By STEVE MASCORD
FOR the media, Eric Perez has never been hard to get hold of.
From his days promoting the Canadian national team to party-hungry youngsters in the Toronto neighbourhood of Liberty Village to his feat of finding backers and launching the first trans-Atlantic pro sports team, Perez hasn’t been short of a quote.
But in recent months, the rock music-loving Canuck has gone uncharacteristically quiet. In the vacuum created by his reticence, speculation has fomented and spread.
He’s left the Wolfpack and has been replaced by American Jeff Hagan, according to some of the whispers. He’s heading up the New York franchise. He’s heading up the Montreal bid. His insatiable ambition has outgrown his creation after just one season.
A few hours before the Wolfpack were presented with the League One trophy by Rugby Football League chief executive Nigel Wood after a come-from-behind 26-14 win over Doncaster, I spotted Perez leaving the club shop – where I was doing a book signing.
After fumbling with my mobile phone like a cub reporter, I threw at him all the questions I thought rugby league fans were dying to ask.
rugbyleaguehub.com: You seem to be running the North American expansion of rugby league now. That seems to be your role.
Eric Perez: “It’s kind of my destiny to run it. I believe in it so much I’ve made it the force that runs my life. My life force is growing rugby league in North America, bringing what I think is a fantastic brand of rugby league – the British game – and exporting it to North America and making it ours over here.”
RLH: Have you stepped away from your role at the Wolfpack to an extent now?
EP: “No, I haven’t stepped away from the role. Obviously (I am) still a board member, still an owner, still where I was before. The only thing is, the mission isn’t over and the Wolfpack need more teams.”
RLH: You say the mission isn’t over. Do you now have another job as well, on top of being a board member of the Wolfpack. Is it officially a job?
EP: “No, it’s not. This is what I do, man. I make things happen. So I’m just continuing to do that.”
RLH: It’s very unusual for a board member of one club in professional sports to be actively setting up potential rivals, isn’t it?
EP: “This whole thing is unusual, isn’t it? Yeah….”
RLH: And are the Wolfpack OK with that? They’re happy with you doing it?
EP: “Oh, absolutely, yeah. This is all part of the plan.”
RLH: So you’ve been linked to Montreal, Ottawa, New York. Are you actually talking to different potential consortia each day? Is that what’s happening?
EP: “What I can tell you is: yes. On a daily basis I have people in all those places and other places that are actively pursuing an expansion team in this league.”
RLH: And does each one of those places have a rich guy?
EP: “Each one of those places has multiple rich guys, yeah.”
RLH: So we’re going to pull the trigger on which one first? If you were a betting man, which one would you say will be launched first?
EP: “Unfortunately I can’t bet on rugby league or I’ll get banned from the game so I can’t really comment on that but what I can say is whichever one it will be, it will be the one that benefits the game the most and has the strongest set-up and the strongest infrastructure behind it.”
RLH: Are you representing the RFL in these talks or are you representing yourself?
EP: “I’m representing rugby league.”
RLH: Will you be at this club next season or will you be working more on that?
EP: “I’m always going to be at this club. This club is part of who I am. You know if I was anything else, I’d be a wolf because I’m part of the Wolfpack and I always will be.”
RLH: With these other potential franchises, if you won’t say which one will get out of the blocks first, when do you think they’ll get out of the blocks?
EP: “I think the first one will get announced within six months … possibly two of them.”
RLH: And will they all have to go through the divisions from the bottom like the Wolfpack?
EP: “Yes … go through League One? Yes, absolutely.”
RLH: The reports about Mick Potter, New York, all that sort of stuff. Accurate?
EP: “I’ve never met Mick Potter.”
RLH: So the reports about a team in New York with talks having already taken place with local authorities, were those reports accurate?
EP: “It depends. There’s darts, where you have to get it exactly on. There’s horse shoes where you can get it close. There’s bowls … you know what I mean? It’s like bowls. Some of it’s real, some of it might not be real, I can’t confirm or deny what is real but if you talk to Mick Potter, he’ll tell you that we’ve never spoken. That part is not real.”
