More wins, more problems
But promotion to Super League would bring good problems to Wolfpack
Toronto Wolfpack head coach Paul Rowley says his club is ready to graduate to the Super League, the rugby league equivalent of the Premiership.
Midway through the club’s second campaign, the Wolfpack lead rugby league’s second division by five points, have outscored opponents 464-260 and have finally settled on a lineup after spending the early season tinkering with the roster.
But continued success could complicate life for the club’s business staff, who, if the Wolfpack qualify for the Super League this season, would spend a frantic off-season preparing the team for the big time.
The Wolfpack, who split their schedule between England and Toronto, host the London Broncos on Saturday in the first of eight straight matches at Lamport Stadium, finishing out a schedule back-loaded with home games and helpful to their Super League ambitions.
Rowley maintains that, with eight matches remaining before the post-season, his players can’t afford to look ahead to next season. But with a Super League berth looming, the head of the team’s business staff says he can’t afford not to anticipate the future.
“From a business standpoint, we’d have to increase our staff even further,” Wolfpack executive Scott Lidbury said. “We’re looking ahead. There have been a number of discussions with the RFL about what that media rights deal looks like next year. We’re pushing ahead with those long-term plans because we’re all aware that, if the team is promoted in September, it’s going to be a very short off-season for us.”
The Wolfpack absorbed at 6610 beatdown from Super League squad Warrington in a Challenge Cup match last month. But that Sunday they fielded a lineup drained from two transatlantic flights the previous week, and they were short-handed after a red card and three yellows.
Since then, Rowley says, the club has finalized its roster, enabling a level of continuity absent from early-season matches, and setting the team up to peak during the second half of the summer.
“It’s been really, really challenging,” Rowley said. “But hopefully it will mean we’ll play our best rugby toward the back half of the year.”
While the Wolfpack currently top the second-division standings, a promotion to Super League isn’t guaranteed. First, they face a Broncos squad that defeated the Wolfpack 4716 when the clubs met in London in February.
Then they need to survive a rigorous post-season tournament that pits the top four second-division teams against the bottom four Super League teams in an eight-team roundrobin. The top three teams after seven weeks move to the Super League, while the bottom three are relegated to the second division. the two teams in the middle face off in the MillionPound Match, with the loser sent to the second division and the winner earning a Super League berth and the revenue boost that accompanies it.
Lidbury points out that moving up to the Super League would give the Wolfpack a cut of a richer broadcast rights deal than their current one.
A promotion would also pit the Wolfpack against clubs rich enough to afford their own travel to Toronto. Right now the Wolfpack cover expenses for visiting teams, a significant expense for a team that averaged just under 7,000 spectators at home games last season.
Off-season signing Ashton Sims says those fans helped the Wolfpack make an impression in the broader rugby league community. The Australianborn Sims spent 2017 playing for Warrington, but says he would often watch Wolfpack games on television and was impressed with the atmosphere the club created at Lamport, even if most home games turned into blowouts.
“I thought it was an absolute party atmosphere. I thought it was great,” said Sims, who represented Fiji in last year’s Rugby League World Cup. “There’s teams in both the Super League and (Australia’s) NRL that would crave for having six, seven, 8,000 fans at their games week in, week out.”
But Lamport Stadium will again become an issue if the Wolfpack earn a promotion.
The installation of a new playing surface at the city-owned facility delayed the Wolfpack’s home season this year. And if they reach Super League, the Wolfpack will need a home field suitable for high-level competition.
Lamport’s current configuration likely wouldn’t accommodate Super League-sized crowds and visiting teams that are used to more modern locker rooms. Lidbury said the club would consider paying for modest stadium upgrades, much like MLSE funded extensive renovations to BMO Field.