Reports in Australia S.B.W has been offered $A 9 million over two years by Toronto Wolfpack "nice payday"
Reports in Australia S.B.W has been offered $A 9 million over two years by Toronto Wolfpack "nice payday"
On the one hand it would be great for SL, names don't come much bigger than SBW in either code. On the other hand, given that most Canadians won't know who he is, it's a lot of money to shell out for limited return
It's very interesting that they seem to be pushing for signings like this. They appear to be being taken to court by a supplier and there are rumours about a few other unpaid creditors. Yet they're looking to make what would presumably be a record signing for Super League as their first? If the guy behind Toronto is rich enough and serious about the venture they've got the potential to win Super League. I'll bet the RFL are absolutely bricking it at the thought of a Toronto v Catalans final though. Would SBW be anything other than a commerical signing? IMO it would be very similar to Everton signing Rooney. Plenty of talent still there, but he's 34 now and unlikely to be a stellar player on the field after so long out, and possibly more injury prone than he ever was.
Toronto are averaging around the 8,000 mark currently, if that goes higher in Super League and they stay afloat, the likes of New York and Valencia come on board with serious backers as is rumoured, it's not unrealistic that they could replace some of the old guard of Saints, Wigan, Leeds etc. I'd suggest the potential of these big city ventures is far higher than our own given the population and access to funding sources if the right investors are on board. I'm all for expansion, but we might have to accept Saints being slightly further down the food chain eventually.
Another side of me thinks that the Toronto experiment is being watched by Union very closely. I suspect this might be another example of where Rugby League innovates has some success with the likes of Toronto only for Union to step up and launch a 'world league' with American, British and French clubs in it and just eclipse us.
A valid point Saddened, their PR, marketing and advertisement is ahead of ours, adnittedly mainly because ours is almost non-existent.
They never miss an opportunity to counter our initiatives with their own stellar announcement, containing plenty of flair and panache.
Sonny Bill is past his best but still a big draw in either code. To think 13 years ago we nearly signed the young version to replace Scully.
Sonny Bill puts bums on seats, there isn’t a bigger name across both codes of rugby, he’s probably the most high profile dual code player ever.
He’s someone that will go to a club and the whole team will train harder and play harder.
I hope the deal comes off he’s one of my all time favourite sportsman.
Must be a phenomanal physical specimen, to have played rugby in one code or another twelve months a year for donkeys years, one of the youngest players to debut in the Australian League and throwing in a serious career as professional boxer winning the New Zealand title championship. I would look forward to watching him play against us, his offloads can be brilliant. I doubt whether any club would now risk him as a marquee player purely because time must be catching up
Last edited by Woolyback; 31st October 2019 at 10:15.
Out of interest how far away from the M62 do you have to be for your club to be classed an experiment?
Is there a clear definition?
I could agree with you but then we would both be wrong.
Anyway, It is good for a club like Toronto to be linked with a player like SBW. In order to get high level exposure you have to be able to say you have world class athletes and SBW is definitely that.
I just can't see it happening, I suspect that Japanese Rugby Union and the NRL are more likely destinations. Talk of Toronto is surely just to increase his asking price.
I could agree with you but then we would both be wrong.
Don't rule it out. It's unlikely to happen too quickly, but if successful Toronto, New York and Valencia sides were all in the top flight in 5 years, the money involved would be vastly different to the pitiful Sky deal we have now. It is foolish and arrogant to think a club like ours in a town like ours wouldn't struggle to keep pace with cities like Toronto and New York. I'm not envisaging the big UK clubs being outside the top division in the next decade, but it's possible those big-city clubs could be more successful and infinitely more powerful financially.
But you are forgetting something, where rugby is played in this country it is either the first or second (after football) sport in the town/city, in Toronto it is the fourth after Ice Hockey, Basketball and Baseball and if they went to New York it would be at best the 6th sport in the city, American Football, Ice Hockey, Baseball, Basketball and Football. They may be bigger markets but those markets already have a large number of established sports being played in them, trying to get into the market in New York especially would be incredibly difficult and would take a lot of time and money to do that.
I just dont see the need for such doom and gloom on this, at the end of the day the Super League clubs would have to agree to the travelling and conditions, i dont see any sensible Super League owner agreeing to something that may put their club out of business, especially not one of the big three you originally mentioned.
He was talked out of it by Willy Mason, he told him he should be loyal the the Bulldogs, so he knocked back a contract worth 1 million dollars with Saints, Mason dumped the bulldogs shortly after, the next time S.B.W met Mason on the field he broke his jaw and got 2 weeks for it.
Sonny Boy would be superb for Toronto, what a PR Opportunity for them & Super League! I think we know plenty of Players in Super League now 34 and over! saying SB is not fit sounds more like sour grapes or just bitter??
But you have to take that deal at his age?
Learned comment from The Don