Its interesting as historically Sky was part of the Murdoch empire via 20th Century Fox but was sold to Comcast for a large amount of money in 2018.

Talksport are part of Murdochs newscorp.

This could be a case of people leaking to their old pals at newscorp to help drive down the cost of RL.

Then again Comcast might want to rationalise their output, and concentrate on a few key sports.

Baseball season runs for roughly same period as RL, and they may deam it cheaper to just fill the space left by RL with Baseball matches.

Have a gander at the maps for SL & The RFL Championship on Wiki, then look at the top 2 tiers of Union on wiki......and point out any similarities in the top 24 of each game.....that ain't no morror

Some good examples of the differences in attitudes in our games.

The final part includes a lack of knowledge the average RL fan has of the size of club Union the days. When you factor in the 10 Celtic sides, 2 Italian sides and 14 French clubs also, you see how dwarfed we really are.

And I can tell you now, regressing to a little Northern comp isn't going to be the answer. It'll be the beginning of the end.

This is, sadly, only too true.

I'd counter that plopping teams into random North American cities isn't either.

As much as the Troll in Chief, Jean prattles on about them, Toulouse would be a fine addition to SL. They have done the hard yards and would benefit from a couple of years "relegation free" as Catalans did, to cement themselves as a viable pathway for French Talent.

Toronto Wolfpack is the exact opposite of what we need. All TWP have has done is offer a wage to journeymen players and run a few fun-days with beer.....there is still little of any interest in Rugby League in Toronto and they have freely admitted that a separate TV deal or Player Development will not be happening in the near future.....so they deliver nothing other than a different ground to visit if you can swallow about a grand for a week away in Toronto.

Sadly, it's my belief that if SL do flog off some of the family silver to a VC company in January, you can be damned sure that Toronto (or Catalan for that matter) will not be receiving a cent. More likely, SL will shrink to 10 English Clubs, P&R will be put on hold for a decade and the game in the UK outside the top tier as well as France will suffer for it.

I doubt I could be ar$ed with a 10 team comp and the sheer repetitiveness it would entail, particularly if played out in half empty plastic grounds in northern towns. Toronto may not be the answer but they're far from being the biggest problem,

Ten teams doesn't float my boat either, and I can't see how it is commercially viable, it might work for Sky if they cover every game every week.

Whoops, you've done it again giving the guy the oxygen of a name check and the opportunity to reply to that and troll you again. Entirely up to you sir!!

Thanks for an interesting post but I'm not too much in agreement. Anyway the issue of a "viable pathway for french talent" was to me cemented by Les Catalans team in the academy, That came about what? 10 years after they started in 2006 with a remit to be French to bolster the French International side. But they never did bolster the french side and the the TEST matches we were chasing came but were a disaster and were abandoned years ago. The academy is now abandoned. As for their Superleague side look at the squad. If Casty and Yaha are unfit they can easily pick a full near first choice side with no French players in it and only the odd ones amongst the subs.

We were being told by Perez and all his apologists it'll take 15 years to see SL quality Canadian players coming through, yet the French ones are hardly coming through even though they have always had an established game and junior systems. Adding Toulouse won't increase the number of quality French players. Catalans already raid Toulouse for what they have.

Catalans have a team full of English and Aussies to be able to compete yet they don't at times compete well. What on earth are Toulouse going to do on promotion to be able to compete? If they play their championship side it will be slaughtered, if they follow Catalans then another dozen English players are off to France to form their team and another English club loses it's professional status.

Sadly and with a very heavy heart I conclude that factually a second club in France doubles the dependency on players from here and shoves an English pro team with a player development system into the Championship.?? Toulouse would be as damaging as TWP...... I know McManus trumpeted TO's cause but that was to avoid TWP, and since TWP got the shout it appears the french TV deal has gone. How do TO even afford SL with no rich owner and no TV deal either?

Toronto aren't the answer as they produce zero players and have no intention of changing that, they produce no TV money and cannot change that and they run up annual deficits into the $$Millions each year, as well as cause massive travel costs, and can't play half their home games at home, and won't bring fans here.

Apart from that they are "glamorous".

The biggest problem was pinpointed by Perez, we lack quality players and TV revenue. Hence he promised both but delivered neither and like mugs we fell for it and he's now lined up New York and Ottawa and still we don't call it out or chuck them out! Private investment was provided by TWP but not enough as their debts climb to £10,000,000.

The only place we really get the players in numbers is along the M62 and they are augmented by swallowing up every NRL cast off we can, so it's madness to try to bring in Canada, USA AND France who will all take players away from the M62. It's easy to be able to conclude what the answer isn't but the question is what IS the answer?

That has to be give the existing [upaying[/u fans what they want until not enough want it anymore, then pack it in. OR perhaps admit we're beat and switch en-masse to Rugby Union. That ain't the daft idea it sounds - several clubs started to hedge their bets years ago - harlequins/Broncos. Leeds/Leeds RUFC with Wakefield/Wakefield RUFC and Wigan/Orrel also considered.

Are you suggesting that the sport should wither and die ?
Without additional investment in the sport (and I'm not suggesting that Canada is the answer, far from it), the sport is going to suffer a slow lingering death.
Our inability to attract new fans toy the game of RL has been a constant for the last 50 years.
We have a better international program than 20 years ago, plus, Magic and the GF but, this is taking more cash from the same fans pockets and is just not solving the fundamental problem of RL being unable to attract new fans.

I am suggesting the sport does what it has always done best and that is to survive good sir.

In fact it survives ONLY because of the SKY TV deal. Would you like to consider where we would be had SKY or anyone else not bought the rights in 1996???

NA do not develop players or bring us TV money, France develop very few players and bring us no TV money - they likely have to go if the TV deal drops.

We are a corner shop who attracts a lot of local customers including the odd rich one, so we have to keep selling until even the locals don't want it.

That's the reality - and the problem is sending players to NA and France, and dropping clubs here for them to play in SL, will only shut the corner shop more quickly.

I'm a believer in letting people decide what they want to do and spend their money on, as long as 120K people along the M62 and SKY want to pay us money we provide the service but as for "expansion" forget it, the demand for RL is the M62, so sell to the real customers - don't sell it out to France and North America.