mrfranco

From the hosts of this august forum: https://www.totalrl.com/nrl-deal-to-be-put-to-rfl-board/

Maybe they're staying for the Wheelchair?

It's "days away", mate

Apparently. But who knows? Reckon we'll find out sometime around Christmas at this rate...

Mostly from the £150k of central funding that they were gonna pay the Broncos in the Championship, but who are now heading into SL with no central funding at all?

Interesting to note that he was based in Geneva for some of his years at Yahoo and apparently has professional proficiency in French. Can only help the RFL's relations with France and the French clubs.

Ah, that sounds like more of a problem - not what NRL would be looking to achieve...

Yeah, there's an issue there. But I suppose TO and Les Dracs already do that in France. The other answer is that you have a big end-of-season playoff between incumbent non-franchise team and team finishing in qualifying position in domestic league. Blockbuster game(s) for sure!

Wait till they get announced as one of the anchor franchise teams for NRL Europe 2028...

Have we overtaken the monster Toronto thread yet??

So sounds like it's a success - enough of one for the new kids on the block (NBA Europe) to follow it. My interest is in whether the NRL might look at that and think, yeah, that's something that could work for us in Europe too

I find it interesting that, as the New World behemoth the NBA comes to Europe to build a new competition over the top of the existing European structures in that sport, the plan is to have a league consisting of 12 fixed, franchise teams plus 4 qualifiers that change each season. They specifically cite this as being the "best of the New World model combined with the best of the European model, as seen in soccer". Might this be a model the new New World overlords of RL might look to follow? Gives security of tenure and the chance to build for the chosen few, whilst not completely killing off any hope of joining the elite for those left out. Gives us Europeans that sporting jeopardy and sense of on-the-field hope that we're so used to and attached to. Whisper it quietly, but you could even have, say, a guaranteed third French spot in the comp for the winners of the French domestic comp (rotated each year). Maybe that's down the road... (or down la rue)

Interesting, thank you - was not aware of that.

Especially as the salary cap and I think also the quota rules for the Champ have been completely changed for next season, so they'd effectively be back to square one, unable to keep a side like the one they had this last season. And so they couldn't develop the team or the club really at any level - on the pitch, commercial, fan base - in the Champ next season... and the other clubs in that league don't want them anyway, after they blew everyone away this season.

Don't worry, le Super 13 kicks off again this weekend