The National side play at the same stadium, Toronto seemingly being the nerve centre of RL in Canada.

Going off Wikipedia (I know

), the last two home National team games vs USA and Jamaica in 2014 attracted 7,356 and 3,129.

If it doesn't cost us anything then shy not give it a shot, some have said elsewhere to expand into Scotland, we tried Wales and it didnt go too well, don't see how Scotland would be any different.

If RL can get a foothold in Canada maybe it could make a bigger impact in the USA, if we want RL to really be taken seriously then these are the opportunities that we need to seize.

Only 4 games are to be played away, im sure there is an easy way to decide which teams get to go, and the players will only need to take a week off if that.

If the Canadians are funding the travel and accommodation for the existing clubs then what downside does it have? I'm struggling to see one.

I wasn't being particularly serious. But to be fair, if someone is stumping up money to set a team up over here, they're not doing it because they want to play in the Championships are they?

Yeah as far as I know they are always getting 7,500 or so for the usa games. Shame they didn't qualify for world cup, would have been great publicity.

Union has a league with clubs from Aus NZ and South Africa, so I think a Canadian club could be possible in super league, but not league 1. A load of league 1 teams lost to amateur clubs in the challenge cup a few weeks ago. It's hardly a league that's ready to go global.

If we are going down this silly they need to get promoted route, at least start them in championship, a year of winning easily and losing loads of money will achieve nothing.

Yeah and that union league is being expanded to have a team in Argentina and one in Japan as well.

I like the idea. Hopefully a US team will follow suit. I think I read a while ago that they had an airline on board to back it, or was that Koukash and one of his crazy ideas?

Play their games on a Saturday evening, get the part-timers back in time for work on a Monday. But who wouldn't want to spend a couple of days off their annual leave in Toronto anyway? The away sides will love it as much as the fans.

I guess the biggest risk is the same situation as happened at Celtic Crusaders. The owner gets bored / runs out of money and pulls out leaving a load of contracts in place with players/coaches/airlines/hotels and the RFL having to bail out another club to the tune of a few millions.

Isn't there a similar risk at Saints with McManus? (and plenty of other SL clubs)

I agree with you by the way, but someone willing to invest in the sport and the potential this could have is worth the risk IMO.

Hughes at London
Moran at Wire
Dr at Salford
Hudds, Hull, Hull KR........... do you see the trend

Ask the part time players trying to hold down a job and play rugby. 2 Transatlantic flights, a game of rugby when your body is 5 hours out of kilter and all over 3 or 4 days, then getting ready for another game a few days later

Then they miss out unfortunately.

Some will be in a position where they can't do it, but most would snap your hand off for the opportunity. It's once a year, with plenty of time to forward plan.

The fixture list could easily be worked to give them a free weekend afterwards, or work the fixtures so that they're playing on the Sunday, giving them 8 days in between.


A few responses in this thread are very typical of Rugby League fans in that they only see the negatives, which is a shame.

Get on with it, I say

Or, book nighttime flights, get your 8 hours on the plane, fly back overnight at which point you are back in your normal time zone.

There's little difference between being "5 hours out of kilter" and the difference between a 3pm KO and an 8pm KO

If you fly from Toronto to Manchester and take off at 10 pm (3am UK) and go to sleep, if you wake up at landing, your watch will say 6 am before you adjust it. It will in fact be 10am. So I don't see a major issue.

If you fly from Manchester and take off at 10 am, you'll land in Toronto say 12 noon. Your watch will say 5pm, so your day will be stretched, but again, if you have an early night, I don't see a major issue.

can you please take wire out of this list, we dont belong in it.

It's once a year. Maybe twice if they're in the playoffs.

Of course we could always put another small northern town in the league instead...

I don't see how the RFL would be liable for anything if the Toronto owner(s) pulled out either. So I'm struggling to see any risk or downside.

Cat, Its chairmen whose team hasn't won the grand final?

These are the same rumours that have been going about for a few months now, there's still nothing official been released. We don't know much more over this side of the pond either.

But do you not think its a good idea I do, and like someone said if it takes of the good old USA might want a go

Absolutely it's a good idea; anything which raises the profile of the game is a good thing. I understand there will be a reserve grade side in the Ontario domestic League next year if all goes well.

Press conference slated for April 27th apparently.

You find me a young lad who isn't willing to take a few days annual leave, to go and play the game he loves, in a fantastic part of the world for free!

Would have thought a better option for the game would have been to support 6 Canadian teams and seed with 36 players to get a balanced mini league on Canadian TV and providing safer contact sport option to show schools and parents.

My main worry would be how Sky view this - presumably Toronto's financial plans depend on million pound payouts from Sky. Not many subscribers out there or in France and as Sky move increasingly to internet where they can accurately measure viewers by location we may find the goose laying less golden eggs.

If we (global RL) invested in creating strong French and Canadian leagues we may start heading toward the World Cup lineups we all crave - I fear we will end up diluting SL and end up with a couple of Classic clubs fading away in the championship.