Who will replace Widnes: Toronto, Toulouse or London?

Quote: Alan "I honestly believe that Toronto will 'deserve' a place in SL 2019, providing they finish in the top three of the Middle 8's or win the £1Million game. I believe that, because they will have 'jumped through the hoops' they were asked to jump through, from the moment they entered League 1. Likewise with Toulouse.

However, is it just me, or does anyone else struggle with the concept of non-British teams in our league structure? I cannot, for the life of me, get my head around, how it improves French RL, to have had Catalans in SL. The French national team has possibly gone backwards, since their inclusion in SL, and the majority of the best French players are not playing in their national competition, thereby lowering standards in that league. Presumably, the inclusion of Toulouse in SL (or the Championship) is further diluting the talent and standards in the French Elite 1 league.

In the case of Toronto, (or any other North American city) it is the standards in British RL that are being lowered. Inevitably, until they can develop their own talent, North American clubs will be drawing heavily on the British (and Australasian) talent pools, thereby removing many of the talented players in this country. Just imagine a North American club, employing say 20 British players and each new club doing likewise. That would amount to 100 players leaving British clubs, if just five North American clubs were to be set up. I would suggest we can ill-afford to lose 'talent' on that scale.

Now picture the 'dream' scenario of some of our more 'progressive' followers, of a Super League consisting say five British clubs, five North American, and two French. How would the American public buy into seeing say New York v St Helens? ("who?", I hear them say) How much more would they want to see New York v Washington? And, if the game took off over there, how quickly would they ditch the likes of St Helens, Wigan, Warrington, Leeds etc? And, what would have happened to British RL in the years while the game was being established, over the other side of the World?

I guess I am anti-expansion, internationally, but would be much more keen to see the game stabilised in the 'heartlands' and then expand in the UK, before we look farther afield.

Anyway, good luck to Toronto, for the remainder of the Middle 8's. They have, so far, done everything we asked of them - it's just that I think we shouldn't have asked them, in the first place!
See this is the thing I have a problem with. “We should stable the heartlands first” how? Why? We have been trying for over a century and the game is at its lowest ebb in this country. It’s dying and we can’t resuscitate it. I’m sorry but that is a fact. So what if North American teams don’t have any North American players in the short term. The raptors still don’t have been established for decades. The reason we are trying the North American market is because they are nuts for sports. Whilst our kids would rather take photos on Instagram or play Fifa, their kids are out every night of the week playing sport. Just look at the amateur leagues over here. What is there? About 10 different clubs in the north west counties? Rest of the leagues filled with these 10 clubs a and b teams? Toronto are pulling in 6-7k crowds in a year. That is the kind of market we need to tap into

Regards

King James