Brisbane Bombers Bid

[T-Boon]

Haha, yes or xhamster.

 

[beave]

I think that Hooters has gone under? Kinda poetic for that team I guess......

 

[T-Boon]

I think that Hooters has gone under? Kinda poetic for that team I guess......

Really? who would have thought they would go bust.

 

[Perth Red]

From Facebook

From CEO Nicholas Livermore:

With a heavy heart I have formally announced my resignation from the Board and from the Brisbane Bombers #NRL Bid team.

I’ve spent 8 years, some 8000+ hours and a significant personal investment in pushing for a second #nrl team in Brisbane.

With the on-going growth of my Company, I have made a tough but wise decision to focus on the opportunity within the business and will continue to support the Bid, its Board and the push for rugby league in Brisbane every weekend.

Since launching in December 2010, I've maintained it will be a matter of WHEN rather than IF #brisbane will have a second NRL side. I trust the team involved to bring the team to fruition in due course.

It has been an incredibly difficult decision given the team is on the cusp of success, but one that I have had to make. To everyone who has been part of my journey thus far and into the future, I sincerely thank you for your support.

#buckleup

 

[Perth Red]

The NRL’s empty words on expansion are holding Queensland rugby league back

NICK Livermore is the human face of the NRL expansion debate.

His personal story, amid the half-baked promises and millions of dollars wasted, is why the NRL must choose its words on expansion carefully as pressure builds on the governing body to give Queensland a fourth NRL team.

Exactly a month ago, new Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter Beattie had a simple message — the NRL must expand or die.

Last Friday, Livermore, the chief executive of the Brisbane Bombers NRL bid, conceded his faith in rugby league’s expansion dream had died.

He informed Bombers directors he is walking away. After eight years of toil, having invested an estimated 8000 hours and more than $100,000 of his own money in a passionate quest to get the Bombers into the NRL, Livermore is sick of waiting.

“I’m out,” said the son of the late, great former Queensland Rugby League chief Ross Livermore.

“Peter Beattie says expansion could happen but I won’t be holding my breath.

“I can’t justify any more of my own time in pursuing something that may or may not happen.

“We keep hearing Brisbane will get a second team and it’s not a matter of if, but when.

“But the reality is we are eight years down the track and we are still waiting.

“It was a really tough decision to walk away. I have given nearly a decade of my life hoping to be part of a Brisbane Bombers team in the NRL ... but I can’t see it happening for a long time.”

Livermore’s personal experience is a cautionary tale for rugby league’s decision-makers.

Beattie’s sentiments on expansion are understandable, and undoubtedly well-intentioned, but it is becoming increasingly pointless for the code’s heavy hitters to mention the ‘E’ word if they aren’t serious about doing it.

The NRL is caught in a problematic no-man’s land on expansion.

Geographically, the code must expand, but NRL and ARLC bosses face the difficult task of juggling the need to grow the game with placating bratty, self-absorbed Sydney clubs who continue to haemorrhage millions.

Like dole bludgers sucking cash out of Centrelink, Sydney clubs are content to rot in a world of welfare where annual handouts from League Central are their liferaft to NRL survival.

The code will never truly flourish unless Beattie and NRL CEO Todd Greenberg play hardball with Sydney clubs.

The biggest loser is Queensland. And the impact is felt in good men like Livermore, Ipswich bid chief Steve Johnson and Central Queensland’s Geoff Murphy, who for too long have been fed empty rhetoric by NRL bosses who tickle and tease the expansion bids.

Livermore claims the NRL has, on three occasions, indicated the Bombers were close to being added to the big league.

First, in 2013. Then 2015. Then 2018. Now the code is considering expansion for 2023, in line with the next TV rights deal.

“Todd Greenberg has been the most honest of any NRL CEO,” Livermore said.

“He had the guts to say to me that at times the NRL has misrepresented to the bid teams where the game is going on expansion.

“I’m not bitter. I’m just disappointed in the lack of honesty.

“We launched our bid in December 2010 and in that time, I’ve had talks with eight senior figures.

“I’ve said to the bosses several times — just give us all an exact time frame (for expansion) and announce which teams are getting an NRL licence.

“Unfortunately, the powerbase of Sydney clubs is holding back the game’s growth, which is a great shame.”

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...k/news-story/fc44045ca060dd434a1bd31fc502b676

 

[Diesel]

Sinking ship? RL in Brisbane is stronger in the west and south, the Bombers are just Broncos v2.0

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Sad news to hear from Livermore but the Bombers are a plastic Broncos clone and won't be loved any more than the Broncos are (and the Broncs are very polarising in Brisbane).

We need a member-owned rugby league club. Not a corporate franchise, to offset the Broncos and create a real rivalry. Fans would jump on the back on a resurected BRL brand like Diehards or Brothers instantly. Even if it is a completely new brand - make it a real RL club owned by the members and watch it take off.

 

[King hit]

Ah yes the story of how the poor innocent Queenslanders are f**ked over by the world and everything is against them

Professional victims

 

[Knightmare]

FFS, the Bombers won't work for the same reason the Titans aren't working- nobody gives a shit about them- not enough to sustain a viable NRL team, anyway.

If the NRL is keen to get another team in the Brisbane area, they should approach Redcliffe- they have as much RL history as Parramatta and Manly, their addition would lock up the entire Northside and Sunshine Coast for juniors and support, and the admission of a QRL aligned team would ad a depth to Qld NRL rivalries that's missing at the moment.

Sick of people who can't see past the "dots on a map" view to expansion- and then wonder why those teams aren't viable while a side like the Bears gets shafted because herp derp too many Sydney clubs...

 

[King hit]

FFS, the Bombers won't work for the same reason the Titans aren't working- nobody gives a shit about them- not enough to sustain a viable NRL team, anyway.

If the NRL is keen to get another team in the Brisbane area, they should approach Redcliffe- they have as much RL history as Parramatta and Manly, their addition would lock up the entire Northside and Sunshine Coast for juniors and support, and the admission of a QRL aligned team would ad a depth to Qld NRL rivalries that's missing at the moment.

Sick of people who can't see past the "dots on a map" view to expansion- and then wonder why those teams aren't viable while a side like the Bears gets shafted because herp derp too many Sydney clubs...

A 2nd Brisbane team has potential as the Broncos support is 50/50 here although the Cowboys have mostly filled the void. It would do wonders for junior players here as they won't have to leave their loved ones to follow their dreams. Premiership footy every week at Suncorp is also a bonus. It has more potential than the Gold Coast which lets be honest is a sporting wasteland. Very few people care about sport there.

People point to the Crushers but I read a bit of their history recently and they had so much burden placed against them. Broncos executives took aim at them from day 1, news limited and the takeover of SL smashed them to the curb and I imagine everyone in Brisbane took the Broncos side and abused the Crushers.

 

[Perth Red]

Sad news to hear from Livermore but the Bombers are a plastic Broncos clone and won't be loved any more than the Broncos are (and the Broncs are very polarising in Brisbane).

We need a member-owned rugby league club. Not a corporate franchise, to offset the Broncos and create a real rivalry. Fans would jump on the back on a resurected BRL brand like Diehards or Brothers instantly. Even if it is a completely new brand - make it a real RL club owned by the members and watch it take off.

If any second Brisbane club is loved "only" as much as the Broncos are then we will be in a very good place! Brisbane are the best supported financially and supporter wise rugby league club in the world! A carbon copy wouldn't hurt the game!

Whilst we can get all romantic and misty eyed at the idea of a members owned grass roots club the reality is NRL is big business and if you're going to survive in the same pond with the biggest shark in the business you'd better have big money behind you.

 

[Perth Red]

FFS, the Bombers won't work for the same reason the Titans aren't working- nobody gives a shit about them- not enough to sustain a viable NRL team, anyway.

...

And yet the Titans have bigger crowds than some of these decades old grass roots clubs. When you say nobody gives a sht, how are you quantifying that and what does that mean for clubs with less people willing to pay to watch them?

 

[The Great Dane]

Sad news to hear from Livermore but the Bombers are a plastic Broncos clone and won't be loved any more than the Broncos are (and the Broncs are very polarising in Brisbane).

We need a member-owned rugby league club. Not a corporate franchise, to offset the Broncos and create a real rivalry. Fans would jump on the back on a resurected BRL brand like Diehards or Brothers instantly. Even if it is a completely new brand - make it a real RL club owned by the members and watch it take off.

I highly, highly doubt that any Diehards fan would jump at the opportunity to support Brothers or vice versa, but maybe that's cause I'm old enough to remember them lol.

Using basically any of the old BRL names would be akin to using a brand new name (apart from the ones that live on in the QRL they are basically dead brands) except it would disenfranchise that small minority of old fans of the other BRL clubs, which though in the grand scheme of things probably isn't a big deal it seems like a waste to me, why bother with an old name if it's going to turn some people off when you could have a new brand and have all their support as well.

The only old brands I'd consider are ones that have been dead for 50+ years but still have legend surrounding them (if there are any cause none come to mind in this case) or the Crushers cause they died too young to embed rivalry and hatred into the brand, but honestly unless their is a great old club that I'm forgetting I'd probably just pass on an old brand and come up with something new and unique.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

If any second Brisbane club is loved "only" as much as the Broncos are then we will be in a very good place! Brisbane are the best supported financially and supporter wise rugby league club in the world! A carbon copy wouldn't hurt the game!

Whilst we can get all romantic and misty eyed at the idea of a members owned grass roots club the reality is NRL is big business and if you're going to survive in the same pond with the biggest shark in the business you'd better have big money behind you.

Yes, the Broncs do well but the reality is that a Brisbane team, the only NRL team in town with no real pressure from Union or AFL should be averaging 45k. A second team, done right will draw just as well as the Broncs and then we have a 30 - 35k crowd every single round in the NRL.

 

[Shorty]

FFS, the Bombers won't work for the same reason the Titans aren't working- nobody gives a shit about them- not enough to sustain a viable NRL team, anyway.

If the NRL is keen to get another team in the Brisbane area, they should approach Redcliffe- they have as much RL history as Parramatta and Manly, their addition would lock up the entire Northside and Sunshine Coast for juniors and support, and the admission of a QRL aligned team would ad a depth to Qld NRL rivalries that's missing at the moment.

Sick of people who can't see past the "dots on a map" view to expansion- and then wonder why those teams aren't viable while a side like the Bears gets shafted because herp derp too many Sydney clubs...

That wouldn't work.
If you're going to head that way it needs to be South or West, my pick is Ipswich.
A lot of North Brisbane does consider themselves Broncos fans, but there are a lot of people in the South that support the Titans or nobody.
The Broncos don't reflect them, it's honestly crying out for an RL team.

That's why the Crushers would have succeeded if they were allowed to.

 

[jim_57]

I imagine the NRL could veto any name on a bid if everything else was in order. Bombers definetely isn't a winner for me, but the bid won't be dissmissed because of a name. When they did the polls I remembers Rivercity Kookaburras was a name option. Not sure about Rivercity but (West/South) Brisbane Kookaburras would be fine with me.

 

[Perth Red]

Yes, the Broncs do well but the reality is that a Brisbane team, the only NRL team in town with no real pressure from Union or AFL should be averaging 45k. A second team, done right will draw just as well as the Broncs and then we have a 30 - 35k crowd every single round in the NRL.

That's assuming the game is as popular as we like to think it is, which it probably isn't. You could pretty much say the same for every club in the NRL, they should be drawing more, but they aren't.
When the Dockers came in they said it would cannibalise the Eagles crowd and corporate support in Perth. In reality it spurred the Eagles on to become an even bigger and better club. Both clubs now have 50k plus members and Eagles still don't have enough room in the new stadium for everyone who wants ticketed memberships. I can see a second Brisbane club doing similar for Broncos, giving them a kick up the backside so to speak.

 

[Shorty]

I imagine the NRL could veto any name on a bid if everything else was in order. Bombers definetely isn't a winner for me, but the bid won't be dissmissed because of a name. When they did the polls I remembers Rivercity Kookaburras was a name option. Not sure about Rivercity but (West/South) Brisbane Kookaburras would be fine with me.

Kookaburras isn't really a marketable name and it's also the name of the national hockey side.
Think Jets would be a better one but maybe there's licensing there.

 

[beave]

 

[DlEHARD]

Kookaburras isn't really a marketable name and it's also the name of the national hockey side.
Think Jets would be a better one but maybe there's licensing there.

Jets would be good. Or Hornets as in the fighter plane.