North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:34 am  

Good for the game or a possible embarrassment if they do not become established on a long term basis.

Re: North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 8:19 am  

Good for the game if they are playing in their own professional competition

Re: North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 8:47 am  

The signing of SBW at around $10m for two years sounds like it's just an ego trip for the owner . If he was serious about RL expansion in North America that $10m would be better served setting up an academy for local lads and lassies to learn the basics and play the game with a view to setting up local leagues . What they do is import has beens and never will be's coupled with beg and borrowing loan players. Oh and what they do best is complain that they are hard done by . I have always thought that there is more than meets the eye with Nobby's departure. Maybe he has seen the big picture .

Regards EW

Re: North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:07 am  

Just another PSG until they start producing their own, I’d like then to succeed but they’re not going to if they don’t even try.

Re: North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:13 am  

Edinburgh Warrior wrote:

The signing of SBW at around $10m for two years sounds like it's just an ego trip for the owner . If he was serious about RL expansion in North America that $10m would be better served setting up an academy for local lads and lassies to learn the basics and play the game with a view to setting up local leagues . What they do is import has beens and never will be's coupled with beg and borrowing loan players. Oh and what they do best is complain that they are hard done by . I have always thought that there is more than meets the eye with Nobby's departure. Maybe he has seen the big picture .

It'll take more than a few years for anything to become established. Even with Beckam's involvement, the MLS is going to be a poor also-ran, probably, for ever. I can't see there being the engagement outside of expat communities & even then they're tiny in comparison with anything else. Also, I can't help but go back to the Denver fiasco & the cancellation of the WC in '25. I do think there's more to Nobby's departure than they're letting on...
Then there's the practicalities of travel - are they going to continue to fund GB teams' travel for ever & a day? Who's bankrolling all this? They're either deluded, or have been sold a pup...Hemel Stags could've been a working outfit if they'd been managed better (and the RFL any any idea of marketing), but now they're a renamed franchise in New York...does not compute.

Re: North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 10:14 am  

Ultimately the long term aim has to be the development of a professional American League. To be fair the USARL is and has been going on for a long time and is quite successful and played to a decent standard (I was lucky enough to tour Florida in 2011 and played Jacksonville). The groundwork is essentially done, it’s a case of now pumping money into it and attracting players. The standard won’t be up to SL, or even Championship levels quickly. It takes time, patience and money but it is possible to do.

I’m all for Toronto, Ottawa and New York. They can only be good for the game but they must get their heads together behind the scenes to develop and fund a pro American League.

Re: North America Clubs : Wed Mar 11, 2020 6:25 pm  

Edinburgh Warrior wrote:

The signing of SBW at around $10m for two years sounds like it's just an ego trip for the owner . If he was serious about RL expansion in North America that $10m would be better served setting up an academy for local lads and lassies to learn the basics and play the game with a view to setting up local leagues . What they do is import has beens and never will be's coupled with beg and borrowing loan players. Oh and what they do best is complain that they are hard done by . I have always thought that there is more than meets the eye with Nobby's departure. Maybe he has seen the big picture .

Regards EW

Agreed.

Re: North America Clubs : Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:18 am  

It is all very well having more teams in North America but where are the quality players going to come from, especially when our game can no longer attract players from Rugby Union.

A situation which is not being helped by many of our own professional/semi professional clubs not running Academies and the declining number of players in the Amateur game where some clubs are no longer running a second team and the number of of young players on reaching around eighteen and finding that they are not going to make it at a professional/semi professional level disappear from the game and find other careers and interests.

The more teams in North America you get, the more the quality and quantity of players will go down in our own game.

The RFL need to look at why our game is not spreading outwards from the M62 corridor in our own country and indeed Europe instead of bothering about a novelty of professional clubs in North America run by money people who when they see that they are not getting a return on their investment, will simply pull the plug and leave Rugby League in a embarrassing situation.

And just how many supporters who after the experience of going to clubs in North America for the first time will go in following seasons?

Re: North America Clubs : Thu Mar 12, 2020 11:10 am  

Ruddy Duck wrote:

It is all very well having more teams in North America but where are the quality players going to come from, especially when our game can no longer attract players from Rugby Union.

A situation which is not being helped by many of our own professional/semi professional clubs not running Academies and the declining number of players in the Amateur game where some clubs are no longer running a second team and the number of of young players on reaching around eighteen and finding that they are not going to make it at a professional/semi professional level disappear from the game and find other careers and interests.

The more teams in North America you get, the more the quality and quantity of players will go down in our own game.

The RFL need to look at why our game is not spreading outwards from the M62 corridor in our own country and indeed Europe instead of bothering about a novelty of professional clubs in North America run by money people who when they see that they are not getting a return on their investment, will simply pull the plug and leave Rugby League in a embarrassing situation.

And just how many supporters who after the experience of going to clubs in North America for the first time will go in following seasons?

It’s a long term plan to train and develop American and Canadian RL players to a good standard. That’s where the player pool is expanded, I don’t under appreciate or estimate the challenge in that and the way I’ve put it sounds incredibly simplistic when it’s anything but. The also added attraction if you will is that there’s more places to go and play RL than simply Australia and England and that could boost numbers too. Again that may be bourn out of naivety or a clouded judgement because I am a full backer of American clubs joining the English leagues in the short to medium term.

Ultimately the goal has to be a fully professional American League and as I’ve stated before the groundwork is already in place through the USANRL. There’s teams stretching from New York down to Florida and across to California. They’re run really well and you’d be surprised at the crowd level they get and the set ups they have. All they need is extra funding and a set plan to develop the league gradually in standard, participation and crowd figures.