A New York team is set to join the Rugby Football League by 2020 with the aim of reaching Super League.

Sportsmail understands a consortium was asked to submit a business plan to the RFL last month and the unveiling of the side is set to take place in October, ahead of the Rugby League World Cup in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The new club, as yet unnamed, is set to be managed by former Bradford and St Helens coach Mick Potter and has already held discussions with the Mayor of New York’s office regarding potential stadiums.

Former Bradford and St Helens coach Mick Potter could head up the New York project

The move comes after the Toronto Wolfpack were admitted to the British leagues earlier this year. The Canadian side have started in League One — the third tier of professional rugby league — and are expected to seal promotion to the Championship next week.

Toronto’s CEO Eric Perez is believed to be fronting the consortium leading the bid for a side from New York.

The Wolfpack have negotiated their own TV deal and home crowds have at times been over 7,000 despite a relative lack of intimate knowledge of the sport among locals.

Former Bradford and Great Britain coach Brian Noble is Toronto’s director of rugby and the squad — a combination of British, Australasian and North American players — have played their matches in four-game blocks in Canada, before returning to a UK base to fulfil their fixtures.

Toronto lodged a bond of around £300,000 with the RFL earlier this year to help cover costs of travel and accommodation for the clubs flying to Canada to play them.

New York are close to signing a sponsorship deal with an airline and are expected to follow a similar process by guaranteeing the RFL cash to give to clubs to travel over the pond.

Toronto are financed by Australian mining tycoon David Argyle, and it is believed that it is his business associates who will bankroll the new New York club. There have also been talks about basing franchises in Montreal, Chicago and Jacksonville.

As it stands neither Toronto nor New York receive RFL central funding from the TV deal in the UK with Sky Sports.

Toronto’s current broadcast deal in the UK is with Premier Sports, while they hold an agreement with GameTV back in Canada.

But if both sides were to be in Super League, Sky Sports and its sister company Fox Sports are likely to increase their current broadcast package with the clubs.

The side from the Big Apple may start in League One too, but the RFL are soon expected return to a system of licensing - where teams are accepted on the strength of criteria such as stadia and finances.

This means New York could theoretically go straight into Super League - the sport’s premier competition - if their bid was strong enough.

Although the RFL insist there is ‘no room for additional teams’ in the league structure, the likelihood is that a reorganisation of the divisions and possible mergers may free up space.

The hope is that a competition with New York, alongside Toronto, the Catalan Dragons, Toulouse and possibly other franchises from Dublin and Montreal, will increase sponsorship and broadcast rights deals.

The 2025 World Cup is set to be staged in America and Canada and the sport has been played in America since the Nineties. The national team - the Hawks - are coached by Leeds boss Brian McDermott and will take part in this year’s World Cup having finished in the quarter-finals in 2013’s edition.

An RFL spokesman said: ‘We regularly receive enquiries to join the league system and a number of interested clubs from around the world have registered their interest in joining in recent years.

‘We currently have no room for additional teams but we are sure that the success of the Toronto Wolfpack, the world’s first Trans-Atlantic professional sports team, will peak the interest of potential owners and investors around the world and we will receive more enquiries in the coming months and years.’