Correct - this is nowt to do with any Pandemic. Correct - Argyle said he would always fund the club and not look to take English TV revenues, his batman Perez said he would find TWP an NATV deal, but never did.



Nobody's "views" are worth jack SHHH. The facts are they came into the league on the basis of permanent self funding and now Argyle doesn't want to self fund anymore. Even though he can.



Once again he knows TWP doesn't work no matter how much he spends on players and marquees

Once again he knows Superleague bosses don't like or want him or his phoney club

Once again they are not a model for anyone to follow given he's blown £12,000,000 to get nowhere



McDermott, Rimmer Lenegan and Wood will spout some sort of pre-prepared PR garbage, so no they won't say anything "interesting" they won't say what they really think. Wood won't admit that he let them in at the start and in the end he said they should have started their own league

. Rimmer won't say much against them as he ridiculously flagged through two more even phonier clubs probably knowing TWP's days were numbered.



All we have had since 2017 is garbage about how wonderful TWP were with nothing said against them by anyone in the game here until last autumn when McManus said Toulouse were a better choice than TWP because of the inability of the latter to develop players and play home and away through the full season.

Can someone explain to me why Toronto aren’t eligible for the central funding ?

They do not qualify because they are a guest club and not full members



They do not qualify to take money from SKY who pay for an English league to attract English Subscribers



They said they would fund TWP themselves without taking any English SKY money



They said they would get their own North American TV deal.



Perez said that when they got it it would be a big one and of course in turn they would not share their TV deal here.



There you go that's it in full..........

Don't know why your swallowing the bait about how Argyle has all his $Billions tied up in investments and couldn't find the money for the extra costs. As I understand it he's unable to fill his car up, and hasn't been able to give the missus her housekeeping for weeks

.....



You've been hooked. Beware the Fisherman....

So you would be happy for Super League to prove that they don't want investment, don't welcome investment and are quite happy to turn away investment?



Who and why would anyone want to approach Super League after that?



But you and a few others on here would be quite happy with that outcome.

Indeed, the flat cappers want to keep the game as a parochial little sport in the North, they'd be rid of Catalans if they could!

So do Catalans not get any money either - pretty sure they’re not English

In one of the other threads you wrote that Lenagan had organised an all-English Super League and broadcast deal for 2022.



Here you suggest that Lenagan won't be truthful.



Why involve Rimmer when it is a problem for Elstone,who you never mention,and,apparently,other Super League club owners?

Catalans get money from their own deal afaik?

There seems to be a contradiction here.

They agreed not to take any sky funding because they (wrongly) thought they would do better by securing their own N. American deal.

Nothing to do with being a "guest" club.



Catalan, the other "guest" club, still seem to be taking a slice of the pie.

Although their TV deal was scuppered by Elstone asking for "more" so, not really their fault ??

The whole 'guest' club premise exists only in Donnymans head, I am sure Toronto thought 'hang on, if we take central funding, we will have to share our shiny TV deal', now they haven't got one, they are saying (rightly in my opinion) 'if we're being televised by Aky, we want a slice'.... which is why I think SL will keep them in, save the £500,000 parachute from no relegation, have a stronger product to sell to Sky ... Toronto is way more of a selling point than Featherstone.

When TWP came into the league they were flagged in by Nigel Wood. IIRC Nigel Wood never asked Superleague if they were OK with this, and I certainly don't recall them taking any SKY funding as [uall of that was fully allocated[/u. I have the allocations which Martyn Sadler set out.



Of course Catalans got a slice of the pie, they were invited straight into Superleague when Richard Lewis wanted them to underpin the French national team. They were "wanted" and Superleague conceded International Rugby League was more important than Superleague. So SL & RFL conceded TV money to them.



"Guest clubs" differ wildly, one was asked to join the party because it was thought they would re-kindle GB.v.France Internationals like the day in 1990 when the French came to Headingley and beat Great Britain



The other "guest club" were only guests of the Championship, and Supeleague were not even asked if they wanted them. Superleague bosses made it clear in articles by Pearson and McManus they did not want them but they struck a deal when the RFL conceded the end of the middle eights and the MPG in return for TWP being allowed to go up within the current SKY contract. But NO Sky money.....Again Perez had conceded this and said once he got an NATV mega deal TWP would keep that and not share it here.



Elstone of course tried to get a better French TV deal but the idea he scuppered it by "asking for more" is like something out of Charles Dickens novel. Everyone asks for more in contract talks. That the deal got pulled is because the TV company didn't even want to carry on the existing deal.



No need for this "[iRobert Elstone ate my Hamster" [/istuff.



Bottom line - Catalans don't develop players and don't bring in any TV money. Sounds like a club we know don't they?? Catalans do spend all their money on a Marquee player instead. Sounds like a club we know don't they? The danger is Catalans go 2022. Gausch hasn't been seen at any SL meetings this year so go figure...

Yes Sir they of course get the money. They were fully accepted by Superleague and the RFL in 2006 and charged with the role of underpinning the French national team as above. TWP were only accepted by the RFL NOT SL and all TV funds were allocated anyway. Perez was told this and in his inimitable style he boasted that if that was the case then TWP would keep the North American TV deal he had bubbling up









So Superleague kept the money that London no longer got. That's the problem with this so called "expansion" the rise of every overseas club is the fall of an English club. The loss of English SL clubs depletes player development and makes future TV deal not just less likely but likely to be pulled as McManus warned in the autumn. You can only sell SKY subs to the English. Kick out their teams and subs go down in their thousands.



For years now forums have largely ignored they day when all these marvellous and highly attractive "expansion" clubs like Cats, TO, TWP, Ottawa and NY (big announcement today) elbow out London, Wakey, Cas, Fartown and HKR (i.e. rubbish clubs) and bring us a bright new future........



(but lose us the SKY deal)





Substitution is not "Expansion"

Curious to see the outcome of the decision today. SL clubs might not like Toronto but kicking them out essentially will cost each of them about £200k in funding, assuming they are replaced with a side that will demand the same central funding distribution as the other 11 SL clubs.

Do they all hate Toronto enough to give up £200k?

Ah! But will they be replaced?

Can't see them playing the whole of the 2021 season with an odd number of teams. It would be farcical and would also cause chaos for their prized magic weekend.

Aussies have done it before they had no problem so why can we not do it the players might find it a lot better health wise

Yes they all hate Toronto ipso facto Ottawa and New York as well.



Good post by Mr. Someday as regards running with 11 clubs, also good to hear some Championship clubs happy to take their place........

Correct, they did. And it could definitely be done here, but the NRL don't have a showcase round of fixtures like we do and I'm fairly sure it would cause issues with the Sky contract if there weren't the same number of teams in the division.

Still no pay for the players. Why is this? Assured Monday or Tuesday.

Be interesting to see if S.B.W gets paid up in full when they go bump

Doesn’t save the SL clubs anything, TWP’s ‘we’ll be back for 2021’ is only if they get ‘their share’ of the SKY TV money.



There is absolutely no chance of RL breaking the NATV market with TWP as if after three years and the signing of SBW it’s not happened it never will...

His shares will be worth roughly a burger and fries and his fat contract null and void Watkins, Myler,Flower and Ward all looking for new team 2021?

How can these signings have been made whilst not paying current squad?

Again it's not a new situation and the whole model was bust before Covid

Toronto do want a share, but Niel Hudgell has been quoted saying they signed an agreement stating that they would be self funding in perpetuity. Sounds messy to say the least.

Cut the smoke screen stuff, about Catalan developing players, it's tiresome.

Regarding Elstone scuppering the TV deal. Only he and his negotiating team know the ins and outs of what happened.

However, there was a deal on the table, which Catalan were happy to take but, he and his team demanded more.

Whether it was an "Oliver Twist" moment, who the hell knows.

The one absolute certainty is that, walk away they did and now there is zero French TV deal, something that Catalan seemingly shouldn't be blamed for.



As to the amounts and time that Catalan should spend on player development.

Unless there is something written in black and white on a contract about their obligations, despite your displeasure, there is no case to answer.



Just for balance, which SL club gives a damn about improving England's chances of toppling the Aussies.

All of them are primarily bothered about themselves and our international record speaks for itself. Perhaps best not to mention the recent GB tour down under.