It's a part of the answer to the main problem.

The more the game is showed at home and overseas and the more publicity it gets means more money that sponsors will want to put in.

The fact that the big French and Dutch companies want to advertise with Cats is massive.

Imagine Toronto get big, the big North American companies that pump hundreds of millions into sport might take a sniff??

Now you're being daft!

Well, there is more chance of that than Fax getting a blue-chip sponsor.

And your relevance is??

I am just pointing out that Catalan in over 10 years in the top flight has failed in two of the major objectives of putting a team in France in the first place. I never said they have failed completely and are a solid SL club by anyones standard, but they do not prove that expansion teams are the holy grail.

I don't think the name of the club matters at all, if sponsors are not interested in Fev then why should they be interested in Everton or Tottenham say, why not pump all their money into Birmingham City or Leeds United for that matter?

By your logic Paris should have been a huge success, and short term you may get a sponsorship boost from putting a team in Toronto, but so would you for putting a team in Madrid or Amsterdam or Berlin or any major world city. The problem is that after a few years these clubs built on little to no foundations will crumble and the RFL will be stood scratching their heads as usual.

The problem with RL in England is viewership and participation, neither of which can be fixed by sponsers, unless they paid so much that SL actually financially overtook RU or the NRL so it could attract some star names (and better quality). The RFL would be FAR better spending their time and money getting RL played in the schools of major northern cities like Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, where young players could naturally be picked up by the SL academies, which would also boost viewership as people became more familiar with the sport.

Except, as I pointed out, the "objectives" that people seem to be holding them to seem to beI don't think the name of the club matters at all, if sponsors are not interested in Fev then why should they be interested in Everton or Tottenham say, why not pump all their money into Birmingham City or Leeds United for that matter? '"

I haven't found a single statement from Catalans or the RFL where a stated objective is to "improve the national team". There is a stated aim for 75% of the team to be made up of French players, but I don't think the club could really be held to this in a structure such as the S8s.



Rob Elstone is on record as saying that Toronto is, in many respects, a leading example of how this sport reaches new audiences - particuarly younger audiences in urban markets that advertisers want to pay to reach.

It is not necessarily a case of putting pins on a map of cities, but about how hard any club works to engage people who do not currently buy into this sport. That's the point I'm making here. For too long, clubs have spent too much time and effort talking to people who already buy it, and little to no time on the people who don't.



What gimmicks? The sport needs finance. Commercial revenue is a source of finance. In order to realise that, we need to reach audiences that those commercial sources want access to. It's really not hard.



That's ultimately down to the clubs to tap into those markets. There is nothing stopping any club from promoting themselves in Liverpool, Manchester or those parts of Leeds where the game isn't well known.



Again, the heartlands can only sustain this sport so far. If we want to insist that the answer to these problems is to concentrate on towns where the high streets are full of payday lenders, bookies and fast food shops, we've no right to complain when the only sponsors we can attract are online bookies, cash convertors and tinned mushy peas.

The sport needs to reach new audiences, people who don't already buy this sport, and to make itself more relevant in the modern sports and media market. As much as I'd like to think that could be done by "concentrating on the heartlands", the evidence from the clubs so far makes me seriously doubt it can.

the circus continues www.totalrl.com/toronto-set-sigh ... pean-tour/

the circus continues www.totalrl.com/toronto-set-sigh ... pean-tour/

Just imagine the reaction when people see the price of a pint in Copenhagen.

Pretty much what Barry Hearn did a decade ago with snooker.

-1/3 degrees in Copenhagen in Feb...... Only stadium with a roof holds 40k. He's just names cities that anzacs visit on their Oversees Experiences.

If you genuinely think it is the responsibility of professional clubs to get the sport played in more schools then there is no point continuing this conversation. What club is inspiring people to play RU in Leeds? But I can guarantee that RU will be played in more schools than RL in Leeds and there are also definitely more amateur RU clubs in the city. But hey I am sure a team in Toronto (and possibly another French team) is gonna push participation and school funding through the roof!