Hope not been there done that hardly any fans dont bring much to the super league imo

Sad day in my opinion and I’ve always been a big supporter of the Toronto project however it’s probably the right call when you look at the incompetence of their first owner and the perceived arrogance of the potential new owner and his failure to put any real effort in to the pitch to save the club and jobs of players, and staff connected to the club.

I hope it becomes a lessons learned exercise for Ottawa Aces and also the proposed New York franchise. If we as a sport do it right I am sure we can get a slice of the massive North American market with our product.

Moving forward I can’t see realistically how you could promote anyone. Most teams will be well on their way to finalising their 2021 squads. There won’t be a enough quality players on the market to make them anywhere near competitive even at the lower end of the table.

Not saying I agree with London but just think that the “expansionists” May push for London

Tolouse or York should be in 100%

I'm not against expansion but it has to be right and it has to be at the right time. Catalans was, this wasn't.

I also think that we need to get our house in order first. How does bringing a club into the league from Canada stop crowds from dropping at the elite clubs?

Let's fix our problems before we look at introducing teams from Timbucktoo and beyond.

A covid free 2020 season with Toronto playing in Super League would have added some sparkle and fizz to the sport.

Only time would have told whether that fizz was Champagne or Pomagne.

Sadly we will never know. One thing I do know.... this sport is in a pretty dire downward spiral (even before Covid). There will be casualties.

Disappointing but not surprising.
It's a difficult time to think of expansion but with clubs like Toulouse and York appearing to be asking to be promoted then perhaps we should go with those clubs and their cities.

Poison chalice for me promotion in 2021 without the time to recruit properly.

Run with 11 next year back to 12 in 2022.

Stagnant and non growing clubs like Leigh or Featherstone preferred over Toronto just sums up RL and why we’ll always be a minority sport. Utterly ridiculous.

After making Toronto start at the very bottom of the league structure,how ridiculous is it that they are being treated in this way.The potential new owner said that he was prepared to cover all the players expenses that were owed,who pays those players now that he won't be taking over.Who is going to come up into Super League to make it a 12 team league again.This is a complete embarrassment yet again for our great game

They ran out of money after 3 years.

Yet teams like Fev never have had any money. Teams like Fev, Batley, Dewsbury and Keighley back in the 80's didn't have a pot to urinate into and would rub their hands with glee if drawn with Wigan in an early cup round as it meant a large (for them) pay day. Fev's average attendances for the last three years are around 2,300. It's an ex pit village where you could fit the population into the DW Stadium and still have ten thousand empty seats.

Kicking Toronto out of the league for lack of funding is rich when you look at the state of Cas & Wakey's grounds. They've been pulling the wool over the eyes of the sport for 25 years. It's always 'hopes to have a new stadium in two years'.

Frankly it's not good enough, the teams on this side of the pennines have got their ships in order. It's time Cas & Wakey do the same or ship out.

I agree with the above post by attracting teams like Tolouse and York, potential for growth.

same as salford but they got the challenge cup this year and grand final last year, Salford had an average of 400 fans more than leigh in 2019 and would have had hardly any away support compared to what Salford got.

It was on the cards almost as soon as they started. The Denver fiasco should have sounded the alarm, followed by the 2025 WC being taken away just proved there wasn't the base to provide the money. I wasn't a fan of the Dragons experiment (especially after that trip in 2006 & the 4 hour wait for the damned aircraft afterwards), but they've actually got that one right.
Give Toulouse relegation exemption for the same period & strengthen the European game overall. Then we might actually get some proper competititve internationals without traipsing across the planet.
& while they're at it, put the 2025 WC in & around the Pyrenees & have the final in Barcelona - that's a 2 or 3 week package I'd buy into.

Salford have made two finals in two years, hardly stagnant.

Cas and Wakey have been promising a new stadium since the day of Christ. Fev/Leigh are lucky to fill a stand.

The sooner we get out of the con that is Featherstone v Wakefield would attract the masses the better. Rugby league pulling out of Toronto has only given rise to RU to step in on the growing thunder of RL. Years from now we’ll bemoan hhow great and successful RU in America is whilst wondering why we never managed to get big. Well, here it is.

I'd have kept Toronto, but given some statements (if true) I can understand the reluctance of clubs to allow them to return. It's a massive step backwards and it proves the both the RFL & SL need to be overhauled in terms of his they "run" the game. I'd trust my 13 yr old westie to do a better job and he's currently snoring away at my feet.

If they go to 12 teams, I sense it needs to be a commercially driven decision. Unfortunately, money was tight before, now it's about as common as common sense in RL.

Personally I'd go to 14 teams, add York, Toulouse and one of London/Fev/Leigh, almost using the franchise system to decide viability and benefits to SL.

But Leigh and Fev have been in the championship, so they seem to be doing ti right off the pitch and not given the chances on it unlike Salford, give them the same time and resources and maybe you will get more as they are hotbeds for rugby. RU has been going for a lot longer than RL in America and still not booming so doubt it is going to take off due to Toronto failing. RL has hardly boomed since London (far bigger, richer and local than Toronto) was in SL, in fact id argue its gone backwards since expanding in both France, Wales and London.

RU are going into North America as a sport - not as a league & it's a massive difference that people really need to understand. The Gallagher Premiership have ventured over to the US, with a goal of finding new commercial partners, not to lay the groundwork for a US based Premiership side. The US has its own league and the focus of the IRB is to grow that league, not to assimilate it into something thousands of miles away. If RU gets big, then that's why.

I think the old saying "you don't build a house on shaky foundations" rings true for SL at this moment in time.

I've said it a million times, but if SL wants to grow then it needs to improve the product on the filed. The quest for competitiveness has come at the expense of quality. The RFL needs to look at Friday's game and say - that's the benchmark, how do we replicate that week on week and also improve on it?

Imo I'd actually like to see a league of 10 teams, with either licencing brought back or P&R scrapped. Let's build from a solid foundation of 10 quality teams, each with infrastructure like academies and possibly A-Teams. Deliver matches on the level of Friday week in an week out and the game will grow.

Thought would need to be given to filling the lost revenue of one home game per club, but that would be somewhat balanced out by the Sky money being distributed around a smaller number of clubs.

I posted on the VT regards the tv deal that too many clubs in RL are happy to sit and collect the tv money without actually doing anything and you've nailed it with the ones you mention.

Their downfalls don't mean a team in Canada with very little RL history are a good idea. We have tried converting RU players/fans in Wales and now gridiron in Canada.

Let's look closer to home. Toulouse, York or Newcastle for me but it has to be done as a long term project in the same way Catalans was.

Doing it right off the pitch? How? They get hardly any fans, and are lucky to have one full stand never mind stadium!

London are starting to produce academy products and promising ones as well. The problem isn’t in setting up a new club in “non heartland” cities; it’s the whole mantra of the sport. The whole way we actively want these clubs to fail and laugh when they do. How the RFL/SL constantly change tact, I’m a RL die hard and can barely keep up, how do we expect non RL fans to?

We sit and wonder why our sport isn’t growing as it should. Well which of these sounds like a match you’d want to watch? Leeds v Toronto or Castleford v Wakefield? Wigan v Newcastle or Salford v Featherstone? London v Toronto or Huddersfield v Hull KR?

The sooner we rid the game of the flat cappers who bemoan the fact we’re a northern sport with no money whilst also laughing at and celebrating the demise of a truly innovative and forward thinking expansionist club, the better. For too long they’ve held the sport back.

Toulouse have just released a 4 minute video that can be found on YouTube outlining the reasons why they should be in. I’ve got to be honest it sold the idea to me but maybe I’m an easy win. To me they bring the most to the table from a growth point of view but people will have reasons for not wanting them in. We need a stronger France to kick the game on and the opportunity is there to help facilitate that.

Well worth a watch (not a clue how to post the link).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h7R1K41eNOc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h7R1K41eNOc

I’d have Toulouse in.

Don’t get me wrong, Toronto were less than ideal. The ideal situation was a pro AMNRL league but realistically that takes years if not decades to build and get going, even longer to get the standards of play up to scratch and youth systems in place (something which rather embarrassingly flat cappers wanted immediately from Toronto).

I’d like to see Newcastle, London and York in there as well but the talent spread just isn’t there as it stands.

Like I said for a championship side they had 3200 last year as an average against 3600 at Salford with more away support, Cas V wakey out of them games, but you want a team In Toronto who ran out of money?......flat clappers are putting more into the sports than the flash in the pan men who are doing it for publicity or hobby instead of love of the sport

When was the last time anything Fev did make the news? Get people talking and interested?

I’ll wait.

Yes I want a team in Toronto. I also want teams in every major city in the world. Why do you not? Why do you want a sport confined to the M62 and two Australian states?

Doing it for publicity is EXACTLY what the sport needs. Eric Perez did it for the love of the sport and the publicity. To get our sport out there to the masses in North America, to get it international recognition, to bring in more money and new fans. To turn people’s heads and get them interested. All of which he achieved. They ran out of money due to a pandemic that no one could plan for. They weren’t entitled to any money from the RFL or the Gvt. Were they mismanaged? Absolutely. They ran before they could walk but they added a new interest to RL and actually widened the sports appeal.

But yeah, let’s bring in Fev or Leigh who are doing alright in the championship