The Toronto Wolfpack are a Canadian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, who compete in the North American Rugby League. The club originally competed in the

British rugby league system The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League. There is no system of automatic promotion and relegation between all five tiers although teams have moved between them in the past. Since ...

but withdrew in the

2020 Super League season Super League XXV, known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, was the 25th season of the Super League and 126th season of rugby league in Great Britain. St Helens were the reigning champions going into Super League XXV. At the st ...

due to "overwhelming financial challenges" caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. The club is the first North American team to play in the Rugby Football League system, the first fully professional rugby league team in Canada, and the first transatlantic rugby league team.

History

2014–2016: Origins and foundation

The

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisa ...

first received an application from a Canadian consortium based in Toronto, led by the Chairman of the national governing body Canada Rugby League Eric Perez in 2014 to compete in the United Kingdom's third tier of professional rugby league. Perez was denied permission to join the first-tier

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

directly, and instead attempted to build the club up to the point where it can be promoted. A press conference was held on 27 April 2016 at which details on the franchise, which began to play in 2017, were revealed. The team will be the first professional rugby league team to be based in Canada. A group of 10 businessmen, consisting of mostly Canadians and Australian mining millionaire David Argyle, own the club, having paid around $500,000 to be granted admission to the rugby league. A condition for the team to join the British rugby league system was that they would be responsible for covering travel and accommodation expenses incurred for all visiting teams outside of the first division

. It was suggested that it was an attractive market as Canada has the largest amount of rugby league followers outside of Australia, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The club plans to play in blocks of four home matches, four away matches, and cover all expenses for visiting teams throughout the season. The Wolfpack held tryouts in five cities across North America starting 24 September; those were:

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough Co ...

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

, and Toronto itself. From these tryouts 18 athletes were selected to take part in a tour in England, culminating in a victorious game against an amateur club, the

Brighouse Rangers Brighouse Rangers was a rugby league club in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England. The club was involved in the meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield in 1895, and after the schism became founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union (n ...

. Three players won professional contracts with the Wolfpack Rugby League Team following the tour, with another round of tryouts to be held in Toronto in the following few months for the unsuccessful trialists. The Toronto Wolfpack Rugby League Team owns rights to all broadcasts of their matches. In Canada, games are broadcast on CBC Live and on Game TV, in the USA games are broadcast on Eleven Sports, and in the UK and Ireland Premier Sports broadcasts through the Sky Network.

2017–2020: Seasons in the British leagues

On 22 January 2017, the Wolfpack played their first professional game, a pre-season friendly against Hull F.C. at the KCOM Stadium. The final score was 26–20 in favour of Hull. The club played its first competitive match on February 25, 2017, resulting in a 14–6 victory in the third round of the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves a ...

against the amateur NCL champions: Siddal. On 4 March, Toronto played its first League 1 match, away at

London Skolars The London Skolars are a professional rugby league club based at the New River Stadium, Wood Green, Haringey in north London. They were founded in 1995 and have been professional since 2003, operating in the Betfred League 1. They also run ...

. They won the match 76–0. Their first home match was played on May 6, where they defeated

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

in front of 6,281 fans at Lamport Stadium. The Wolfpack would go on to have a successful campaign, winning all fifteen of their regular season matches and five out of seven playoff games. The Wolfpack finished the season with 41 points from 22 games and points difference of +921. Promotion to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, and the Kingston Press League 1 Title, was secured on 9 September 2017 with the Wolfpack defeating

Barrow Raiders The Barrow Raiders are a semi-professional rugby league team in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The club was formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club. For the 1995–96 and 1996 seasons the club was known as Barrow Braves, becoming the Bar ...

26–2 in front of 7,972 spectators. They closed with a win against

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated i ...

in front of a record attendance of 8,456. Liam Kay Toronto

The following season saw continued success by the Wolfpack; winning the league leaders shield in the championship competition. Following a round 4 defeat to

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

they put together an 18-game winning streak from March 2018 which was eventually broken with a home defeat to

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the Championship. Featherstone is a former coal mining town with a population of around 16,000 and Rovers are one of the last "small ...

in late July. They performed creditably in the Super 8s with five wins from seven games, defeating Super League sides

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at the Halton Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two ...

and

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Head ...

. However, they fell short of automatic promotion on points difference and London Broncos beat the Wolfpack 4–2 at Lamport Stadium in the

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual playoff final rugby league game that decides which Championship team will be promoted to Super League the following season. Between 2015 and 2018, the game was played as part of The Quali ...

, condemning the Wolfpack to another season in the Championship. On October 5, 2019, the Wolfpack were promoted to

for the first time in club history after their 24–6 victory over

in the 2019

. In November 2019, the Wolfpack made international headlines when they signed dual-code international

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in ...

on a two-year deal. The signing came in the wake of Williams' third appearance in a Rugby World Cup and saw him return to Rugby League, the sport where his career began.

2020-present: Expulsion and revival

In July 2020, Toronto Wolfpack withdrew from the 2020 Super League due to financial difficulties and new logistics needed for international travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The club was given a chance to resubmit a bid for a place in the 2021 Super League season but the bid for readmission was rejected on 2 November 2020 resulting in the team's removal from the league. Subsequently, the Wolfpack made an announcement that they would cease operations. Following the vote, a consortium of potential new owners led by Carlo LiViolsi backed out of a deal to purchase the Wolfpack from financially struggling owner David Argyle. Consequently, it was announced in November 2020 that the team would cease operations. On 31 March 2021, it was announced that a private investor group had purchased the Wolfpack and that they would be resuming play in the newly formed North American Rugby League.

Stadium

The team's home stadium is Lamport Stadium in

and known as The Den for Wolfpack matches. The stadium seats 9,600. The stadium was opened in 1975 and has an artificial field. In addition to the two rugby codes, it has hosted soccer and lacrosse. The team signed a three-year lease to play at the stadium. The Toronto Wolfpack supporters group can be found in Section 35. Lamport Stadium has been used by the team for nearly all their home games in Canada. However, during their 2018 season the Wolfpack relocated one of their home games to Fletcher's Fields in Markham, as Lamport Stadium was undergoing field resurfacing work. The team explored options to improve the home stadium, including holding preliminary discussions about moving their home games to

BMO Field BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which is home to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Constructed on the site of the former Exhibit ...

, renovating Lamport Stadium or building a new stadium. In addition to home games played in Greater Toronto Area, the team played a "home game" at New River Stadium in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for the 2018, and 2019 seasons. The Wolfpack played at these venues in an effort to boost the popularity of the team, and sport in London. Additionally, in their debut Super League campaign in 2020 the Wolfpack hosted scheduled "home" games on the road at neutral venues, due to the weather conditions not being suitable in Eastern Canada for rugby league until April. Toronto played scheduled "home" games at:

Headingley Stadium Headingley Stadium is a stadium complex in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, comprising two separate grounds; Headingley Cricket Ground and Headingley Rugby Stadium, linked by a two-sided stand housing common facilities. The ground ...

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

as a double header with

; the

Halliwell Jones Stadium The Halliwell Jones Stadium is a rugby league stadium in Warrington, England, which is the home ground of the Warrington Wolves. It has also staged Challenge Cup semi-finals, the European Nations Final, the National League Grand Finals' Day, ...

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The populati ...

; and

Bootham Crescent Bootham Crescent in York, England, was the home of York City football club and York City Knights rugby league club. With a capacity of 8,256, it is near the city centre, just over a mile from York railway station. York City leased land at ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...

as a double header with

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC (known as the York City Knights from 2002 to 2022) based in York, England. The Knights played their home games at Huntington Stadium before moving to Bootham Crescent. ...

. The York game was originally scheduled to be at the new

York Community Stadium York Community Stadium (known for sponsorship purposes as the LNER Community Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Huntington, York, England. It is owned by City of York Council, and is shared by York City Football Club and York City Knights ...

, as the grounds' inaugural game, however the stadium was not ready in time.

Logistics

As none of the players on the roster are from Toronto or Canada, the team stays at the George Brown College residence in West Don Lands that is the former site of the

2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village The Athlete's village for the 2015 Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games cost $735 million CAD and had the capacity to hold up to 7,200 athletes and officials. After the games the village was converted to 746 market priced condos, 41 ...

and trains at Lamport Stadium. Away teams stay at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...

residence and train on York University athletic facilities. Through a sponsorship deal with

Air Transat Air Transat is a Canadian airline based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1986, it is the country's third-largest airline behind Air Canada and WestJet, operating scheduled and charter flights serving 60 destinations in 25 countries. Air Transa ...

, the team covers the travel and accommodation cost for all of the away teams. Toronto Wolfpack continued to cover expenses for the visiting teams in the 2018 season. Toronto signed an agreement with

to share their training ground for pre-seasons and while the Wolfpack are in the UK for away fixtures for 2017. At the end of the 2017 season the Wolfpack confirmed their intention to switch to a base in Manchester, UK, during the 2018 season, and in 2018 announced the deepening of their partnership with

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

and its community. Until 2020, Manchester served as the Wolfpack's home in the United Kingdom, with the club training at Hopwood Hall College.

Media and promotion

Toronto Wolfpack games were broadcast on Canadian specialty channel GameTV, with further digital rights extended to

CBC Sports CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-languag ...

with games streamed on the CBC Sports website. Matches are also archived on the Toronto Wolfpack

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

Channel. All Toronto Wolfpack games were broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports - Arena which reaches 11 million homes across the Sky Network. In the USA Eleven Sports send broadcasts into 50 million homes. In December 2019, Toronto Wolfpack signed Toronto-headquartered agency LP/AD as agency of record for the 2020 season to help promote the team's commercial activities during the inaugural Super League season.

Kit sponsors and manufacturers

Players

Staff

Coaching staff

List of head coaches

Club officials

Records

Individual

* Most tries in a match: :*5: ::

Liam Kay Liam Kay (born 17 December 1991) is an Ireland international rugby league footballer who plays on the or for Wakefield Trinity in the Betfred Super League. He previously played for the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in the Super League, and on ...

''v.''

(1 July 2017) * Most goals in a match: :*13: :: Craig Hall ''v.''

(9 April 2017) * Most points in a match: :*38: :: Craig Hall ''v.'' Hemel Stags (15 July 2017) * Most drop goals in a season: :*2 (2 players): :: Ryan Brierley ''and''

Gareth O'Brien Gareth "Gaz" O'Brien (born 31 October 1991) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Leigh Leopards in the Betfred Super League. He previously played for the Warrington Wolves and the Salford Red Devils in ...

( 2018 Championship) * Most goals in a season: :*170: :: Craig Hall ( 2017 League 1) * Most tries in a season: :*27 (2 players): ::

( 2017 League 1) ''and'' Matty Russell ( 2019 Championship) * Most points in a season: :*436: :: Craig Hall ( 2017 League 1)

Team records

*Biggest win: ::82–6 ''v.''

(April 9, 2017) *Biggest loss: ::66-10 ''v.''

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warringto ...

(May 13, 2018)

Attendance records

*Highest home attendance: ::9,974 ''v.''

(at Lamport Stadium, 5 October 2019)

Seasons

Honours

; RFL *

RFL Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in England, a ...

::Winners (2):

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

:::Winners (1):

:::Runners-up (1):

RFL Championship Leaders' Shield The RFL Championship Leaders' Shield is a shield awarded to the team finishing the season top of Championship in the sport of rugby league football. Currently the Shield is awarded to the team finishing top of the Championship at the end of the r ...

:::Winners (2):

* RFL League 1 ::Winners (1):

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

; NARL *

Canada Cup The Canada Cup (french: Coupe Canada) was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true worl ...

::Winners (1): 2021

Notes

References

External links

* {{Toronto Wolfpack 2016 establishments in Ontario Canadian rugby league teams Rugby clubs established in 2016 Rugby teams in Toronto