A question about Toronto

Even worse when they get in SL and they receive massive sponsorship and then the USA gets on the bandwagon, where are all the best UK players going Auss, France, Canada on USA?

I always thought it better to invest in a Cumbria team rather than Canada. So when London and Toulouse get back in SL with Toronto and Catalan just think of the away fixtures and look at the away support from them.

Start RL in their countries but not in our leagues.

We have a fat RL boss who likes the limelight, travelling abroad and rugby union. Interested in himself and his wallet as far as I can see.

I'm not sure if you've asked all Cumbrians but it's a hotbed of RL and investment and sponsorship into a top class stadium would give them something to concentrate on with the present clubs as feeders. A little more RL here than London and maybe even Salford.

I've always been very sceptical about the whole Toronto project but I just don't go with the 'what about our heartland' argument.
Cumbria is a hotbed but I'm sure support is there for worthy projects.
The RFL cannot be insular and attempts to thrive outside the traditional areas are a must

Understandable,we didn't want to mearg with Oldham when Maurice suggested it.

Since we seem to be digressing somewhat...

British Rugby League needs to decide what it wants to be at the highest level, and then plan from there. At this minute we have an existential crisis resulting from the age old argument between the flat-cap brigade and the expansionists. This leads to the level of inertia and half-arsed schemes that the sport in the UK currently presents with.

Cumbria is a great example of this: because the sport doesn't know which direction it wants to go in there is no clear plan on how to capitalise on the relatively high level of interest in our sport in that region. So instead we currently have three semi-professional teams which are on their arse, with no prospect of that changing any time soon.

Does the sport want to strengthen its existing base, and bring back lapsed fans - in which case the RFL should be trying to figure out how they re-envigorate the three existing team - or does the sport want to take a more progressive modernist approach which probably calls for a long-term investment in a "Cumbria" team.

The sport has to move on regardless of how painful.

We are tied to our past much deeper than a lot of other sports and while it is something we should be proud of and celebrate, we also need to know when to abandon the past to memory and move forward. Nostalgia and its parochial nature are all well and good if the sport wants to be left to fade away, as society and sport move on. The NRL faced a similar existential question many years ago when the sport was dying on its ass and they dragged it, kicking and screaming, into what it is today. Of course, the advantage that they have is that their roots are not the same as British RL and people were not as tied to them as we are.

Our sport, and the fans and people who work and play for clubs will need to accept change in the future, or face a bleak outlook. It's happened in the past. People were upset when rules are changed, when grounds are changed, when seasons are changed. No matter how drastic the change, life goes on and those outraged or upset fade into the past fairly quickly. Nobody likes change but when it happens it doesn't take long for the change to become the status quo.

Cumbria needs to take the plunge and risk the ire of those who hold onto the way things have always been done. To tradition, and heritage, like change somehow wipes it from history. It doesn't, it just consigns it to memory as they face the future. Alas, I fear that Cumbrians are happy with their lot in RL and may prefer the oblivion of part-time clubs, local rivalry, and accepting that their brightest and best will disappear to Lancashire and Yorkshire. The game is ingrained in their upbringing to a point where change is simply heresy.