Where is Rugby League going?

One of several interesting facts is that should Widnes stay up and London and Toronto get promoted 25% of all top flight rugby league would be played on totally artificial pitches.

Fact two should Toulouse and London get promoted they have a combined ground capacity of 7,020.

There are more but it really does seem that expansion outside the heartlands comes at a cost if in nothing else but Stadia.

During the franchise period teams obtained new grounds or redeveloped old ones Leigh Sporting Village, The Shay, Post Office Road in the hope of entering a modern day Superleague with grounds like the soon to be redeveloped Headingley, John Smiths Stadium, DW Stadium, Langtree Park, Halliwell Jones KC Stadium AJ Bell Stadium and New Craven Park.

I add the Select Security Stadium to a second list due to its abhorrent plastic pitch and note the unfair pressure placed on Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers to find a new home or redevelop due to Stadia regulations.

Yet if results fell right we could have three plastic pitches, two grounds with a combined 7,020 capacity with two established strongholds of Rugby League fearing for their future if they don’t spend on the current ground or build a new one!

Add to this a ground 7,000 miles away with beer tents behind the goals and the transformation of Rugby League to the modern day looks to be fading fast.

The vision of a modern vibrant game played in modern spectator friendly Stadia seems to be descending into farce to me it only seems to be taking place in the NRL so with all due respect Ralph Rimmer has a poison chalice he’s damned if he doesn’t damned if he does !

If you took the word Rugby League away from this you would think any sport would be mad to even risk this happening but unfortunately the Rugby League ‘Titanic’ won’t miss the iceberg and will eventually sink into a self made pit of self destruction.

If we were going to allow these Stadia and artificial pitches to be used, whilst modern but at best no better than some of the atmospheric and legendary ancient Stadia that have disapeared what has the point really been is the question I would ask ?

I know I’ll take some flak for this but really you can see why spectators will desert the game and even the John Smiths with 6,000 will look better the the trailfinders with 1,200 and yet another plastic field.

I think we may find we have a whole new ball game soon, and to be honest i think it may well be the last throw of the dice, so lets hope it works out.

The McAlpine/John Smiths/Galpharm has always had a Desso artificial grass woven in to the real grass.

There has been no complaint about the new T 4 pitch in Toronto...some players say it is slow on the foot. It is the newest and best of the artificial grasses and some say far easier on the knees and ground tackles than a grass pitch....artificial pitches have come a long way recently....they are no longer inferior and some feel superior.

Why are you hanging round on here like a bad smell? Have you nee kicked off your own board?
We aren’t even in the same competition as you- and won’t be next year either.

Sounds like someone has the sniffles and needs a Sudafed. Little light headed I see....reread the thread title and Toronto has the newest and best of the artificial pitches.
Not kicked off of anywhere...and will will meet Huddersfield soon enough...Leeds first though. Try to get over it....take two and call me in the morning.

Having refereed on the Town/Fartown ground and on proper artificial pitches too there’s a big difference when much of Rugby League is about contact with the ground espeicially around the knee area.

Many teams won’t risk players at Widnes due to the surface and in our case it was the start of the end for Tom Symonds who got badly injured there.

You are outed it’s a muppet... it’s Kermit the Frog....

The whole point of my post appears to have gone sailing straight over your head it’s about a sport trying to adapt to the future and going backwards when trying to move forwards but of course you’d know all about that your two years of rugby league gleaning more experience than my fifty seven and Toronto having played at Knowsley Road, Central Park, Wilderspool, Belle Vue, Fartown, The Wilows et all....

Having been to all London’s Grounds for example is the current one better than Craven Cottage or Brentford ‘not on your nelly’ even the Stoop another Rugby Union Ground was better....

No sport should stick in the past but the future needs to be better with enough homage to the past that has made it what it is.

But in all honesty has letting the likes of Oldham, Swinton Leigh and now possibly Salford or Widnes go to edge of oblivion to be replaced by Paris St German, Crusaders and now Toronto, London and Toulouse really improved the experience and game I for one think not.

But let’s replace Huddersfield with Coventry, Castleford with New York and then St Helens with Dubai that will improve the game no end let’s let Toronto start playing at the end of their winter home and away and relegation to be decided after the Grand Final ‘the nutcases will have finally taken over the madhouse’

There's absolutely no evidence that Widnes pitch causes more injuries whatsoever. Same at Toronto.

As for Cas and Wakefield, their grounds are a bloody embarrassment to the game. A Sunday pub league wouldn't want to play in them and they should have been kicked out long ago. Wakey shouldn't have been allowed in to start with.

Tolouse have as good and long an RL history as any other in the game, from an RL heartland - just because it's not on the M62 some folk don't like it - fun fact they were invited to join the Northern Union in 1895 but couldn't deal with the commute back then .

Rugby League has two choices. Change or die. Thanks to those that hate change we've seen RU over take League in terms of sports. We're a minority sport in a world flooded with other options

You want to watch a semi pro team in a public park? Fine. I'd rather watch a fully professional and world class team play in a world class stadium. If it's Toronto v Tolouse then so be it.

I love the Giants, but I love RL more

I must say I agree with you with regard to Cas and Wakey that was the RLs fault, rules were made about stadia crowds overseas players etc and were never enforced.

As for Toronto If they could meet all the criteria I believe they would be welcomed by the majority of clubs but theres the rub they cannot meet the criteria .It's very easy to jump up on a soap box and shout about the Wolf pack but what about the rest of the SL clubs?One set of rules for ESL and another set for The WolfpackI think not.I believe it has been mooted that if promoted to ESL they would play all their away fixtures at the beginning of the season and then their home games in the second half of the season,fine for Toronto but think of the other SL teams.I would love to find away round the problems but in all honesty there are to many and I believe that the other SL clubs will vote against it.
I have just been on the Toronto web site viewing the playing staff.16 Brits,6 Aussies ,1Kiwi,1Albanian Oh and 1 Canuck.Hardly a Canadian side.I rather think that the SL clubs wouldn't be bothered about playing them its the other problems that would be the biggest bugbear.But time will tell the Rl have made sillier decisions.
I have visited Canada and I must say it's a wonderful country and the people are fantastic I truly hope that they can someway make it work but I fear it will be much too difficult.