TORONTO — The Toronto Wolfpack has cut back on their television broadcasts to save money.
The transatlantic rugby league team has been paying the production costs to air home and away games on Sky Sports in the U.K. The broadcasts have been carried in Canada on Game TV and online by CBC.
On Wednesday, the Wolfpack said they will not televise games at Lamport Stadium against York City Knights (Aug. 10) and Leigh Centurions (Sept. 7).
"The Wolfpack have invested a significant amount of money in covering all costs for the production to date in 2019," the club said in a statement. "This decision has been made to reduce costs in the leadup to our much anticipated Betfred Championship playoff campaign."
"Toronto Wolfpack looks forward to returning to our largest-ever global television audiences in September, when the Betfred Championship playoffs get underway," the statement added.
Broadcast of the two other remaining regular-season games — against Rochdale Hornets (Aug. 17) and Barrow Raiders (Aug. 31) — was previously nixed because they clashed with Catalan Dragon games, according to the Wolfpack. A July 6 game against Halifax RLFC was also not televised because of such a conflict.
Toronto (22-1-0) has already clinched the second-tier Betfred Championship regular-season title with four games to go. That means the Wolfpack have a bye into the playoff semifinals and could secure promotion to the Super League with just two post-season wins.
Sky has aired 20 of Toronto's 23 games to date this season. The Wolfpack are the only Championship team regularly shown on the network.
The Wolfpack have dug into their own pocket to pay for the TV production in order to get eyeballs on the franchise. The team negotiates its own rights deals with other countries, saying the games are being delivered into 150 million homes worldwide.
Toronto won promotion out of the third-tier League 1 in its inaugural 2017 season. The team won the Championship last season but fell short at the final promotion hurdle, losing 4-2 to London Broncos.
The Wolfpack are facing a lawsuit filed in Alberta by iLink Media Group, which handled TV production in 2018. The company argues the rugby league team "defaulted on payment for a significant portion of last year's season to the tune of just over $300,000."
Wolfpack majority owner David Argyle has said he is confident the dispute can be resolved.
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
