Canada's 2014 Home Schedule announced.

[Beerfalo]

As a rugby fan I'd love that league set up. As an Edmontonian I'd feel horribly left out and frustrated at having to choose between Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary hahaha. If it every happened I'd assume it would essentially be the BC Bears splitting between Victoria and Vancouver while the Wolf Pack remains in Calgary. I'd definitely cheer for them if they kept the name Prairie Wolf Pack instead of switching it to Calgary branding. With TSN needing to fill a whole lot of television with the loss of the NHL it would be cool to see them help finance a league like the one suggested.

 

[Pockets]

Posted this in another place, got some good discussion going about it:

Limiting travel costs (eg, having unbalanced fixtures against teams in other conferences) is an important aspect, but the problem with all the "this would be a good spot for a team" is that essentially it boils down to one thing - a millionaire willing to risk $5-10m in each location willing to get it off the ground.
Finanically, you're looking at about US$2.5-$3m to run a fully pro team, while regionally-aligned mostly-semi-pro setup is still likely to have operating costs in the $1m/yr range per team. If you don't have people willing to take a hit while it gets started you end up in situations like NASL/USL-PRO where it becomes a revolving door of teams who pop up, go for a short while and go under, which doesn't work out well when it comes to sponsorships, TV deals etc.
The costs make a 12 team launch very optimistic.

The other aspect is venues; not just in terms of "this is a nice stadium in a good location", but also from a contractual point of view - not having ownership of venues means you end up missing out on lots of secondary income sources (parking, food, renting it out for other events, etc.).

You also have a bit of Canada bias, there; a 50/50 split looks unrealistic to me. The point of covering both the US and Canada for the expanded media deals is a good one, though.


I'd be inclined as a hypothetical to say 10 team league, east/west split, unbalanced 3/1 fixtures to keep travel costs down, majority US teams, some deals handled centrally (TV, kits) in order to balance out the income a bit but again it all depends on where the money comes from. Venues would need to be around the 10-15k area; enough for growth and to look Serious Business, but not enough to drown out the crowds. Maybe in some locations the smaller of the MLS stadiums would also do, but if you've got 5000 in a 30,000 capacity venue it looks rubbish.

Let's say,
East: New England (I don't have the local knowledge to say where exactly), NY, Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago
West: Vancouver, Seattle, SF/Bay, SoCal (probably LA, maybe SD?), Sacremento or Denver.

With TSN needing to fill a whole lot of television with the loss of the NHL it would be cool to see them help finance a league like the one suggested.

Yeah, it would be cool to see, but why would they? What do you bring to the table that other hockey leagues, for instance, don't? Minority sports can often generate pretty weak viewing numbers that can be matched by cheap filler content. If you don't get a certain amount of money for it you'd be better setting up an online streaming service and charging for that in terms of direct income. There's something to be said for taking the less well paid option and building your visibility, but that doesn't pay short term bills.

 

[canadafan]

You make some good points, and I could agree with dropping Victoria but you would need two Canadian teams in each conference atleast. About TSN, if I am right, they are not just doing one sports channel but 4 or 5. There is room in it for rugby, they could try to buy the rights for the Euro leagues a long with SANZAR. If I was the CRC (Canadian Rugby) I would just make a deal similar to the one that the NHL made with (NBC?) a few years ago, where they only got money if the broadcasts made money.

 

[jonny24]

TSN is going to have 5 channels. I'd be willing to bet that at least one will be soccer / rugby / euro sports,similar to Sportsnet World. If that that does well then they may have some more interest in developing Canadian rugby content for it as well.

 

[Beerfalo]

I think TSN should help fund and televise the CRC. It wouldn't need to be anywhere close to the TSN deal with the CFL but a bit of money and getting it out there would make more people take notice. Right now you'd need to be a big rugby fan to know about the CRC let alone our multiple domestic leagues. Drawing general sports fans would do wonders for the sports growth. It would need to be a LONG term investment on TSN's part though as they wouldn't be recouping the money for a long while I think. The mostly constant action and physical play should be a major draw to Canadians if they had a way to watch rugby on a regular and accessible basis.

But I originally came in here to ask if Canada has any Autumn Internationals lined up or any plans in the making. The wiki page for it has nothing listed for Canada. Meanwhile Georgia has three games line up against Tonga, Ireland and Japan; Samoa faces England and Italy; Fiji faces France and Wales; Tonga also gets a game against Scotland. Then there's the Yanks and their blockbuster against the All Blacks.

With the World Cup next year Canada should be facing tough competition. I'm hoping for a game against the Maori(WITHIN the release window) for a third year in a row while also getting another crack against the Romanians. I'd also hope with the RWC on the horizon that they'd avoid a game with the likes of Spain or Portugal but that would only really leave the Russians or Yanks. Maybe a game against Japan held in London? I love any chance for the boys to beat the Blossoms and they'll be in Europe for their game against Georgia.