Atlantic Ocean doesn’t deter bid to bring rugby to Toronto
City on verge of getting team in English professional league
On Sunday morning, the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins meet at Wembley Stadium, kicking off the NFL’s annual International Series and more discussion over when the league will plant a franchise in London.
But local entrepreneur Eric Perez says the first trans-Atlantic pro sports team will come to Toronto.
Perez leads a group of backers on the verge of finalizing a deal to bring a rugby league team to Toronto in April 2017. He expects to sign contracts with the league within a month and have an official launch by January.
The club is slated to join the Kingstone Press League 1, Rugby Football League’s third division, playing home games at Lamport Stadium and road games in the UK. Super League is the RFL’s highest level, and trails only Premier League soccer in TV viewership in England.
Taking the team from concept to kickoff will cost the group more than $2 million but Perez, who quit his job as a marketing campaign manager to commit to this project, thinks the city is ready for rugby league. In its 2014 strategic plan, Super League identified international expansion as a goal, which would make Toronto the starting point of a broader effort to expand into North America.
“We see Toronto as the gateway to the U.S.,” says the 35-year-old Perez, who also produces a weekly rugby league show on Sportsnet World. “This is exactly the right thing for this city at this time. I couldn’t think of a better place to do a cross-continental sports team.”
The entry of yet another pro sports franchise into the crowded local market prompts logistical concerns; that the league is based overseas compounds questions. But Perez says he has the answers.
The Atlantic Ocean presents the biggest obstacle, but Perez says the team will save travel time and money with a staggered schedule. Home stands will last a month and so will road trips, minimizing the number of trans-Atlantic trips.
Most third-division players have day jobs, further complicating travel plans. But Perez says Toronto’s squad will consist mainly of full-time players from England and France. Visiting teams will arrive Thursday and leave Sunday, allowing players to return to work.
As for penetrating a Toronto market that hasn’t embraced minor league pro sports, Perez says the RFL’s system of promotion and relegation means the third division is his club’s starting point, not its destiny. He adds that rugby league national team games at Lamport have attracted attract an average of 7,000 spectators.
Other challenges aren’t as easy to explain away.
Five years ago, one British pound cost $1.56 Canadian; this week it was hovering around $2. That’s bad news for a Canadian company doing business in England.
The club will also have to keep local fans engaged during month-long mid-season absences.
“That’s a long time between games. You’ve got to be present in the market to promote the product,” says Brian Cooper, head of the sports business consultancy S&E Sponsor-
“I couldn’t think of a better place to do a cross-continental sports team.” ERIC PEREZ TRYING TO BRING RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB TO TORONTO
ship group. “You’re not going to get the Sportsnet and TSN-type coverage.”
The 13-a-side rugby league game Perez’s group is pitching is distinct from the15-player rugby union game on display at this month’s Rugby World Cup, and the rugby sevens Torontonians saw at the Pan Am Games.
Among hardcore rugby fans, each sport has its own followers, and the groups don’t always overlap.
But rugby sevens’ popularity hints at a latent market. The HSBC World Rugby Sevens event next March in Vancouver sold 10,000 tickets and all 52 of B.C. Place’s corporate suites in one day, according to tournament CEO Bill Cooper. He says success depends on winning over casual sports fans, who aren’t married to a particular rugby code.
“You have to get past (hardcore rugby fans) to motivate marketing dollars and fill stadiums,” Cooper says. “I don’t think the format matters as much. You want to focus on the calibre of play and the quality of consumer experience.”
With plans to earn promotion to Super League “as soon as possible,” Perez says his group can’t compromise on-field quality, but recruiting won’t be easy.
One of the GTA’s most prominent clubs, the Oakville Crusaders, added a rugby league program in 2013 before dropping it last year. Rugby director Chris Clark says a shared spring-through-fall schedule strains a finite player pool.
“I hope the guys do well, but unless they can change the season I can’t see it going in Ontario because of the rugby union,” Clark says.
Still, Perez is confident he can talk quality sevens and rugby union players into crossing over. And just as Australian rugby league star Jarrid Haynes jumped to the NFL, Perez says Canadian football players can transition easily to rugby league.
Perez expects about five Canadians on the initial 25-man roster.
“Our goal one day is to have a mostly Canadian team,” he says. “The league wants to have more Canadian teams and we want to build the sport in Canada.”