He doesn't post much on any Crapalan thread anymore Cokey, he is too busy cheering on Toulouse at the moment as they are having a good spell and Catalan is on a slippery slide to the Championship.

Quite true Roy. No doubt he'll be lurking around with one of his other false aliases.

Toronto and Toulouse showed yesterday they are the top two teams in the Championship, and the clubs most likely to gain promotion.

Lets cut to the chase RL want Toronto in SL so it will happen, just a question of who is dropped out... All gone quiet on restructure that mean we will stay 12 or move to 14 to save Catalan or would they do a swap for Toulouse?

....er, I think that the 'delay" over the last couple of years has opened a few peoples eyes.......Toronto bring nowt other than off-loaded Leigh players and average Championship level Aussies........and not a lot else. 7k at Lamport is as much use to SL as a chocolate Teapot........and there's no TV deal to be seen.......let alone a sponsor who pays in anything other than free airfares.......so no, Toronto aren't bolted on!

You imply Toronto get some kind of special treatment, when in fact the opposite is true.

Toronto are the only club to receive absolutely nothing in central funding. Leigh got £500,000

Toronto are the only club to pay opposition teams travel costs.

I thought Toulouse paid the travelling costs too ?
They did for the Championship 1 campaign, didn't it continue ?

You may well be correct, I didn’t realise this was the case.



My point still stands that the expansion clubs have been given no assistance in their bid to reach Super League.

Comments like the one above suggest the RFL are in some way running or funding the Toronto club, when in fact they are the only club to receive absolutely nothing from the RFL.

.
What's your say about central funding is true.

But.

The league 1 salary cap was raised for Toronto. They changed the way promotion was sorted out (up to last year 1 played 2 in a promotion final, winner went up loser went into the play offs), they're 8's fixtures were organised so they played there 3 away games 1st, then there 4 home games (when it could have been the other way around). This year they got all there away games first (despite the fact Toronto fc have managed to play some home games), then when we get to the buisness end they get all home games. And will probably all there away play off games 1st.

All this looks suspicious, and like the RFL are trying to give Toronto a helping hand.

Are you really trying to say that The RFL dont want Toronto in SL ???
The inclusion of Toronto in SL will only be only a matter of time and they will either make it through promotion or there will be a change in structure to accommodate them (and possibly Lonodn and Toulouse as well).

The real question is what happens when they are in the top flight and would they (or Toulouse) be exempt from relegation for any length of time (as Catalan were under "franchising"icon_wink.gif, if not, they would likely yo-yo, in the just the same way as KR and Leigh have done (albeit, Leigh havent managed the second "yo" just yet)

And what happens to other expansion wannabe's ?

Hardly.

The Championship Salary Cap was raised to SL levels for the 2016 season after lobbying primarily from Leigh to allow clubs to compete in the Middle 8's and give a better chance at promotion. Championship 1 was raised in-line with SL/Champ for the 2017 season.

They did change promotion in 2017 to promote the top team instead of a playoff, I don't see too much wrong with that, and it's been kept for this season as far as I know.

Super 8 fixtures - well of course. Toronto playing their first games away is logical considering the organisation needed for away sides to travel over the Atlantic and the fixtures being finalised only a week before. It'll be the same this season, again, it's the logical way of doing it.

Yes, they're playing all their away games first this year as their stadium is undergoing renovation work, I'm not sure what Toronto FC have to do with it, they play elsewhere (I'm assuming you thought it was due to the weather?). Stadium issues happen, Leeds had to play at Elland Rd, Hull FC always have a month of away fixtures because of the pitch being re-laid, Wakey nearly had to have a season at Dewsbury. The RFL have quite clearly said this isn't ideal and they won't allow it to happen again. The redevelopment of Lamport Stadium was announced back in November.

Weird that all the conspiracy theories, suspicion and hate aimed at Toronto are from fans of smaller clubs, clubs that Toronto will likely surpass pretty soon.

A)
It was Toronto who proposed the change in salary cap. Weather it would have gone up without them proposing it is a mute point.

B)
I know Toronto fc play at a stadium 5 mins walk from Lamport. The point was that no other side would have been able to manipulate the fixture list in this way. As you say they knew in November, they could have found an aalternative ground like BMO field (where Toronto fc play), to play some home games by now. There was no reason not to have had at least a month of home games even if it went away, away, home, away.
Toulouse are also having there stadium redeveloped, but they've managed to find somewhere else.

C)
They could have worked the 8's, 2 home, 3 away, 2 home. After all don't Toronto not only provide flights but accommodation. Tolouse also have the same issues but manage to work them out.

I'm not against Toronto, and if they go up because of what they do on the field. Fair play to them, and they will have fully deserved it.
But to say that every other club would have been treated the same as Toronto have been is wrong in my opinion.

Your wrong again John . Toulouse pay for opposition teams costs . I thought you were a fan of Toulouse ?

The idea of a "league" competition is that each team plays the other, bit home an away. To ensure that "home' fans are accommodated for, the usual set up is Home, then Away, then Home, then Away......for the full 22 regular rounds of the season, with Satans' b'stard child "THE MAGIC WEEKEND" stuck in the middle.
When faced with having no access to your "home" ground, it is normal for that side to make other arrangements, such as an "on the road" game, or to decamp to a stadium not too far away, as Sheffield did whilst playing at Wakefield.
Given we have heard that Hamilton is next on the Perez pin-drop tour of RL and that there are splendid metro linKs between that outskirt of Toronto and the CBD and also remembering that the Wolfpack knew that their stadium wouldn't be available, they made the sensible decision to be based in MANCHESTER..
This gives them multiple advantages.
Firstly, the cost of "billeting" their players is vastly reduced give most can drive home to mum after training.
Secondly they will have minimal travel to games at all this year
Then there "home' tie v Toulouse, which would have cost them a small fortune as AirTRANSAT don't fly that route is bounced to Newcastle
Fiscally they (their sponsor) is saving 50%+ on flights
The salary cap......where do you start? They won C1 last year with a side aearning more than the other 11 squads combined and this year, before they bounced their big 3, they were never beneath the cap......do you reckon the cap will increase if they go up next year? I do!
...and lastly, they will be fresh as a daisy for pretty much all their games this year, whilst the majority of their opposition in Canada will be off the plane for no more than 24 hrs..........


Toronto have had the biggest "leg-up" afforded a side since Catalans and I repeat, there is NO TV DEAL......there is NO MAJOR SPONSOR.......so what exactly is the point? To give Leigh rejects a shot at SL in a different sides colours?

I'll tell you what I think. When Pearson was claiming that "we'd compete with Union" what he actually meant was that the cap was going to be raised by 100% once Toronto get in and the Wolfpack will be shopping in downtown NRL for their players.......so we will play the game with the same pool of players but just pay them more


.........as master plans go, that's not going to end well!