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Adelaide making play for NRL games

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14,167

TheRam

Coach
Messages
13,457
Perfect for the Sharks to dip their toe in that rich, almost virgin market, just in case relocation is their only viable option.

If things go south on all their development plans, this would be a brilliant backup plan for them. The Adelaide Sharks has a certain ring to it me thinks.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,443
Well if it works financially the smaller Sydney clubs - Panthers, Sharks, Sea Eagles, Roosters - would be foolish not to at least investigate it.

That said if the NRL played 5 games in Adelaide each year what sort of crowds would they attract?

2006 - 7017 Panthers vs Storm @ Hindmarsh
2009 - 8547 Sharks vs Cowboys @ Hindmarsh
2010 - 10350 Bulldogs vs Storm @ Adelaide Oval
2011 - 9963 Bulldogs vs Storm @ Adelaide Oval

You'd really need a team to be serious about making the state a long term second home.
 

CC_Roosters

First Grade
Messages
5,221
Well if it works financially the smaller Sydney clubs - Panthers, Sharks, Sea Eagles, Roosters - would be foolish not to at least investigate it.

That said if the NRL played 5 games in Adelaide each year what sort of crowds would they attract?

2006 - 7017 Panthers vs Storm @ Hindmarsh
2009 - 8547 Sharks vs Cowboys @ Hindmarsh
2010 - 10350 Bulldogs vs Storm @ Adelaide Oval
2011 - 9963 Bulldogs vs Storm @ Adelaide Oval

You'd really need a team to be serious about making the state a long term second home.

To be fair knowing the ways of the last administration the marketing of this game would have been non existent. Should a club go for it i would expect the ARLC to make real go of it in partnership with the club. A keen state government will help of course
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
It's great news that the Adelaide Entertainments Corporation (the people that now own Hindmarsh) are looking to get regular NRL games played at their stadium, but I don't think that a situation like the one that the Hawks and Tasmania have in the AFL is the right way to go about it (unless a Sydney club is looking to have a fallback plan if things go tits up in Sydney for them).

Personally I don't think it is fair on a club's fans to take away almost half of all their home games like they are suggesting in this article unless there is no other way and it's absolutely imperative that the games are played, and as I see it I don't think it's necessary for one team to be playing 5 home games in Adelaide when you could have 3 different teams sharing the load and each playing a home game of two down there without taking so many games away from one clubs fans.
 

Bovrick

Juniors
Messages
639
I'd agree with Dane, I think. Let the expansion areas bid for low-drawing games from across all teams; and build up an identity of their own alongside these games to set up the potential for their own team one day.
 

_snafu_

Immortal
Messages
35,703
Playing trial games there would be a good start and it won't disaffect membership packages.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
I'd agree with Dane, I think. Let the expansion areas bid for low-drawing games from across all teams; and build up an identity of their own alongside these games to set up the potential for their own team one day.

Playing trial games there would be a good start and it won't disaffect membership packages.

They shouldn't have to bid for games the NRL should help them to get as many NRL season games (not trial games) as possible until they have their own NRL team, and the SARL should be involved in the process as much as possible and should be using the opportunity to raise awareness for local RL by having their own brand marketed through these NRL games as much as possible.

The NRL should be pumping as much money as they can afford into the WARL, SARL, TRL, NTRL and VRL until they all are as powerful and have junior systems as successful as the NSWRL, QRL and CRL.

They should also be coercing the SARL (and maybe others) into preparing a bid team just for the publicity and rallying power that goes along with one. Give the people a cause (or an injustice to fight) and they will come.

Unfortunately as has been the case for the best part of 20 years the powers that be seem to be to short sighted and unambitious to see the importance in having a tangible presence in the non heartland states and territory.

While I'm having a rant they should also be taking the pressure of running the CRRL off the Raiders (the only NRL club that almost completely runs the local RL of their area) by setting up a ACTRL that is separate from the Raiders to mange RL in the ACT and surrounding areas, the Raiders simply don't have the time or the resources to control the running of RL in the ACT and RL in the ACT is suffering unnecessarily because of it.
 
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Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
We've built our crowds from 10k to 20k. SARL need decent funding and Adelaide needs to know the NRL gives a sht about the game there. Maybe after a decade of effort they will be in the same place we are now, ready for an NRL club to call their own.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
We've built our crowds from 10k to 20k. SARL need decent funding and Adelaide needs to know the NRL gives a sht about the game there. Maybe after a decade of effort they will be in the same place we are now, ready for an NRL club to call their own.

You know I don't think that it necessarily would take a decade.

As you know the WARL were working pretty much off their own back with little in the way of support from the NRL, if the NRL and ARLC were to throw a little of their weight behind the SARL then I think it would surprise people how quickly Adelaide starts to come around.

As long as the NRL and ARLC don't over do it and come off like they are trying to force RL down people's throats like the AFL has in recent times I reckon we have the money and resources to push things along, I'm just not sure if we have the forward thinking or the patience.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,443
I'm not saying that there isn't a market for rugby league in Adelaide more so that the clubs and NRL haven't taken it seriously and put in a coordinated effort. I do think 5 games a season is a bit much until the game has proven itself more (like it has in Perth).

Any team that goes there needs to want South Australia to be their long term second fan base and treat it with respect.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
I'm not saying that there isn't a market for rugby league in Adelaide more so that the clubs and NRL haven't taken it seriously and put in a coordinated effort. I do think 5 games a season is a bit much until the game has proven itself more (like it has in Perth).

Any team that goes there needs to want South Australia to be their long term second fan base and treat it with respect.

Yes they should absolutely treat Adelaide (or where ever) with respect, but treating them as a"long term second fan base" is absolutely the wrong way to go about that.

As a person that has lived in an area that multiple AFL teams have treated as a "second home" I can honestly say that all that does is rub people the wrong way, it comes off as if the team and the governing body (in Canberra's case the AFL) is saying you are not good enough for your own team and that you are only a gullible ATM for a struggling club to take advantage of. It's especially offensive when they don't even stay as long as they committed to stay and then proceed to bag the hell out of you once they are gone.

IMO it would be a much better approach to be open and honest from the start, if your clubs their for the money then show the people the respect they deserve by not lying to their faces about it, in the perfect scenario the clubs would be there for the insensitive that the NRL and/or the ARLC is offering them and would be openly saying that they will only be there until the city gets it's own team (seriously stress the own team thing, because that is another thing that really gets under people's skin in my experience) and following through with those words.
 

Bovrick

Juniors
Messages
639
Oh, I completely agree that if the leaders stopped being so myopic they would be leading the charge to new areas and setting up the games elsewhere themselves - rather than alienating a potential supporter base for as long as they have in WA. Bid was probably a poor choice of word; the action needs to come from both sides to spot potential areas, but the money really should be flowing from the centre.
 

Zigwaa

Bench
Messages
2,744
Great if it eventuates. It will increase viisbility of the game in SA and hopefully equate to more juniors wanting to play the game.

Hindmarsh Stadium, now Coopers Stadiums sits there hardly used throughout winter.
 
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docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,443
As a person that has lived in an area that multiple AFL teams have treated as a "second home" I can honestly say that all that does is rub people the wrong way, it comes off as if the team and the governing body (in Canberra's case the AFL) is saying you are not good enough for your own team and that you are only a gullible ATM for a struggling club to take advantage of.

I agree but that's not what I'm even suggesting. Think moreso about how the Rabbitoh's have treated Western Australia. Yes they want the $$$ but they're building a solid Western Australian Rabbitohs fanbase, also at the same time strengthening a local NRL bid and local support for rugby league.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
Its great to get the committment of the Rabbitohs to play a game a year but I like what the Eels are doing in NT even better. Two games a year plus committment to running training camps, coaching clinics, regular visits to increase media for the game etc. That to me is the model the NRL should be funding and making clubs committ to.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,443
Its great to get the committment of the Rabbitohs to play a game a year but I like what the Eels are doing in NT even better. Two games a year plus committment to running training camps, coaching clinics, regular visits to increase media for the game etc. That to me is the model the NRL should be funding and making clubs committ to.

Actually I'll second that. I think NRL clubs are foolish for not doing a lot more of this. Think about all the markets that don't have a team in the local vicinity - WA, NT, SA, PNG, Central Qld, Sunshine Coast, Far Northern NSW, Central Coast, Tasmania, Wellington, South Island, Fiji - yes some of those will one day have local sides but in the mean time that's 12 underdeveloped markets that an NRL team can invest in and grow both their own club brand and grow support for the game. It's to everyone's mutual benefit.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
I'm staggered that after the massive success of the Storm trial in Tassie that they haven;t woken up to adopting the island and really promoting themselves down there. At least one trial game and try to encourgae a Storm away game to be played there with a Tassie membership should have been organised by now. Instead after the success nothing.
 
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