Eric Perez thinks more RL clubs will spring up in North America

Toronto Wolfpack founder Eric Perez thinks the club are poised to make a huge impact on rugby league.

The team are ready to start life in League 1 this season and Perez thinks the first professional trans-Atlantic sports club will soon be followed by others.

They will play their first competitive match against Challenge Cup holders Hull on Sunday as they build towards their opening Kingstone Press League 1 game against London Skolars on March 4.

And on Thursday, the Wolfpack unveiled a three-year shirt sponsorship deal with Canadian airline Air Transat which Perez described as "one of the biggest in the history of rugby league".

Perez says he is confident of having 7,000 season-ticket holders in time for the opening home game against Oxford on May 6.

He thinks Toronto's formation is the biggest moment in the sport's history since it was formed in 1895.

Toronto Wolfpack director of rugby Brian Noble

"In the fullness of time, when people look back at it, they will think this is the next big stepping stone," said Perez.

"They will look at this and say 'this is the time when we took control of our game'.

"It's better than what it's been. All the oppression that it's been under for the last hundred years, we're wiping away in markets that don't care about class difference.

"I think this is going to be the time when things will move into a bigger and better direction."

And Perez thinks clubs will spring up across North America in the coming years.

"From minute one when I presented this to the RFL, we had a 10-15 year plan of expansion," he said.

"Montreal is next on the list. We hope to have a Montreal team in League 1 by 2019.

"We already have a few pretty big ownership groups that are interested.

"Toronto is a city of six million people and, within an hour's radius, you've got 10 million. We've passed Chicago as the third biggest metropolitan centre in North America.

"After Montreal let's get into the United States, Boston, New York and go from there."