Wakefield Trinity • Sonny bill

Exactly so what you will have is a team full of clubs who will only be there if they have rich owners. What a joy. We'll get to watch the richest buy the mostest while clubs go to the wall that we all cherish and support - there you shall lose more fans than you will gain. The reason Rugby League struggles is because histroically it hasn't been able to retain the fans it already has. Some of the crowds Wakefield used to get makes our current attendences look like a joke. I've nothing against Toronto exisiting as a Rugby League club - I have as a rugby league club in a competition based in Britain. Chucking obscene money at a player that is past his best rather than thwoing that amount of money at grassroots at Toronto and canadian rugby as a whole goes to show me that it's not so much expansion that is the motivator here. You need to as a sport show that you are worth more than other sports by getting young kids into the game, chucking ten million dollars at SBW is not the answer - it's an expensive gimmick. If this was about exposing more kids and families to the game, Toronto would have been far better off spending 10 million dollars on marketing or free tickets to kids and families who have never attended a Rugby League game. You might get a few extra walk-ins of passive Rugby fans in to watch one game of the season but most people outside of Rugby don't know who SBW is. You need the power base and marketing in order to expand the game. I fear that there is some extreme naivety in some of the hyperbolic positive responses I've seen regarding this from Rugby League outlets. I'll be looking at attendance figures in the coming season extremely closely believe me. Is SBW going to be good to watch as a Rugby League fan? Yes. Is this going to be effective in making the game any better? Not for me. It might set a precedent for getting rid of the salary cap and trying to attract new teams to the league. New teams run by rich owners in an International Super League. Does that sound attractive? Not for me. I'm struggling to see any long-term planning or plan to improve Super League other than rolls of a dice and individual clubs paying extortionate amounts of dollars for players who are past it. TL:DR I don't see how Toronto spending that money improves the game overall? Unless they plan on throwing 100 million at 10 other top Aussies - oh wait, that wouldn't be improving the game either for young British players.