Central American Rugby League membership

[Pulga]

https://www.patreon.com/CCRugbyLeague

The Central American Rugby League is (soft) launching it's membership on this very forum.

Our aim is simple: to make being a member affordable while aiming to have a stream of income that will allow us to employ a full-time development officer for the 7 nations of Central America.

I love talking about the project so if you have any questions or comments I'm happy to chat.

[Eddie]

So basically you need 50 people on this forum (or from anywhere) to donate 4 Aussie dollars a month and you can employ a full time development officer in Central America? That’s outstanding if so. 

[Manfred Mann]

We need to focus on the safe Central American countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are much too dangerous with omnipresent criminal gangs  for anyone to be attempting to cultivate rugby league in those nations at this time. Nicaragua is also unsafe.The main attention should be on Costa Rica and perhaps Panama.

[Pulga]

7 hours ago, Eddie said:

So basically you need 50 people on this forum (or from anywhere) to donate 4 Aussie dollars a month and you can employ a full time development officer in Central America? That’s outstanding if so. 

Yep, that's correct except it's US dollars.

It will be only the second full-time job in RL in North America as far as I'm aware.

[Pulga]

3 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

We need to focus on the safe Central American countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are much too dangerous with omnipresent criminal gangs  for anyone to be attempting to cultivate rugby league in those nations at this time. Nicaragua is also unsafe.The main attention should be on Costa Rica and perhaps Panama.

It's like many places. Certain areas, sometimes just certain streets and roads in those countries account for much of the crime. If you stay away from those areas you will be fairly safe.

In my seven years of developing the game in Central America (mostly El Salvador) there has been zero violence or crime incidents towards anyone involved.

[Manfred Mann]

3 hours ago, Pulga said:

It's like many places. Certain areas, sometimes just certain streets and roads in those countries account for much of the crime. If you stay away from those areas you will be fairly safe.

In my seven years of developing the game in Central America (mostly El Salvador) there has been zero violence or crime incidents towards anyone involved.

Fair point. 

However a different matter which I didn’t raise is the financial basis for developing the game. All the violent countries I mentioned  other than Mexico, are very poor. It would  be very difficult, I would imagine, to create professional clubs in those countries in the future. Costa Rica is much more prosperous. It could possibly sustain a few professional clubs in the future if and after the amateur game is implanted. Perhaps Panama also.

[Pulga]

58 minutes ago, Manfred Mann said:

Fair point. 

However a different matter which I didn’t raise is the financial basis for developing the game. All the violent countries I mentioned  other than Mexico, are very poor. It would  be very difficult, I would imagine, to create professional clubs in those countries in the future. Costa Rica is much more prosperous. It could possibly sustain a few professional clubs in the future if and after the amateur game is implanted. Perhaps Panama also.

I've been putting pen to paper regarding a professional Central American competition.

As with everything you have positives and negatives. With the low wages comes low player contracts. Bench Professional soccer players are on less than $1,000 a month. That's what we'd be competing against. We wouldn't even have to match that.

Higher cost of living means you need to be paying higher wages. 

The problem with Costa Rica and Panama are they have the smallest populations. Looking at a good spread of cities above (or around) the magic number of 200,000 inhabitants, both only have their capitals if you don't count satellite cities within their capital's limits.

If we're setting something up from scratch we don't want to be going the England route of small cities or even towns hosting professional teams. It doesn't make sense.

Central America from the Northernmost city capable of sustaining a team to the Southernmost is the same distance as Townsville to Sydney. So travel is an enormous saving. 

[Eddie]

12 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

We need to focus on the safe Central American countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are much too dangerous with omnipresent criminal gangs  for anyone to be attempting to cultivate rugby league in those nations at this time. Nicaragua is also unsafe.The main attention should be on Costa Rica and perhaps Panama.

When you say ‘we’, does that mean you are going to get RL going in CR and Panama? Great stuff if so. 

[Pulga]

11 minutes ago, Eddie said:

When you say ‘we’, does that mean you are going to get RL going in CR and Panama? Great stuff if so. 

I'd welcome your help MM!

[Eddie]

Is there an option to make a one off donation rather than commit to a monthly amount?

[Pulga]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Is there an option to make a one off donation rather than commit to a monthly amount?

There isn't on Patreon unfortunately.

Do you think a smaller amount would be better? A $2USD option perhaps?

[Whippet13]

18 minutes ago, Pulga said:

There isn't on Patreon unfortunately.

Do you think a smaller amount would be better? A $2USD option perhaps?

I don't think it is the amount, $4 plus VAT isn't much, but some people simply prefer to make one-off donations.

What's the state of the game in Central America and do you have any details on what your plans are for the region? Player recruitment, League structure, locations, timelines etc.

Are you talking to or have any links with the International Rugby League?

Is there anything people can do to support you other than chip in some cash?

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Pulga said:

There isn't on Patreon unfortunately.

Do you think a smaller amount would be better? A $2USD option perhaps?

Maybe, but also if you could somehow have a one off donation option elsewhere (other than patron) was Whippet says people may be more inclined to donate. I certainly would. 

[Pulga]

1 hour ago, Whippet13 said:

I don't think it is the amount, $4 plus VAT isn't much, but some people simply prefer to make one-off donations.

What's the state of the game in Central America and do you have any details on what your plans are for the region? Player recruitment, League structure, locations, timelines etc.

Are you talking to or have any links with the International Rugby League?

Is there anything people can do to support you other than chip in some cash?

Obviously COVID has put a halt on a lot of things. We were getting a real roll on until the start of the year.

El Salvador is working towards government recognition and had a small amount of training happening with brand new (ie not union converts) players. So it was slowly taking shape. El Salvador has just launched a new website if you want to check it out: https://esrl.es/

Nicaragua had jumped ahead with a Four team domestic competition late in 2019. They are at an advanced stage to have a regional body recognized by the government. In at least 3 of the nations you need multiple regional (department or state if you will) bodies to be set up before you can set up an overarching national body.

Unlike in many Commonwealth countries you can't just set up a not-for-profit that would allow you to open a bank account in that name and satisfy the IRL's criteria for Observer or Affiliate status. You need to start a Federation. So paying a lawyer to do the whole process is the only way.

We have a group wanting to start playing RL in Honduras who have been playing RU. They're very keen and have a school program.

Costa Rica is also wanting to get going and has a very strong leader with years of sports admin behind him.

Belize has a group that are interested and we've opened a dialogue between them, Romeo from Jamaica and ourselves. It's a Commonwealth country so it might have some benefits when it comes to the paperwork side of admin. Nothing to report yet but we'll see how it works.

Nothing to speak of in Panama and Guatemala really except we've had contact with an English expat in Guatemala and there's a Panamanian playing in the USARL who travels there often and is keen to help out.

With Nicaragua being the strongest and El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica all looking the next best it creates a block of 4 neighbouring nations. We hope to have some internationals once COVID is over (fingers crossed) which will bring some good publicity and lure away more union players.

We have had contact with the IRL. I wouldn't say we talk with them too much though as there's really no help available. We just have to satisfy criteria to be recognized. That's it. Part of the reason for this Patreon is important is that we don't rely on any governing body.

 

We're open to any help outside of this Patreon. It's just difficult. For instance you can't really get balls from anywhere (as in the whole of the Americas I think). I personally sent over a handful of Steedens to Nicaragua last year and it took 5 months to arrive.

[HarrogateKnights]

Bluefields in Nicaragua apparently has a good English speaking population. Not sure how good your Spanish is but definitely a bonus if looking at outside influence

[Griff]

3 hours ago, HarrogateKnights said:

Bluefields in Nicaragua apparently has a good English speaking population. Not sure how good your Spanish is but definitely a bonus if looking at outside influence

Mi aerodeslizador está lleno de anguilas.

.