Taken from Cumbria News and Star:
WORKINGTON Town and Whitehaven could soon be lining up against Canadian opposition, should a bid from a Toronto-based consortium come to fruition.
The seven-man consortium has put forward an application to join the Rugby Football League and the subject was well-received at a meeting of Championships representatives in Leeds.
One of the seven businessmen in the consortium, Eric Perez, told News & Star Sport: “Rugby league didn’t exist in Canada four years ago.
“In 2010, my business partner and I were working in Birmingham. We watched the game on Sky TV and thought what an incredible game this is – the best.
“When we returned home, without any supporters, players, kit or stadium we challenged the USA to a game. And within six weeks, we got together the players and lost the game by just one try in front of 1,200 spectators.
“From there, the game has gone from strength-to-strength.
“We are now averaging almost 7,000 for every Test and have our own TV programme ‘The Rugby League Show’ which has 90,000 viewers every week and 170,000 per Test match,” he added.
“We have excellent corporate sponsorship deals with companies such as Fosters (brewery) and Booster Juice (a giant Canadian smoothies company) and a lot of people will look at this and think ‘How are teams going to be able to afford to play in Canada’. The answer to that is easy – it will not cost them a penny.
“We will fly them out on a Thursday, play on Saturday and they will fly back on Sunday, all expenses paid.
“And they will even have the chance to make money – we will give each club a block of seats in the stand, and any ticket money that’s made will go back to the club.
“It’s an opportunity for the clubs to offer travel packages and make money.
“We are also offering to sponsor the competition to the tune of £200,000.”
The consortium has been working on the proposal with the RFL for more than 12 months and coming into the game at League One level is not going to put the dampeners on the application.
Perez added: “Going into League One can give us time to build, find our feet, gain promotion and prove our worth to the game. We would stay in the UK for a block of six or seven games and then travel home to play six or seven games there.
“The idea of promotion and relegation is intriguing to Canadian fans. We don’t have that here. All the major sports, ice hockey, baseball, basketball and Major League Soccer, are franchise-lead. Sometimes teams don’t worry about doing so well because they know they’ll be there in the league next season.”
Town vice-chairman Mark Fryer was excited at the proposal, and said: “I’ve spoken to Eric and he has a passion for the game.
“They have some serious business backing and it could be a fantastic opportunity for rugby league itself.
“I’m positive about it but we have to be realistic and work it through.
“The worst thing that can happen is for them to gain membership and be gone in a couple of years.”
An RFL spokesman said: “We have received an application from a Canadian consortium to enter a team into League 1 [the current Championship 1] in the 2016 season.
“The consortium delivered a presentation to the Championship clubs at a meeting in Leeds, on Wednesday, which was well-received by the club representatives present.
“The RFL will now produce a report into the proposal for consideration by the governing body’s independent board of directors who will make the final decision.” |
