If they werent already here and we were considering where to put a new club you might have an argument, but thats not the scenario.
To play devils advocate
GC has a historic higher crowd avg than a third of the comp
I don't know if I can trust the attendance figures that are published regarding Titans, Suns and Giants games. All I see is empty seats. I've been to a few Titans games and I was always amazed at how few supporters they had turn up to support them. They don't have a Leagues Club to keep them afloat and there is no reason for people to not support them. Great stadium asd climate, free public transportd and easy to access. I've never turned my back on the teams I support when they are going through a rough patch. Fans just don't turn on their club's if they care.
I liked the suggestion of elevating the Burleigh Bears into the big league to replace the Titans. Burleigh is close to Robina so it could very well work out as the club is established with the community. But Burleigh are not as well supported as the BRL clubs like Wynnum and Easts or Valleys.
I am not convinced professional sport can work on the Gold Coast. That's just my honest opinion, but it's based on 30 years of seeing no professional sports team survive there. There is a general laid back apathy on the Gold Coast that makes it different from other places.
NRL needs RL as strong as possible in NZ
Yes, but it's smaller than Queensland and not as affluent. A second team there will not drive up the price of broadcast rights and I don't know if it would be financially viable. Auckland is the only city of considerable size and it isn't screaming out for a second team.
Canberra are cash rich with their LC's
So is Brisbane.
A joint venture between Wynnum and Easts servicing the east from Brisbane through Redland, Logan and Gold Coast would be able to pool resources from thr two massive Leagues Clubs that are at Manly West and Coorparoo. You want to know how powerful Easts Leagues are? A few years ago they signed a deal to manage the ailing Donkeys Leagues Club. East Coast Seagulls, if ie came into existence, could very well become the largest rugby league club in the world. I thought that's the sort of thing you wanted? It could split games between Lang Park and Robina Stadium until a new ground is built at Nathan.
Melbourne are one of the best supported clubs in the comp and one of the most watched on TV
Melbourne calls itself the sporting capital of the world. If that's true then why don't they sell out Melbourne Rectangular Stadium and produce their own players? There hasn't ben a more successful team in Australian sport during the modern era in terms onfield success. They should be doing better off the field.
Brisbane2 isnt expansion, its consolidation in the games heartland.
Brisbane had an entire competition of its own raped and plundered into extinction by shifty people who used Queensland's anti-poker machine laws to their benefit. Imagine if that happened to your league back home in England? How would that make you feel? Do you even know the history of the BRL? Its clubs didn't have the luxury of collecting money from poker machines because the Joh Bjelke-Pietersen government banned them. He was a religious nut. Sydney clubs had pokies, so they had more money. Ken Arthurson and John Quayle took advantage of this to add the Donkeys, ignoring a consortium from the QRL. The Donkeys agreed to financially compensate the BRL clubs for lost revenues, but never paid up. They also agreed to not lplay any home games at 3pm on Sunday as that was when all BRL games kicked off. They broke this promise during their first season. BRL clubs closest to Donkeys went broke. Donkeys could have bailed them out, but didn't.
I thought Arthurson and Quayle were quite hypocritical during the Super League fiasco. They wanted to rationalise Sydney duringe the 80s and didn't think twice about killing 80 years of history in Brisbane, but carried on about the importance of history and tradition when their competition was under threat.
I hope you now understand why I will never support the Donkeys and why I am bitter against them. There are other people up here who feel the same way. Some of us are young. I believe there is a large rugby league community up here who learned about the Donkeys ill deeds from their parents and grandparents and want nothing to do with them. I often hear people up here say their favourite team is whoever is playing the Broncos. They're never going to go to a Donkeys game, but if you create a couple more teams they will support them.
the only three real expansion areas the game has are Perth, Adelaide and NZ2
There's no interest in Adelaide. NZ2 is unsustainable and has no location for it. Perth has a bid and would draw 12,000 and open up a new time slot. I would like to see them in, but are they via ale long term? Will the other clubs say no to travellaing cross the country?
A new Brisbane club has to be big enough to compete with big brother or they will be dead in the water for years. Thats why I prefer the Bombers bid as sht as the name is. A new club is going to need a very rich and powerful board with connections in Brisbane, not a suburban LC operation who will struggle to bring in the $30mill a year theyre going to need.
Bombers won't work. There's no difference between them and Donkeys and their brand is shit.
My big concern is population density. It's getting harder to move from ob3 part or Brisbane to the other as there are so many people here now compared to 24 years ago. Getting to and from Lang Park is no small feat any more and is rather a headache. I think a team in the east/south/Gold Coast, one north in Moreton and one at Lang Park would be better. It would take the game to the people and crowds would improve as a result. That's 3 teams in total.
Broncos' Achilles heel is they don't have any junior clubs of their own. Say Wests, Norths, Easts and Souths amalgamated to become the Brisbane Devils then the Donkeys would be without the senior and junior clubs that are affiliated with these areas. At least three of them would have Leagues Clubs to pool money from and their brand would be seen all over Brisbane. Give it time and the Broncos would become little brother. I know you don't think it's possible, but people from Brisbane will remember which junior club they played for and have an emotional connection to it. Their parents and grandparents will have supported a BRL club. Support is often passed down from generation to generation.
Hope fully a successful Brisbane club coming in will give the impetus for the NRL to prepare for the 18th club we really need to expand the game, in Perth.
Hopefully one day we would see a 20 team comp, every team play each other once plus 2 magic weekend fixtures for a 21 round season. That should be our long term vision for the top tier comp.
Broadcasters would pay less money for that.
The only expansion area I can see being realistic outside of Brisbane and Sydney is Perth. I would love to have 4 NZ clubs, but I just cannot see where they would get corporate support from. Brisbane2 and Brisbane3 will easily get sponsors on board.