Me too but people keep posting his quotes.

Most excellent research there Mr Cokey



I agree with the sentiment that it's too early to call where Toronto will end up in 2020, but before we cross the hurdles of which players are available and how to get them under the quota and Cap, we have the topic of January 30th, 2020, when the SL XXV season will kick off.

Will Toronto take games OTR or will they ask for dispensation to play games in blocks? They played 8 of their away games in the first 11 weeks of the comp in 2019 with 3 taken OTR and 9 of their last 11 were home games. Then there's Thursday KO's. Without any shadow of a doubt, Thursdays impact on all the clubs revenue streams, so will Toronto be asked to play games on Thursday evenings (Midnight GMT) or Fridays for that matter? I don't recall Catalan being asked to move too many games, but I do recall a game against London being moved with less than a weeks notice, requiring some London fans to be on their return flights to the UK as the game KO'd. Surely SKY will want to use their new drawcard?

On the topic of SBW. I'd point out that he has started one game at the current RUWC19 and featured in just 80 of the 240 minutes the All Blacks have played to date. He is not a first choice in either centre position and if he does feature in the Knock Out stages it is highly likely he will be used for the last quarter of the games. If such a player, who cannot hold a place in his national Union side is considered to be a potential star or marquee player, then I believe that says more about the standard of Super League than it does of his abilities. I'd add, that whilst SBW is a star name in both codes and one that would add to ticket sales if he were joining a UK/French side, he will be a relative unknown in Toronto, so IMHO, he'd be an expensive trinket taking up cap and quota space.

How can they have "more room with overseas players" than the 100% overseas players they already have ?

The Stadium capacity is 9,600, so how do you suggest they are going to get 400 or more over capacity ?
Canadians are famously self apologetic & law abiding, so are you suggesting they will intentionally break their fire safety regulations regarding capacity ? #Deluded

Recently, but originally Oakland, California, close to San Francisco.

Name the 4 amateur RL Clubs in Toronto !!!

There are 10 in Canada.
The 3 playing out of Ontario are Brantford Broncos, Scarborough Centurions and Toronto City Saints.

screenshot !

I didn't ask about Canada, I asked about Toronto who you stated as having 4 amateur RL Clubs !
Ontario isn't Toronto, Ontario is a State or region, therefore you should compare like for like & compare Ontario with Greater Manchester than compare with Leigh,.as Greater Manchester is the region/area like Ontario with Manchester being it's capital & epi !

*or maybe this doesn't suit your narrative* ?

Those 3 all existed before the Toronto Wolfpack and in 2019 the Ontario RL competition consisted of 4 regular seasons featuring 2 sides and a Grand Final featuring the same two sides....the Broncos and the Saints.
In 2015 the 4 Sides competing in the Ontario RL championship were Oakville, Brantford, Toronto Saints and Toronto Centurians, so it would seem that Toronto Wolfpack has resulted in fewer teams playing the game?

Two teams in Ontario that have (apparently) played each other 3 times this year.

Web-site here... [urlhttp://www.canadarugbyleague.com/[/url The site looks Ok, but is well out-of-date in places.

You've got to give them credit for keeping going with so few teams/players available, including both the men's and women's teams going on tour to Serbia last month.

Canada Rugby League has always been a top down development.
The American comp started with some workmates from a school doing Friday afternoon fitness sessions with a former NRL player who started working with them, and grew from there over many years.
Canada started with some Union players getting together to play a game against the US sides, and they actually played a game against the USA national side before a club game was ever played.

Given the amount of other sports played in Toronto, the fact they had 4 amateur teams before they even had a pro team speaks volumes of the grass root set up and should be applauded.

A number of north west clubs should take note of how its done

There are 17 teams in Serbia, now THAT should be applauded.

It's great that there are people playing the game, wherever that may be taking place.

However, why should having those 4 amateur sides, before the Wolfpack was formed, be applauded.
They are of no relevance to the Professional club whatsoever.

It's not as though they were at such a level to have a pathway to the professional side and very likely never will.

What remains fundamentally wrong is the 7000 mile round trip to play any of their fortnightly fixtures.
Talk about spreading the jam too thin.

If it works out, fine.

If not, it'll be a very expensive blunder.

We won't know till this time next year. I'm fully expecting us and Wakey will be two teams having to go to Toronto TWICE.

if reports are correct, you wont, the teams scheduled to play their loop fixtures away to toronto are more than likely to be moved to on the road fixtures, allowing every team 1 trip to toronto

If the season starts earlier in 2020 (I thought that I'd read that it was staring in January) how many home games will they play on the road
I think it was 3 this season ?

It was 3.....and they ended the season with 9 of their last 11 played at home, which was a massive advantage that I don't see SL standing for.

Interesting. Why so?

If it turns out to be a Catalan then fantastic, we really can only wait and see, but it's all on the back of one person putting his money where his mouth is.

We need more of them in the game.

Tbf, it didn't really matter where they played their games. Such was their spend on their playing squad, they should have won every game.
Again, I think that they are to play in blocks of two home and then two away games next season and you would expect them to start with 2 away games, which would allow them to be in a position only have to take 2 games on the road before the climate allows them to play in Toronto ?

Really ?
Catalans were given direct entry to Super League & no threat of relegation for 6 years gratis *thank you very much* ! Why do so many Pro Expansionists willingly choose to ignore this fact ? Maybe it doesn't suit their agenda ?

They started with direct entry to Super League, with a 3 YEAR EXEMPTION from Relegation ....... followed by a 3 YEAR FRANCHISE, a franchise that was brought in just as it looked like Catalans might be relegated *surprise,.surprise* ! Don't believe me ? Check the record books !
No other team in the history of RL other than the Catalan Dragons has been given a 6 year free ride in Super League ..... FACT !!! At least in Toronto's case they have had to fight for promotion on the field ( even if no other team could financially compete ) at least they have earned a place in Super League !

IF the game was serious about expansion, there should be some kind of exemption from relegation for any newly promoted club.

However, IF we are serious about expansion, there should be a return to some kind of licensing, to prevent newly promoted sides crashing and burning if/when they are relegated.

Of course, we could just let "nature" take its course and if you finish bottom of SL, you are relegated, whether you are Wigan, Leeds, Toronto or whoever.
I throw the names of Wigan and Leeds into the mix as many fans believed that had either of these sides finished bottom, that the league would have been expanded or, format changed in order to save them.
Irrelevant now as both managed to turn their season around and were well clear of the wooden spoon but for a long time, Leeds, especially, looked to be in peril.

Having said all that, even with much tougher competition for Toronto in SL, with their spending power, not too many people are expecting them to face the drop next season, although it will be good to see them playing against clubs with a similar cap spend.

Fact? Erm I beg to differ.