It’s such a bizarre a statement. Who do they think people on the Southside have been supporting for 30 years? If anything Brisbane Broncos aren’t a north or south side team. They’re a national brand with fans in pretty much every state.
Not a bizarre statement at all. Of course the city as a whole overwhelmingly support the broncos. Despite a few years of the crushers, they’ve been a one team city for 34 years. That’s kinda my point actually, that everyone in Brisbane goes for the broncos and the NRL have failed to split the population and create a real rivalry with the 2nd team.
The dolphins represent an area (Moreton Bay) of about 460k people.
City of Brisbane 1.2m (this figure includes inner west and inner south suburbs)
Ipswich city 233k
Logan city 350k
So the river actually splits the population roughly in two. About 1.1m north of the river and 1.1m south of it.
Just on that fact alone, when you have the first team on the CBD side of the river in red hill, why would you put the 2nd team in a region further north where there is only 460k people vs 1.1m people in the south and west.
With a team either side of the river you could build a proper north vs south rivalry, maximise tv rights and dominate the AFL in the area they are trying to exploit. It’s a no brainer.
And just to clarify, it’s not really about whether people in Brisbane or Ipswich will continue to support the broncos or not. It’s about retaining the market and making sure the youth don’t see AFL as a viable option to play.
Compare it to AFL in Sydney. One team city with the swans. They have captured a market for themselves in the inner west, north and east of the bridge. Probably 2m to 2.5m people to market at and get to games.
But prior to 2012 everyone in nsw with a the most casual interest in AFL was basically a swans fans. Where they put gws? Cronulla? In Manly? Chatswood? Gosford?
No, they’ve put it at Homebush with a presence at Blacktown and in Canberra. They split the city in two allowing them to market themselves to the 2.2m people in western Sydney.
AFL made a choice to go after where the population growth is in Sydney. And baring in mind, GWS is attempting to win new people to the game - Brisbane is a captured NRL market already.
NRL in Brisbane chose to have two teams located north of the river and gift the broncos (News Ltd) an area of 1.7m people vs the dolphins region of 460k.
It’s akin to the second A League Sydney club being put in Campbelltown and told they will be know as “the Magpies” but Sydney FC continues to represent every region of Sydney except the Campbeltown area.
The broncos will always have over three times the supporter base of the dolphins. That doesn’t create an even rivalry and won’t boost tv audience as much as a team like the Brisbane Firehawks which would have been able to market themselves as the south of the river team to 1.1m people.
If the NRL were smart they’d have negotiated with QLD government to sure up a new 20-30k stadium and training facilities in the south. They could have linked in with the Olympic bid and shared hockey or soccer or rugby 7s.
The difference between AFL and NRL expansion decisions and strategy is just staggering. NRL is the most popular sport in Brisbane. They really should have 3 teams by now, with Redcliffe probably being the third one and linking up with Sunshine Coast region. The market should be saturated, but not over saturated like Sydney, and they should be shoring up key regions from AFL.
AFL in Sydney is less popular than AFL in SE Queensland. AFL is going up against 9 NRL teams, with GWS going up against Penrith, Parramatta, Wests and Canterbury. So GWS has 4 direct competitors.
Brisbane Lions direct competitors in the south are the broncos. That’s it. The dolphins are so far north they aren’t a factor.
It’s hilarious in Sydney it’s all “tribalism and local rivalries is what makes the game, more local teams, an over saturated market is what we need in Sydney and our strong teams in the west will stop GWS from being successful”.
When Sydney people speak of Brisbane it’s the opposite “well they all go for the broncos anyway so why saturate the market, they might struggle for sponsorship, or it might not make money, you don’t wanna step on what the broncos have built and we don’t really need to create direct competitors for the AFL cause the broncos will sort it out for us”.
All the arguments about leagues built on local rivalry is just thrown out the window when it comes to Brisbane. And that’s cause ultimately, the “tribalism” schtick that Sydney people use to defend an over saturated market is a load of horse shit.
The Lions will continue to infiltrate the south and west of Brisbane with its new training facilities and brand spanking new billion dollar stadium at the Gabba in 2032. While the NRL will get to 2040 twiddling its thumbs and scratching their head wondering how the AFL pulled the rug from under them yet again. You can see it a mile off.
But we’ll all know the reasons NRL be scratching their heads in 2040 because they’ll look back at decisions made from 2020 onwards and as always only have themselves to blame.
