Sorry if posted elsewhere already, but I've been reading the League papers this morning to bask in the glory of Saints demolition of Wigan and I read that Canada RL have put a proposal together for a Canadian side to join League 1 from 2016. The offer includes the travel and hotel costs of the teams playing in Canada (Toronto), the expenses for the Canadian side coming over here bi-weekly, a bank of tickets for the Toronto games for the away team to sell (And keep the money) and also to sponsor the competition £200,000.

They are quoting attendances of 7,500 for Canada's recent test matches and say they've got a fanatical fanbase and would be competitive in League 1, with the aim of reaching SL.

Is this realistic? Is it sustainable? Good to see the offer and the willingness to expand the sport.

The cost of travel is dropping all the time, and the value of sports tourism is far more than people think.
They just need 100 people going to Toronto for each game and spending 1000 and that is 100k per game. Big money.
People will go for a holiday and to follow their team.
PNG play in the Qld cup.
Fiji will play in the NSW cup from 2016.
The sums are changing to make this possible as travel becomes cheaper and more people get rich enough to travel.

Good luck to them.

Canada RL only formed in 2010, and since then, it seems like they've managed to kep their upwards trajectory going.

Domestically, they have 10 teams now, 4 in central Canada, and 6 in British Columbia.

Reading their website,they beat the USA infront of 7,500 fans, and recently beat Jamaica. They have some decent corporate partners on board too.

But twenty hours of flying every other week for players potentially not earning much? Would many teams in League 1 be able to get Thursday and Friday off work? Would the Canadian players?

Is there a season in any sport as long as a rugby league season where teams routinely travel such distances for regular round fixtures?

Amazing proposition. I would certainly enjoy watching a game in Canada and spending time there. Went to Ontario and Quebec on a camping trip a few years ago, beautiful place and fantastic people.

Saddened! raises a fair point on the travel for the players though - especially as I would imagine that they would go economy (although think of the air miles!) and there would be limited options of airports in the UK that they can fly into, meaning more travel in the UK when they get here. Big ask.

The Championship players would only have to do it once a season. And to go play rugby in Canada, with a few months notice, I reckon they'll manage to book time off work/sort other things out for a couple of days.

The Canadian players are ina totally different position, but I'd guess they'd have thought about that when doing the proposal. I imagine they'd be based in Toronto, so about 7 hours or so flight time.

My only concern with this is, and this applies to Catalans, Toulouse and even crusaders to an extent. We don't need teams from different countries in the same league, we need a solid league in different countries. That's what I call expansion

I guess there has to be something done in the middle of: amateur, low-standard domestic comps and solid domestic professional leagues. Long-term I fully agree with you, but even France isn't ready yet.

Canada RL must see this as the best way forward.

Fiji are also looking to start a team in the Australian league, similar to what PNG did this year.

Somewhere in Yorkshire, Peter Roe just exploded.

I agree. A French Super League is a better indication of the sport's growth than Super League being won by a French team.

Add to that, if you had a French Super League you then have scope for a European Cup style competition.

Exactly, this has to be the ultimate aim. once we have domestic leagues successfully in a number of countries, especially European, can we then build on that by having European competitions. In turn, this will increase money, press exposure, spectator numbers and will almost certainly be the main factor in getting a good international scene.

No idea if this will happen or how long it will take, however i would love our game to be in this state one day.

Great idea, but will never happen.

For a start the Canadian players would need to be full time pro's to be able to have the time off work to come over here every couple of weeks. The alternative would be to have blocks of games e.g. they come over for 4 weeks at a time for 4 away games, but surely the costs of this would be prohibitive (i.e. the cost of accommodation, food etc... for 30+ people for long periods).

The operating costs would run into millions a season.

Just not feasible at a semi - pro level.

Our game could steal a step by being one of the first to go to a worldwide comp because that's the way the world is moving but it won't.

We would be going in the exact opposite direction to pretty much every other sport in the world doing this. The world is getting smaller and smaller and people care less and less about small atomised comps. All major sports leagues are wanting to grow their footprint. Only ours has shrinking it as not only a realistic but a desirable possibility.

Translation: I love franchises I do. The more the merrier. Subway, Maccas, KFC, Starbucks... lovely jubbly. Canadian Club whisky please. Oh, and Cas, Fev and Wakey should merge and call themselves Calder.