Yes they are.

Regards

King James

nice speech are you an MP by any chance ?

Why should they be given protection?

To enable us to negotiate a strong multi year tv deal in the UK, France and Canada. Tv networks are only interested in showing the top league, hence no Championship RL is on tv (other than Toronto who currently film their own games for Canadian and British networks to spread RL throughout Ontario and Canada)

French and Canadian networks won’t want to sign up to showing RL when their team/teams could be relegated from the top tier.

We will all be better off financially if French and Canadian clubs are guaranteed Super League status.

you don't half type some cr@p !

If they are not good enough for SL, then relegate them...Its that simple.

"We'll all better off" No we wont, we'll be exactly the same or maybe even worse off.

Please explain why ?

Indeed. Please do explain.

I'm still waiting for him to tell us when he went to a Toronto game at Toronto.

no...I am a human being




What utter guff.
French networks have had a decade and more to sign a lucrative TV deal and haven't, whilst 7,000 people at a beer festival in a council stadium with no seats and no roof but a hot-dog canon is hardly going to have the networks queuing up to sign PAYED FOR TV deals......we lost London and SKY didn't say a dickie-bird about it......if our existing broadcast partner can get us on the cheap, why if christ's name would another network want to pay more.

Remember. Toronto in SL next year won't be paying for away clubs to travel/stay, but they will be taking their pound of flesh from the SKY pool....if they rock up empty handed, I expect them to be gone inside a couple of years........

Since when has Bien sports been French?

about as French as the Tongan RL side are TONGAN

Was the existence of a canadian based team vital for the future of RL, say, 20 years ago? Why now all of a sudden? We wouldn't even be talking about a canadian based team if some rich guy hadn't decided to create one off his own back a couple of years ago.

At least Toronto, Toulouse and London give the game a different dimension and something to talk about. Without their distraction, we would be talking about a sport at the top level dying on its , year on year on year.

Exactly! It’s aimless, headless chicken stuff that illustrates perfectly the total lack of any strategic thinking or planning by the RFL/SL over the last 20 years.
I personally hope that Toronto do well but please don’t anyone mistake them doing well for a development strategy.

Because Rugby league is in terminal decline over here. If Sky pull out, I would say 50% at least of SL clubs would shut their doors tomorrow. Certain clubs over here have done nothing but leach a living off the back of the bigger clubs which is why we are at a crossroads and are facing an existential threat to our game. Exploring new avenues is essential because most of the current SL teams offer nothing to the future of RL and have done nothing to help bring RL out of the sporting gutter. WIll Toronto or Toulouse offer anything? Who knows but they at least deserve a chance as some of the wasters in SL have had a century and still cant get it right

Regards

King James

If you think Toronto's inclusion would stop Sky from pulling the rug, then your deluded.

It would be interesting to know just how much marketing / research the RFL have done into how best to develop the game.
Our sport is renowned for its innovation (which translates to quick fix) and it's short sighted view of what is needed to take the sport forward and comments like the above are just typical of supporters from certain clubs, who like to blame the sports smaller clubs for "holding the game back".
What would be most interesting would be if the magic wand was waved and ALL SL clubs achieved the nadir of a 10,000 average home crowd played in modern stadia, just how much would the TV deal increase.
Equally, IF Toronto and Toulouse were included in SL and became successful, just how much would this increase the TV deal etc and its worth remembering that if SL didnt exist, Toronto would NEVER have a RL side.

Do you know what, in the face of EDIT. DG. CUT OUT THE PERSONAL ABUSE OTHERWISE YOU WILL HAVE POSTING RIGHTS WITHDRAWN. EDIT.who just reply with grr Toronto, this is a very measured response which raises some good points. You are obviously educated whilst the aforementioned aren’t. Except toyboy29 who has a jag

Regards

King James

Folk are interested in a sport, or they are not. Nothing can make them do otherwise. Lebron, you do not deserve my calm/sensible response, you are just a wind up merchant....and you know it.
Nice of you to visit the Leigh forum with your usual type of post. Come on Widnes !!!!

If London gave a different dimension to the game,they would still be in SL. We have Catalans who have been wrapped in cotton wool for a decade,but you fail to mention them. But you think the inclusion of Toulouse will benefit who?

Now Toronto gives a different dimension! In what way? No TV contract, no North Americans included in the squad,no youth developement, no additional teams added for 2019.

Thank goodness for the M62 corridor, as the above will be long gone before Stott Hall Farm.

And yet you havent offered any answer to the post.

Just to simplify the question:
How much will the broadcasting deal increase IF every SL club manages 10k average attendance and ALL SL clubs play in modern "fit for purpose" stadia ?

Any/ all of the expansion brigade feel free to answer.

Just me who thinks (Seriously) Leigh are better for SL then Toulouse. Leigh have a state of the art modern stadium with a strong fan base that could realistically get up to the 5/6k mark in super league (I may be off with that number) and Toulouse play out of some farm in the middle of no where and barely have any fans. Seems to me they're only deemed 'good for the game' because they are French.

Leigh finished 6th in the regular season of the Championship and are on the brink of bankruptcy, even after receiving a massive parachute payment this year. Their owner has said he’s walking away at the end of the season and nobody has shown any interest in taking them over. Yet despite this people still claim they should be in Super League.