Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:19 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

It was fans i was talking about, though again not necessarily all leigh fans, nor only Leigh fans.

And we have seen the edifice that the argument for P+R was one for the wider interests fall away drastically and now it is as it always was. Self-preservation.

We have seen the argument that relegation drives crowds and interest disappear, we have seen the argument that standards would be driven from the bottom up disappear, we have seen the argument that clubs wouldnt return to damaging short-term thinking disappear, we are now starting to see resistance to the idea of a club building from the bottom up as Toronto have done.

As i said there is a large portion of the game not worried about its failure but terrified of its success. That growth might mean their club is left behind and therefor it is a bad thing even if it is good for the game as a whole

That ' large portion ' might well be from all parts of the Pro spectrum , the bigger clubs might have as much to lose as the smaller ones

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:50 pm  

Not immediately.

And they certainly have more to gain.

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 12:36 pm  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote:

I stopped watching a while back, their games are totally uncompetitive, I'll start watching again next season.

I think the big question is if they don't make it to Super League in 2018 or even 2019, how long will there backers be prepared to keep spending money to keep the dream alive, a transatlantic sports team can't be cheap. Hopefully Super League is expanded to 14 clubs in 2018, with 2 expansion clubs gaining promotion.

yeh the same here, i was interested in watching but just blow out scorelines each time became abit boring.

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:10 pm  

Me too, i kept premier sports on my subscription for the intrigue of the Toronto games but was bored silly by the 3rd or 4th so cancelled.

I wouldn't imagine anyone hadn't expected them to be 100% and cruising at this stage.

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:21 pm  

GIANT DAZ wrote:

Me too, i kept premier sports on my subscription for the intrigue of the Toronto games but was bored silly by the 3rd or 4th so cancelled.

I wouldn't imagine anyone hadn't expected them to be 100% and cruising at this stage.

I suppose that's the problem created by putting them in League 1. They end up with a much better side than the rest, firstly because they can afford to, but they can't leave anything to chance either as they have to go straight up this year. They also have to plan ahead & ensure they have a squad able to compete at the top end of the Championship to save them rebuilding most of the side in the off season. The result of this is a lot of one sided matches.

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 2:24 pm  

DGM wrote:

The result of this is a lot of one sided matches.

and 7,000+ crowds

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 3:59 pm  

DGM wrote:

I suppose that's the problem created by putting them in League 1. They end up with a much better side than the rest, firstly because they can afford to, but they can't leave anything to chance either as they have to go straight up this year. They also have to plan ahead & ensure they have a squad able to compete at the top end of the Championship to save them rebuilding most of the side in the off season. The result of this is a lot of one sided matches.

Indeed
All those complaining about the one sided games are probably the same people who said that "expansion clubs" should work their way up from the bottom.
I know that hindsight is a wonderful thing but, we probably should have put Bradford in the bottom tier and allowed Toronto to stare in the Championship, which could have saved some of the "farce" that we've had this term.
I still feel that there needs to be some "benefit" (in terms of increased Sky sponsorship)to the ESL to have Toronto in the comp, as to keep the deal as previous will effectively mean spreading the jam more thinly but, yet again, we suffer from lack of strategy from the governing body.

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 6:28 pm  

Toronto is (or promises to be) a fantastic example of what happens when you put rugby people in charge of the rugby and marketing people in charge of the marketing, rather than following the usual rugby league way of putting rugby people in charge of the rugby, and accountants in charge of the marketing.

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 6:33 pm  

Next years Challenge Cup games....will they be allowed to to play at home (if drawn)?

Re: Toronto - Half Term Report : Wed Jul 19, 2017 7:46 pm  

MattyB wrote:

Next years Challenge Cup games....will they be allowed to to play at home (if drawn)?

Why not ?