NRL Europe? In Winter?

[Gomersall]

18 hours ago, JM2010 said:

Unless they come over on a proper 2/3 year contract it just undermines our competition. 

Ask Wakey and Hull fans what they thought of Lewis and Sterling not coming over on proper 2/3 years meant to them?

Edited March 2 by Gomersall

[Gomersall]

On 29/02/2024 at 07:12, gingerjon said:

It's called a jolly.

Cushty.

[Kayakman]

22 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Toronto blew it. SL let them.

You are a walking solution always looking for an argument....

Um cínico é um homem que sabe o preço de tudo, mas o valor de nada.

[Kayakman]

11 hours ago, yipyee said:

Covid was the issue but the world has already forgotten about the whole thing 

I was talking to a person in the weight room who brought it up to me just yesterday.

[gingerjon]

47 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

You are a walking solution always looking for an argument....

Um cínico é um homem que sabe o preço de tudo, mas o valor de nada.

Did either of those lines sound like they had anything to do with the point when you wrote them?

Toronto blew themselves up and, rightly, lost a lot of people's sympathies when they decided that paying players and suppliers was optional.

[Kayakman]

5 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Did either of those lines sound like they had anything to do with the point when you wrote them?

Toronto blew themselves up and, rightly, lost a lot of people's sympathies when they decided that paying players and suppliers was optional.

Cynical attitudes can be useful at times, unless they become a lonely habit.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Kayakman said:

Cynical attitudes can be useful at times, unless they become a lonely habit.

It's not cynical to point out that Toronto themselves had no money to pay players, had already, before Covid, not had money to pay suppliers and, even now, have not paid the players everything they should have done.

It's not cynical because that's just an objective fact. It's a series of things that happened.

[EggFace]

4 hours ago, Gomersall said:

Ask Wakey and Hull fans what they thought of Lewis and Sterling not coming over on proper 2/3 years meant to them?

Wally Lewis played 10 games for Trinity and even had a fanzine named Wally Lewis is Coming and Peter Sterling played 36 games a bit more then 3 games and the Wolves never got to Old Trafford.

[Kayakman]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

It's not cynical to point out that Toronto themselves had no money to pay players, had already, before Covid, not had money to pay suppliers and, even now, have not paid the players everything they should have done.

It's not cynical because that's just an objective fact. It's a series of things that happened.

Sure/////whatever you say.

[yipyee]

12 hours ago, Kayakman said:

I was talking to a person in the weight room who brought it up to me just yesterday.

Brought up the weights ?

[yipyee]

11 hours ago, gingerjon said:

It's not cynical to point out that Toronto themselves had no money to pay players, had already, before Covid, not had money to pay suppliers and, even now, have not paid the players everything they should have done.

It's not cynical because that's just an objective fact. It's a series of things that happened.

The owners of Toronto at the time didn't pay / couldn't pay but they felt hard done to by the RFL / SL who told them to relocate to UK during covid.

The potential new owner would have settled every outstanding debt but was told to go away. So he did. The RFL / SL had an opportunity to politically sort all the problems.. but chose not to. That is on the RFL / SL.

Toronto effectively went bust and guess what creditors and staff do not get paid in full when this happens.

[ATLANTISMAN]

1 minute ago, yipyee said:

The owners of Toronto at the time didn't pay / couldn't pay but they felt hard done to by the RFL / SL who told them to relocate to UK during covid.

The potential new owner would have settled every outstanding debt but was told to go away. So he did. The RFL / SL had an opportunity to politically sort all the problems.. but chose not to. That is on the RFL / SL.

Toronto effectively went bust and guess what creditors and staff do not get paid in full when this happens.

Thats the way of the world we took a hit of 250K but didn't moan have managed to get around 100K of it back by hiring out the LED system that we shipped over to a CFL club.

If they came back would ask the missus to do a another deal in 5 mins, i dont blame David at all for what happened shame about the players though and understand that.

[Click]

1 hour ago, yipyee said:

The owners of Toronto at the time didn't pay / couldn't pay but they felt hard done to by the RFL / SL who told them to relocate to UK during covid.

The potential new owner would have settled every outstanding debt but was told to go away. So he did. The RFL / SL had an opportunity to politically sort all the problems.. but chose not to. That is on the RFL / SL.

Toronto effectively went bust and guess what creditors and staff do not get paid in full when this happens.

That's an incredibly one sided view of the whole Toronto debacle.

[headtackle]

On 23/02/2024 at 07:57, gingerjon said:

Would they even need to buy it?

Actually, would they even need to buy Super League?

Just set up NRL Europe/NRL France/NRL Whatevs and invite clubs, officials, refs to join.

Back to the days of the Australian SL war

 

 

[headtackle]

On 02/03/2024 at 12:24, gingerjon said:

It's not cynical to point out that Toronto themselves had no money to pay players, had already, before Covid, not had money to pay suppliers and, even now, have not paid the players everything they should have done.

It's not cynical because that's just an objective fact. It's a series of things that happened.

Toronto's timing was bad luck and there was no way they could get through covid.  They ended badly but before that got the game a lot of media coverage. 

With the NRL pushing links with the USA a question for them would be would they let a US franchise into their competition ?

 

 

[Sports Prophet]

17 hours ago, headtackle said:

With the NRL pushing links with the USA a question for them would be would they let a US franchise into their competition ?

 

 

No matter how successful the Las Vegas event goes over the next five years, I struggle to see how any American city could host an NRL team. Even Hawaii.

[Damien]

If RL in any way gains a decent foothold in North America then the goal has to be a North American competition. This is where I always hold out hope that someone like Lachlan Murdoch will think of it as a fairly inexpensive filler. 

[Damien]

On 03/03/2024 at 01:32, Click said:

That's an incredibly one sided view of the whole Toronto debacle.

To be fair there are extreme one sided views both ways. As ever the truth lies somewhere in the middle. By many metrics such as crowds they were a huge success and the game seemed to be making huge strides in Canada until Covid with talk of Ottawa and Hamilton. For many they were the most exciting thing to happen in RL for years. However as the knockers like to point out they did have various money and management issues and there was always going to be logistics issues.

For me it was a golden chance that was lost due to Covid. In the long run a professional North American league has to be the goal though and not teams entering SL, or the NRL.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

The NRL could stop spending millions on a Vlandy's ego project and invest properly in the US

Set up a small league there to grow....including getting coaches into selected school / college areas 

Not saying try to take over the US but fund a proper say 6 team semi- pro league 

[yipyee]

On 03/03/2024 at 01:32, Click said:

That's an incredibly one sided view of the whole Toronto debacle.

Whats the other side then ?

Why did the SL say no twice to a takeover

Would an English club have played in America and base a squad in America with all the visa issues etc..

[yipyee]

5 hours ago, Damien said:

To be fair there are extreme one sided views both ways. As ever the truth lies somewhere in the middle. By many metrics such as crowds they were a huge success and the game seemed to be making huge strides in Canada until Covid with talk of Ottawa and Hamilton. For many they were the most exciting thing to happen in RL for years. However as the knockers like to point out they did have various money and management issues and there was always going to be logistics issues.

For me it was a golden chance that was lost due to Covid. In the long run a professional North American league has to be the goal though and not teams entering SL, or the NRL.

Toronto in SL with a league sat below would have been the best outcome.

We pretty much have that structure in the UK and in France (and Australia)

[EggFace]

6 hours ago, Damien said:

If RL in any way gains a decent foothold in North America then the goal has to be a North American competition. This is where I always hold out hope that someone like Lachlan Murdoch will think of it as a fairly inexpensive filler. 

My dreams are a bit wild when it comes to Rugby League e.g. World Rugby gets a leader who likes/background in both codes of Rugby and makes the slow and successful change of Rugby Union becoming like Rugby League and then the games merge.

On the other hand the NFL see's a sport like Rugby League to be a perfect Spring/Summer filler for the networks and also a great place for players who have not made the NFL alongside the savings of not having a offense/defense and specialists teams and just make the the new UFL (XFL/USFL) alongside the CFL a Rugby League 16 team league alongside internationals.

2-4 NFL teams in Canada as well.

[sam4731]

Could we feasibly see Australia simply dismantling international RL if something like this happens? I'd hate to yearn for the halcyon days of 3 tests a year and a WC every 4ish years.

[Griff]

3 hours ago, yipyee said:

Toronto in SL with a league sat below would have been the best outcome.

We pretty much have that structure in the UK and in France (and Australia)

Hmm. Taking a team abroad is a lot of work. Just checking a party of 30 folk onto a plane takes an afternoon.  And you just have to hope that you don't need to change any names on the tickets or that opens up a whole new can of worms 

Pre-Brexit, at least anyone with a EU passport didn't need a visa but players from Australia and New Zealand did. And a visa to get back in the UK. Post-Brexit there's a bit more paperwork but things are similar.

Canada is a different kettle of fish. Everybody needs a visa and, you may recall, not everybody got one. Much more work with visas required for 30 folk instead of maybe five.

Then there's the travel arrangements. Fly out from Manchester, back into Glasgow. It's not ideal. Hope your fixture is during the summer schedules or your choices are more restricted.

All that's before the financial considerations. The truth is that a relatively small sport like Rugby League doesn't have the admin and financial wherewithal to run a competition on such a grand scale.

[frank]

On 03/03/2024 at 01:24, gingerjon said:

It's not cynical to point out that Toronto themselves had no money to pay players, had already, before Covid, not had money to pay suppliers and, even now, have not paid the players everything they should have done.

It's not cynical because that's just an objective fact. It's a series of things that happened.

Not surprising they ran out of money paying  for flights, accommodation etc.