Canadian team apply to join Championship 1 (merged threads)

[thundergaz]

This idea is nearly as crazy as the new league system we have in place for next season and onwards. I'm all for bringing them into our leagues and many more world country teams but surely they have to start in SL? By the sound of it they have plenty of cash but starting from the bottom will surely help empty their pot before they get to SL? Surely they have plans to make it to SL I'm assuming as why would you enter our sport especially being so far away if that wasn't the end goal.

[Jeff Stein]

Expedia tell me direct from Heathrow it's 7 3/4 hours going and 7 coming back.

 

Still a bonkers idea imo

[mick wilson]

To cut down on travel they could have a conference system. Toronto in the west and.......

Texas

[keighley]

I don't miss the point at all. The point is that the two aren't comparable.

 

When players went on tour, a lot were not able to tour. That was unfortunate but since they had an entire nation to pick players from, they could find enough players that could tour. It's quite the same if you only have a squad of 30, many of whom may be injured.

 

It's also true that representing your country was the ultimate honour and many people were prepared to make huge sacrifices. I don't really think it reasonable to ask the same sacrifices of someone playing KPC1.

 

Players on tour were also paid for their time, they didn't get fobbed off with a free trip and think themselves lucky - that was rugby union.

 

The nature of work has also changed hugely. It may have been fairly easy to get time off from manual work which tended to be fairly casual and in the early days unemployment was pretty low by modern standards so it wasn't too difficult to get another job.

Are you suggesting that any tour which went overseas in the 1920's and 30's was not part of the great depression and that jobs were not very hard to come by on their return but they went anyway.

[keighley]

No, but if nobody else is doing it then it begs the question whether it is possible at all.

Like when we broke away from Union or played the first Rugby World Cup or placed a French team in our league or invented the play the ball etc etc.

[keighley]

It still leaves the problem of stepping off a plane after 11 hours of travel (plus all the time getting to and from the airport) and trying to get some rest before playing a game.

Didn't players work a shift at the pit and then play a game of rugby league back in the day. Maybe they were made of sterner stuff back then.?

[Northern Sol]

Didn't players work a shift at the pit and then play a game of rugby league back in the day. Maybe they were made of sterner stuff back then.?

And maybe they didn't have a 10m rule. 

 

It's daft to talk about this golden era when men were real men. Today's players are bigger, faster, stronger, more skillful than ever before though probably not tougher. The impact from players running into each other is much higher today than it was back then.

[keighley]

We are expanding the game, it's not a case of sitting on our hands. We have just had five or six new expansion sides in KPC1 in the last 5 years or so. More are probably in the pipeline. But hey let's just gamble all that on a "big idea".

Why would we be gambling the recent expansions ? I would have thought the thought of Canadian team playing in Wrexham or Gateshead would have been good publicity and aroused interest and maybe a bigger than usual gate to see this completely new wrinkle in out fixture lists.

[Northern Sol]

Like when we broke away from Union or played the first Rugby World Cup or placed a French team in our league or invented the play the ball etc etc.

No, not really.

 

Breaking away from union has nothing to do with long distance travel. Nor does the play-the-ball.

 

The first Rugby World Cup was decades behind the FIFA world cup. It had already been done and done on a bigger scale.

 

Putting a French club in our league wasn't a first either. Super Rugby had been going for more than a decade by then. The distances involved are much greater.

 

So no, at no point did league bravely pioneer long distance matches. Even the rugby (pre-1895 tours) came in the wake of cricket tours.

[Northern Sol]

Why would we be gambling the recent expansions ? I would have thought the thought of Canadian team playing in Wrexham or Gateshead would have been good publicity and aroused interest and maybe a bigger than usual gate to see this completely new wrinkle in out fixture lists.

Because you are asking teams with limited resources to play competitive games at a massive distance. How do you think the players would feel about that? None too happy I'd imagine. So they don't want to play and the management has to force them because they have to honour their fixtures. Does that sound like a good scenario to you?

[mick wilson]

Is 6 hours on a coach to/from Gateshead /Barrow any different to six hours to/from Toronto?

Obviously you get to experience glamorous surroundings in Heed & Barrow whereas you don't in Toronto  

[Northern Sol]

Are you suggesting that any tour which went overseas in the 1920's and 30's was not part of the great depression and that jobs were not very hard to come by on their return but they went anyway.

I'm suggesting that it was rather more difficult to persuade players with day jobs to tour in the great depression era than it was at other times. Not all players who were picked to tour agreed to go.

[keighley]

No, not really.

 

Breaking away from union has nothing to do with long distance travel. Nor does the play-the-ball.

 

The first Rugby World Cup was decades behind the FIFA world cup. It had already been done and done on a bigger scale.

 

Putting a French club in our league wasn't a first either. Super Rugby had been going for more than a decade by then. The distances involved are much greater.

 

So no, at no point did league bravely pioneer long distance matches. Even the rugby (pre-1895 tours) came in the wake of cricket tours.

I'm not talking of the travel. You were suggesting that if other sports had not done it then maybe that was because it was a bad idea and examples I suggested were examples of that. With regards the the world cup I was talking in Rugby terms but I do agree that soccer did it first.

[Northern Sol]

I'm not talking of the travel. You were suggesting that if other sports had not done it then maybe that was because it was a bad idea and examples I suggested were examples of that. With regards the the world cup I was talking in Rugby terms but I do agree that soccer did it first.

When I said that my context was "Which other semi-pro league has a team from another continent competing in it?".

 

The answer is that none of them do barring countries like Turkey and Egypt that are technically in two continents.

 

There are very few professional teams in such situations and it isn't easy at that level. But at a semi-pro level it is utter madness.

[scotchy]

The Canadian RL. With the assistance of backers and the RLIF. What would you suggest?

Where are the Canadian RL getting that money from? Where are these backers? are we expecting that the same backers willing to do this would also be happy to finance a whole league? The RLIF could barely pay for a match ticket, their funding isnt going to be anything realistic. 

 

The point i am making is that giving them a big game sounds nice, giving them a little money and a bit of help sounds nice. But it is exactly what RL always does, big words and big promises, a token effort and then the inevitable failure is proof positive that it was a stupid idea to try and that RL will never expand. Its what we always do.

 

I have said what I think needs to happen, 5 years of the WCC, flood the place with development officers, coaches, coach's coaches, referees, get them touring, give them the Sky feed for free and spend 5 years building towards an SL place. 

[keighley]

Where are the Canadian RL getting that money from? Where are these backers? are we expecting that the same backers willing to do this would also be happy to finance a whole league? The RLIF could barely pay for a match ticket, their funding isnt going to be anything realistic. 

 

The point i am making is that giving them a big game sounds nice, giving them a little money and a bit of help sounds nice. But it is exactly what RL always does, big words and big promises, a token effort and then the inevitable failure is proof positive that it was a stupid idea to try and that RL will never expand. Its what we always do.

 

I have said what I think needs to happen, 5 years of the WCC, flood the place with development officers, coaches, coach's coaches, referees, get them touring, give them the Sky feed for free and spend 5 years building towards an SL place.

They approached the RFL. They claim they can finance the whole operation. Now the ball is with the RFL who should ask for details of where the financing is coming from, if it is adequate and if the commitment is for several years at least. If they are not satisfied they should reject the whole idea. If they are but have doubts they should ask for some monies to be advanced as some kind of guarantee the RGL and clubs would not be totally out of pocket. This was done by the NY and the Australian RL before hosting the first tours.

[l'angelo mysterioso]

And maybe they didn't have a 10m rule. 

 

It's daft to talk about this golden era when men were real men. Today's players are bigger, faster, stronger, more skillful than ever before though probably not tougher. The impact from players running into each other is much higher today than it was back then.

I agree, although I think Keighley was being a little light hearted.

[brooza]

This idea is nearly as crazy as the new league system we have in place for next season and onwards. I'm all for bringing them into our leagues and many more world country teams but surely they have to start in SL? By the sound of it they have plenty of cash but starting from the bottom will surely help empty their pot before they get to SL? Surely they have plans to make it to SL I'm assuming as why would you enter our sport especially being so far away if that wasn't the end goal.

Their players are nowhere near ready for SL, even if you pay then the full cap.

[brooza]

Because you are asking teams with limited resources to play competitive games at a massive distance. How do you think the players would feel about that? None too happy I'd imagine. So they don't want to play and the management has to force them because they have to honour their fixtures. Does that sound like a good scenario to you?

Has anybody asked them rather than just assuming?

[thundergaz]

Their players are nowhere near ready for SL, even if you pay then the full cap.

Yes very true brooza. But I just feel starting them in the lowest league will do more damage to them than any positives. But hey if they think they can finance themselves to the top who am I to judge.

[scotchy]

They approached the RFL. They claim they can finance the whole operation. Now the ball is with the RFL who should ask for details of where the financing is coming from, if it is adequate and if the commitment is for several years at least. If they are not satisfied they should reject the whole idea. If they are but have doubts they should ask for some monies to be advanced as some kind of guarantee the RGL and clubs would not be totally out of pocket. This was done by the NY and the Australian RL before hosting the first tours.

brilliant let's carry on with doing things the way we did in the Victorian era and we will undoubtedly catch up.

[brooza]

Where are the Canadian RL getting that money from? Where are these backers? are we expecting that the same backers willing to do this would also be happy to finance a whole league? The RLIF could barely pay for a match ticket, their funding isnt going to be anything realistic. 

 

The point i am making is that giving them a big game sounds nice, giving them a little money and a bit of help sounds nice. But it is exactly what RL always does, big words and big promises, a token effort and then the inevitable failure is proof positive that it was a stupid idea to try and that RL will never expand. Its what we always do.

 

I have said what I think needs to happen, 5 years of the WCC, flood the place with development officers, coaches, coach's coaches, referees, get them touring, give them the Sky feed for free and spend 5 years building towards an SL place. 

Do people even read the articles?

 

We have excellent corporate sponsorship deals with companies such as Fosters (brewery) and Booster Juice (a giant Canadian smoothies company)

 

“We have sponsorship deals with Fosters (brewery) and other major companies, and we have a business plan that will enable us to offer free travel to Canada for our opponents and free accommodation when they get to Toronto.

Nobody has said that the RLIF will be giving them money, they say they have the money. What the RLIF (RLEF more likely) can do is offer them support through expertise

[scotchy]

Their players are nowhere near ready for SL, even if you pay then the full cap.

playing in league 1 won't get them there either though.

[scotchy]

Do people even read the articles?

Nobody has said that the RLIF will be giving them money, they say they have the money. What the RLIF (RLEF more likely) can do is offer them support through expertise

do people even read posts?Try again and read the post it was in response to, perhaps it will sink in.

[Northern Sol]

Has anybody asked them rather than just assuming?

I'm suggesting that they should be asked. Others seem to think that their opinion doesn't matter as long as the Canadians have the finance.