Difficult to take this serious.
They do have a band of UK supporters who seem to be Canadian ex pat's. I'm sure they do bring fans over for the occasional game also but it would be rather expensive for them to follow away every week don't you think?
As for publicity I think their promotion to SL and signing of SBW saw coverage in the media our game hasn't enjoyed in decades.
I have banged on about the importance of traditional areas for years on here. I really thought the presence of Leigh, Widnes, etc would be great for Saints. More local derbies, bigger crowds. The reality was when they did win their place their townsfolk didn't turn up and support them.
I note Eddies cynicism above about expansion and it's got historical credence. However, I think it's almost the last throw off the dice before a return to part timism.
If we don't get an renewed and improved TV deal most clubs will be unviable.
Toronto may or may not be a flash in the pan. It's worth a go and some bloke is the one who is gambling his money. It's not the game who is risking it financially only reputation if it fails.
Fad or not they are attracting treble the crowds of a number of clubs in SL.
FWIW I agree Div, as I said the irony is not lost that the game needs to take that gamble now despite my original post.
Put simply, the game has lost to much of its strength, presence, visibility etc in areas once considered the heartlands. Once upon a time there were proud Swinton, Oldham clubs; now that team is a skeleton of what it was. Once a generation is lost, its very difficult to get them back. For me there are too many clubs at risk of getting to this point.
Do you remember when the "mergers" were first proposed. Thousand of "fans" marched against it something like 30K at Wakefield, Featherstone and Cas.
Those fans however didn't (don't) attend the games then or now, yet will be the first to moan if superleague becomes a closed shop and they are not in.
As for the Wigan v Toronto game the attendance was 5% up on the London game last season, which is ok for a Thursday night televised match and higher than seven of Saints Superleague attendances last season.
When you say "Toronto haven't received any money" you appear to be implying that I am saying that they have received money from the RL. I haven't said that at all. I am merely stating that if said money had been invested elsewhere (by whomever has bankrolled the Toronto experiment) it may have served the game better. Naturally an individual with the resources to bankroll an SL team can pick whichever team he likes. I was merely stating that I don't think the Toronto experiment will be a success for the reasons I mentioned, and which you have indeed pointed out yourself.
"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom." Danny Blanchflower.
Might have been written by a footballer about football - but never a truer word............
He is a bitter and twisted man who ran for the hills following our GF win. Now the weasel is back quoting his usual drivel. He wants to get his EXCEL stained sheet out of the year they got relegated and averaged little above three thousand.
Case in point. Superleague isnt watched by, I would estimate, the majority of even true League fans in NZ. However, everyone in NZ has heard of SBW. When the news broke here it ignited a reasonable amount of interest in SL. I'm not saying it is a turning point or anything as a lot of people consider him to be quite mercenary but it still got chins wagging about SL in a lot of quarters. Sky TV in NZ is in a bit of a death throe at present with a lot of people preferring other means of TV etc. Personally I get mine via Vodafone fibre network but I only kept the Sky account included because of the League and Darts to be honest. The SBW news was a bit of a fillip for Sky even for a short while.
Not so often you're right but you're wrong again.
According to Bilko now there is a stats man the average for that seasons league games was 4,744
http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages...hp?page_id=489
Attendances at that time in RL were dire, I'd be surprised if Saints average league attendance that year was was more than 5,500
And the reason for my post was to show the op that the attendance v Toronto was not as bad as he insinuated
.hth
Me too.
Attendance of 11,000 according to Bilkos site.
That would have been bigger than most clubs were getting for their league attendances, shows just how much the Challenge Cup has fallen out of favour these days.
http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=2202
Just checked it was better attended than either the Boxing Day or Good Friday Wigan v Saints games that season.
Indeed. I remember the fanfare and excitement over the arrival of Mal Meninga for us.
His debut at Knowsley Road against Castleford drew a crowd of just over 7000.
That would have been well up on the usual too around that time when 4000 would have been commonplace.
The RFL allowed SKY to treat the Challenge Cup with disregard. I think the Cup competition has always been enjoyed in this country; ok trips to London are'nt as novel as they were but we still have upsets, a comparatively new Wembley and favourable ticket pricing. On the last point the fact that many superleague clubs reduced their ST to the quivalent of a free season ticket with a Happy Meal hasn't helped; its created a culture where people seem to treat the Cup as something that should be free.