Eric Perez on verge of seeing rugby league dream come true with Wolfpack promotion
TORONTO — Like an expectant father, Eric Perez is nervous but happy ahead of the Toronto Wolfpack’s promotion showdown with London Broncos on Sunday.
“Who would have thought that a guy who was just flipping the television on in 2010 in Birmingham (England) and watching a game — I think it was Leeds versus Bradford — and thinking ‘Why isn’t this in Canada? How can I make it?’”
Plans to bring the sport of rugby league — and a club — to Canada were subsequently hatched by Perez on a fish-and-chips wrapper. But bringing his vision for a transatlantic team in a sport foreign to North America to life wasn’t easy.
“In 2010, ’11, ’12, I would say rugby league and people would say ‘Is it a rugby league? Is it a league that plays rugby?’ Now people know what rugby league is … Why I feel so proud is I feel like I’ve infused something different. I’ve added a patch onto the cultural tapestry that is Canada.”