Since this news was announced, to say I’ve been surprised by the turn of events is an understatement and it has taken me quite a while to digest it all.
There have been mistakes in handling this, in which you can rightly place blame on Toronto themselves, the Super League and RLF, and Covid-19.
Toronto have clearly been mismanaged, players being consistently payed late and Visa issues. This is clearly undeniable. They have also made grievous mistakes with recruitment, particularly with respect to the number of players in their squad. It was clearly insufficient.
The SL and the RFL have been simply preposterous in their treatment stipulations imposed upon Toronto. This partly comes down to the ill thought through implementation of expansionism in the first place, the stipulations put to Toronto that they not take any SL money, but above all that, I believe it has been the forsaken attitude towards them.
And this attitude has been largely reflected within the Rugby League community in the northern hemisphere. You only have to glance back at half the posts in this thread to realise how toxic (yes, toxic) some attitudes are. If I were David Argyle, I wouldn’t be holding any guilt over what they’ve done in discrediting the competition. They have been made to feel unwelcome and despised on a colossal scale from day 1. True you could argue that Toronto should never have agreed to the terms of entering the league. They did agree to the terms, but maybe that had to if that was the only way they could get in – what option do you have? They have not been welcomed, received absolutely no support despite bring much needed publicity to the sport. It seems a drastic option to take, but in many respects, I don’t blame them.
Covid-19 has definitely not helped. They have not been able to furlough their staff and through no fault of their own, they can no longer play any home games. Granted you may not be able to play them in front of live audiences, but imagine for a moment if Wigan, Warrington or Saint Helen’s were told that they could no longer play any home games. The RFL could well have saved this had they made the decision about promotion and relegation sooner – Toronto may have been able to make the decision that they could have ridden it out and continued to put money forward in investing in the squad knowing they are in a stable position.
For a team that brought an extra 10,000 fans, made big money headline catching signings (Leutele and SBW), creating noise and commotion, riled the old guard and generated some international excitement that companies like Sky will be keen to show, to then have to deal with the raft of dross that they have been exposed to: well, good on them. With all due respect to the likes of Featherstone and Batley, they just aren’t attractive to organisations like Sky and they just won’t be able to generate the revenue to grow the sport beyond its borders.
The TV deal up for renegotiation next year has taken a massive hit now. You don’t grow the sport and the finances of the situation by showing small teams like Featherstone and Batley. The TV money will be reduced, the sponsorship won’t be there, and the sport will shrink. Fact. This could well act as a catalyst to throw the sport into the shadows for a very long period of time. With the fact that relegation and promotion has been scrapped, I don’t see how this prohibits Toronto for entering back into the SL in 2021, given the extreme hardships placed on them by Covid-19 and other circumstances. I highly doubt they would go back to another couple of years in the lower leagues and work their way back up again. What’s the point in spending 3 years messing about in the squalor of lower leagues, when frankly they could be fast tracked to SL, particularly given the extreme circumstances affecting the whole world.
For me, this is a strong case for bringing back licencing for 2021.
As experienced by Hull KR these past few years, the constant threat of relegation looms like a dark cloud every year, with the club unable to make commitments to potential signings until all the other clubs that are already safe have picked over them first, leaving the weaker teams weaker. Without the threat of relegation, clubs can make proper financial plans for the signings they make but also to know that they can blood younger players or those from academy sides into the first team, without the immense pressure upon their shoulders of the consequences of doing so. It allows for younger player development, stable investment and potential growth of home-grown players. Yes, people will be frothing at the fact that there is no promotion and relegation, but frankly it has not done the NRL much harm has it? I appreciate that you potentially get meaningless games towards the latter half of the season, but the financial stability and clubs’ survival, particularly in the times of Covid-19, is an absolute priority now, not the structuring of the league.
It also gives expansionism a chance.
In my opinion, SL is a worse competition for not expansionist teams in the league. SL will always benefit from an image point of view with teams like London in it, bringing profile (albeit small at the moment). Same to be said for Toulouse, a well-run club that could provide some local rivalry with the Catalan Dragons. You could potentially make good arguments for York and Bradford too (provided the latter is owned and operated proficiently – there is still a big audience for their team should they be able to prove themselves stable and worthy of a franchise).
There will be arguments made that there simply isn’t a player pool to support such an expanded league, but that certainly hasn’t been exhibited when London got promoted and pushed Rovers right to the wire in that final game. They were certainly competitive enough, beyond all expectation. I appreciate that this won’t be the same experience for all promoted clubs, but it was a good demonstration.
This argument will also get flack on the basis that it would “kill the Championship” for good. It certainly wouldn’t be good for some teams, but you could argue about how many teams in the Championship have genuine ambitions for being a SL team right now or at any time in the last 10 years?
There you go. Rip me to shreds!
