In 2025, Super League could feature not just Toronto and Toulouse but also New York, Boston, Philadelphia and two clubs from London. Ambitious? Yes. Unlikely? Possibly. Unfeasible? Not at all. One of those breakthrough clubs is giving another a potential leg-up. Championship favourites Toronto Wolfpack are buying a stake of League One minnows London Skolars through David Argyle, their principal owner. Skolars chairman and co-founder Hector McNeil explains why.
What exactly is the Wolfpack’s investment in Skolars? “Whether it comes from the Wolfpack or David [Argyle] himself is still to be decided – we’ve left that fairly open. The RFL rules are clear: you can have a shareholding in more than one club but you can’t have two controlling interests and they’ve defined that as under 25%. David’s vision has never been to take over Skolars. He wants to develop Skolars, package it up and, when it’s ready for Super League, bring in other investors who can take it forward from there.”
How did it all come about? “We were looking to do a crowdfunding which would have been the first in rugby league, I think. We wrote to a bunch of high-net worths saying we are looking to go to the next level. That interested David. He felt London is a massive opportunity for any sport. There’s a real journey to go on. Skolars are rugby league’s great unsung heroes. David said: ‘You guys have all done it tough. You look like a bunch of Hobbits!’ There’s not much hair or height between us!”
So why did a third-division community sports club appeal to a Toronto-based Australian multi-millionaire mining magnate? “He likes our permanency here [Skolars have played at New River since 1995], he likes the fact we are anchor tenants, and there could be a longer-term development of the stadium. You can’t build property on here so there’s no real estate value. We have a five-year lease but the next stage would be to take the place over. That’s an open door. It’s a 44-acre site in zone 3 on one of the most iconic addresses in world sport: we’re actually on White Hart Lane – Spurs aren’t!”
The name ‘Skolars’ has roots in a student gag and is confusing to Londoners. Will you become London Wolfpack? “At some point David and us both think we will need to rebrand. He thinks we should hang our hat on ‘Wood Green proud’. It’s an up-and-coming area that’s been down on its heels for years, but there’s something to build on now. The new Spurs stadium has been having an effect for the last five years. We’ll keep the London element but it will be a more exciting, youthful brand.”
Will you basically become Toronto Mark II? “No. There’s no attempt to be a sister club to the Wolfpack. The synergy is to support us in social media and commercial best practice. They have been a breath of fresh air and our figures are going up already. I went to Toronto on a business trip before Christmas and almost every financial company I went to knew David and the Wolfpack. He’s a real player, not a flash in the pan. He’s made a massive impact. Look at the integrity of Toronto. He could have rocked up and said I’ve got loads of money, put me in Super League. But he didn’t.”
Do Skolars see themselves challenging Broncos or even surpassing them as London’s top club ? “We’ve got potential to be London’s number one team. David Argyle’s view is that rugby league is massively undervalued. The investment you need to punch your weight in rugby league is tiny compared to the costs of competing at the top level in rugby union, let alone football. The level of investment needed is out of my league but it’s not much. There’s a lot of potential.”
How can the Wolfpack exploit that potential in London? “Toronto have said: ‘We are not going to accept the norms.’ When they go into Super League, the whole game is going to change. The salary cap will have to be torn up. Look at what rugby union have done with the CVC deal. He could quite easily end up doing something like that.”
So can we look forward to Super League featuring two London clubs? “They don’t like me saying it but the problem is there are only six clubs of decent size. You can potentially add Toronto to that and maybe Toulouse. There are five or six other clubs who are pretty interchangeable but don’t really add much to the value of the sport. But the Broncos and Skolars taking chunks out of each other – how good would that be? Manna from heaven, especially as we are geographically divided.”
That would be a massive jump from third bottom of League One and gates of 400. “We’ve been doing it tough. We’ve probably been mid-table in terms of budget but this year we’ve brought in a new cohort of players and the aim is top five, and the year after to put ourselves in the promotion mix. You have to do the steps. We’re not doing a Toronto, chucking a load of money at it. There’s no doubt the investment is to get us into Championship, but it’s a journey. We’re having some interesting conversations with some other investors already.”
Several non-league football clubs in London have been revitalised by the hipster image or alternative experience, why not rugby league? “Haringey Borough across the road have done a great job of that. We can learn from them. One of the major outcomes of this has to be a local support base. We haven’t really established ourselves in the local community. We haven’t leaned into what London is all about yet. We are going to have to invest in the off-field experience. If we give people a good experience, they will say ‘It’s buzzing down at Skolars’.”
What else would you like to do with the new investment? “Set up another academy in London and stop sending our best players to Broncos! There’s so much talent and potential here. Last season, we had 13 or 14 lads who had come through our system, which is unheard of at any club.”
Saracens are the behemoth of north London rugby. Have they shown any interest in Skolars? “Not officially, but I’ve talked to people there. Saracens could run a rugby league academy. They see themselves as something broader than rugby. They’ve already bought into Mavericks netball. It makes sense. They want their facility used. They have the pick of 3,000 union kids and just take the top 30. If they kept the best of the rest, in five years they’d have a rugby league team that would stuff everyone. There must be a lot of synergies around marketing. Our colours are the same!”
Melbourne Storm are the world’s most successful expansion club but at a cost of £200m to News Corp and the NRL. What could London do with that sort of backing? “Buy the sport! Well, not quite. I’d want a 10,000-seat entertainment centre at New River, a centre of excellence for rugby league that is used every day by the community that underpins the whole game here.”
Skolars play a Wigan Warriors XIII at Honorary Artillery Company on 18 January in the Capital Challenge and a London Broncos XIII on 25 January at New River in the London Clash.
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