I don't think the Americans will want to play for long against a load of no mark towns they've never heard of. Leeds might - might - be palatable, but no other English town or city with a current Super League club matters to anyone other than the people who live there. The Yanks will have heard of London obviously and no doubt Liverpool and Manchester too because of high profile football teams from those cities as well as bands like the Beatles. After that you're looking at Birmingham and then maybe the likes of Leeds and Newcastle. They won't have the slightest clue where Wigan, St Helens or Warrington are or be thrilled at the prospect of taking on their finest!

I am a massive TW/EP fan.......but I suggest caution. With no freebies, beer tents, hot-dog shooting guns and unilateral assault on the media, London Broncos achieved 5,699 in season 1......before we get all get "moist" about north america, let's see how they fare in the next few seasons before breaking out the champagne.

In fairness, I don't think that many Americans would know much about Green Bay, Wisconsin, had it not been for the football team.

As long as the product is entertaining, I don't think the North Americans are overly bothered about the cities that the teams come from. And whilst most North Americans probably only know where London is, marketed properly, you could very easily sell teams like Wigan and St Helens to them - from what I've seen watching college football, they have a thing for romantacising about sporting history.

The same wrongheaded argument could be made for places like Wisconsin, Green Bay or Hamilton; plenty of people in the actual countries they are in would know or care nothing about them in principal - so that's hardly a barrier; a few weeks ago for example, two NFL games were played at Wembley, between 4 teams from places that the vast majority of Brits would know or care nothing about, with a combined attendance of 165,000.

I can't see any downside to a genuine effort to establish a North American League; they have a massive supply of college athletes, access to a ginormous and lucrative broadcast and advertising market, and an annoying habit of putting on a hell of a show. ESL should support their efforts by helping to fast-track some of these development teams into SL - by growing the numbers - not at the expense of existing clubs.

The longer term upside could be that people like Perez would eventually grow weary of dealing with amateur committee men like Big Nige, and maybe install some proper leadership that would actually take the sport forwards. I look forward to seeing Castleford Tigers take a knee during Sweet Caroline.

conferences are the obvious answer.
it works for the rugby union in aus/nz/sa
three 6 team conferences - play the teams in your conference twice and the other teams once.
lot's of local derbies - fans have fewer big trips away - etc etc

What a stupid statement!

Regards

King James

Don't respond to anyone who signs off their post with their username.

The fact that Hamilton is viewed as a targeted location is encouraging. Rugby League needs to look for gaps in the sporting market. Looking at this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in ... n,_Ontario ...the only professional sporting team in Hamilton is a Canadian Football league team (the "other" code of American Football). It is conceivable that a successful Rugby League team could become the biggest sports team in the town. Too often, RL administrators have looked at a big name cities like London and Paris and not considered what a team would have to compete with.

The fact that Hamilton is viewed as a targeted location is encouraging. Rugby League needs to look for gaps in the sporting market. Looking at this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in ... n,_Ontario ...the only professional sporting team in Hamilton is a Canadian Football league team (the "other" code of American Football). It is conceivable that a successful Rugby League team could become the biggest sports team in the town. Too often, RL administrators have looked at a big name cities like London and Paris and not considered what a team would have to compete with.

Even if they were almost equal in salary cap spend, which is a gigantic IF, SL 2 would always be second tier RL.
The top flight isn't exactly blessed with cash so, how thinly do you want to share out the pittance that SL gets from Sky ??
The current deal certainly wont fund 20 or 24 clubs and the cold hard facts are that not enough people are interested in second tier RL, especially those who run TV companies.

To take your point about those who couldn't fund it wont be in it, do you really think there are 8 clubs outside SL who could fund full time squads, without significant TV cash.
Leigh, Toronto and maybe Toulouse.

Sorry, it's a non runner.

If this thing takes off like people are suggesting, Wigan wouldn't be anywhere near the final!

You say that but I was chatting to a wizard (true story) in one of the parks in Florida in '05 and he asked me where I was from. Told him Wigan and he knew about the Wigan v St Helens derby. Was a yank too.

That's impressive. On the few occasions I've spoken to Americans abroad, the nearest I could get to Wakefield to pinpoint where I was from was London because of the Queen, Manchester because of Manchester United, and Nottingham because of Robin Hood!

I was in the Dominican Republic a few years ago talking to an American student, he was aware of most SL teams, that was just from the hour of Sky Sports News they get on a certain channel over there.

Every League needs a Swinton!



Another Chicago team for me to support now alongside the Cubs, Bears, Bulls & Blackhawks!

I don't

Regards

King James

I'd imagine that if RL starts to take off in NA the ineptitude of the RFL will hand the opportunity on a plate to the NRL.

The NRL aren't that much smarter than the RFL......and their clubs are just as insular as ours. North America, if it were to embrace the sport, would be better served running its own game.

Oh, you never know, some Americans may just have heard of other places. Take Hull for instance. Some may just have heard of William Wilberforce given that he decided to start the movement for the abolition of slavery. Or J Arthur Rank. I think he may have started a little film company over there.

wizards are good at geography, its in their job description

Given that most UK residents would be unaware of who Wilberforce was, I find it highly unlikely that any Americans would know him. As for Slavery, they didn't abolish it in the USA for nigh on 35 years after the British did.
The Rank organisation was a uniquely British institution which owned British Film companies and British Cinemas and therefore is unlikely to resonate with our America cousins.....even the older ones who would have referred to Rank Xerox before it became just Xerox.

Given 70% of Americans do not have a passport and of the 30% that do,50% of them are in the Military, it is highly likely that other than London, most of the UK could well be Mordor to them.

Half these teams will be in Canada - a country with very strong ties with the UK and a very well travelled populace.
US citizens might be less well travelled, but there are literally hundreds of millions of them - we only need a tiny fraction to get involved.

indeed

the news about a second team has broken on the [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/41631148BBC[/url and its in new york

nice looking stadium but not much around it except industry. situated in new jersey about 6 miles away from manhatten. should be well placed to draw in fans from the new york side and new jersey. more info on the stadium [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_Arena_(New_Jersey)here[/url wonder if red bull are on board with the team sponsorship

What great news! The world's greatest city will play rugby league!

Goodbye lowly Leigh! Goodbye witless Widnes! Goodbye frantic Featherstone! Goodbye hopeless Halifax!

Hello New York! Hello Montreal!