For quite a few games this year De Costa stood in for Mcilllorum. You also have Baitieri, Julien and they had a young winger who was scoring for fun at the start of the year (forgot his name) Alex Chan's son scored against Hull Kr as well.
I am hopeful that in a couple of years time that there might be a national team that could give England a decent game to make a regular mid season International test credible.
I know Fev would have brought 2500 to the HJ with a increase in revenue of about £60-70k per game when you factor in ticket and booze sales but an increase in sponsorship and TV revenue could have the potential to dwarf that figure.
I dont know how the TV deal is structured for French broadcasting at the moment but surely the Tolouse v Catalan Derby twice a year is worth a lot more to French broadcasters and French businesses wanting to sponsor them.
Hopefully somebody that knows a lot more about the economics of sport can enlighten us.

Couldnt the fact we have two french teams hinder sponsorship? There was the issue where we had Magners as a sponsor and the sponsorship had to be covered due to French advertising laws.

If you are looking to do sponsorship and your logo is covered for some games due to these restrictions. What about say a mecca bingo, i presume they have no presence in France. Paying for sponsorship for potential clients and the target audience has no chance to use the brand. Just a thought, i have no idea how commerical activities work and sponsorship. It may help Bet Fred, potentially expanding into another country getting them brand recognition over in France?

On a national/international level ,RU has a conveyor belt fetching homegrown players through its systems to produce good national teams. In RL ,everything is geared to a few clubs trying to win a domestic league & bringing in what imports they can to try & win that league, How can RL hope to compete at international standards with RU when it doesn't provide enough home schooled players to raise standards ? Get away from England RL & the other 3 home nations are relying on lower division players.
I remember France having a decent RL team but they don't seem as effective these days, in times of injecting imports into Catalans & Toulouse to climb up their respective leagues.

There are issues for Alcohol & Gambling companies advertising in France I think, but it is SL / RFL's job to attract partners who would find this attractive. I guess Hoover would find it beneficial to have some exposure to France's 4th biggest city as would many other brands. Why can't we get airlines / hotel chains on board?

I'm delighted that Toulouse have won promotion and it feels like a step forward, however we need to be careful how we develop this.

I think talks of 3 or 4 French teams in SL are a non starter until they can deliver a TV deal, currently Catalan pay for their games to be televised, we need a deal that brings in at least £2m per year for both Catalan & Toulouse, that way they are 'paying their way'. Its the only way an increased French presence in SL can work. We need to be developing relationships with the French TV companies and talking to them about what 2 / 3 / 4 teams in the SL structure looks like in terms of investment. To get a TV deal like that I would assume a French TV partner would want some sort of assurances that French teams will remain in the upper leagues, so maybe its a point when SL will again look towards a closed shop in terms of relegation for either an expanded SL of 14, or a SL1/SL2 scenario. I'm sure there will be a minimum number of English clubs Sky would want in the competition before it starts to harm the Sky Contract.

Someone touched on youth development and opportunities for French players, I'm not going to use it as a stick to beat them with as they are in a competition that will relegate them if they don't get their squad right. I think we have more French players in SL/ Championship now than we ever have, but I'd agree its still not enough (Although how many Warringtonians are knocking around SL?) So we need to look at the bigger picture in terms of French players in the comp, rather than at these sides specifically - but its certainly an area to work on.

What happens if a Catalan v Toulouse Grand Final comes about.

Then we will have a Grand Final played out in front of one man and his dog.

Imagine how progressive that will look to your neutral onlookers looking to possibly invest in the game?

The world ends as we know it.

Doubt Betfred being allowed to open shops in France as there aren't any (as far as I'm aware), as all betting is done through the PMU that is state controlled. Not sure how online stuff works across the channel, but I'm fairly sure that the French government would resist any English bookies plying their trade over there.

You what ?? Where do you get that figure from ?.

I appreciate that whatever the figure might be it will be a lot more than Toulouse but 2500..... not sure about that

Quote: RogerMoore "What happens if a Catalan v Toulouse Grand Final comes about.'" Does the final have to be held at Old Trafford? Can we take a Grand Final across the channel? https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... tch-report The RFL / SL need to start selling it as an event and not relying on 50k from the finalists.

Quote: RogerMoore "What happens if a Catalan v Toulouse Grand Final comes about.'" Does the final have to be held at Old Trafford? Can we take a Grand Final across the channel? https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... tch-report The RFL / SL need to start selling it as an event and not relying on 50k from the finalists.

I'm pretty sure there is a multi year agreement to use Old Trafford however that did change last year with Covid and the GF being held at Hull. Not sure if that was a one off thing or it could be done again to accomodate two french teams playing in France for the GF. However realistically i cant see that GF happening for a long time if at all.....

Probably nearer 250 than 2,500.

The NFL is putting a lot of effort into promoting itself in the UK market, hosing regular season 'on the road' games in London and it is fairly likely that in the next 5 to 10 years there will be an NFL team in London.

Now you can guarantee they will not care that there are no English players in that London side. There might be one or two English guys who get in their practice team at some point and get media coverage but they will fill the team with Americans drafted from college. The purpose of taking the NFL to the UK is entirely to create a market for TV rights, merchandise sales (and also they are likely to get big crowds if they host in London). They will do some funding of player development in the UK (and will probably be able to dwarf the spending that RL clubs can on their youth academy) but they won't stress about the London team being entirely American in terms of players and coaches.