Rugby League: New York team pushes for English spot

Craig Hall of Toronto Wolfpack lifts the Championship 1 Promotion Trophy. Photo / Getty Images

Plans to get a New York-based team into the English's leagues have been submitted to the Rugby Football League.

Following on from the success of the Toronto Wolfpack, who won League 1 to earn promotion to the Championship in their first season, a group of investors are hoping to do something similar in the Big Apple.

The consortium is pushing to be included straight into the League Championship - a tier below Super League - in time for the 2019 season.

Toronto average home crowds of 7,000 in their first season and the New York bid team is confident of drawing 10,000 as their first season average at the 25,000-capacity Red Bull Arena.

Like Toronto, the New York team is offering to pay all costs of other teams to travel to the US and will be exempt from the central funding model having already secured $14m in funding.

"We have a small consortium of high-networking individuals, one member of which has made New York his home, and all have a significant love for the game," co-founder Tom Scott told BBC.

"We want to grow the sport in North America and increase the pool of players which would ultimately increase the chances of success for the USA national team," said the club's other co-founder Ricky Wilby.

The US has been granted hosting rights to the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.