CONFIRMED - Canadian team to enter English leagues

[Evil Homer]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/jeff-blair-show/canadian-sport-thats-never-canada/

 

[Mogsheen Jadwat]

No one ever.

 

[RL The greatest game]

All those places have teams still, just because they aren't in superduper league doesn't mean they are all failures.

Some teams even managed to inspire other teams to shoot up in the areas where the game supposedly"failed". If any were a failure and there was a big one, it was Paris simply because the club was put there instead of where it should have been put in the first place. That has been rectified since. Wales now has two clubs in the pro ranks when 15 years ago they had none, Sheffield is supposedly doing some good things on and off the field and still fighting, what did they fail at, survival? Now we even see teams from Oxford, Coventry and a few new Southern clubs from London and other areas. That's proper expansion, making them work for their position, not just plonking a team in Super League and hoping for the best, we've been there and done that and it doesn't work in the UK bar the Catalans and we know why they are a success yet the RFL went away from that with Toulouse, their call.

So called rl fans always looking for doom and gloom and never see the positive side to anything do far more damage to the game imo than any troll could ever do, don't know why they do it.

Good luck with this venture, I hope it has all the success in the world and brings about a professional North American league eventually in the future, until then, good luck with making Super League and good luck in spreading the game across Canada.

Well said.

 

[flamin]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/jeff-blair-show/canadian-sport-thats-never-canada/

Awesome interview with the CEO and coach there. Love their passion and vision. And the positivity of the commentators.

Already 3,000 people on their season ticket waiting list after going online yesterday.

 

[adamkungl]

Awesome interview with the CEO and coach there. Love their passion and vision. And the positivity of the commentators.

Already 3,000 people on their season ticket waiting list after going online yesterday.

Thats amazing.

 

[Burns]

Awesome interview with the CEO and coach there. Love their passion and vision. And the positivity of the commentators.

Already 3,000 people on their season ticket waiting list after going online yesterday.

Given all the incredibly disappointing events of the past week, this is fantastic news!

 

[Storm13]

That was great to see how professional Rugby League can be.

Considering the Mayor spoke a little French in the press conference do we think we could see a link up with Catalans or domestic French teams at all?

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Who knows? In the radio interview the guy spoke of incouraging other teams to follow their lead, citing Montreal first and foremost. His long term goal is to see a transatlantic champinship flourish with several Canadian and American teams. Well, I don't know about that, but at least he is thinking big.

Another thing of note from the interview, the guy rightly states that from Toronto it costs less to fly a team to England than to Vancouver.

 

[PacificCoastRL]

Well, I'm happier than a pig in s#*t. I hope this does provide the impetus for a Canadian pro competition sometime in the future. It was mentioned earlier on this thread - "If there is one advantage to a promotion-relegation structure, this had to be it." I beg to differ. If Super League were similar to North American sports leagues (which they tried at one time) the Wolfpack wouldn't have to spend a few years to get to the top. They would go to Super League next year. When the Big Four leagues over here expand all they are looking for is lots of backing and a solid financial plan.

 

[yakstorm]

Canada is a potential gold mine for Rugby League, and the positive work of the CRLA plus now the Wolfpack may help fast track that.

Canada, despite its history in Rugby Union and strong playing numbers has long been neglected by World Rugby, with the body rather focusing on the likes of China, USA, Argentina and Japan.

As such, there is a talented playing base there which have bern brought up playing a similar code (there are definitely skills transferable between the two codes) which could now be directed to League as there are no current Professional Union options.

The fact there has been a decent following of NRL in Canada over the past decade only further shows the appetite.

Now where League could really accelerate their presence in the market is by leveraging the strong connections Canada has with core RL nations, such as France and the French side of Canada, the strong Australian-Canadian link, especially on the West Coast of the country and of course the fact Canada is another Commonwealth nation.

If things are done right there is a real opportunity for League to embed itself in Canada over the next 5-10 years, which isn't something we can say for a lot of western markets.

 

[LESStar58]

Challenge Cup fixtures in Canada perhaps?

The CC predates the FA Cup as the oldest football knockout comp in history. That would be huge for the game if it were to happen!

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The FA Cup was around well before the CC.

 

[Evil Homer]

Now where League could really accelerate their presence in the market is by leveraging the strong connections Canada has with core RL nations, such as France and the French side of Canada, the strong Australian-Canadian link, especially on the West Coast of the country and of course the fact Canada is another Commonwealth nation.

I hate this. Trying to use established markets to 'boost' interest in developing markets is not the way to go anywhere, ever. The way to develop the sport in Canada is to engage with the Canadian people.

 

[yakstorm]

I never said anything about not engaging with Canadians, I was saying that we should use our established markets and the connections they have with Canada to help drive this.

Considering League has such limited resources we need to leverage whatever strengths we have to spark interest with the locals and hopefully get them to engage. Canada has already been doing this well leveraging arrangements with Batemans Bay, Huddersfield and Parramatta to spark interest in getting locals playing in Ontario and British Columbia. (Incentive is they can travel across to Aus or UK to play)

 

[Evil Homer]

I never said anything about not engaging with Canadians, I was saying that we should use our established markets and the connections they have with Canada to help drive this.

Considering League has such limited resources we need to leverage whatever strengths we have to spark interest with the locals and hopefully get them to engage. Canada has already been doing this well leveraging arrangements with Batemans Bay, Huddersfield and Parramatta to spark interest in getting locals playing in Ontario and British Columbia. (Incentive is they can travel across to Aus or UK to play)

With due respect those initiatives have pretty much had a negligible impact on the sport's development in Canada. Nobody in Toronto cares about Huddersfield or Parramatta, nobody in Quebec cares about Perpignan or Toulouse. I understand what you're saying but I hate the old cliche of trying to connect with ex-pat communities or linking back to existing markets whenever anyone talks about expansion into new areas. It's just the totally wrong philosophy and has been a major reason for the complete and utter abject failure of London Broncos.

 

[RoosTah]

Well, I'm happier than a pig in s#*t. I hope this does provide the impetus for a Canadian pro competition sometime in the future. It was mentioned earlier on this thread - "If there is one advantage to a promotion-relegation structure, this had to be it." I beg to differ. If Super League were similar to North American sports leagues (which they tried at one time) the Wolfpack wouldn't have to spend a few years to get to the top. They would go to Super League next year. When the Big Four leagues over here expand all they are looking for is lots of backing and a solid financial plan.

Fair points. I guess I was looking at it more from an NRL perspective where expansion obviously works much like in North America, but only when the NRL decides it wants to/has the ability to expand the competition.

My point was that with a promotion/relegation structure you don't really have to wait for the governing body to formally decide to add teams; if you can get admitted to a lower league (which always tends to be easier) you can just push your way into the premier competition through on field performances.

 

[deluded pom?]

Challenge Cup fixtures in Canada perhaps?

The CC predates the FA Cup as the oldest football knockout comp in history. That would be huge for the game if it were to happen!

The FA Cup was first played for in 1871/72.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

I hate this. Trying to use established markets to 'boost' interest in developing markets is not the way to go anywhere, ever. The way to develop the sport in Canada is to engage with the Canadian people.

With due respect those initiatives have pretty much had a negligible impact on the sport's development in Canada. Nobody in Toronto cares about Huddersfield or Parramatta, nobody in Quebec cares about Perpignan or Toulouse. I understand what you're saying but I hate the old cliche of trying to connect with ex-pat communities or linking back to existing markets whenever anyone talks about expansion into new areas.

I don't think this is 100% correct. Having France or France A or something tour to play Canada in Quebec would definitely incite more interest than Wales, Italy a super league or some other team. In fact it would be an ideal way to promote the game in Quebec, I have little doubt about this.

 

[Big Picture]

I don't think this is 100% correct. Having France or France A or something tour to play Canada in Quebec would definitely incite more interest than Wales, Italy a super league or some other team. In fact it would be an ideal way to promote the game in Quebec, I have little doubt about this.

Maybe a little more than Wales or Italy, but not necessarily much more since no rivalry between Canada and France exists in any other sport.

For a tour to incite the most interest, it would need to involve a country which Canada does have a sporting rivalry with, e.g. Russia.

 

[PacificCoastRL]

As a Canadian from the west coast my perspective on a Quebec-France rivalry is "whatever". Quebec is about Quebec, I don't think France even enters the conversation at any level. Even language is an issue. The French spoken in Quebec is different from the French spoken in France. The little bit of French I was forced to learn in school (we learnt Quebec French in British Columbia) would not help me if I were to go to France. In fact, you could send the French national hockey team to play at the Bell Center in Montreal and not too many people would get excited.

As for Russia - not really either. The pinnacle of the Russia-Canada rivalry happened in 1972 during hockey's Summit Series, and only because Canada won the Series.