Whinges about the lack of Toronto fans not travelling 3000+ miles across the Atlantic and paying out thousands of pounds... Can't be d going to London to support his own team.

Some absolute beauties on here.

OK Leeds are safe, but still a terrible result for them

I genuinely don't think their were any 'fans' who travelled from Canada, there were maybe 50 people cheering Toronto but I would bet they were a mix of Canadians who live in Leeds and had no idea what was going, and people from West Yorkshire who don't like Leeds and came to see the game out of curiosity.

I don't think the problem with Toronto is their away support, the problem is that it is another waste of time gamble by the rfl that will go nowhere and distract from actual real ways the sport can grow, just like a Paris team or a test in Denver.

2 things making you look a bit stupid here:

1- Perpignan is a relatively poor town of similar size to Halifax

2- Catalan was originally added to the league for two main reasons: to help the French develop a stronger national team and to grow French support of the game. By these barometers they have failed miserably, as they become ever more reliant on imports and couldn't fill half their allocation for the CC final.

A bit like Wigoon then with an abundance of pie shops.Pity you don't have coffee shops for your disgraceful new full back.

A bit like Wigoon then with an abundance of pie shops.Pity you don't have coffee shops for your disgraceful new full back.

1. The Dragons have an average attendance that is better than most 'heartland' clubs. Judging their support on the basis of how many fans can find the disposable income for an August Bank Holiday trip to Wembley is hardly representative.

2. Where was this ever publicised as a reason for introducing a French club to SL? Making Catalans somehow 'responsible' for the success of the National Team is like saying Warrington is a waste of time because the England team hasn't beaten Australia.

Catalans are not the FFRXIII. They don't run the national team they don't employ idiots like Bobby Goulding as coach and they physically can't be responsible for the development of a whole country's talent (if we're holding them to that standard, then we should hold other clubs to that standard - and Julie Burgess uterus is performing better than most SL clubs at contributing talent to the national team).

Why do fans in the heartlands struggle to see Calatans for what they really are - a club in their own right?

OK Budge. I'm going to at least try and engage in the discussion with you, because whilst I don't agree with the way the poster has put it, I agree with the sentiment.

It's no secret that I think the sport needs to find new audiences. In RL, we have clubs that are OK at talking to the people that already buy the product, but not at people who don't (all clubs, not just the smaller ones, are guilty of this). Why is that a problem? Well, it stunts growth - our audience is getting older, and we aren't engaging and keeping fans to replace them. And our audience is one that doesn't have a lot of spending power, and is one that advertisers can reach very cheaply through new media - less than £50 per thousand in some cases.

That reflects in our TV deals and sponsorship agreements. If we have an audience with low spending power and one that can be reached very cheaply, the sport only really appeals to sponsors that are largely banned from those cheaper advertising platforms - like bookmakers. And the same applies to Sky - they aren't going to pay us more when the value of ad slots around RL content is getting lower.

So what audiences do we need to attract? Younger, urban audiences with spending power who are generally harder for advertisers to reach - and they live in big cities. That's the nature of the modern service economy.

So the future of this sport as a professional entity is not necessarily in Toronto or Toulouse or any other city in particular, but it is in cities generally. It's in crowded media markets that advertisers are willing to pay money to reach. Unfortunately, in SL right now, we only have one of those - Leeds (I'm not getting into the Salford / Manchester debate).

Toronto is not necessarily THE answer to that issue, and it comes with huge risks, but it is currently one of the few answers that we have.

I'd be more than happy if the existing heartland clubs could prove themselves adept at reaching those valuable audiences, but they just aren't. York have shown that it's not difficult to reach new people, but the reason why places like Toronto are on the agenda in the first place is because there are so few clubs like them.

Congrats to Toronto. They've done their part, now it's a case of seeing how other results fall for them. But I think they'll still go up via the MPG against London if that's what it comes to.

I’ve watched Toronto numerous times and found them to be genuinely awful. Just another Legh from a few years ago under Rowley; clearly the best collection of players in the Championship, should easily get promoted [and didn’t in Leigh’s case, it was getting rid of Rowley that saw them promoted and I thought the same would happen to Toronto.

Toronto have loooed exactly the same for me all season. Just another boring Rowley side, more interested in bullying the opposition than playing decent rugby. But you can’t do that against SL teams. Wire showed Rowley up for this twice in the Challenge Cup, once with Leigh and once with Toronto.

Until last night... that’s the first time Toronto have looked a decent side in my eyes. Okay Leeds are poor, but Toronto looked every part a bottom four side in Super League. Fair play.

I can still actually see Hull KR giving Widnes a good hiding and London the same to Halifax, the Million Pound Game will then be Toronto v London in Toronto.

But for the first time I see there may be something about Toronto.

You really should drop the fans business it is old boring and incorrect.

Fans are only important for one thing making a ground look full so it gives some TV impact when the cameras are there.

If a club has 10 fans but a £5 million pound deal for sponsorship and they let everyone in for nothing that it is 10 tomes better than a club having a £100k sponsorship deal and 3000 fans for 11 games.

Do the maths.


Money in sport is about TV deals and sponsorship paying fans are fairly unimportant.

Have you heard of RU or cricket it is all about TV deals and selling little electronic boxes that sit under televisions


They may not have levetricity or broadband where you come from but it is the future