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NRL Proposes International Shake Up

LeagueXIII

First Grade
Messages
5,965
The capacity isn't the problem the facilities (or lack there of) and the state of the joint are!

I assure you the 7k local parks are in a better state and are more capable of hosting games than Teufaiva Sport Stadium...

If they can play union tests in Tonga they sure as hell can play league tests.

They have just spent US$10.9 milllion on an upgrade for the Pacific games in 2019.

http://www.looptonga.com/content/teufaiva-stadium-sad-state

http://kanivatonga.nz/2017/12/teufaiva-stadium-ready-business/
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,725
It’s being upgraded for the 2019pacific games, it is more than adequate for hosting a Tonga RL game.
https://www.nudsp.to/sport.php

lol, turnstiles and toilets are a start, but when are they starting work on all this stuff? Cause three quarters of the things they show in their image hasn't been built, so if they plan to have it all ready by next year they better have started building yesterday!

To give you an idea here's an article on the stadium from May last year after the upgrades payed for by the NZ government were completed (notice the lack of a lot of the 'upgrades' they were crowing about in your links, some of that was supposed to be paid for by NZ, but it hasn't happened).
https://www.radionz.co.nz/internati...a-stadium-given-all-clear-to-host-rugby-tests

And here is the only pictures that I can find of the stadium from earlier this year after the damage from Cyclone Gita-
stadium-damage-2---lights.jpg

stadium-damage-1.jpg
20180219%20Teufaiva%202%20550px.jpg


I get that having games played in Tonga would be a great thing, but they're simply in no position to host games. As I said in a previous post the best thing that could be done to change that state of affairs would be to get on the Aus and NZ government to invest a few million each to get them to a place where they can host games.

Given what we saw in RLWC every png game should be in png, nz v Tonga should be in nz everytime and Tonga v Samoa or Fiji played in tonga. I get it’s the dumb nrl broadcasting agreement means these internationals have to be played in Sydney but it’s sht for actually growing the profile of int rl in the countries playing.

There're commercial reasons as well i.e. there's more money to be made from these games in Aus or NZ (and maybe Eng as well) than on home soil, but yeah I don't disagree in principle.
 
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The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,725

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,296
Tonga forfeited the rights to the 2019 Pacific Games due to financial reasons. Next year's tournament will be in Apia, Samoa, so all that planned investment in Tonga infrastructure never went ahead.
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,277
''to replicate that already organised for nations in Europe''

Our sport my be taken more seriously if our international governing body can spell correctly.
 

Coastbloke

Bench
Messages
4,051
I wouldn't mind 2006's Federation Shield in Europe make some sort of return to the mix. The RFL organised it and I'm surprised it didn't grow some legs. It involved England A (obviously you'd have a full England squad in this case) France, Samoa and Tonga. France's home games got around 6000 and 8500.

Perhaps they could have PNG and Fiji join England and France 1 year and 2 years later Samoa and Tonga. While this is happening maybe the Kangaroos and Kiwis could have a dedicated 3 Test series. 1 year 2 games in Australia and 1 in NZ and 2 years later vice versa. Stadiums like Suncorp, SFS or new WSS, Dunedin, Hamilton etc..
 

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