Distribution of NRL Clubs in 20-30 years time

[BrisVegas]

Now that the ARLC has been officially formed, one would hope they are not just considering the current round of NRL expansion, but the make up of the competition in 20 to 30 years time.

What do you believe is a realistic makeup the current NRL competition could evolve into during this time frame?

Note: I have purposely not listed NRL clubs by their mockiers (Broncos, Sharks, Sea-Eagles, Eels etc). To suggest clubs X and Y merge then relocate to location Z is somewhat off-topic to this question: WHERE should NRL Clubs be distributed throughout Australasia, not WHICH clubs).


My Proposed 22 team NRL Competition - circa 2035:


PNG
---
North QLD
Central QLD
Sunshine Coast
Brisbane
Greater Western Brisbane
Gold Coast
---
Newcastle
Central Coast
Sydney x 5 Clubs
South Coast NSW / Wollongong
---
Canberra
---
Melbourne
---
South Australia
---
Western Australia
---
Auckland
NZ II - South Island (Christchurch/Dunedin)
NZ III (Wellington)


The above 22 teams would provide:

- Lockdown all major population centres along the Eastern Coast with the capacity of hosting an NRL club.
- See two further "satellite" clubs established to the West and North of Brisbane, without dropping another club directly on top of the City. Some inter-SEQ Games such as SC vs GC could be played at Lang Park.
- See New Zealand host 3 clubs as a means of further driving participation and interest within the country. The same for the PNG based team.
- Allow for a 21 round competition where each team plays each other once, and home and away fixtures would alternate every year. This will help make each game more of an 'Event', knowing you club only hosts the opposition every second year.
- Teams would play 10 home and 10 away games, with the remaining round having all eleven games played over a weekend in a single city, similar to the Millennium Magic Weekend in SuperLeague.
- A top 10 team finals series played out over 5 weeks.
- 3 Representative Weeks during the year where no club games are played. These Weekends would see State of Origin games played, as well as a round robin tournament between NewZealand, PNG, Tonga and Samoa as a means of fostering international league (or maybe England as a team - 75%+ of the English squad will be NRL players by this stage).
- Western Australia and South Australia will both be represented in the competition.
- The Greater Sydney region from Central Coast south to Wollongong, and west to the Blue Mountains would be home to 7 teams.

Thoughts?

 

[docbrown]

Add another Sydney club and another Melbourne club and you've got yourself a deal young man.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Well currently we have a 16 team comp with ten NSW teams, three in Qld and one each in Vic/NZ/ACT.

Imo the ARL ought to be heading towards a 10-15yr plan of having a 20 team comp consisting of;

NSW - 9 teams
QLD - 5
NZ - 2
Vic/WA/SA/ACT - 1 each

Give it another 10 years or so and if the comp is still stable then we can think about expanding again with a 3rd NZ team and a 2nd Vic team, or whatever suits us best.

 

[docbrown]

NSW & QLD are quite different to WA/SA/VIC/TAS though.

Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Geelong and possibly Hobart are big enough to support national sports club - so 5 cities.

NSW, ACT & QLD have Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney, Gosford, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Townsville at the moment with Central Queensland and Sunshine Coast down the track.

If two Sydney teams merge and Central Coast is added that's 10 teams in NSW plus Raiders across 5 cities compare to the AFL 10 teams in Victoria across 2.

 

[Perth Tiger]

Add another 2 Sydney teams, ie keeping most of the current teams and I think that the op would be the medium term goal

 

[Perth Red]

Hard to see the game expanding much in the next 20 years. Maybe two more teams if we are lucky. Most of the money wiill get ploughed into the existing teams imo.

 

[Red&BlackBear]

It might be irrelevant now but air travel has to be a consideration in the future. The less air plane services available means the higher costs will be (for lack of competition). Sending 2 teams worth of players plus coaches/staff is already an expensive expense. One must be vigilant of the potential blow costs in the future and how it might affect club distribution.

 

[Dogs Of War]

In one of the other threads, someone posted that if we had 4 viable bids, that we should do as in 1995 and add them all. That would be great, especially if staggered (2 one year, 2 the next year). Would mean we could have something like Perth, Brisbane 2, CC and now that it has thrown it's hat into the ring, NZ South Island.

Probably be something awesome to sell to the TV networks as well. Not to mention that the game itself would be leading from the front foot. It also may assist in the rationalisation of the Sydney market, as it the have nots struggle to keep up with the leading clubs. Some incentives like relocation bonus could be put up as a carrot, but only if you go to some nominated areas.

 

[Perth Red]

It might be irrelevant now but air travel has to be a consideration in the future. The less air plane services available means the higher costs will be (for lack of competition). Sending 2 teams worth of players plus coaches/staff is already an expensive expense. One must be vigilant of the potential blow costs in the future and how it might affect club distribution.

you seem to be suggesting a reverse in a world wide 20 year trend of air travel reducing in price, do you know something about the world airline industry that we don't? When I came to Perth 12 years ago an avg return flight to Sydney cost $1800, you can now get one for less than $600. I see no reason why this trend won't continue, well until the oil runs out anyway!

 

[BuffaloRules]

Why cant the NRL do an "official airlines" deal like the AFL does?

I'll bet the AFL or their clubs pay jack to fly all over Australia..

 

[Perth Red]

I think they do? In fact I hope they do when you consider how many flights they need in a season! Not sure I have ever seen anything on any airlines advertising to suggest an official NRL link up though? I know Qantas sponsor AFL, WAllabies and Socceroos as they are always beign featured in their in flight magazine. Interestingly we have Virgin as one of our sponsors for the WA Reds SG Ball team and we get a discounted flight rate through this sponsorship.

 

[BuffaloRules]

I think they do? In fact I hope they do when you consider how many flights they need in a season! Not sure I have ever seen anything on any airlines advertising to suggest an official NRL link up though? I know Qantas sponsor AFL, WAllabies and Socceroos as they are always beign featured in their in flight magazine. Interestingly we have Virgin as one of our sponsors for the WA Reds SG Ball team and we get a discounted flight rate through this sponsorship.

Vigin stole the AFL off Qantas about a year ago.

Worth 8 mil a year which must at least cover all their flights...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...ract-from-qantas/story-e6frg8zx-1225955659609

I think some of the NRL clubs have their own separate deals...

Wests Tigers use Tiger
Jetstar Titans obviously

 

[Red&BlackBear]

you seem to be suggesting a reverse in a world wide 20 year trend of air travel reducing in price, do you know something about the world airline industry that we don't? When I came to Perth 12 years ago an avg return flight to Sydney cost $1800, you can now get one for less than $600. I see no reason why this trend won't continue, well until the oil runs out anyway!

Competition has been the main cause, which is a good thing for all concerned. But with more and more airline services collapsing, expect prices to start slowly going up. Of course I'm not talking about what's going to happen in 5-10 years but rather 10-20 years.

Also oil is running out...

But all trivial things aside, distribution should be 6 main places and 4 smaller places. The main 6 IMO are W.A., CC, Ipswich, NZ 2, S.A. & CQLD. The 4 smaller places are PNG, Tasmania, North of Brisbane (Caboolture, North Lakes, Redcliffe & Sunny Coast) & NZ 3. No real time line except for the first 4 (of the main) mentioned.