Fledging Toronto rugby league team looking for talent

Eric Perez, the founder and CEO of the Toronto Wolfpack (left), Wolfpack head coach Paul Rowley and Toronto Mayor John Tory hold up jerseys of the new rugby league team in Toronto, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The team will commence play in March 2017 in the Kingstone Press League 1, the third tier of English rugby league. (Neil Davidson/The Canadian Press)

TORONTO -- The Toronto Wolfpack have added to their coaching staff and are looking to stock up on players

The fledgling rugby league team, set to open play next March in England's third-tier Kingstone Press League 1, has eight tryouts planned starting Aug. 28 in Vancouver with subsequent stops in Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal and Toronto.

"We've had hundreds of players ready submit resumes and CVs to us and the coaching staff is sifting through those," said team CEO Eric Perez.

Those that make the cut will be invited to the tryouts. There is no expansion draft

"We'll be putting together an ultra-competitive team and we expect to challenge for the title in the first year and get promotion," Perez said.

Head coach Paul Rowley, a former England hooker, has already added former Irish international Simon Finnigan to his coaching staff.

Perez expects to release season ticket information and pricing in the next 10 days.

Almost 4,000 people have expressed interest in season tickets, although that has not involved putting down a deposit yet. The club plans to play the home half of its 22-game regular season at Lamport Stadium.

The schedule is slated for release in October.

The Wolfpack had close to 5,000 Twitter followers as of Tuesday, not bad considering that the team has yet to set foot on a pitch and the league-leading Leigh Centurions have 15,200 followers.

The league says the Toronto franchise will play home and away fixtures in four or five-match blocks to cut down the travel. As a result, the Canadian club will spend chunks of the season in England and will foot the bill for flying in English-based teams.

Visiting clubs are expected to fly in on a Thursday, play Saturday and return to Europe on Sunday.

Perez says early feedback has been good from English rugby league fans who look forward to making a holiday around their team's games in Toronto.

The Canadian team is owned by 10 businessmen with Perez and David Argyle holding the largest portion.

Perez, who has about a dozen employees at this stage, is keeping busy. "There's a thousand big things to be done, I'd say."