18th club, whose next?

[TheEroticGamer]

Hobart, Darwin, Port Moresby, 2nd Melbourne team, Central Coast…all above Central Queensland.

 

[MugaB]

AI logistics planning have now gotten to the point where you can feed in data from the past ten years and spit out a schedule that maximises rivalry games, games with larger crowds and the ideal slots for each game. In that regards, conferences are not required to maximise attendances.

Correct in reality all things can stay the same as it is now, just have 2 ladders really, one for each conference

 

[MugaB]

Most of it is but I wish he was honest about this part, and his complaints about the draw:

“Eighteen is perfect. We’ve got to do that. I think it makes sense. It’ll be great for the gate. Playing all the Sydney teams twice is better for us than playing the Titans or Dolphins at home. Revenue will go through the roof. You’ll get better crowds. It’s fair.”

That’s great for Sydney sides. But it means the travel burden is even more lopsided for the other sides, and doesn’t really provide them with much of an upside, besides guaranteeing derby games for the QLD sides. That said I’m not necessarily against it as long as the non Sydney teams get the extra travel costs compensated as part of their grant.
I could see Newcastle not being keen on it though.

Money doesn't solve those problems, fk Politis, his club is a burden on the game, has always been, now he wants to change the draw to suit his club, well he can go get f_k-d,
Perth with the bears is fine, relatively same colors, brings the 1908 heritage to an expansion area and a strong mascot that will hold up, that most expansion clubs fail at (crushers, seagulls, giants, titans, mariners)
As for sydney centric conference, what a joke, I've always said if you want to make conferences fair, make accor stadium the centre of the NRL, and divide any teams north or south of that stadium into conferences, its totally fair, unbias and purely based on location, not past data that can be skewed by influence like what politis is suggesting

 

[Perth Red]

Sydney clubs will be travelling less, giving their players more rest.

If everyone in a Sydney conference plays each other twice then the amount of Sydney vs Sydney games will be greater than it is at the moment. Not all Sydney teams play each other twice under the current model.

I havent suggested that. In my model Sydney teams will play other Sydney teams 14 out of 24 games.

 

[Perth Red]

Most of it is but I wish he was honest about this part, and his complaints about the draw:

“Eighteen is perfect. We’ve got to do that. I think it makes sense. It’ll be great for the gate. Playing all the Sydney teams twice is better for us than playing the Titans or Dolphins at home. Revenue will go through the roof. You’ll get better crowds. It’s fair.”

That’s great for Sydney sides. But it means the travel burden is even more lopsided for the other sides, and doesn’t really provide them with much of an upside, besides guaranteeing derby games for the QLD sides. That said I’m not necessarily against it as long as the non Sydney teams get the extra travel costs compensated as part of their grant.
I could see Newcastle not being keen on it though.

The nrl pays all travel costs, not the clubs

 

[The Great Dane]

Most of it is but I wish he was honest about this part, and his complaints about the draw:

“Eighteen is perfect. We’ve got to do that. I think it makes sense. It’ll be great for the gate. Playing all the Sydney teams twice is better for us than playing the Titans or Dolphins at home. Revenue will go through the roof. You’ll get better crowds. It’s fair.”

That’s great for Sydney sides. But it means the travel burden is even more lopsided for the other sides, and doesn’t really provide them with much of an upside, besides guaranteeing derby games for the QLD sides. That said I’m not necessarily against it as long as the non Sydney teams get the extra travel costs compensated as part of their grant.
I could see Newcastle not being keen on it though.

On top of that it'd also f**k the revenue of most of the teams outside of Sydney. Playing the bigger sides from Sydney is better for business for most of the clubs outside of Sydney than playing the Titans and Dolphins as well (Queensland clubs exempted in that example), just as playing some of the bigger sides from outside of Sydney would be bigger draws for the Roosters than playing some of the smaller Sydney sides.

A Sydney conference would weight the league so heavily in favour of that conference that it'd f**k the competitive integrity of the league., and it's honestly insane how blinkered some of the people in Sydney are that they can't see that.

Jumping to 24 teams with two conferences of 12, each with two divisions of 6, might work better, but even then one of the divisions is inevitably going to end up being a division full of spares.

The reality is that the geographical spread of clubs in the NRL just isn't workable for conferences unless you spilt all the derbies and rivalries up to equalise the conferences, which none of the stakeholders in the sport would ever agree to. The only other way to make it workable is expand massively and/or jettison clubs in Sydney and Queensland, which isn't happening either.

 

[blue bags]

The Grizzlies Bear's

Will need to be involved


.

 

[Colk]

Central Queensland? Surely if there is another Queensland team it has to be in SE QLD.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

How many fans from the Waratahs and Reds would support them in the NRL?

Basically none I reckon- if they had any interest in League they already had teams to support. A bit different with the Force or the NZ sides other than the Blues.

 

[mongoose]

Central Queensland? Surely if there is another Queensland team it has to be in SE QLD.

"Hey lets measure halfway between Brisbane and Townsville and put a team there!"

It's the ultimate "dots on a map" location, often pushed by Sydney folk.

 

[Vlad59]

"Hey lets measure halfway between Brisbane and Townsville and put a team there!"

It's the ultimate "dots on a map" location, often pushed by Sydney folk.

I went to Rockhampton a few years ago for work. I remember going to the local pub on the Main Street, knocking back a few beers with the locals and going back to my salubrious digs at the CWA hotel and thinking ‘Why the fig isn’t there an NRL team here?’

 

[mongoose]

I went to Rockhampton a few years ago for work. I remember going to the local pub on the Main Street, knocking back a few beers with the locals and going back to my salubrious digs at the CWA hotel and thinking ‘Why the fig isn’t there an NRL team here?’

well at least you've been there

 

[Vlad59]

well at least you've been there

Yep. How anybody thinks that region could support an NRL club mate?

 

[jim_57]

Yep. How anybody thinks that region could support an NRL club mate?

I’m sure they could support an NRL team, they’re just not the best option for one of the limited number of expansion spots. Just for Queensland alone I’d probably have Brisbane 3 or Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and maybe even Toowoomba ahead.

It’s a shame because the area is Rugby League through and through, they just need another 100-200k people. Probably why they tried to include Mackay in the bid last time.

 

[Wb1234]

"Hey lets measure halfway between Brisbane and Townsville and put a team there!"

It's the ultimate "dots on a map" location, often pushed by Sydney folk.

That’s perf

 

[mongoose]

I’m sure they could support an NRL team, they’re just not the best option for one of the limited number of expansion spots. Just for Queensland alone I’d probably have Brisbane 3 or Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and maybe even Toowoomba ahead.

It’s a shame because the area is Rugby League through and through, they just need another 100-200k people. Probably why they tried to include Mackay in the bid last time.

The problem is Rocky and Mackay are just large country towns... they would struggle to attract players. Townsville at least resembles a small city.

 

[jim_57]

The problem is Rocky and Mackay are just large country towns... they would struggle to attract players. Townsville at least resembles a small city.

Yeh no doubt they’d struggle to attract players, probably more so than any team or potential team except PNG. Even players from the area like Munster, Grant & Hunt etc would be hard to get back I’d imagine. Keeping juniors would be a struggle when the appeal of moving to Brisbane or Sydney gets put on the table.

 

[Canard]

Yeh no doubt they’d struggle to attract players, probably more so than any team or potential team except PNG. Even players from the area like Munster, Grant & Hunt etc would be hard to get back I’d imagine. Keeping juniors would be a struggle when the appeal of moving to Brisbane or Sydney gets put on the table.

Thats the least of their concerns though, this would be akin to placing a team in Cairns, and that is virtually 3 times the size of Rocky.

Its just too small a region and population base to support a team.

Sunshine Coast and Brisbane are the only logical future expansion areas for QLD.

 

[Vlad59]

Thats the least of their concerns though, this would be akin to placing a team in Cairns, and that is virtually 3 times the size of Rocky.

Its just too small a region and population base to support a team.

Sunshine Coast and Brisbane are the only logical future expansion areas for QLD.

If you’d stayed at the CWA hotel like I did you might have a different opinion. Or not.

 

[jim_57]

Thats the least of their concerns though, this would be akin to placing a team in Cairns, and that is virtually 3 times the size of Rocky.

Its just too small a region and population base to support a team.

Sunshine Coast and Brisbane are the only logical future expansion areas for QLD.

Yehp definitely bigger issues before you get anywhere near trying to sign players. Population one of the main ones, without properly doing the math it’s probably 120k in & around Rockhampton, you might be able to scrape 300k within a few hundred kms.