1. Top use of Google there Bazza. Alas, you're a tad wide of the mark on what you think in terms of the SCMP's stance on Mainland China. It refers here to another paper as a Communist Party Mouthpiece......hardly toeing the line
rlhttps://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3037817/hong-kong-protests-government-under-fire-across-politicalrl
Global Times, a tabloid affiliated to Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, also cited sources and tweeted that the city’s government was expected to announce the curfew. The tweet was later deleted, and a government source said there was no such plan, but by then the speculation had been picked up by foreign media.
2. The fact that you've backed up (incorrectly BTW) one of your aliases, shows that this site has become infected to the extent that if you were removed, half the posters on here would also vanish. I suspect the site owners have "key employee insurance" on you bazza, because you are about 60% of their ad traffic revenue
3. SBW is an unknown to 99% of the planets population. Given that union has 4 billion TV viewers, that is some feat
The NY Times have run Toronto stories before and will do so again, but the reality is that Argyle will still be giving away tickets in the thousands this year, no TV executives will be lining up to pay for access to their games and Argyle will fund a netflix series.....maybe. £2.6 million a year for 2 years is a lot of investment in 1 player. Maybe they will look to tap into Toronto's Muslim community....once Argyle has had some training on how to treat people of other colours and creeds that is

This is true.

Also if we're carbon sharing it makes it more carbon efficient if the plane is full as its shared between a greater number. They are scheduled flights they're going if there full or not.

Fair play to Toronto, theyve created more noise and column inches (whether in Canada, here or Aus) than most SL clubs have in their 100+year existence.

Of course SBW is largely unknown in a country where Rugby is in its infancy, but what more can they do at this stage than sign probably the biggest name of either code. SL has been a sht show for too long good on them for trying to make waves.

Oh and AXE2GRIND 1% of the population would be 75 million so still not bad going. Youre known by 99% of RLFANS so dont be skewd by percentages, its the quality that matters.

Sonny Bill Williams is on BBC World News Sports segment, and will be seen by tens of millions around the world.

So much for the idiotic belittling of Toronto and their signing of SBW, be the detractors from Leigh, Wakefield, or Wellington New Zealand.

LOL. Are you a big AFL fan, because they've been spouting that line on Chinese development of fumbleball for decades, but are still confined to just 1 nation

The only difference between Toronto and say, Crusaders, PNG, London or any other "expansion" side is Argyle's money and determination. Good luck to the fella, but it's just a money pit at the moment and will be for the foreseeable future. Melbourne Storm were still losing $6,000,000 a year a decade after they came into existence......and they had paying fans and a share of the TV money, as well as being owned by the TV partner and having a major PAYING Sponsor.

Hey, I've never said it wasn't fun having a side in Canada and given they cost the UK game 2/10ths of SFA, carry on, but it's the insanity in believing that this model will save the UK game that is grating.

SBW must be absolutely peeing himself laughing. NZ $10,000,000 for about 60 games is about £85,000 a game. Toronto's current stadium holds 9,600 people and Season Tickets are CA$300 or £175 a pop. 14,600 season Tickets will cover his wages, so either they find another 5,000 seats, of they will make a loss of £870,000, based on 100% capacity at ST prices currently on sale......does anyone here think they will sell 9,600 season tickets?

Then they need to pay the rest of the squad, travel, accommodation, training facilities and a host of other costs....as I say, good luck to argyle, but at some stage he'll find another trinket to play with that won't be costing him between £5,000,000 and £10,000,000 a year

Sonny Bill Williams made a great impression on the BBC. Tens of millions of viewers around the world saw him speak of the challenge of returning to rugby league from rugby union as "awesome."

Sonny Bill Williams stated that the Toronto team provided a great opportunity to establish the game of rugby league in North America. None of the Little Englander/M62 negativism to be heard from him. He said that he was looking forward to playing for the new team.

The appearance of Sonny Bill Williams on BBC World News shows that his signing and the emergence of the Toronto Wolfpack are indeed a huge development and provide great publicity for rugby league.

Please stop with the ridiculous tens of Millions viewers claim. It's complete BS!

The SCMP is a Hong Kong based paper that has about 100,000 readers who are ex-pats living in South East Asia, with maybe a few in mainland china. The 75 million claim if only 1% would get into it is a long time claim by fans of AFL, whilst the reality is that Neither sport is of interest to any Chinese people.....


Plenty of people, not just Bazza and his army of forum bots. And if it's not to save or even benefit the UK game, what is the point of it? 9,000 canadians attending a beer festival a dozen times a year and that's it? What is the point?

The only tangible benefit is to the other 11 SL clubs who will be dividing up the spare 2 million on the pretext of using it to cover their travel costs and the Championship, which will be a far better competition now the mercenaries have gone.

Sonny Bill Williams playing in Super League is good for our game, opposing fans will look forward to seeing play in his 1st season, some of the novelty will have worn off in the 2nd one though. Jean and his mate are bigging it up on here as if Tyson Fury, Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, & Lebron James (that's especially for you Steph) have also signed for Toronto Barbarians. It's great for the club, and any other North Americans who are aware of him, might take note. That's it, nothing more. For the SL clubs playing Toronto is something new anyway, the fact that SBW is in their team might add a few speccies on the ground, who can tell ?

Quote: kobashi "Please stop with the ridiculous tens of Millions viewers claim. It's complete BS!'" It is not BS. You obviously haven't followed the evidence on this. The BBC World News had 121 million viewers in 2017: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lates ... ce-measure 121 million is legitimately described as "tens of millions." Or are you suggesting, based on no evidence, that the BBC World viewership has dropped 90% in the last two years? Sonny Bill Williams may well have been viewed by tens of millions of people today around the world. It is the kind of publicity that the promotion of little M62 clubs like Featherstone, or Leigh, into Super League would never have gathered. Toronto Wolfpack, and Sonny Bill Williams, truly are a huge bonus for rugby league.

Quote: kobashi "Please stop with the ridiculous tens of Millions viewers claim. It's complete BS!'" It is not BS. You obviously haven't followed the evidence on this. The BBC World News had 121 million viewers in 2017: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lates ... ce-measure 121 million is legitimately described as "tens of millions." Or are you suggesting, based on no evidence, that the BBC World viewership has dropped 90% in the last two years? Sonny Bill Williams may well have been viewed by tens of millions of people today around the world. It is the kind of publicity that the promotion of little M62 clubs like Featherstone, or Leigh, into Super League would never have gathered. Toronto Wolfpack, and Sonny Bill Williams, truly are a huge bonus for rugby league.

Neither are, but it suits you to wind up fans of traditional northern pit towns because it makes you moist.
BTW, was Money Bill not a huge bonus in either of his first 2 stints in RL, or did him becoming an All Black make him one?

That's Jean....perfect summary.

Sonny Bill was a huge bonus for Canterbury-Bankstown when he began his rugby league career, gaining newspaper headlines on almost a weekly basis. He was definitely a huge bonus for the Sydney Roosters and the NRL when he returned to rugby league in 2013. His rivalry with South Sydney Rabbitohs' Samuel Burgess while playing for the Roosters certainly put bums on seats. I was in Sydney in September 2013 and I followed the news of the NRL on the Australian media during the late playoff period when his performances were crucial.

If Toronto can land a capable half back -- and I think that the Canadian heritage half back Ryley Jacks now at the Gold Coast Titans could be a great choice -- and an influential prop forward or two, plus another Australian back line star such as Valentine Holmes (who is on David Argyle's radar), then the Toronto Wolfpack will rampage through Super League and bring an even larger proportion of the people of Toronto into an active involvement with the team.

Such an impact will put great pressure on New York and Ottawa to compete in the coming years. By the time these teams get promoted into Super League we may have unearthed some quality Canadian and American players, and hopefully some real grass roots development of the game (which is Eric Perez's goal with Ottawa).

In Canada they have a sophisticated marketing machine, headed by the marketing genius Eric Perez, that can take maximum advantage of the presence of Sonny Bill Williams being in the Toronto team and Super League.

All the signs are positive for rugby league expansion thanks to Eric Perez, David Argyle, and the good people of Toronto. It is time for the Little Englander naysayers to wake up and smell the coffee.

You're on the wrong forum, you're just a 'wind up merchant' who has NO interest in the British game. This is me being polite, but you don't deserve it.