Quote: Winslade's Offload "I suspect most people would struggle to pick out the the advantages of allowing a Canadian club into SL. They don't get a slice of the Sky money (tick), but they don't bring any away supporters to games (cross). So it's really something about spreading RL to another continent and developing a new customer/ viewing base. If that can be achieved, and Canadians do seem to enjoy a range of different sports, then the local TV rights can be sold and advertising revenue will follow the crowds whether its on the TV or at a ground. That would be enough for Toronto to be self sufficient and build a club eg bringing through their own players via an academy, widening the fan base etc. At that point you could see a real benefit for SL because there would be a growing market for access to SL on the telly. And more viewers equals more money for the TV rights, particularly from international companies who can access North American and British consumers at the same time.
Nobody knows whether the Toronto experiment will work, certainly footy seems to have taken an age to get going in the US so Toronto may have to be patient and build gradually over several years to even have a chance of success. But for me at least, that's no excuse for not trying to expand the sport and getting it on a stable financial footing.
As far as British SL is concerned, we can only claim to have English clubs as there are none from Wales and Scotland. In fact if you wanted to be really pedantic you could probably call it the Lancashire and Yorkshire SL (is Warrington still in Cheshire, I can't remember ?) . But that only serves to underline the problem we have, and hence why at least half our clubs are on the bread line. We need some way of bringing more money and younger fans into the sport. The Toronto experiment may well fail, but surely that doesn't mean we should give up trying new ideas ?'"
Toronto consistently provided Championship clubs with their biggest gate of the season, not 'away fans' as such, but they brought more people through the gate. Whether we will see that same pattern in SL is yet to be proven, but having SBW in the team surely brings extra interest for casual supporters and press.
I think as a club they have made some mistakes, but from being non existent a few years back to now being in SL with the highest paid rugby player on the planet is some achievement. They are making mistakes, but not all of them, such as this visa issue is of their own doing.
I don't expect we will see Toronto regularly fielding home grown talent for the next 20 years, it isn't a stick they should be beaten with. They are currently financially self sufficient, and are not costing SL clubs anything. Yes we have extra travel costs for traveling to Toronto, but that must be more than offset by the extra £165k or so each club is getting of the Sky money. It's also up to SL clubs to leverage teh benefits of having a Toronto club in their league to sponsors.
Toronto need to be able to show what they are giving the clubs financially and in terms of exposure for them to be deemed a success as far as SL is concerned.
They need time, and as they are not costing SL clubs anything and have earned their way in to the league by merit, they should be given that time imo.
