expect them to be around 5 years from now even before Covid. I’m not sure what is going to happen to the travel industry but I do expect costs to rise which will hit Catalan. I think that people will also be less enthusiastic about travelling abroad which will result in a reduction in gate receipts from away fans who like to make a weekend of it.

Until the end of 2019 it was all about globalisation. Relatively cheap air travel meant that, in many cases, we were enjoying more than one foreign holiday per year. Long haul travel was nothing special and in my job I managing teams and customers none of whom were in the UK. There will be a certain amount of bounce back but, for a few years at least, I expect the world to become a bigger, rather than a smaller, place. Having a sport centred around the M62 corridor may not be such a bad thing.

I know alot of people aren't fans but i preferred the licensing systems. 3 years to produce home grown talent build a fan base etc i really loved the idea. The NRL has the same teams with no relegation and they're thriving.
I know it's different over there with football and Union dominating over here, but Australias population is only 25 million, we're at about 65million but can't expand our game, keep the same systems, can't decide on rules, can't decide whether to have relegation and promotion or licensing etc
Rather than having a set sport and saying this is our game and this is how it's run, we're like a start up company that has no idea what it's doing yet.
Until we can sort out the basic most fundamentals we shouldn't even bother with trying to expand, we're trying to sprint at full speed but can't even walk yet, it's beyond a joke and absolutely highlights why we're a dying sport. A sport that i love beyond anything else but am losing interest slightly more each year. It's really sad

Absolutely mate

I've been watching our glorious sport since the late 50's. Did I find it less enjoyable or exciting playing workington, Dewsbury, etc, when most teams were semi-pro? True, skill and fitness were not at today's level, but watching your team play,provided the effort is apparent, will always be a joy.