Quote: bren2k "As far as I can tell, RL is flourishing in the US - and there are huge amounts of athletes who don't make the grade in the ridiculous spectacle that is American Football, who would make perfectly serviceable RL players. Canada seems an obvious next step and from what I've read, in the ice hockey off-season, there is nothing much else for them to watch - and he's sold a fair few season tickets already, so the early signs are good.
I understand the scepticism, but it would be great if it worked - it could easily lead to an American/Canadian SL and will do wonders for their international sides.'"
I've got to admit after watching the Eric Perez interview on Backchat I went from this is bit of a joke, to this could certainly have some legs to it.
The guys got something about him for sure. He's got enthusiasm for days, along with intelligence and his knowledge of marketing, that makes you want to buy into it. Especially as you say if they can tap into that huge amount of College athletes that leave with nothing to do when their NFL dreams are over, that's where this could really take off. If they can tap into those guys who Colleges have spent 100's of Thousands of dollars on turning them into top athletes, then spits them out and then RL can offer them another avenue. But that will obviously take a few years.
He says he's set up the Canadian equivalent to that NRL Rookie show, that is apparently going to shown on an a Canadian TV channel. Also the way he was telling it, the club would be run with the owners cash but most of it would come from sponsorship money from over in North America, which would be impressive if true. They've already got all their games Live sorted on Premier Sports, which is an achievement imo.