Been thinking about this today, surely it can only be a good thing? Forget the sideshow of rowley and the like! Up to now they have signed Gary wheeler James laithwaite Liam Kay and Craig hall it's not a bad start at all!! They will be very good!! However... How does it work with the rules? Do they have to have a certain amount on Canadians play for them? Surely the intrest it is raising which is good don't get me wrong but it will mean nothing if we don't have Canadians playing at the highest level over here in a few years time say?

No slagging off, nowt to say then.

It's great for RL but shocking how they have approached recruitment

No slagging off. Fairy Nuff.

Behold! I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep
But we shall all be saved
In a moment,
In the twinkling of an eye
At the lass strumpet.

Rowley was not the Messiah!

Its an English team playing under the Toronto banner. What's not to like.......

Don't forget that there is a hard core of people here who are developing the game at the grass roots level, especially in Ontario and B.C. To some extent Toronto Wolfpack has little to do with that, although it does give a future destination for players coming up through the ranks.

I can understand why Leigh fans in particular will be hoping they fail and fail big. I can understand that. If I didn't live over here I might think the exact same. The reality is though that Leigh have not lost anyone they cannot replace with bigger and better ... and wouldn't it be quite amazing if it was a success over here? What a boost for the game as a whole. Isn't that what we would all like to see?

If it's grass roots ...

Why no Canadian players

"Don't forget that there is a hard core of people here who are developing the game at the grass roots level, especially in Ontario and B.C. To some extent Toronto Wolfpack has little to do with that, although it does give a future destination for players coming up through the ranks."

There is one answer to your question in Maple's post.
There will be some Canadians for sure, but I doubt many to begin with as the size of the game/level ready pool of players is limited. There is a North American talent search road show starting tomorrow (28th) that is visiting Vancouver, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Montreal, Boston and Toronto, and you will see a few names come from that. It is vital going forward that Canadians break more and more into the squad, but good results (and entertaining rugby) will be a must, to attract an ongoing and growing fan base. Because of that I believe that the first season will be very result driven and therefore out of necessity right now, lead to a very familiar group of first team squad players to the British Rugby League fans.
I wish the club well and hope that they inspire a new generation of North American Rugby League players (my son included). I am however naffed at the apparent cloak and dagger recruitment style.

Nowt you say is of relavance anyway.

Relavance?

Similar to how I feel.

I [iwant[/i to like them. I am generally in favour of expansion. But they are making themselves very difficult to like with the way they have started out, especially since they seem to be 'targeting' Leigh.

I'd say it would be slightly naive to suggest Rowley didn't already have the Toronto job lined up when he walked out on the eve of the season. Certainly the rumours of him going there started almost straight away as did suggestions that he was tapping up certain players and staff. Kay and Beswick were the main two mentioned, way before the May deadline.

Rowley came out and denied any knowledge of a deal with Toronto, then promptly became the head coach of Toronto! Then it turns out Kay HAS signed for them and I fully expect Beswick and a fair few others to follow. As well as them taking Simon Finnegan just to really disrupt our coaching team.

So I quite like the idea of a Toronto team... just not this Toronto team, who IMO are going about things in a very under handed way.

Investment is coming into it now Heineken I think on board.One thing they don't want is bad publicity,so I don't really understand for the sake of a transfer fee why they need to jeopardise that.Believe Laithwaite had another 12 months to go on his contract.

Should have signed them up in a professional manner,not something people will turn a blind eye to. The RFL will,but fans and clubs won't. Potentially here for three years,friends are required not enemies.

If they've got Heineken as an investor, they've achieved in a few months what the RFL / SL haven't managed for decades!

They predict they will crowds of over 8000 so imo it can be a good thing

However, I have heard that they will have their home and away games in runs of 5 or 6 so the players won't have to travel as much
This would be unfair as teams traveling to canada will have to go there and back in a week so they should have to do the same

The sport has come a long way since Kent Invicta.

Obvious home advantage to Toronto doesnt make for a good competition