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Ottowa Signings

Dakink

Bench
Messages
3,135
Ottawa have named Halifax halfback Tom Gilmore as their second signing.

Gilmore joins Louis Jouffret as the first signings for new Head Coach Laurent Frayssinous.
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,292
https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/ottawa-still-planning-for-league-1-in-2022/

Ottawa still claiming to be on track for 2022. I thought they would of packed it in after the whole Toronto situation

Perez won't ever give up trying to bring League to Canada. He's that passionate about it and has put in too much effort to give up now.

Ottawa, arguably, is in a better position than Toronto coming in the League anyway.

They have learnt a lot from Toronto's mistakes and have a better spread of investors, they hold an RFL license rather than being an 'invitational' side and arguably their biggest detractor, Elstone, is gone. They also seem to be taking a more measured approach with their spending.

I'm glad they haven't given up, although I'm certainly not confident of them taking the field in 2022.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Perez won't ever give up trying to bring League to Canada. He's that passionate about it and has put in too much effort to give up now.

Ottawa, arguably, is in a better position than Toronto coming in the League anyway.

They have learnt a lot from Toronto's mistakes and have a better spread of investors, they hold an RFL license rather than being an 'invitational' side and arguably their biggest detractor, Elstone, is gone. They also seem to be taking a more measured approach with their spending.

I'm glad they haven't given up, although I'm certainly not confident of them taking the field in 2022.

With England making its antagonistic position on international expansion clear, first with the removal of Toronto and secondly with the promotion of Leigh over Toulouse, I think it's more important than ever that there is a long term roadmap for what they hope to achieve here. I would think the chances of multiple trans-atlantic teams, or a conference, ever coming to fruition are dazzlingly slim. That vision or direction is not present in England, at all.

Perez/Ottawa have multiple investors willing to put money into the sport, I want to suggest it might be better spent locally than trans-Atlantic. BUT the one, and probably only, thing England bring to the table, is high level talent and an established competition framework. The IP of most of the teams is internationally worthless. It would probably not be feasible to poach enough semi-pro talent and administration from England and Australia to fill even a small scale League One equivalent comp.

So where does that leave us...? 1 (maybe 2 if they ever find a way to revive the Wolfpack) Canadian team in the English comps to provide higher level representation and content. Build the local leagues until the quality of Canada League is roughly equivalent to League One. Then maybe one day you can pull Ottawa and its resources out of England and pour it back into Canada?

You could argue a similar pathway for France. If Elite One could grow and get funding to go full-time professional, even at a lower standard than Super League, you could mount a fair argument for Catalans and Toulouse to jump back to France.
 

Hello, I'm The Doctor

First Grade
Messages
9,124
Perez/Ottawa have multiple investors willing to put money into the sport, I want to suggest it might be better spent locally than trans-Atlantic. BUT the one, and probably only, thing England bring to the table, is high level talent and an established competition framework. The IP of most of the teams is internationally worthless. It would probably not be feasible to poach enough semi-pro talent and administration from England and Australia to fill even a small scale League One equivalent comp.

So where does that leave us...? 1 (maybe 2 if they ever find a way to revive the Wolfpack) Canadian team in the English comps to provide higher level representation and content. Build the local leagues until the quality of Canada League is roughly equivalent to League One. Then maybe one day you can pull Ottawa and its resources out of England and pour it back into Canada?

You could argue a similar pathway for France. If Elite One could grow and get funding to go full-time professional, even at a lower standard than Super League, you could mount a fair argument for Catalans and Toulouse to jump back to France.

I think that is a LOT of value playing in the “big league”....

Even if the Canadian locals have never heard of the ESL teams, there will be an immediate respect for any comp with 120 year of history that can CLAIM to be the top RL comp in the world.

It gives these Canadian clubs an immediate prestige that they just cannot achieve locally.

The best case I can imagine that splits the differnce is the ESL increase the no. Of clubs to 16 (4 in Canada) spliting the clubs into 4 conferences of 4 (all the Canadians together) and focus on bringIng them together in the Finals.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
I think that is a LOT of value playing in the “big league”....

Even if the Canadian locals have never heard of the ESL teams, there will be an immediate respect for any comp with 120 year of history that can CLAIM to be the top RL comp in the world.

It gives these Canadian clubs an immediate prestige that they just cannot achieve locally.

The best case I can imagine that splits the differnce is the ESL increase the no. Of clubs to 16 (4 in Canada) spliting the clubs into 4 conferences of 4 (all the Canadians together) and focus on bringIng them together in the Finals.
That and the fact that starting a professional competition in Canada of any meaningful standard, and that can make any meaningful impact on the mainstream culture in Canada, would cost, at least, hundreds of millions to set up, and would be incredibly unstable for decades to come.

Piggybacking on the already existing English league means that the clubs are in a (relatively) stable competition that isn't a threat of falling over at any moment, and that if any of the clubs do fall over (and some inevitably will fail like the Wolfpack) that that doesn't inherently threaten all the others existence.

That is a way more realistic way to build the professional game in Canada then starting a local pro-comp and hoping that it can compete with local competition, especially at a time when even long established Canadian leagues like the CFL are dying or struggling to compete with their American counterparts.
 
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