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TWO new Brisbane teams

Pippen94

First Grade
Messages
5,858
In general I think the wrong lessons were taken from the 1995 expansion. The prevailing narrative has been that the game can barely support 16 teams in terms of depth and finances, Rugby League failed in Perth and that Brisbane can’t support two or more teams. That’s a Super League and later an NRL Partnership narrative.

The real lesson is the obvious one - don’t expand by FOUR new teams AT ONCE. There’s nothing wrong with planning for four new teams and nurturing bids in target areas, but at least give it a couple seasons for each new team to get on its feet. Provide some breathing space for each team to build a squad and let the rest of the league and the player pool digest the change.

More realistically, a 17th team followed by an 18th two to three seasons later, followed by a 19th four or five seasons after that, and then a 20th two to three seasons later still gives four need teams in just a decade or so. That’d be ambitious by most measures in top grade professional sport. But four at once was kinda courting trouble…

Expanding when ur not willing to support but in fact place financial burden on new teams like opponent's travel costs should be real take away.
 

thatfatkid

Juniors
Messages
42
Agree that the next round of expansion after The Dolphins should be Toowoomba/Ipswich plus a 2nd NZ team.
That'd cover the 2 fastest growing areas of the fastest growing state (Sunny Coast area and West Brissy to Toowoomba area).
 

Pippen94

First Grade
Messages
5,858
I woulc be telling the Qld government

Upgrade the railway to Toowoomba and Stadium before any new team in the region

Off the top of my head Ipswich council area has population of 200k while Toowoomba is about 100k & there's about 100km between them with nothing in between. Why the hell would NRL put a team in such a sprawling & lowly populated area?!
Logan & Ipswich combined boast over 500k & growing quick. No mistake afl got new stadium right amongst that area.
 
Messages
12,413
2nd team in Brisbane will now be clearly Ipswich-Toowoomba based by that map

Redcliffe cover the northern region

Broncos central region which includes Logan and Redlands

Gold Coast the southern region

Which leaves the Western region of SEQ as the next expansion
Logan and southern Brisbane should be the focus. It's where the people are based. Ipswich is too small.
 

thatfatkid

Juniors
Messages
42
Off the top of my head Ipswich council area has population of 200k while Toowoomba is about 100k & there's about 100km between them with nothing in between. Why the hell would NRL put a team in such a sprawling & lowly populated area?!
Logan & Ipswich combined boast over 500k & growing quick. No mistake afl got new stadium right amongst that area.
The region between West Brisbane and Toowoomba is growing as rapidly as the North Brissy/Sunny Coast area. If the NRL were smart they'd be expanding into both areas asap while the QLD govt are committing infrastructure planning/funding to the areas.
 

Santino Patane

Juniors
Messages
243
Not west. What’s wrong with leaving that to the Broncos? They were at their peak when Ipswich and the Darling Downs were their key catchment, plus (anecdotally) those folk love the Donkeys out there. They also used to do a good job out there too. Finally as was suggested a few posts earlier, there’s not really that huge population there, and it’s % growth looks good because it’s coming off a very low base. Most growth in Ipswich is coming from Springfield, which is really more Brisbane than Ipswich in location and culture. If SEQ were to be divided up into catchments a bit like NSW is, I, have north of Pine River to the Dolphins, Bayside, CBD to Darling Downs Broncos, and Logan, GC and Scenic Rim to the Titans. This follows similar divisions to what the lower grades do, and keeps things well balanced. Of course support will bleed over the boundaries, but then development will be at least defined and even.

Personally, if there were to be another SEQ team (for the record I’d go to Perth, Adelaide & even PNG before) I’d stick inner city or south east. The gaps in Brisbane currently are spread throughout the region, and with the Dolphins coming, the north is serviced. Brisbanites (in general) are used to centralising their support, and the disaffected from the Broncos would be no different.
 

Colk

First Grade
Messages
6,331
The region between West Brisbane and Toowoomba is growing as rapidly as the North Brissy/Sunny Coast area. If the NRL were smart they'd be expanding into both areas asap while the QLD govt are committing infrastructure planning/funding to the areas.
Why would that be smart?
 

Pippen94

First Grade
Messages
5,858
Not west. What’s wrong with leaving that to the Broncos? They were at their peak when Ipswich and the Darling Downs were their key catchment, plus (anecdotally) those folk love the Donkeys out there. They also used to do a good job out there too. Finally as was suggested a few posts earlier, there’s not really that huge population there, and it’s % growth looks good because it’s coming off a very low base. Most growth in Ipswich is coming from Springfield, which is really more Brisbane than Ipswich in location and culture. If SEQ were to be divided up into catchments a bit like NSW is, I, have north of Pine River to the Dolphins, Bayside, CBD to Darling Downs Broncos, and Logan, GC and Scenic Rim to the Titans. This follows similar divisions to what the lower grades do, and keeps things well balanced. Of course support will bleed over the boundaries, but then development will be at least defined and even.

Personally, if there were to be another SEQ team (for the record I’d go to Perth, Adelaide & even PNG before) I’d stick inner city or south east. The gaps in Brisbane currently are spread throughout the region, and with the Dolphins coming, the north is serviced. Brisbanites (in general) are used to centralising their support, and the disaffected from the Broncos would be no different.

As Logan grows & expands along with Ipswich council area that's the place be.
 

mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,215
Not west. What’s wrong with leaving that to the Broncos? They were at their peak when Ipswich and the Darling Downs were their key catchment, plus (anecdotally) those folk love the Donkeys out there. They also used to do a good job out there too. Finally as was suggested a few posts earlier, there’s not really that huge population there, and it’s % growth looks good because it’s coming off a very low base. Most growth in Ipswich is coming from Springfield, which is really more Brisbane than Ipswich in location and culture. If SEQ were to be divided up into catchments a bit like NSW is, I, have north of Pine River to the Dolphins, Bayside, CBD to Darling Downs Broncos, and Logan, GC and Scenic Rim to the Titans. This follows similar divisions to what the lower grades do, and keeps things well balanced. Of course support will bleed over the boundaries, but then development will be at least defined and even.

Personally, if there were to be another SEQ team (for the record I’d go to Perth, Adelaide & even PNG before) I’d stick inner city or south east. The gaps in Brisbane currently are spread throughout the region, and with the Dolphins coming, the north is serviced. Brisbanites (in general) are used to centralising their support, and the disaffected from the Broncos would be no different.
a 4th SEQLD team would ideally be Logan/Redlands IMO but it doesn't really have a bid.... Titans don't need that area and shouldn't be claiming it. Leave Ippy to the Broncos cause they have connections to that area....
 

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