Agreed it is daft AND immoral and I hope it flops.

Frank, isn't it your 'horlicks & bedtime' now fella ?

Surely the way forward is city based franchises on top of 8 strong existing sides. It's worked for big bash cricket and slightly differently for Wasps. The future for family sports is more likely to mix a game with a meal or other entertainment. Grounds with good access to city centres would surely get a good crowd with the right marketing.

Totally agree Man City, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Toulouse, Toronto, Paris, London East and West, Cardiff, Newcastle and Sheffield would be a brilliant SL comp. Leaving us to rough it with Wigan, Wire, Saints, Widnes etc in a regional RL comp.

As we found out though under franchising there is no incentive to do well. Most teams are unlikely to win so they're better off pocketing the money & gradually declining year after year. The quality of the competition drops & competitiveness between the top & bottom teams disappears & interest in the sport trails away. RL has been there, done that & found it the disaster it could only ever have been. The way forward is for SL to have the best 12 (or however many) teams in Britain (or Europe or wherever) and that's it.

The RFL was on the right track a few years ago with the new English League 1 expansion clubs they just need more money (as oppose to being made to trail half way across the globe). Couple that with regular well promoted internationals is the way to grow the game.

Not sure what information you're going off here but this isn't some kind of RFL initiative, it's being 100% organized and funded by the Canadians including accommodation and away travel for the visiting British teams. As far as I know the only thing the RFL have to do with this is accepting their application to play in the UK competition, which apparently was unanimously voted through by the League 1 clubs.

Failure written all over it.

Full stop !

So the Toronto Wolfpack it is! Can I just state here and now that Leigh will ALWAYS be my first team! If any of you come out for a game, then PM me....

So it WAS his £thics and moral$ behind his departure from Leigh

Leave him alone he had per$onal rea$on$ for leaving!

If some daft rich Canadian is funding it all, and it costs nothing for everyone else, don't see any issue.
As long as they are also putting aside money for the guys who also work for a living away from rugby.

I hope they prove you wrong.

I think it's a fantastic idea and think it will kick start Rugby League across North America.

Really looking forward to the away day. Canada is my favourite part of the world, apart from Yorkshire, obviously.

I

I hope they do too.

We cant get the expansion right in the UK never mind Canada !

Lots of money sloshing around and the pound signs certainly a factor for some.

It will be another team of greedy players wanting a final pay day along with greedy coaches wanting the same.

If 1-17 are Canadians, fair enough. I bet they arnt though and be prepared to see some 'tapped up' Leigh players next year. Lets just relocate Keighley to Toronto !

A few people owe Derek & the club an apology, when everything was going on people were lining up to call the club a circus & say the press releases should stop & make the club look amateur, turns out they were all true!

No wonder Rowley & Brierley got on so well, turns out their "principles" is mainly the principle that it's OK to walk out on a contract at the worst possible time if someone offers you some more money. Ah well, honestly think Reynolds & Jukes are doing a better job anyway.

I see there is a rumour that the Championship 1 SC rules are going to be changed. I am sure that is not being done just to benefit Toronto

Not sure how all the costs incurred to part time players & clubs run by volunteers can be properly worked out but any money put in is always welcome. However I still think this is a backwards step for the expansion of the game. I still think the right thing to do was what was being done with the new expansion teams, seems we've given them 2 years now and given up on them instead of supporting them on what should have been a 10 year project to expand the game in Britain. League 1 should be for the development of small British clubs & the focus should be to help them develop not to treat them as an after thought as so often seems to happen. Foreign leagues that want to have teams play in the English leagues should apply for the top teams in their league to join the League 1 promotion playoffs. That way if they could show they are good enough they can join at a more sustainable level, but still have to compete to avoid relegation back to their national league.

How is it possibly a backwards step? You have millionaires wanting to set up a professional club in one of the best cities in the world and you think it's a backwards step?



How does this damage the existing League One clubs? The likes of Hemel and South Wales will have a bigger profile than ever before. Their travel and accommodation costs are being paid by the Canadians. There is no expense to them. The League One clubs unanimously voted for the Canadians to be accepted.

We've all said for years that if Americans or Canadians got a glimpse of RL they would love it and want a piece. Now that appears to have happened, and you're saying it's a backwards step. Unbelievable.

He means the expansion of the game in the UK. But then, it is much easier for supporters of existing clubs to support expansion in Bristol or Birmingham, where it will be likely many years before they gather enough momentum to worry the likes of Leigh. With Toronto, within 3 years, they will either have been Leigh's biggest threat to a place at the SL trough and possibly beat them to it, OR the whole thing will have completely blown up! With my Leigh hat on, I'm very worried! With my Toronto hat on, I'm ecstatic!

How will a team from Toronto help enhance the profile of Hemel Stags RLFC?



The problem is that these clubs are barely scraping by with a handful of fans & a tiny squad of part time players are already being expected to go & play a full time Toulouse & now are expected to face a very well financed Toronto too.

As I've said a few times I've no objection to Canadian or French teams or American or Italian or wherever. I just object to how it's being done. It comes down to the purpose of each league. For me League 1 (& the French Elite league & the Canadian league) should be all about supporting new growing clubs & small clubs who've fallen on hard times grow & get sustainable again. SL should be the best 12 teams in the Northern Hemisphere. The Championship should bridge the gap. Toronto, Toulouse & whoever should come in at the level of the League 1 play offs & be trying to qualify for The Championship.

Promoting the game in the Americas could well be massively important for Rugby League, I really hope the game is a success over there, on a previous post I've even suggested playing a 4 Nations tournament there. However I really don't see how putting a team like Toronto looks likely to be & a team like Toulouse is in a league with South Wales Scorpions and Gloucestershire All Golds does anyone any good.

I read an article a couple of weeks ago, suggesting that the squad would initially comprise French and British players.

Today, Jamie Peacock announced (at the age of 3icon_cool.gif that he almost went to play for them. Presumably he changed his mind when he heard that loads of rough, indisciplined Leythers would be going there too!!

I think Hemel would benefit much more from playing in front of a big crowd in a major global city than from playing in front of 400 fans in Hunslet. And I also think people in Hemel would be a lot more interested to watch a team from Toronto than the likes of Hunslet or Keighley.

I understand what you're saying but the idea of them being put straight in the League 1 playoffs just isn't realistic, what would they do for the rest of the year? There's no downside to them being in the league other than them being too big for it, the alternative would be to put clubs like Toronto and Toulouse straight into Super League and that is a system that everyone seemed to hate, and I know it would absolutely enrage people from places like Leigh. At least this way if they fail and withdraw from the league after one season then nobody will really care and the sport doesn't lose anything from it.

In 2018, Chad Invincibles will be the 1st African team in the RFL....fantastic news !!

How many in Leigh's 1-17 are from Leigh? And we've had 100 years to grow home-grown talent!
Hopefully they can find half a dozen Canadians who can compete at Championship 1 level fairly quickly...but to expect 1-17 North American content..well on that basis we shouldn't have any overseas players in British rugby league!

How is being too big for it,going to manage a 250k cap? That for me is the problem.They'll need a pretty big squad to play matches here in batches of four/five weeks,all fulltime players all expenses paid..Just how can they manage all that on a 250k cap?

NO salary cap for Toronto Invaders.... The club will not receive central funding from the RFL but are likely to get special dispensation to exceed the salary cap to enable them to run a full-time team and have pledged to cover all costs of visiting teams, who will fly out on a Thursday, play on Saturday and return the following day. nicked from www.sportinglife.com

NO salary cap for Toronto Invaders.... The club will not receive central funding from the RFL but are likely to get special dispensation to exceed the salary cap to enable them to run a full-time team and have pledged to cover all costs of visiting teams, who will fly out on a Thursday, play on Saturday and return the following day. nicked from www.sportinglife.com