Quote: jakeyg95 "I think it's worked quite well for Toronto personally. Most of their fans have absolutely no idea about rugby league at all so they're not particularly bothered that they're playing Whitehaven instead of Wigan. They're just going for the spectacle at the minute, which I think works better with the team winning every week and scoring loads of points. The fact that their crowds have gone up slightly as the season has gone on shows that the people going don't really care that none of the games are much of a contest. The fans will start to appreciate the increased level of competition as they're exposed to the game more which will also coincide with their games becoming more competitive.
It would have been a disaster to just throw them straight into Super League and expect people from Toronto to turn up in numbers each week to watch a sport they know nothing about and their team to mostly lose quite comfortably.'"
i can't agree, i think people would be much more interested in actual contests. People may not be all that familiar with RL, but nor are they stupid. I think its obvious and most are well aware of the standard of competition that they are in.
I think you are working backwards from Toronto's success and putting it down to them being at a low standard. Lets be honest here, Toronto have played a total of 7 home games, how would fans have learnt about these walkovers to be attracted by them? Their success is entirely down to the effort in sales, marketing and PR that the club have made and it is important that we recognise that because it is failings in these areas that effect nearly all clubs, not that they arent putting 80pts on the opposition every week.