Quote: Barbed Wire "It also costs more money to get that income. Top line, that’s correct, but to open the doors costs money. Banging on about away teams not bringing supporters is irrelevant. I’d rather have a progressive club with ambition getting the game coverage that an age-old plodder who bring 500 fans.
I for one will be looking forward to watching Toronto. Regardless of the away end is empty. And the media interest in them, and hundreds of pages of debate on here, proves it is worthwhile for the sport, given that they are not taking any handouts from the game.'"
They will however cost each club a decent slice of cash.
To take a full squad + associated staff to Toronto for 3/4 days isn't going to come cheap.
Certainly a trip (for Wire) to Widnes on a Friday night will be a hell of a lot less than travelling halfway around the planet for 80 mins of RL.
I'm sure that "we" have thought forward all of the scenarios for a successful Toronto and just like Catalan, they will be immune to the short notice fixture changes and Thursday nights, that affect all of the other clubs in SL.
You rightly say that they aren't taking a slice of the Sky money but, IIRC, they (Toronto) were expecting to line up a TV deal, which seems to have gone with the wind and of all of the clubs in SL they will be most reliant on their consortium pumping in $millions every season to keep the ship afloat.
With their squad spend, especially with the SBW contract, they will be spending at an unsustainable rate but, tat is of course their prerogative.
Although I dont think that they belong in a "European" competition, I'm looking forward to seeing them both home and away, although the trip over there will be a "one off", rather than a regular thing.
Trips to Frances are peanuts compared to Toronto and beyond the means of most RL fans, which is a real shame.
Fundamentally, it still seems crazy to try and spread the game to a new continent 3500 miles away, when the UK "market" remains untapped.