The Great Dane
First Grade
- Messages
- 7,770
The fact is, if you aren't expanding as a sport, you're shrinking.
There is more competition than ever in every market.
In Sydney and Brisbane's previous generation, you grew up following League or Union.
Now, young people follow League, Union (lol?), A-League, AFL, NFL, EPL, NBA. There's only so far a sports budget stretches. It is IMPOSSIBLE to maintain the market share levels of yesteryear. No sport could do it. Even AFL in Melbourne will eventually feel this pinch. And this is before I mention the impact of video games and online entertainment content.
So, with that in mind, there are 2 reasons we need to be expanding
1 - if you aren't nationally and internationally relevant, new audiences aren't paying attention. There are so many bigger fish. In a multicultural international city like Sydney, a small-time attitude suburban football comp looks like shit compared to the NBA and NFL which everyone under 35 are paying roughly the cost of an NRL season ticket to stream on their phones.
2 - if the main market is becoming tighter, you need to be finding new markets to compensate.
It's far healthier to have 20% share in 10 markets than 80% share in 1 market.
TLDR; Anyone who is against expansion wants the sport to wither and die, and may as well be a Union fan.
Adding to what you are saying, even if the NRL could maintain their market share of Sydney the way they are going about it it'd come at the expense of their market share in the rest of the country.
In other words, they would be choosing to be a small regional product that is only popular in Sydney over having a significant presence in any other markets nationally, and as you say it's healthier to have a minority share in 10 markets than to have a majority share of 1.