Lighten up a bit! I appreciate TWP have a good fan base but not all of them have knowledge in depth of the players, who they are, and how long they have been around.
SBW will mean nothing to a lot of them BUT mention him to 95% of fans in SL and they would know him - I wasn't being disrespectful to them, I wouldn't expect them to have knowledge of players going back years!

Toronto SLFC are still a bit of a novelty, Belly, and remember the city has a population of nearly 3,000,000. A !0,000 gate represents just 1/300th of the potential. Trinity's crowd of average 5,000 represents about 1/20th.

Agreed cosmicat, Trinity attendances are pathetic. The citizens of Wakefield have always been apathetic to spectator sport, but attendances of 10,000 in a city of 3,000,000 isn't all that good is it?

With the squad being put together with the financial constraints Trinity have compared to Toronto I think Trinity are more likely to be successful on the pitch which will lead to improved attendances.

Family ticket deals would lead to increased attendances as well as the purchase of drinks, food, programmes and club merchandise which would increase club revenue....


Trinity are affected by a small claims court civil claim whilst Toronto allegedly pay £2 million plus per year to one ageing RU player....Trinity don't appear to have the finances to even pay up to the salary cap limit for the entire squad which would be the equivalent of SBW pay. It could be a very expensive mistake were he to pick up a serious injury at the start of the season....

Didn’t mean to come across as harsh if that’s how you took it

I just don’t buy that only 5% of the regular 9k fans will know who SBW is after following them for 4 years

No problem - you may be right!

Well it’s official SBW is a Toronto player

awesome news for the league - can only bring in more sponsors and money.

I am hearing they may have VAL HOLMES as well.

on the pitch I still think they will be fighting relegation but who knows

Daddycool I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this ?

well that's the cap smashed

Not at all snowie .......
`The Wolfpack, a club owned by Australian mining tycoon David Argyle, have made Williams one of their two permitted marquee players on a deal believed to be worth £5m over two years.

It will make him the highest paid player in the history of either code, but his marquee status means that only the first £150,000 of his salary will count towards the club's salary cap.`

cover it up how you like

For me, the prospect of big signings was always one of the main plus points about Toronto getting promoted, but never expected it to be SBW. I know he's past his best and raises eyebrows about salary cap, but still looking forward to seeing him play at BV - can't grumble really.

It clearly doesn't bust the cap - the marquee rule has no upper limit on what a player can be paid; it just exempts anything above 150k from the cap.

The more that people complain about this, the more bitter and insular they will appear. Toronto have made a big splash - it has attracted international attention - and the risk is entirely theirs. I don't see what the issue is.

but how many players can be marquee is it not two the ruling, Darcy Lussick, Ricky Leutele and now Williams are all marquee are they not, while I agree he will be good for the game there are rules to abide by and were getting to the point where turning a blind eye will in the end break it,
just look at what happened to Bradford on the way they spent

I don't know; if the limit is two, and SBW is one, that suggests that at least one of the other two isn't a marquee player.

TBH it's a good point because i didn't realise Lussick was a marquee player but he is. So that means they have 3 now, isn't 2 the max? I'm confused.

Just read an article on sporting Life and it says this


Firstly I didmn't know Money Bill was getting a piece of Toronto and how can they be confident of getting a 3rd Marquee player permitted?

I hadn't seen that - and it changes things; if the rule is two, and they already have two, then there are questions to answer.

Both Darcy Lussick and Ricky Leutele are marquee - My guess is that they will get rid of one? I think with SBW coming from Union his wage does not count on the cap for the first year anyway.

SBW will count on cap as only union players who have not previously played league are exempt from cap for 1st year

This Salary Cap thing is positively byzantine; no wonder poor old Leeds got so muddled up!

Seems quite straight forward to me Bren, it is when you start looking at various loop holes that it gets complicated.