fevtom

Apologies of i’ve completely missed this somewhere but are the average attendances for League One available?

I would say we're talking about two completely different audiences here. An NFL game in London is a once a year thing, the only time any fan of that sport will be able to see an NFL game in the country with two world famous teams hence almost every NFL fan I know has been to a game at Wembley at least once, even the ones that live in Scotland. That's not going to happen for (what has recently been) a second tier rugby league team. I'm not saying that the Broncos can't do much better I just think it's not a useful comparison. For the Broncos you're looking at a much more local market and hoping for more consistent support that once every few years. Unfortunately most people around London who would be into a game like rugby league will already be fans of rugby union, probably by chance of where they were born.

Personally I think the whole DR thing is a farce for many reasons. That being said, those are the rules we play with and as others pointed out, if we didn't have DR with Leeds then i'm sure Batley or Dewsbury would take advantage of it.

Now that all the teams are decided is anyone having a go at predicting the table. We can laugh at how wrong we all were come this time next year. I suspect this will change multiple times before the start of the season as we see new signings etc but i'm going for: 1. Toronto 2. Toulouse 3. Widnes 4. Halifax 5. Leigh 6. Featherstone 7. Bradford 8. Batley 9. York 10. Barrow 11. Sheffield 12. Dewsbury 13. Swinton 14. Rochdale

Forgive me if this is a stupid question but i'm probably the youngest on the forum and aren't exactly up to date with off field developments but what area of land does the club actually own?

Not bad for a third tier rugby league team and a seventh tier football team.

I was in a bar in Turkey quite a few years ago where we asked them if they could put the rugby on TV. I think it was Leeds v Bradford. There were quite a few locals in the bar who were in hysterics every time a tackle was made.

I hope rugby league is successful in expanding beyond the M62 but we have to think about the player pool. I would love Toronto, London, New York etc to all be developing Super League standard players eventually but the reality is for the forseeable future their teams will be made up of Aussies and lads from Cas, Warrington, Hull etc. If top level professional rugby disappeared in these places you can expect participation to drop too. All this talk of suddenly replacing Huddersfield, Wakefield with New York, Philadelphia etc is ambitious but a little premature.

I expect the crowds for Toronto matches still to be slightly above average with them being one of the better teams and there still being some novelty. Interestingly it didn't have the same effect on the Super League sides with the Toronto game generally being lower crowds with the exception of Salford. A club shouldn't have to rely on away fans to fill their ground but I do find it makes a better atmosphere, then again I always grew up following football where away fans are usually in their thousands even in the third and fourth divisions.

This was one of the possible positives I forgot to memtion in another thread. It will be interesting to see if they think he’s ready or if he will end up back at London Skolars.

In terms of what he's achieved with Toronto you can't say he's failed. Yes with the financial advantage they were going to be favorites to go up both years but in 2018 Rowley got as close as possible to promotion and was unlucky to miss out in an extraordinary million pound game so there's no problems there. If you were to look at the bigger picture you could say that TWP's main problem has been discipline and this is something Rowley has continually failed at throughout his career. I would also argue that while Rowley was obviously choice initially and clearly above a league one standard coach TWP are in a position now where they could attract a more successful Super League or NRL coach. He would probably do fine next year and get promotion but I think that will be the limit of how far he can take the club.

Well done to London. Personally, I enjoyed the game, it’s probably the first time i’ve watched a try-less game and some of the defending was fantastic although I can see how it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Will the assitional seats improve the capcity or is it swapping standing space for seated?

Just a couple of quick thoughts on the game. London knew they were the underdogs and planned accordingley. They made themselves difficult to break down and slowed the game down when they needed to. Big tactical victory to London. Not sure about the comment about the referee who I thought performed O.K. If anything a couple of decisions went in favour of the wolfpack including being given one of the softest penalties i’ve ever seen in a good position towards the end. Overall I don’t think the referee affected the result. In the long term I see this as being a blessing for TWP. It will test their resilliance and show them where they need to improve. There are a lot of rugby fans sitting on the fence with their opinions of Toronto and an honest struggle to Super League will win more of them over than an image of “buying the league” will. Onto next season, it’s impossible to predict at the moment, almost every team will have a massive overhaul of players but here we go... Toronto - I see them as obvious favourites but it will be interesting to see how they recruit. Especially under a 1 up 1 down system where they need to be better than every other championship team. Toulouse - I see them as Toronto’s main challengers, they were unlucky this year. Their promotion hopes were somewhat unfairly taken away by a couple of controversial decisions at Lamport. Rumour has it they’re going to make a couple of big signings. Widnes - Impossible to predict, they had a terrible season but they should still have enough to get past most part time championship clubs considering their parachute payment. Leigh - Disappointing season for them but let’s not forget they’re still one of the full time teams and were heavy favourites to win the league this year. The club seems to be in a bad way at the moment but February is a long time away. Featherstone / Halifax - Always up there challenging but will always be underdogs as long as they’re part time in a league with an increasing number of fully professional outfits. York / Bradford - With their current squads they’d probably challenge for mid table. If they have the opportunity to recruit who knows. Bradford were on of the biggest clubs in the northern hemisphere not long ago and they’ll be hoping to be back in Super League very soon but at the moment I feel the league is going to be a little too competative for them. As for London, as much as I think it’s important to have a strong London based team for the exposure of Super League I can’t see them being very successful next year. Without a massive rebrand they’re going to be playing in front of very small crowds making the game look amatuer. London or Salford to come down next year.

I can’t remember the last game I watched without a try.

Does anyone else find the stadium announcer really cringy.