The Storm is a good comparison. We went there is 1998 with almost zero interest, and built the fan-base one fan at a time (the Storm Clouds book is a great read on this. The club would literally go door to door in the suburbs with the most Kiwi expats and try to sell memberships/tickets). Now there are one of the most valuable clubs in the comp.
Some of the cities in SE asia could unlock some unimaginable TV deals/ sponsorships and the region is close enough to just extend the NRL.
I was a teacher in China years back and some of those kids today are enormous (Shows what a decent diet can do for your health) so the potential is there. Get the NRL into the region and use that as the flagship to drive participation and interest
There's plenty of Australians, New Zealanders, Brits and Polynesians in Singapore. A Singaporean NRL club could tap into this community.
The growing rugby union community would also be a good target. A Polynesian rugby union club called Asia Pacific Dragons is based in Singapore.
Melbourne had a rugby union scene similar to Singapore's back in 1998.
The only way the NRL will increase its revenue stream from sponsorship and broadcast rights is by expanding into large metropolitan regions. Brisbane 3, Perth and Singapore will make the game richer and stronger.
I've been advocating for expansion into Singapore for quite some time. I've copped a lot of shit from braindead trolls who think we need more teams in Sydney. They'll probably target you next, but don't like the morons get you down. Just put them on ignore.