It's certainly "interesting times", expansion of the game into the US and more in Canada as well could be good for the sport, but you do have to worry about the capability of the blazers at Red Hall to make it work for everyone.

Could be great for the sport and really force UK clubs to raise the bar to be in the top half dozen British clubs from a performance, stadium, youth development, fan base perspective. Franchising previously was compromised by the fact that UK chairmen called the shots but an international competition atttracting major funding would revolutionise things. All pie in the sky I guess. In the meantime good for our profile to be embracing new concepts like the Wigan game in Australia. Adapt or die?

I think we're well placed to be one of the clubs that adapts, but I do fear it will mean a merger with KR. I'm not sure if I'd support a merged club, time will tell if I'm given that particular decision to make.

I agree with that. They are certainly going to have to be careful here and they don't instil much confidence with me. The crux of it all is 'making it work for everyone' and the safeguards there are for the current game. I expect another American team to apply shortly and then for me its also a question of the amount of quality players that are in the game at present being able to spread so much more thinly across the game. The lure of North America for players is already proving strong, and who can blame them, the American sports market is massive with their TV networks actively looking for other directions to go in.

As these teams progress they will want a higher standard of player and instead of it benefiting the British game it could actually lower the standard even more in this country, particularly when you note the demise of the amateur game here. So I guess personally I greet this news with cautious optimism but as PC says there won't be room for everyone currently in Super League in a new Transcontinental top tear into which I expect any American team will have bought their way quite easily. But as Mrs B says as a panacea for the game going forward it is a great concept and pretty exciting but some of the devil will be in the detail I guess. As she intimates Franchises are on the way back I feel, but there was a lot of interest about this from some owners here at the last meeting of Clubs to discuss the way forward.

It would certainly make an odd business model for sport and one that I think would be unique. Is there another sport where there is an international league with no underpinning domestic league?

If and it is a big IF RL takes off in north american then it would eventually just take over the northern hemisphere and the uk input would just reduce as LA, chicago el al come on board. I still struggle to see it having much of an impact over there, football has struggled for years to effectively make an impact an add in the concussion element then i think it will probably either rely on someone propping it up money wise or go the way of London / Paris

Can't help but thinking the american Canada project will wither and fail. But we gotta try I suppose. Just can't see it working long term

Same here.

Same here, apart from the "But we gotta try I suppose" bit.

Bloody pessimists

All evidence for Toronto so far shows that they're serious, ambitious, enthusiastic for RL, display a high level of commercial acumen - and so far they've delivered.

They've managed to build a professional RL club from scratch, with no central funding, playing in a league 3,000 miles away, and averaged over 7k attendances against some pretty poor sides. I think that has to be applauded.

I try to see the positives I suppose. Maybe it's time for an avatar change?



Of course as a lifelong RL fan I'm biased, but despite the frustrations we have with the sport, we do have an excellent "product". I don't think there's a more entertaining team sport on the planet. World class athletes, big collisions, skill, high tempo, plenty of tries, and simple enough to understand fairly quickly. It's a true family sport too. It should be exactly what North America has been missing, we've just got to open their eyes to it. It's rare that I'll watch a game with a non-RL fan and they won't enjoy it.



Toronto have to abide by the same "Non-Fed" rules as the other UK clubs (same as Catalan currently). Canada falls under the same Federation as the UK & France (the RLEF) so will in theory be able to sign as many British players as they want (Salary Cap permitting). Similarly, we could go out & sign 10 French players, or 10 Canadians in 20 years time, and it'll have no effect on the Non-Fed limit.

Short-term it will impact the UK (& potentially French) player pool, in that the current talent will be shared between more clubs, but the flip side of that means there's another pathway open to UK talent to play at a high, professional level. For instance, Westerman leaving Warrington may mean that a door is opened for a young UK back rower to stake a claim for a shirt.

Long-term, Perez has said he'd like to have a TWP academy up & running within 3 years time. This is very ambitious, as there's very little junior RL being played in Canada currently, but one things for sure - Perez meets his ambition with actions. They also had I believe, 6 North Americans in their squad this year, with their first genuine Canadian youngster, Quinn Ngawati, getting game time. We also have to think of Melbourne, who in their 20(?) years have been very successful, but have only brought through a handful of genuine Victorian youngsters in that time. It takes time to set up the grassroots infrastructure & get it to a good enough standard. We're extremely lucky to have a number of excellent amateur clubs on our doorstep.

Impact the nfl ? Seriously , they college game is bigger than the super league

divide that figure by 10 for a lot of their fans