Probably get shouted at for this but looking at WYSIWYG post about manchester merged teams seems to following the idea of whats called super rugby in the southern hemisphere (Yes its union) then they also have a heartland competition, eg Auckland, north harbour and Northland are seperate teams but in the super rugby they play as Auckland Blues or Otago and southland play as Highlanders.
So you keep your local teams playing in a different competition and then the super dooper comes together for competition which includes New Zealand, South African, Australian plus an Argentinian and Japanese team.
The plus to these is the seasons run 1 after the other and covers February to Novemeber.
Its just a thought but personally I'd be uncomfortable watching a team made up of Leigh, Salford and Swinton, it would take some getting used to.

Well I suspect that contract was drawn up on L1. Sky hold the rights for Championship.

Lets see what happens.

BBC reports that plans for a team from New York have been submitted to the RFL and hope to get the go-ahead in time to enter in 2019 at Championship level. They are confident of building a fan base of 10,000 in the first year.

Be interesting to see where the players come from, can see NRL players being drawn into this - obviously it's years before Canadians/Americans of suitable quality become available

Not really sure what the RFL are looking for here, but let's see where it goes

The way to look at this is that the RFL are providing the UK leagues as an incubator for the fledgling clubs in the US and Canada. Once they are grown in number, financial stability, player and fan base, they will be able to operate their own league successfully. Who knows how long this process will take - 3 years? 5? 10? If it doesn't work, we will be looking back with wry, knowing smiles but with no real harm done. But if it works, the upside for the sport is incredible. Where will it leave Leigh and (to be honest) half the current SL clubs? Hopefully getting a smaller piece of a much bigger pie. Could this be the one thing that the RFL actually get right? Time will tell.

Well, as this rumour gathers momentum, I think you could be right, given the horror stories from elsewhere.