Quote ="Donnyman"Your determined to argue the NA dream passionately, but your not answering the counter points or how we got where we are now. RL started off in 1896 in competition with RU, and over the years many attempts have been made to expand all over the country and abroad. Far from "[ifocusing on the heartlands[/i" the fact is the "heartlands" is the only place RL has worked in the Northern Hemisphere. Elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere Union is the game that has beaten us so the reality is we have to make the best of those heartlands. Your view of TWP as a success is not reality either....
1. They haven't even had a smell of a paying TV deal and admit there's no prospect of one.
2. They failed on any player development and not only admit this but don't bother with it now.
3. They have lost £5M failing on their own measures of success and are set for those losses to climb to £10M this season.
With respect we can't move our conversation on if you keep ignoring the above realities, not even TWP are denying the above is how it is........'"
I'm not necessarily saying that TW are a success yet. They have had successes, but that it's two early to call a three year-old club a "success".
On your three specific points:
1. The argument that TW opens up opportunities for new media markets is true and has some proof points behind it - RL is now being televised in parts of the world that it wasn't three years ago. That is, by any measure, a form of success. Yes, the difficulty is now finding broadcasters willing to pay for those rights, and that is the challenge (although one I suspect that the heartland clubs will soon come up against). Reading an interview with the TW chairman in TRL, there is a nod that the situation with Sky complicates things, but to what extent I'm not sure.
However, TW offers an opportunity to tap into other media markets. Whether that opportunity is realised is another issue, but it's an opportunity that we don't have with expansion.
2. I've said further up the thread. The first North American players that will be of SL standard are, most likely, not even born yet. If they are, they're still in pampers. It took London Broncos a generation (and a lot of development officers) to bring the first southerners into SL. It took Melbourne Storm not far off two decades before the first Victorians were playing in the NRL.
You could level the "not bothering with player development" accusation at a host of heartland clubs. If we're going to hold TW to certain standards on player development, we have to acknowledge the timescales involved.
3. If we're basing eligibility for a Super League place on profitability, then we're going to have a very small competition. Yes, TW are reliant on Argyle's continued benevolence (for now), but the same applies to a host of SL and RFL clubs.
Again, I'll reiterate - North America has risks - massive ones in fact. But there are even greater risks by continuing as the sport has done for the best part of 20 years. The sport has regressed, comparative to other sports, in every conceivable measure and it's fantasy, in my eyes, to suggest that the people responsible for that (the club owners across the game) are also the people who can fix it.
