Toronto team aiming for Championship One

The RFL has apparently received an application to join Championship One from a club in Canada.

The proposal, reportedly made alongside an offer to sponsor the whole competition, was put forward at a meeting of Championship clubs last week.

“We are proposing to create the first transcontinental sports team – the first North American side in a European league. It will open up markets that were unthinkable recently,” Eric Perez, the chairman of Rugby League Canada, told League Express.

“For the last four years we have been playing international matches in Toronto and we are now averaging almost 7,000 for every Test.

“We also have our own TV programme ‘The Rugby League Show’ which has 90,000 viewers every week and reaches 170,000 for our Test matches.

“We have sponsorship deals with Fosters (brewery) and other major companies, and we have a business plan that will enable us to offer free travel to Canada for our opponents and free accommodation when they get to Toronto.

“We will fly them out on a Thursday, play on Saturday and they will fly back on Sunday, all expenses paid.

“And we will give each club a block of seats in the stand, and if they can sell those tickets, any money they make will go back into their club.”