[1] In early January 1997, the team's chances of participating in the Challenge Cup and Super League were pegged by insiders at 5 and 50 percent, respectively, although the club maintained that it would be ready for both.
[2] Super League backer News Ltd. increased its support, securing the team's participation and announcing that it would pay for the players to stay full time in Paris, which was not the case the previous season.
[11] Keighley and Great Britain's Phil Larder had been named as an interested party in the coaching job at the end of the previous season,[12] but the eventual choice was Peter Mulholland of Australia.
[15] French international Daniel Divet blamed the club's safe recruiting, believing that it would both hurt homegrown players and alienate Paris' fledgling fan base.
The club even lost Pascal Bomati to rugby union's CA Brive, which Mulholland—joined by a growing number of pundits—again blamed on a lack of proactivity and support from the French game's establishment.
[11] Rampant conflicts at the head of the club boiled over in July 1997 (see § Administrative controversy), leading to a disruption in the distribution of tickets and causing attendance to fall to alarming levels for the home stand that followed.
[36] It had been decided in the off-season that the team would relocate two or three games to other markets, as August tends to be a slow business month in the French capital due to many residents spending their holidays in the provinces.
[40] In February, the team made its debut in the Challenge Cup knockout competition (which it had bypassed the previous year), winning against second-tier Batley before bowing out to fellow SL members Salford in the next round.
It started its campaign on a relative high, leading against Australian side Hunter Mariners before succumbing,[42] then thrashing the team several Paris players used to represent, the Western Reds (24–0).
For its WCC playoff appearance, coach Goodway opted to rest key players to focus on the primary objective of avoiding relegation in the Super League.
Increasingly disenchanted with the French federation's perceived lack of commitment to the Super League project, the RFL opted to withdraw several staff members it had dispatched to Paris.
[26] Fearing the tarnishing of its brand, umbrella organization PSG Omnisports banned the team from using its name, forcing it to operate as just "Paris Rugby League".
[46][47] In July, the press became aware of the conflict between PSG RL and brothers Laurent and Nicolas Dabe of promotional agency Évènemenent 1, who had been brought in by Fouroux in the early days of France Rugby League.
The RFL strenuously denied that claim, arguing that its two executives sat on the club's board purely as goodwill advisors, and assured the press that it would work with the French federation to clarify any contractual issues.