Mailbox: North American teams don’t make business sense
Mailbox gives you the chance to get your voice heard and start the debate with the rugby league audience. Want to be featured? Email the editor: james@loverugbyleague.com
Dear Love Rugby League,
What possible benefit can there be for two more America’s teams entering the league? The fact that the RFL is even considering their applications means that yet again, they are kicking the bedrock clubs in the teeth.
The only few who may benefit are the large Superleague clubs who are hoping that an international league will attract more money from Sky. That can be the only reason why they are supporting this. Certainly they will lose match day income, and most fans will lose the opportunity of following their teams away.
This season the ‘Toronto’ situation has been a fiasco. They should be renamed the Wanderers! My wife is from Ontario. She knows that RL will never be a well supported sport in the long term. They have established sports in hockey, baseball and as a definite minority, AFL. That isn’t going to change any time soon.
This is just a repeat of the failed attempts in the UK to establish professional RL in the likes of Liverpool, Manchester and London. They are football cities, and that hasn’t changed any in the 50 or so years the RFL has been trying to spread the word.
Even London Broncos can’t be considered a successful venture, have you seen the crowd numbers? This can’t be viable in the long term. It just doesn’t make business sense.
Mike Bardill (Warrington)
Editor’s comment: This is sure to get a few backs up Mike! I’ve made my position fairly clear on this before, fair play to Toronto etc for giving it a go, but I think the whole set up is ludicrous. There just isn’t the interest, the finance or the player pool to make this viable long-term, and as you rightly point out, rugby league has struggled to grow to major cities on its own door step, let alone ones across the other side of the world. If the experiment persists, then the clubs need to go straight in to Super League in my opinion.
Mailbox gives you the chance to get your voice heard and start the debate with the rugby league audience. Want to be featured? Email the editor: james@loverugbyleague.com
