If anyone at NRL headquarters is watching the Fiji game in super rugby right now their chances of a team are taking a big hit. Raining hard and the field looks like something from the 80’s a absolute mess.
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Please elaborate. What would it do?For the sport in New Zealand a second franchise would do a lot.
The perception of the sport in NZ is pretty much tied to the success of the Warriors. If the Warriors aren't going well traditionally it isn't great for the sport. Bad press, it may even affect participation locally.Please elaborate. What would it do?
More pathways is huge, I’m almost certain player numbers in juniors ranks would go up big time in Christchurch if they had a team based there.Please elaborate. What would it do?
Not disagreeing with you but a couple of points:Perth on the surface looks good but it also has plenty of hurdles,
One is local players, although it has a better scene than Victoria but it’d be a similar story where Storm have to recruit heavy- Perth is a much harder sell than Melbourne.
They already have a number of professional teams including a union and 2 AFL teams which is far and away the most popular sport. If the force went away they’d have a better shot.
The time zone whilst beneficial for a couple of the time slots is completely unsuited to a few others eg the late Fri/Sat games.
I like it in theory but I just can’t see how PNG works- the country is in massive poverty,
The country just is not safe for players to live, they’d be solely reliant on local players that just aren’t up to the standard just yet.
the average fans are unlikely able to afford tickets or merch,
it is unlikely they will get many travelling away supporters.
It is solely dependent on the current Aus government to fund it- what happens with a change of government?
Fiji I feel are sniffing around for the government money but in their favour they’re selling it as a holiday destination for travelling fans and have a better history of local players coming through.
The comp needs to be an even amount of teams and Perth/NZ2 seem the most likely, PNG seems a pipedream but can see a disaster if it’s rushed through, with Fiji as a long shot.
Personally I don’t think Wellington should be the home base for a second team.Last year in April 2023 according to this article the Southern Orcas out of Wellington were also still in the mixer
The state of play for NRL’s 18th team as Dolphins answer glaring expansion question
The state of play for NRL’s 18th team as Dolphins answer glaring expansion questionwww.foxsports.com.au
The question for Perth is really where do the players come from? Not really any WA players of note playing NRL and their regional rep side recently got pumped by everyone so not to many local prospects.Not disagreeing with you but a couple of points:
Perth has about 2m people which when spread across 4 pro footy teams is half a million each, more than many current teams. Numbers wise there should be a big enough pop for 4 pro teams.
The PNG base was rumoured to be in northern Queenstown, flying in for games. That would take away a lot of the living in PNG issue.
Same as above could work for Fiji.
Lower cost of living as compared to Auckland, live like a Prince on the beach front.I'm on board with the keeping the region out of the name. sup42 has outlined it well in his last few posts. The one above and a few pages back.
Keep it generic or NZ like the Warriors. The Sydney clubs have flirted with being Sydney Bulldogs/Rooster or dropping the region name. There was also talk about the Dolphins just being the Dolphins and not Redcliffe.
A nick name is a bit easier to move around the country for the odd game instead of getting Wellington people to support Christchurch or vice versa.
Where ever they are based primarily might make it a bit difficult for the Warriors to move the odd game there. The same may happen if they tried to take a game to Auckland.
Traditionally the talk for a second side was for Wellington. Sure then they had the new stadium built. There has also been talk of being based in Auckland due to population. I don't know how the population would take to that (we are getting down to individuals). People may get tribal or loyal to their current club or they may get excited for more NRL locally. That would require some market research.
I'm getting more in favour of being based in Christchurch with games moved to Dunedin or Wellington. Especially with having two covered stadiums in the South Island.
I haven't been to Christchurch a lot so can't comment on what it's like in winter or how appealing it would be recruit Australians. I have some work collegues down there and the summers sound nice (better than the last few in Auckland).
They would need to get their sales pitch for any recruitment like the Warriors have done in the past. A smaller city would have some advantages over being in a big city like Auckland, Melbourne or Sydney. You can get around easier. Get out of town quickly to see the sites etc.
Yeah with the PNG government saying they aren’t interested if it’s based in Australia it becomes way to hardThere’s a couple of big factors in expansion;
1.Who is going to pay for it?
2.Where are the players coming from?
Been talk over in Aus about taking a “safe bid” then “risky bid” approach for expansion. When I say “Safe bid” I mean the like of Brisbane Tigers/Brisbane 3
Ie a Dolphins type scenario where the QLD cup team is essentially ‘promoted’ to the NRL with its own pre established pathways, sponsors and financial assists in place.
The other type of “safe bid” is Jets/Bears, now the NRL knows that there’s no room for another NSW team but rather again promoting a nsw cup team to an expansion area tapping into its brand and pre established pathways etc- this is shaping up as the likely Perth outcome.
“Risky bids”
PNG - government money takes care of the funding (for now) the players are the hard bit with this bid. Strong political pressure for this to happen.
Fiji - again after government funding, big likely sponsor in Fiji Airways which doubles as solid tourism investment, players a better prospect. Infrastructure is maybe the one hiccup.
NZ2- Not sure how the funding stacks up, not sure the player pathways stack up, we’d be reliant on a few ‘NZ imports’ aka current NRL players with NZ attachments coming over. But in terms of players from scratch probably one of the more likely prospects compared to other expansion markets.
TV then has a big say,
next expansion is easiest to push up the tv deal as it’s another game if content, next one will have to be something the broadcasters want for them to pay more, and supposedly that’s Brisbane 3, however Perth is at least Australian content- NZ2/PNG/Fiji hold little value to Australian broadcasters. Sky more than funds the Warriors, depending on how much more they can pay would have a huge say in NZ2.
So in orders if safest bid to Riskiest bid I’d put them in this order;
Brisbane 3
Perth
NZ2
Fiji
PNG
As it’s all but confirmed we are moving towards 20 teams my crystal ball tells me
18 Perth (with Bears)
19 NZ2
20 Brisbane 3
Think PNG really will be in the too hard basket and it will only get in as team 18 with extreme political pressure, wouldn’t surprise me if a combined Fiji/PNG was considered.
Bigger than Townsville which is around 140k. Similar to newscastle and Canberra area. But they need a solid baseUncle Google says there are 396 000 people in CHCH in 2023
Dunedin 134 000 in 2020
South Island 1.2 million
Unless they can get people travelling to each game from Nelson and the West coast I don't see this expansion franchise succeeding.
Christchurch isn't big enough to support in terms of ticket sales in years where they have a bad coach like SK or Brown and are in the bottom 4.
I don't see this working centred in chch and dunners in bad years, yes when they playing well but every team goes in cycles.
Maybe i could see it working if you tapped the whole south island by giving a game every year to Queenstown and invercargill and Nelson
Would love to see the bears and jets back in. Couple of retro games at Henson Park and north Sydney oval. Plenty of NSW pokie money to prop them up. Relocation of existing teams has worked in AFL as opposed to new teams.There’s a couple of big factors in expansion;
1.Who is going to pay for it?
2.Where are the players coming from?
Been talk over in Aus about taking a “safe bid” then “risky bid” approach for expansion. When I say “Safe bid” I mean the like of Brisbane Tigers/Brisbane 3
Ie a Dolphins type scenario where the QLD cup team is essentially ‘promoted’ to the NRL with its own pre established pathways, sponsors and financial assists in place.
The other type of “safe bid” is Jets/Bears, now the NRL knows that there’s no room for another NSW team but rather again promoting a nsw cup team to an expansion area tapping into its brand and pre established pathways etc- this is shaping up as the likely Perth outcome.
“Risky bids”
PNG - government money takes care of the funding (for now) the players are the hard bit with this bid. Strong political pressure for this to happen.
Fiji - again after government funding, big likely sponsor in Fiji Airways which doubles as solid tourism investment, players a better prospect. Infrastructure is maybe the one hiccup.
NZ2- Not sure how the funding stacks up, not sure the player pathways stack up, we’d be reliant on a few ‘NZ imports’ aka current NRL players with NZ attachments coming over. But in terms of players from scratch probably one of the more likely prospects compared to other expansion markets.
TV then has a big say,
next expansion is easiest to push up the tv deal as it’s another game if content, next one will have to be something the broadcasters want for them to pay more, and supposedly that’s Brisbane 3, however Perth is at least Australian content- NZ2/PNG/Fiji hold little value to Australian broadcasters. Sky more than funds the Warriors, depending on how much more they can pay would have a huge say in NZ2.
So in orders if safest bid to Riskiest bid I’d put them in this order;
Brisbane 3
Perth
NZ2
Fiji
PNG
As it’s all but confirmed we are moving towards 20 teams my crystal ball tells me
18 Perth (with Bears)
19 NZ2
20 Brisbane 3
Think PNG really will be in the too hard basket and it will only get in as team 18 with extreme political pressure, wouldn’t surprise me if a combined Fiji/PNG was considered.
PNG team don't want to be based out of Cairns. Which will make it nearly impossible to get outside talent.Would love to see the bears and jets back in. Couple of retro games at Henson Park and north Sydney oval. Plenty of NSW pokie money to prop them up. Relocation of existing teams has worked in AFL as opposed to new teams.
PNG is a given. US and Aus money will make it so. Might be based out of Cairns and have Fifo to Port Moresby. Flight time is only 60 minutes so no problem. Big problem would be to get families to relocate to PNG which is rough as but Cairns would be a much easier sell and likely to last…
And kidwell.I thought the Storm didn’t come along till 98? Also definitely had Christchurch based players in first few years. Two off the top of my Head were Whetū Taiwa and Aaron Whitaker