Wolfpack want to be game-changers for their sport
Australian David Argyle, founder of the Toronto club, tells Molly McElwee of his ambitious vision
Today, the Toronto Wolfpack play their second-tier fixture against Leigh Centurions. But ask David Argyle what his 10-year vision for his club is and the answer is less parochial: “I don’t know, world domination?”
The majority shareholder and founder of the infant club has gamechanging plans. The Wolfpack are the only operating transatlantic sports team, playing their Championship home ties at the Toronto Lamport Stadium, while competing as part of the UK-based Rugby Football League.
Since Argyle, an Australian who made his millions in the mining industry, formed the club in 2016, they made their professional debut in the third tier in 2017 and came within one win of back-to-back promotions to the Super League last October.
Reaching the Million Pound Game last season, the Championship’s version of the promotional play-off, meant the club were miles ahead of their five-year aim to make the Super League. However, it is a mark of Argyle’s ambition for his bizarre sporting brainchild that he describes the October defeat by the London Broncos as “like watching a train derail in slow motion”.
The Wolfpack have no intention of being the RFL’s gimmick. Their form last season showed that with 20 wins from 23 regular season games, as does their acquirement of four-time Super League Grand Final-winning head coach of the Leeds Rhinos, Brian McDermott.
The fact the club are being associated with rumours that they are close to luring All Blacks rugby union World Cup winner Sonny Bill Williams to Toronto shows they mean business.
The difference between them and the St Helens and Wigans they aspire to match is that they are breaking the mould. Forty-two per cent of casual ticket-buyers at Wolfpack home games were millennials last season, 40 per cent female and their games are broadcast in Asian, European, North American and Australasian markets, with a 150million-household reach.
The club even have plans to branch out across Europe in 2020 for the handful of home games they have to play from February to April, with ambitions to target Rotterdam, Dublin and Copenhagen, due to freezing temperatures in Toronto.
Their progressive thinking has converted some rugby league traditionalists.
After 12 years at Hull FC and two at Championship sides, Rich Whiting was swayed to play his last two years in Toronto, joining them in their debut season in the league’s third tier. “When I spoke to the coach about signing, he put it to me, ‘Do you want to continue playing in Super League or do you want to be part of something new and exciting?’” Whiting says. “It was almost an opportunity to give something back to rugby league by taking the game to a new country and showcasing what it’s about.” Now retired at 34, Whiting is a player welfare manager for the club.
The Wolfpack play their pre-season and much of the regular one out of Manchester. Last year, the side spent just 16 weeks in Toronto.
Though RFL clubs voted unanimously for the Wolfpack to join their ranks (on the condition their travel costs to Toronto games were covered), the transatlantic experiment has been an inconvenience for some. Fans from semi-professional opponents have bemoaned the advantage the Canadian side enjoy at home in instances where visa issues or players unable to get the time off Castleford sent out a Betfred Super League statement of intent by running in seven tries to go top with a 40-6 win at London Broncos.
The Tigers went over four times in the first half to put the result beyond doubt. The home side hit back through Rhys Williams after Peter Mata’utia’s first effort for Castleford.
However, the visitors took control thanks to scores from Jake Trueman, Junior Moors, Jesse SeneLefao, Liam Watts, Greg Eden and Jordan Rankin.
Salford fought back from 22-8 down at halftime to claim a 24-22 victory over Hull KR at KCOM Craven Park. Their coach, Ian Watson, said: “To turn the tide the way we did shows good character.” required from their day jobs to travel have affected squads.
John Duffy, manager of Toronto’s part-time opponents today, Leigh, and who also managed the only side to beat Toronto at home in 2018’s regular season, Featherstone Rovers, acknowledges the practical difficulties. “We’ve planned in advance, but other part-time clubs are not as well [organised] because they don’t have the staff or the infrastructure to do the visa process.”
Argyle is less empathetic, calling the challenges “poppycock” and these cases few. “We have great immigration lawyers, which we pay for, to get their visas. In my view that is not a real concern,” he says.
What cannot be denied is the hospitality the Torontonians strive to show away fans. Argyle extends invitations to away fans to his Japanese restaurant in the city, and describes dancing on the bar among 200 Swinton Lions fans at the “datenight” spot as a highlight of last season. “If anyone jumps on a plane, flies across the Atlantic to watch their team play us, regardless of what might be the outcome on the pitch, I owe them a beer,” he said.
The Super League is touting this season as a “new beginning” in its attempts to revamp a sport dwindling in popularity. Argyle says Toronto offers part of the solution in bringing a metropolitan edge to proceedings.
It is why he is planning to invest in the London Skolars, a League One side he sees as having as much potential as Toronto, with its capital location and community spirit.
Toronto’s average attendances of 8,300 over the postseason far surpassed their Championship counterparts as well as over half of the Super League teams (albeit in a city with a 2.7million population).
They take on Leigh today, one of the founding RFL clubs with a history spanning 140 years. But the global ambitions harboured by Argyle aim to far outweigh the history of this sport.