The Great Dane
First Grade
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RL was a winter sport in England until 96, and soccer and union have no issues playing in winter in the UK and even colder parts of the NH.I’m all for the 2 comps working closer together and the NRL helping Super League wherever possible but I’m struggling to think how a buyout would even work.
Winter comp seems like an insane idea given the weather in the North of England. Any idea of any decent player playing a stint in the UK in the NRL off-season is fantasy these days as well.
The real issues with a winter season are that it'd put the SL back into direct competition with the EPL, it'd disrupt the window for internationals (which would be workable, but not ideal), and that there's no way that the RLPA would ever wave their mandatory stand down periods to allow players to play in both comps.
The whole idea is nonsense in reality. It'd be a massive money pit for the NRL, we're talking billions of $$$ massive to do it properly, and the strings that'd come attached to that money wouldn't be attractive to the RFL and SL, or most of the English clubs that matter.
At best the NRL would turn the SL into a glorified feeder league for the NRL, at worst it could do severe damage to the sport and grassroots simply through misunderstandings of the cultural differences between the codes and culture in both nations.
If the NRL is serious about investing in foreign competitions and assets, which, FTR, I doubt they truly are, then NZ and the PI's would be more logical places to start than trying to buyout the ESL.