Brisbane is a capital city and the largest market between Sydney and Singapore. No point projecting the fate of Newcastle and Wollongong on Brisbane. There's just more capital available in capital cities like Brisbane than smaller regional cities like Newcastle.
If BRL had access to pokies from 1956 then 3 or 4 of its clubs would have joined up with 8 or 9 NSWRL clubs to form a national competition. There's no way all clubs from Brisbane and Sydney would have survived. Inner city clubs from both cities were always going to go broke, regardless of whether they had pokies, and that's exactly what happened. South Sydney, North Sydney, Sydney Wests, Balmain, Fortitude Valley, Western Suburbs, Southern Suburbs and Pastoral Brothers all succumbed to the pressure of being sandwiched into small regions with changing demographics due to gentrification.
South Sydney have turned things around on the back of Russell Crowe, Peter Holmes-a-Court and Kerry Packer. Holmes-a-Court has pulled up stumps and if Crowe and Packer do too then the club could be in trouble.
Despite all your bluster about Sydney clubs being stronger because they're in Sydney, the fact remains that most of them rely on pokies to stay afloat and are weaker than Broncos, Cowboys, Raiders and Storm. Dolphins, Easts Tigers and arguably Wynnum Manly are also stronger than most Sydney clubs since gaining access to pokies.
If these clubs have so many fans in every state and territory then how come the ratings for 9Gem in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth are so poor when they are on FTA?
If there's tens of thousands of fans following these clubs all over Australia then the combined ratings on 9Gem for an Elmer Fudds vs Eels game across Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth wouldn't be less than 15k.