18th club, whose next?

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

It’s nice that they are doing their bit for expansion and will be feeding Storm for the next few years lol

I remember when the Broncos sent their reserves to play for Toowoomba. I could never understand why they would send them all that way when there were plenty of clubs in Brisbane. From a logistical perspective it would have been better for them to keep the Wests Panthers alive and have their reserves play for them.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Do you not think existing brands like the Bears don't bring any value then?


Have the Fitzroy Lions and South Melbourne Swans not only been adopted by their new city but also retain a sizeable fanbase from whence they came?

The majority of NRL clubs take a game a season to the bush, in the instance of a Western Jets or Adelaide Bears, these matches can be heritage games at Henson and North Sydney Oval respectively.

Lions and Swans don't take any games to Melbourne.

 

[Perth Red]

Lions and Swans don't take any games to Melbourne.

And are not owned by those melbourne clubs.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

And are not owned by those melbourne clubs.

The Lions reserve grade team is called Brisbane Lions and based out of Moreton Bay. The Fitzroy club play in an amateur league in Melbourne.

 

[Perth Red]

The Lions reserve grade team is called Brisbane Lions and based out of Moreton Bay. The Fitzroy club play in an amateur league in Melbourne.

Exactly, it wasn’t a fifo it was a genuine relocation under new ownership. As it should be.

 

[The Great Dane]

Lions and Swans don't take any games to Melbourne.

And are not owned by those melbourne clubs.

They also held licenses in the AFL before relocating and merging (the Lions were bought out and asset mined by the Brisbane Bears in actuality, but that's an aside), both fully relocated their businesses to their new markets, and hadn't suffered decades of atrophy to their support bases at the time. BTW, the size of their current support bases in Melbourne are totally overblown as well, especially Fitzroy whose traditional fanbase (or what's left of it at least) is significantly more inclined to support the FFC than the Lions if they continue to support in any meaningful sense of the word at all any more.

In other words the Swans and Lions brought something of value to the relationship, namely a license, pro players, and other assets and infrastructure as the case may be, that neither Bears or Jets have.

Perth and Adelaide don't, or rather shouldn't, need to partner with either of them to get a license, and they'd still need to invest in most of those assets and infrastructure anyway as the Bear's and Jet's isn't up to NRL standard anyway. Furthermore, all the genuine benefits that the Bears and Jets offer could be gained by simply affiliating with a lower tier club/clubs in either NSW, Qld, and potentially even NZ or the ACT, without the need to give away ownership, the brand, home games, places on the board, etc, etc.
We haven't even touched on the impacts that being lumped with the Bears or Jets could and would have on Perth and/or Adelaide either, which are significant, but most people whom support these ideas don't seem to give the faintest f**k about that anyway, so it's probably a waste of time.

Nobody in their right mind would agree to partner with the Bears or Jets given their demands and expectations, not unless they felt they were being forced to anyway, and given that it'd be an unforgivable travesty if the NRL pressures either Perth or Adelaide to take on the Bears or Jets just to appease out of touch boomers in Sydney/NSW whom shouldn't be the target audience of either a Perth or Adelaide side in the first place.

 

[The Great Dane]

Exactly, it wasn’t a fifo it was a genuine relocation under new ownership. As it should be.

Sort of, but it wasn't a relocation at all and the new ownership didn't buy the club.

The tl;dr of the Lions downfall is that the writing had been on the wall for over a decade, but unlike the Swans the Lions members voted down relocation and merger proposals in favour of short term stays of execution that keep them in Melbourne until the early 90s when it was obvious they were completely f**ked. At that point they pursued a merger with North Melbourne with the support of the membership, but it was too little, too late, and they defaulted on a loan and went into administration.

They and North Melbourne (at least publicly. . .) wanted to continue with the merger, but the AFL convinced the administrator to "merge" the club with the Brisbane Bears. The "merger" basically entailed Brisbane being sold all of Fitzroy's valuable assets, brand, property, players contracts, in exchange for taking on a modified version of Fitzroy's brand. In other words it was a merger in name only. Brisbane, and the Roos for that matter, were only really after Fitzroy's players, which worked out great for Brisbane, but I digress.

It went to a vote of club representatives who voted in favour of the proposal, then boom the Lions effectively died that day. After a couple years the original FFC came out of administration and started operating again in the lower tiers independently of the Brisbane Lions.

 

[Pippen94]

They also held licenses in the AFL before relocating and merging (the Lions were bought out and asset mined by the Brisbane Bears in actuality, but that's an aside), both fully relocated their businesses to their new markets, and hadn't suffered decades of atrophy to their support bases at the time. BTW, the size of their current support bases in Melbourne are totally overblown as well, especially Fitzroy whose traditional fanbase (or what's left of it at least) is significantly more inclined to support the FFC than the Lions if they continue to support in any meaningful sense of the word at all any more.

In other words the Swans and Lions brought something of value to the relationship, namely a license, pro players, and other assets and infrastructure as the case may be, that neither Bears or Jets have.

Perth and Adelaide don't, or rather shouldn't, need to partner with either of them to get a license, and they'd still need to invest in most of those assets and infrastructure anyway as the Bear's and Jet's isn't up to NRL standard anyway. Furthermore, all the genuine benefits that the Bears and Jets offer could be gained by simply affiliating with a lower tier club/clubs in either NSW, Qld, and potentially even NZ or the ACT, without the need to give away ownership, the brand, home games, places on the board, etc, etc.
We haven't even touched on the impacts that being lumped with the Bears or Jets could and would have on Perth and/or Adelaide either, which are significant, but most people whom support these ideas don't seem to give the faintest f**k about that anyway, so it's probably a waste of time.

Nobody in their right mind would agree to partner with the Bears or Jets given their demands and expectations, not unless they felt they were being forced to anyway, and given that it'd be an unforgivable travesty if the NRL pressures either Perth or Adelaide to take on the Bears or Jets just to appease out of touch boomers in Sydney/NSW whom shouldn't be the target audience of either a Perth or Adelaide side in the first place.

Swans leaned on south Melbourne fans when they struggled. It also provided legacy to team; all records go back beyond 1982.

 

[Pippen94]

Exactly, it wasn’t a fifo it was a genuine relocation under new ownership. As it should be.

Wait lions weren't from fiztroy & swans from south Melbourne?!

 

[Pippen94]

Lions and Swans don't take any games to Melbourne.

.
In fairness, there are no suburban grounds in afl. Sydney is more a collection of satellite places. Tapping into jets logo will help gain fans to grounds, whereas plastic clubs don't draw well

 

[Canard]

Wait lions weren't from fiztroy & swans from south Melbourne?!

At least both of those organisations aren't dumb enough to suggest that they play multiple 'home games" at dilapidated old grounds in an already over saturated city.

The question has to be asked, why the f**k does Sydney need more games of RL?

 

[Canard]

.
In fairness, there are no suburban grounds in afl. Sydney is more a collection of satellite places. Tapping into jets logo will help gain fans to grounds, whereas plastic clubs don't draw well

The Swans played in the AFL for 2 decades of suburban grounds being used in the AFL, the Bears/ Lions for a decade.

It never even got raised once, that they play an home game in the saturated Melbourne market.

Because it's a dumb idea, and people should feel dumb for suggesting it

 

[Pippen94]

At least both of those organisations aren't dumb enough to suggest that they play multiple 'home games" at dilapidated old grounds in an already over saturated city.

The question has to be asked, why the f**k does Sydney need more games of RL?

Wait, gws play out of two grounds

 

[Pippen94]

The Swans played in the AFL for 2 decades of suburban grounds being used in the AFL, the Bears/ Lions for a decade.

It never even got raised once, that they play an home game in the saturated Melbourne market.

Because it's a dumb idea, and people should feel dumb for suggesting it

Lions merger was 1996. Swans came in 1982. World was more inflexible back then. Clubs now take games all over the place: nz, Tassie, nt, china..

 

[Pippen94]

No I didn't and couldn't have even if I wanted too, the situations aren't even close to comparable.

Yeah, one's NSW cup & other is qld cup. Big difference

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Roosters 2nd reserve grade side having a good year.
out of interest how many of the bears nsw cup side are bears region jnrs?

Juniors don't count by your metrics.

 

[Canard]

Wait, gws play out of two grounds

Lions merger was 1996. Swans came in 1982. World was more inflexible back then. Clubs now take games all over the place: nz, Tassie, nt, china..

None of those games are in already over saturated markets.

 

[Colk]

None of those games are in already over saturated markets.

They also do for money not because they are more flexible.

 

[Wb1234]

Yet this forum just continues to ignore a png bid

peak lu

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Yep. A league team is going to stop China.