Quote ="Willzay"None. It's something that the ultra expansionists don't seem to realise. Believe it or not I'm not against expansion I would love to see London, Oxford, Newcastle play in SL but the RFL don't seem to have or care for a long term plan in these places. They've just got dollar signs in their eyes.'"
RL dont seem to have a plan for any of this.
The North American thing is being driven by Eric Perez and not by The RFL.
OK they must have agreed that the North American clubs can compete in "our" league but, they have no ide how to promote the game or sell the sport for anything like a decent price to Sky and that is the thing.
IF SL could include 2 North American clubs and 2 French clubs in an expanded SL and there was a substantial increase in funding, where is the problem ?
Ultimately this will mean more opportunities for people wanting to make their way in the game and whilst there would be some kind of player "drain" from down under or over here, IF, there is a heap more cash coming in, then, why not ?
IF, of course, there is no extra brass coming in and we are slashing and burning the domestic comp, just to try and attract clubs stuffed full of "over the hill" Aussies then, we just shouldn't entertain them as it would dilute a game which is on it's and desperately in need of higher revenue.
We've seen clubs like Paris, dropped into the game and spectacularly fail but, that doesnt mean that we should be happy with a shrinking game, dropping further and further down the sporting pecking order.
If the game doesn't grow, it will die.
Whether this is the right thing, I dont know but, Perez seems to have more drive and ambition than all the RFL put together, something we haven't seen in the game since Maurice Lindsay was around.
