about the 4th QLD team

[Quidgybo]

http://news.smh.com.au/moore-begins-chant-for-sunshine-coast/20080221-1tm1.html

Moore begins chant for Sunshine Coast

February 21, 2008

The player famous for the "Queenslander" chant has made another rallying call.

Former Maroons inspiration Billy Moore is "banging the drum" for the Sunshine Coast to be included in NRL expansion plans - and it seems league boss David Gallop is all ears.

Moore - now the Sunshine Coast-Gympie Rugby League chief executive - made the pitch to Gallop at a recent NRL function in Sydney and was surprised by the positive reaction.

Now Moore says he is interested in becoming involved in a Sunshine Coast NRL bid consortium.

"I would like to be a part of it (bid) in some shape or form, I am certainly spruiking the gospel and beating the drum," he told AAP.

After throwing some facts and figures at Gallop, Moore came away positive that south-east Queensland would boast a new NRL franchise within 10 years.

"If you asked me a year ago I would have said `we would be lucky if the NRL expanded in 10 years'," Moore said.

"Now I reckon there is a 100 per cent chance the league will expand under 10 years.

"I'm prepared to say that there is a 100 per cent chance that when rugby league expands there will be another franchise in Queensland. Where they will put it I don't know.

"But Sunshine Coast would have to be in consideration because of our ability to expand and grow.

"In 12 months NRL expansion has gone from speculation to intention - it's exciting what the next 12 months holds."

Moore said Gallop listened "intently" to his reasons for a Sunshine Coast franchise.

"Our rapid population growth, increasing junior playing numbers, the success of the Gold Coast Titans and the expansion of major competitor of the AFL into the Gold Coast put us in good stead," Moore said.

"He was very interested, probably more interested than I initially thought - he took it on board."

So much so that Gallop mentioned the Sunshine Coast as a possible "long-term" franchise without prompting in an interview on Wednesday.

"Areas like the west of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast - Billy Moore told me the other day how fast it is growing with young families - and the NSW Central Coast have to have their merits considered," Gallop told The Courier-Mail.

Moore said the Sunshine Coast could rely on support from areas north of Brisbane from Redcliffe and Caboolture to Bundaberg and Rockhampton.

He believed the next NRL franchise would come down to a tug of war between Sunshine Coast and Ipswich-Logan, west of Brisbane.

"The AFL are expanding into our heartland (with a new team at the Gold Coast) and we must counter that," Moore said.

He said he told Gallop that Ipswich-Logan was not an attractive option because it was vying with the Broncos and Titans and had nowhere to grow.

The former North Sydney backrower said another NRL expansion hope - Central Coast - was close to his heart but believed the huge number of current NSW-based clubs may work against their inclusion.

I agree that the Sunshine Coast region should be the base for the next Queensland NRL club (but not necessarily the actual next club to enter the comp) - in about 12-15 years from now. I also agree that Ipswich-Logan is too close to the existing Broncos/Titans franchises and risks setting the League up for a repeat of the current Sydney situation many years down the track where the costs of fielding teams grow so much that clubs find themselves located too close together and essentially competing for the same market. And when it does become evident that the clubs are too close together and hurting not only each others ability to compete with other clubs in the league but also with rival codes, the heartache of trying to get one or more clubs living on top of each other to relocate after they have been established in a particular area for many years is familiar to us all. Prevention (or forethought) in this case is much better than cure.

The big advantage of the Titans/Broncos relationship is that the Gold Coast is distant enough (75km+) to be treated as a distinct market and as a self contained one (NRL) team market while being close enough to allow an exchange of fans for away games and to allow fans reasonable travel to support an alternative team if they don't like the local team (eg. anti-Broncos based Brisbane fans). In addition the Gold Coast is distant enough to allow each team to maintain their own home ground advantage while still being close enough to allow the major stadium at the heart of the region to be used for blockbuster and showcase matches. This relationship should be the model for any other new teams in the region.

Rather than looking at Brisbane as the biggest fish in SE Qld and demanding a second team before any other area gets one (if for no other reason than to use Suncorp more often), I think it's important that we look at the SE Qld region as a whole and ask how the game can best cover that entire area. Do we best serve the future of the game and the clubs themselves by splitting the same part of the SE Qld market between more teams and providing more viewing opportunities to an area that already has access to NRL games while at the same time leaving other areas untapped and open to rival codes? Or do ensure that we provide easy access to games across as much of the region as possible so that each team has a distinct market of their own and that opportunities for rival codes to carve their own niche are minimised?

In my opinion, the Sunshine Coast is the next distinct market within SE Qld that will be ready and capable of hosting and sustaining an NRL franchise. Beyond that I think the west of Brisbane franchise should be delayed until such time as the Toowoomba market (or at least the more distant satellite cities west of Brisbane) grows to the point of being ready and able to host and sustain a team. This will ensure over the long term that the game has a presence not only at the heart of the region in Brisbane with the Broncos and two or three blockbuster games from each of the other clubs in the region played at Suncorp, but also in a 75km-150km ring around Brisbane closing off each of the other major markets in the SE region as they become capable of supporting their own teams.

Leigh.

 

[yankeerugger]

I like the idea of reserecting the "South Queensland Crushers" personally..., in about 5+ years. Base them out of the west Brisbane area, and build a local 30k venue out there, and have them play their "marquee matches" at Lang park...

love it!