Perez: More North American clubs are coming

Correspondent

Toronto Wolfpack founder Eric Perez believes that more professional rugby league clubs will spring up in North America in the next few years.

Perez thinks that the entrance of the Wolfpack into the British and European structure will prove to be a key moment in the game’s history.

“From minute one when I presented this to the RFL, we had a 10-15 year plan of expansion,” he said, according to Sky Sports.

“Montreal is next on the list. We hope to have a Montreal team in League 1 by 2019.

“We already have a few pretty big ownership groups that are interested.

“Toronto is a city of six million people and, within an hour’s radius, you’ve got 10 million. We’ve passed Chicago as the third biggest metropolitan centre in North America.

“After Montreal let’s get into the United States, Boston, New York and go from there.”

Perez also stresses that North America is a place which does not have a view of rugby league shaped by 120 years of class and regional bigotry.

“It’s better than what it’s been,” he said.

“All the oppression that it’s been under for the last hundred years, we’re wiping away in markets that don’t care about class difference.”