“Comfortable majority” of clubs support New York and Ottawa bids

New York and Ottawa have passed another hurdle on their journey after Championship and League One clubs agreed for the RFL to continue investigating the feasibility of their bids.

The clubs heard presentations from one consortium aiming to relocate Hemel Stags to Ottawa in Canada, and a separate consortium to launch a new club in New York at a meeting in Salford.

The RFL convened the meeting to assess the mood of the clubs, as had been done before Toronto Wolfpack were admitted to join League One in 2017. Super League clubs were also invited to attend, although not to participate in the indicative vote that was held at the end of the meeting.

Simon Johnson, the RFL’s Senior Non-Executive Director who chairs the Championship and League One forum, said: “The clubs were in principle supportive, by a comfortable majority, of the proposals for both Ottawa and New York to join the competitions, and for the RFL Board to continue to exercise its discretion to negotiate with both clubs, and to make a decision in due course.”

The final decision on each of the bids will be made by the RFL board.