For those with families, it's a max of 5 days away. Superleague clubs have longer pre-season warm weather camps.

How many Championship/League 1 players work in factories? And even if some do, they somehow manage to train a few times a week and play each weekend. Like I said, this isn't Victorian England, it is possible to get time off and most employers are generally quite understanding about employees embarking on fantastic opportunities such as this.

The percentage of players that'll fall under the criteria you've laid out there is so small it's not even worth thinking about.

I'm not sure it is.

If you're following football as the model, with each country having it's own professional league then you're right, but even football recognises that there needs to be a higher level of competition across countries (The Champions & Europa league).

In Rugby Union, the Super15 comprises of teams from SA, NZ and Australia, with sides from Argentina and Japan (I'm not sure if they've joined or set to join). Then there's the Celtic league with sides from Ireland, Scotland & Wales.

Canadian sides compete together with American sides in a number of sports.

NZ don't have their own RL League, yet are more than competitive.


I agree, in an ideal world, each country has their own strong domestic competition, but I don't think it's necessarily vital to international competition/growth.

I know of at least 6 or 7 players in league 1 that work in the caravan industry which is set holidays,
I'm only staging my argument based on what I've seen on social media off lads this would concern and they ain't to white hot on the idea, and that's where it fails it has to be right for everyone it would involve not just the powers at red hall

But on the other side of the argument, I know a couple of lads who play at Newcastle, and they can't wait for it.

I don't think it has to be right for everyone, it has to be right for the majority. We can't ignore and turn away this potential, because 6/7 lads working in a factory will miss 1 game of the season, that's madness.

If those lads genuinely can't make it and have tried what they can, then I feel for them, but we shouldn't let it hold everything back.

Taking into account all the above posts.IMO just can't see it working. Will fold after a few years. Cant knock.anybody for trying but just a gimmick. We are a northern sport rightly or wrongly and IMO should be investing more in the clubs up here.

I don't think it's a gimmick, I think it's a genuine project by some motivated individuals. A gimmick would suggest it's purely being done for publicity, which might be true if it was engineered by the RFL rather than the Canadians.

May be it will fold. It's certainly ambitious, but it's at their own risk, no money is being invested by the RFL.

I agree that more should be done for clubs over here, but clubs have to help themselves too. But unfortunately there isn't a big pot of money sat there waiting to be invested.

I'm not saying I know the answers to this but I do feel by 'implanting' a team that will no doubt be staffed by Aussies, kiwis and Brits I wonder if it will generate enough interest to start up a league or are we building walls before foundations.

Its similar to having an NFL team in the uk, it will be well supported but ultimately it will be a team full of americans playing for us.

Hope I'm wrong and its a raging success and I wont knock anyone for trying.

Your right the Batley v Dewsbury Derby attracted over a 1000 fans massive potential there forget cosmopolitan Toronto lets invest in dying West Yorkshire towns

I get your point, and I largely agree with it.

There are domestic leagues in Canada, not strong leagues, but there is something there and it's been growing steadily the past few years. Maybe an elite side will provide a pathway for these players to aim for, maybe it'll encourage more people to pick up a RL ball, or get involved in their local side.

Certainly at the beginning it'll be full of Brits & Aussies, and that'll be one of the true tests of Toronto, to see if they can bring through home grown talent in time. Reading up on it, they certainly have this firmly on their radar.

It's blo0dy ambitious & I hope the investors are patient. It seems a million miles away from the Crusaders and London setups, so plenty to be excited about, but without the risk.

Problem is that although morally the right thing to do it doesn't make commercial sense to invest in areas that are dying, they're dying for a reason and very little will reverse that. New markets have to be explored but its how to do it that is the problem

I was been sarcastic

For the games being played in Toronto, they are flying players out on a Thursday, with the game being played on a Saturday and the return flight home on a Sunday.

I wish this news had been made available when the announcement was made, it would have reduced my stress no end.

I think this is a great move and shows how innovative and dynamic Rugby League can be. I am sure that other sporting organisations such as the NFL will be very interested in how this all pans out ahead of their own plans for teams playing out of Europe/England.

In the future it's not that crazy to think there could be global leagues for certain sports, especially as methods of travel becomes faster and more efficient. Also I am sure that the people behind the Toronto franchise have got sufficient funding in place along with the mayor putting his support into the project. With enough money to throw into it, they can acheive anything they want.

Sports tourism generates a lot of money.
If only a few dozen fans per match travel over, they will spend 10s of thousands on travel and accommodation.
If they can get either 100s or 1000s of fans travelling for one off games, the numbers are staggering.
The problem is how to get money from the tourism industry into funding the sport. Once you find a way to do that, the numbers add up.

The Catalans team generates huge amounts of tourism dollars for their region, as do Auckland Warriors and Melbourne Storm to mention a few.

In a practical sense, it shouldn't be hard to get a tourism authority or even an airline or hotel chain - or a combination of all three - to fund teams to travel and stay at these remote locations, because it's easy to show how they can make money in return.

The ultimate example in the southern hemisphere rugby union comp - which now has teams from all over Australia, NZ, South Africa and is expanding into Japan and Argentina. As travel gets cheaper and people get richer, we will see more and more of this. I'll be very surprized if we don't see teams from Italy, Serbia and maybe even Russia and USA playing in the English League comps soon.