John WP Fan

Enjoy him, KR. He is a good player and a great guy. We will miss him a lot in Toronto, and look forward to your visit.

We in Toronto are waiting anxiously to hear about local TV deals, which might provide coverage for Sky and others to pick up. The SBW signing can't hurt that effort! As for Thursday/Friday games, I can imagine the uproar if Toronto were exempted from them, and did not have to have the same short turnaround as other teams. We can record games that are on TV and watch them later (shutting off social media for a few hours, which is always a good thing!).

Good story on page S2 of today's sports section in the Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/sports/2019/11/03/wolfpack-target-sonny-bill-williams-is-more-than-an-athlete-hes-a-one-man-economic-stimulus-package.html

I thought the idea was that the away fans bring all the atmosphere...

I appreciate your "sincere" "good" "wishes". London would have gone down regardless. Toronto helped the Championship by drawing in more fans (home and away), and by passing on central funding and prize money. They will help the other 11 Super League teams much more, by passing on the Sky money. And it looks like they may bring in a big name who will generate more interest when they come to visit as well. I didn't say they had made a lot of money already; I agree they have been spending more than they have brought in so far. I believe that will change within a few years. I believe they and other new teams can bring more sponsorship and TV revenue, in years to come. Let's see where things stand in a few years. I'm confident they will be a financial success in the medium to long term, and that they will help RL in the UK as well as in North America.

There is no reason why expansion (which to me mean means more teams, more players, more fans, more revenue) needs to hurt any team. One way to make sure of that is to charge higher and higher entry fees to each new team admitted, with those fees distributed to the existing teams. And it is reasonable to ask all teams (old and new) to contribute to growing the game at lower levels in ways that make sense. I have posted before about our experience with expansion in professional ice hockey from the 1960s to today. This started with a doubling of teams from 6 to 12 in one year, which did dilute talent for a few years. If the growth is more gradual than that (and it should be!), the dilution of talent will be very manageable, and more teams, more fans, more revenue will lead to higher salaries, which will draw more players into the game (yes, eventually from Canada and the US as well). I really believe that expansion done right does not take anything away from the heartland teams, but will grow the sport in a way that will help them. The Wolfpack may not yet have generated any Canadian players (and they won't in numbers for some time), but they have generated a lot of fans and made a real dent on a busy sports scene in a major city. That can be repeated, and that can lead to substantially more TV revenue within a short time. I know the top-down growth model is foreign to many in the UK, but it is the norm in North America and it does work.

I think there are many fans who are genuinely looking forward to losing some games next year! By that I mean that we are a little tired of clobbering part-time teams, and are hungry for better competition, even if it means we lose more than we win. Yes, people like a winner, but Toronto has a long history of supporting losing teams, and tougher competition will bring in more fans, not fewer. There is talk that there are 6-7 new players signed for 2020 (likely conditional on Saturday's victory, so not announced in advance). I hope to hear who those are very soon. I think the team will be taking a run at a playoff spot next year. I don't know enough to say whether that is realistic, but I'm hoping we can win more than we lose, and as long as we're well clear of relegation I will be happy with the progress.

Including Toronto fans, I hope. We are generally quite impressed by what Fev has accomplished so far. We remember that you beat us here last season (in a game that was mostly meaningless to us, but still), and that both games this year were close. No one here is taking anything for granted. Yes, we SHOULD win, but we know that doesn't mean anything until we actually make it happen on the field. Looking forward to great game. If we win it will be the high point of the Wolfpack's existence so far. If we miss this opportunity again, it will be a crushing disappointment.

I think Fev will need to be much better than London was last year to beat us. Our team is much stronger, better coached, more prepared for the job that needs to be done, and with fewer injuries to key players. That said, Fev has been on a roll and does have a chance! If they do beat us, we will be much more disappointed than we were last year.

reduced payout from revenues earned at games. I think it's a fair compromise.

Re Players: There is quiet speculation that the Wolfpack have 6 or 7 SL-calibre players ready to join them if they are promoted (contracts conditional on winning the Grand Final). I'd guess Fev would have a chance to sign those guys if they are able to pull off an upset. I'm hoping for a TWP victory of course, but if Fev win fair and square they deserve every opportunity to succeed in SL.

That was true from 2003-2016, but then they stopped doing that. Now it's decided by regular-season record (even though the schedules are wildly unbalanced). And there are some obscure tie-breakers if the two league champions have identical records (see https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/10/world-series-2018-home-field-advantage-decided-red-sox-fenway-park) Now that's going off on a tangent!

or, maybe, the second...

This year the black kit (with white stripes) is the away kit. The white one (with red & black trim) is for home, and the red one is the alternate, worn on special occasions (and almost always when we play Toulouse!).

It's an old, gritty stadium, so no, it doesn't look much better in person. It is an intimate place with a great atmosphere, and we are hoping there will be substantial improvements in the next few years. The field was replaced a year and a half ago and is in great shape. I know TV viewers don't like the multiple line markings, but that's a result of it being a city-owned stadium with a lot of community use, and it doesn't seem to bother the locals much. Add seats instead of aluminum benches, add a roof, a large video screen, some corporate boxes, improve the food (the drink is well taken care of already!) improve the bathrooms, and add capacity, and it would be great. I don't have a clear sense of which of those are required for Super League, but I hope much of the above become a condition for entry if we earn promotion! Some of those improvements are easily done, while others will take a large investment. Nearby BMO Field is an example of a team partnering with the city to do similar things, so it's possible, and our new CEO is without a doubt the best guy in the country to make it happen.