BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Super League executive chairman Robert Elstone has defended the decision to block Toronto Wolfpack from re-entering the competition in 2021, stating the Canadian club was given every opportunity to return and the process was “fair and balanced”.
Elstone has come under fire from the call to knock Toronto back, as has the report commissioned into the Canadian market and the impartiality of the four-man committee involved.
But today on a media call with journalists the Super League boss said: “We gave Toronto three months to prepare its submission and we helped them with it.
“We took the decision very seriously and very thoroughly and part of that was our awareness about what the reaction to that was. We had to do what was right for Super League.
“There were many aspects to this evaluation process. At very short notice, Toronto told us they weren’t going to compete in the 2020 season.
“Up to that point they’d given us every assurance they would, and at the 11th hour they said they wouldn’t make it, so we provided them with a clear schedule we felt we needed to frame their submission back into Super League.
“They came back a month later with something that was so far off the standard required – even by their own admission – so they withdrew it. We invested two weeks of work appraising something, and an executive team went through it and decided it was sub-standard.
“We gave them four more weeks to re-evaluate and what came back was better, but was based on some ambitious targets and had a number of flaws in it.
“But there was a report written by the Super League executive, who was independent, and another was written by colleagues and both of those reports evaluating those bids were absolutely independent.
“I’m convinced that was the case.
“We commissioned another report to look at commercial growth in Canada and we got the support of our broadcast advisers, who had no agenda in this, and we got the support of other two individuals too.
“That report looked at evidence of commercial progress to date, which has been minimal, and going forward too, which was remote and uncertain, so I’m convinced it was fair and balanced.”
Toronto lost the vote for re-entry eight to four, with Warrington abstaining.
Asked whether the clubs should have a say on the survival of another Super League club, Elstone replied: “We do have an executive body: they presented firm evidence on Toronto.
“The executive team was a team of people who came up with a strong recommendation on Toronto and the truth is there’s a governance review underway at Super League, but there are difficult decisions around that.
“Material decisions that impact the Premier League are taken by its shareholders – and that’s the clubs. If the Premier League decided it wanted to change the size of its competition or how promotion and relegation happens, that would be a process taken by the shareholders.
“The business of Super League is owned by its clubs, and there’s therefore a strong case to say that big decisions should be taken by the owners of the businesses.
“We’re looking to see whether there’s a solution moving forward, whether that’s a fully empowered executive team or on the other hand, every decision is taken by the clubs or something in the middle that gives protection and that’s a process we’re going through.
“That will boil down to a series of decisions, but matters like the expulsion of a club needs to be taken by shareholders. It’s something we’re looking at before the end of the year.”
There has been criticism that the Wolfpack had to meet certain standards that other Super League clubs themselves would not meet.
Asked how the other clubs would respond to the kind of scrutiny Toronto faced, Elstone said: “They’ve been around for a long time and contributing to Super League in different way.
“It’s a difficult question and coming back to Toronto, I think overall, it wasn’t a marginal decision for the executive. The risks of this were substantial and the rewards were remote and uncertain.
“We couldn’t be certain they were sustainable in their own right and the forecasts suggested there needed to be a contribution form the owner with aggressive forecasts over other things, and even if it was sustainable, there was no evidence of added value.
“We’re very confident we got the right decision, but how it relates to other clubs is hypothetical. Our primary investors are Sky TV and Betfred, and we need to look at Sky subscribers, Betfred customers and growing our fanbase and these are all significant factors we need to focus on.”
