Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Tue May 01, 2018 9:33 pm  

HXSparky wrote:

The attendance report from this one will be interesting. Their recent reported attendances were 6 to 7 thousand but have a capacity of 3,200 for this weekend. However, you can still buy tickets for the game (I've just checked). Draw your own conclusions.

Whether or not the stated attendances at Lamport last season were accurate it was always going to be a risk to play none of their games during the entire first half of the season in Canada. With this being only their second season in existence there is always a chance that some of last season's spectators will have lost motivation/interest in going after such a long gap between home games. I would hope that they have been setting up fan parks for supporters to gather and watch the away games on big screens or something similar to keep the habit of going to watch the team going during the season so far. I want them to succeed long term but there could well be a drop off in numbers attending when they get back to Lamport.

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Tue May 01, 2018 9:52 pm  

Why do you want them to succeed ? What do they bring to the English game ?

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Tue May 01, 2018 10:50 pm  

Budgiezilla wrote:

Why do you want them to succeed ? What do they bring to the English game ?

They bring visibility and media interest, they have already done so when playing in League 1. Despite how much the likes of us on this board and other RL supporters think of our sport, with a smattering of northern towns and cities playing the sport the national media and the wider public have shown over the history of the sport that they couldn't give a hoot about watching or hearing about it. Mention of Toronto among the list of teams in a cup draw or league fixture list has made and will make news editors etc. take notice and we get news stories, newspaper articles. Whether atm this is down to novelty value or not we are still getting coverage about the Toronto club.

They provide an opportunity for attraction of more sponsors for the sport and its competitions by creating awareness in a market where we as a sport have had no outlet previously. Initially these are going to go to the Toronto club itself rather than the wider game but the continued existence of the club means that businesses in NA become aware of the sport where they previously weren't. This then provides the opportunity for the game to access sponsorship money for the wider sport, or to sell tv coverage packages in the NA market.

In time (10 years plus, but a shorter timescale is unrealistic anywhere with a brand new sport) if the club survives they would provide another breeding ground for players. Not the fanciful claim of failed NFL players switching to play in SL in 2019 but with an established professional team in the city through the establishing of community clubs from which RL players will develop. It also gives a focal point club for those men already playing RL in USA to aspire to, with the will to play RL already present a club into which they can step up acts as a higher level of the NA pyramid than previously existed. Toronto do buy in the squad right now but what else could they be expected to do right now. The important things are that 1) the club continues to exist and 2) that it is successful so as to give local kids something to aspire to play for. The likes of Cramlington Rockets in the north east didn't exist
prior to Thunder's existence but the north east junior system is now producing players for that club, the same applies in London which took around 30 years but is supplying SL players despite the struggles of the pro club at the top of that particular pyramid.

I understand that some people are concerned that Toronto and other proposed clubs in NA are currently looking to take not only players from our clubs but also places at the top table, with for the time being not an awful lot appearing to come back in our direction from them. Also that people worry for the possible effects on long established clubs like Leigh (your club I believe), Featherstone and Halifax should more clubs follow but IMO the possible benefits for the profile and commercial power of our sport lead me to hope that they survive and succeed in our sport.

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Tue May 01, 2018 11:35 pm  

wiganermike wrote:

They bring visibility and media interest<snip>They provide an opportunity for attraction of more sponsors for the sport and its competitions by creating awareness<snip>
if the club survives they would provide another breeding ground for players. <snip> the same applies in London which took around 30 years but is supplying SL players despite the struggles of the pro club at the top of that particular pyramid.<snip> but IMO the possible benefits for the profile and commercial power of our sport lead me to hope that they survive and succeed in our sport.

They have delivered nothing other than smoke and mirrors to date and Like London 30 years on, will deliver nothing. Sponsorship is a contra deal that will cost that sponsor 50% less this year....their TV deal is FREE......premiere pay little if anything for anything......and fewer people watch it than the fishing channel.....they are mid way through season 2 and "the media attention" has delivered us no new sponsors, no new interested broadcasters...Perez has vanished of the face of the earth (strange for someone who was so good at self promotion), NYC has gone as quite as a mouse and given they've been wining and dining big Nigel, you'd think they'd be all over social media.......but nada........
....and finally. The Player pool is 28 Teams at the top table globally.......23 in a squad...644 all told and we're going to dilute it further for the likes of Tony Clubb, LMS and a couple of others in 30 years time and little else..

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Wed May 02, 2018 8:54 am  

atomic wrote:

Yes,if they hit 9 games they had to stick with the dual reg club.

No they didn't. The threshold was originally a minimum to allow DR players to continue playing for the DR club after the transfer deadline (but, if they did, they then couldn't play for their parent club and vice versa) but has since changed to a minimum to allow DR players to play for both the parent and the DR club after the transfer deadline, providing that both clubs are in different 8s.

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Wed May 02, 2018 3:35 pm  

HXSparky wrote:

have a capacity of 3,200 for this weekend. However, you can still buy tickets for the game (I've just checked). Draw your own conclusions.

Hardly a surprise given the stadium is 25 miles out of town. Would Halifax have sold 3,200 tickets in the week leading up to a home game at an alternative venue?

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Wed May 02, 2018 3:39 pm  

How would Fax know?, they are not rebuilding their stadium or relaying a pitch.

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Wed May 02, 2018 3:55 pm  

RoyBoy29 wrote:

How would Fax know?, they are not rebuilding their stadium or relaying a pitch.

It’s a good job, I remember Halifax taking several years to finish building their main stand.

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Wed May 02, 2018 4:05 pm  

Call Me God wrote:

they are mid way through season 2

I am well aware that deals acquired to date concerning Toronto are of low value etc. etc. They are a new start up and the first such club in their country, they are hardly going to get a queue of companies waiting to fund them through sponsorship, tv deals etc. right now. They have had the foresight to set up from the beginning avenues for them to build recognition within their own and the UK markets that will (it is hoped) lead to more lucrative deals in the future. I did mention that their presence provides the opportunity (and that's all it is atm an opportunity) to tap new markets, sponsors and so on, not that it already is. I have selected the most relevant part of your post in the quote, this is only year 2. Nobody would or should expect any club to be contributing as much as established clubs straight away in terms of player development. I am being realistic on the likely timescales for producing players, it will take 10 years or more but if the club continues to exist then it will happen.

I don't dispute that the Toronto club may not succeed ultimately nor do I assume that they will fail. I just hope that they do succeed, some are worried about a detrimental effect on some established clubs, some people seem to want them to fail. Opinions differ, c'est la vie.

Re: Could Toronto, London and Toulouse all get promoted? : Wed May 02, 2018 6:47 pm  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote: Hardly a surprise given the stadium is 25 miles out of town. Would Halifax have sold 3,200 tickets in the week leading up to a home game at an alternative venue? That wasn't the point. They averaged (according to published figures) home crowds of around 7,000 last year, with around half of those being complimentary tickets (of which many may not have actually turned up for the game), and had around 650 season ticket holders. I guess that if the freebies have stopped now, then we might get a more realistic view of local interest in RL. Having been starved of live RL for so long, it's either going to be a case of folk desperate to see a live game (when a 25 mile trip means nothing) or they'll just have lost interest. Tbh, I thought they had more season ticket holders last year (they were very cheap at around $199.99/£115). Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42702631

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote: Hardly a surprise given the stadium is 25 miles out of town. Would Halifax have sold 3,200 tickets in the week leading up to a home game at an alternative venue? That wasn't the point. They averaged (according to published figures) home crowds of around 7,000 last year, with around half of those being complimentary tickets (of which many may not have actually turned up for the game), and had around 650 season ticket holders. I guess that if the freebies have stopped now, then we might get a more realistic view of local interest in RL. Having been starved of live RL for so long, it's either going to be a case of folk desperate to see a live game (when a 25 mile trip means nothing) or they'll just have lost interest. Tbh, I thought they had more season ticket holders last year (they were very cheap at around $199.99/£115). Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42702631