a rugby league expansion team in west aus

[HAL]

g'day

just wondering if i can get you guys/girls thoughts on expansion in rugby league do u think we should honour the central coast with there ready made facilities,juniors,fans and corparate support or do u have my opinion and introduce a team in west australia i think as soon as possible

here's reasons for having a team wa:finally turning rugby league into a national comp hence national rugby league and not just name so the news limited side of the nrl can use all though we all now it's just an eastern seaboard comp (or arl) we know that going national increases revenue,sponsorship etc with is a major problem with nrl atm which mainly down to incompetent people we have running the game eg tv rights undersold but thats an issue for another day

with the mining boom happenig over in wa you are getting alot of skilled workers from the east coast going west and settling down in perth,also there is a large contingent of english and south africans who still love there physical sports (no offence afl) plus the extremely loyal perth locals who have stuck solid with rugby league after they have been treated like rubbish all this years and still kept on fighting now they have a team in the jim bean cup for 08 (nrl admin could do with some of these guys) so all this could start of with a pretty loyal suppporter base for home games then start establishing the game in wa with community canivals, visiting schools, playing rep matches hopefully a little bit of tv coverage but knowing channel nein and nrl thats asking to much (useless)

i think mes could be a good stadia to start of with apparently has poor facilities what you guys think haven't really seen to much of it capacity is 20 000 so thats alright isn't it (aren't they building a new multi purpose stadium)

plus the amount of talent you guys have going over there already cory patterson,i think lee temari as well

the fastest growing city in australia

its the greatest game of all

by the way i'm not from wa if been living in nsw all my life and i follow west

happy to debate any points above or if you think it's hogswallot or what ever

 

[nqboy]

If you look to the right of the "m" key, there are some punctuation keys you could use to make it easier to read your post.

 

[djst]

I think a league team in Perth would work.
The Force union team gets good crowds,the Afl is no1 in Perth,but i think League would have a good following,similar to the lions in Brisbane and the Swans in Sydney.
The big thing for alot of the Perth general public is making them understand the difference with League and union, as alot just understand it as Rugby.

 

[hutch]

the wa reds are back next year, they are competing in the jim beam cup and hope to progress to the qld cup, and hopefully the nrl in a few years time. they will be back!

 

[Perth Red]

No reason a well run Reds NRL team wouldn't draw 20,000 a game. Unfortunately NRL as no will or clue so won't happen for many years I fear.

 

[mattyg]

typical idiotic response by you nqboy...its an internet forum, not an english essay. You couldn't possibly contribute to the thread without being an idiot.

on topic now, i think expansion would be a great idea to Perth. I'm not sure it can be done in the next few years, but maybe 2012-2015 sometime might be a reasonable time to set for a possible expansion. It will all depend on how the new comp comes along..

I'm pretty sure Daniel Holdsworth is from WA as well. So they have a fair share of young talent coming through. As for the CC, i think a Sydney team needs to relocate.

 

[Nook]

WA should be a stead-as-she-goes thing for the ARL I reckon. Pump in some support at grassroots level like they are from next year and see how things go oer the next 5 - 10 years.

Ultimately though I reckon WA are up against it in terms of beating NZ/Brissy 2 for the next spot(s)

 

[mattyg]

WA would be harder to attract players i think...therefore we have to wait at least 5 years till they get really strong juniors and hopefully they can get 3-4 big names when they get admitted.

 

[Knight87]

If WA Reds get into the NRL, what ground would they play at? Members Equity Stadium, WACA, Subiaco Oval?

 

[Knight87]

If WA Reds get into the NRL, what ground would they play at? Members Equity Stadium, WACA, Subiaco Oval?

 

[Knight87]

If WA Reds get into the NRL, what ground would they play at? Members Equity Stadium, WACA, Subiaco Oval?

My guess would be the WACA, as it's got a larger capacity, yet the ground is close to rectangular

 

[Quidgybo]

My guess would be the WACA, as it's got a larger capacity, yet the ground is close to rectangular

The WACA is not close to rectangular, no where near it. It is a cricket oval with the square boundaries squared off which would mean the closest seat in the house for RL will be behind the in-goal. But who cares if the crowd is close to the dead ball line it they are a mile away in the prime viewing positions in the centre of the field? Compared to a proper rectangular ground that gives the game the best possible presentation, the WACA wouid be a handicap for any team based there - as it was for the previous incarnation of the Reds.

Leigh.

 

[Butters]

Is playing at a round stadium that much of a big deal? If im not mistaken pretty much all the NZ rugby teams play at round stadiums and get decent crowds for the games.

 

[Quidgybo]

Is playing at a round stadium that much of a big deal?

How much of a big deal it is depends on the match, the demand and the available stadia. For an Origin or a GF where demand will generally overcome any venue handicap, it isn't that much of a big deal. For 12 regular season home games where casual viewers could take it or leave it and where good or bad gates have a direct impact on the bottom line of the home club, it's a huge deal. In a frontier market where the audience is generally RL illiterate, poor match presentation could be the difference between long term viability and the club quietly dying a few short year's after the initial hype wears off (especially in the absence of a Leagues Club or News Ltd type sugar daddy).

Leigh

 

[Cheesie-the-Pirate]

If im not mistaken pretty much all the NZ rugby teams play at round stadiums and get decent crowds for the games.

Most of them are postage stamp grounds.

 

[Dragonwest]

I was lucky enough to be a ballboy for the reds in their last year. The atmosphere at the WACA was crap! They had to shift one game to MES against the dogs due to a clash in games. The close-in rectangular stadium made it sound like the crowd had doubled from previous weeks.

Will always remember Julian O'neil scoring a 60m try down the left side line. Managed to keep up with the touchy but 15 m behind julian! What a great day for a Perth boy.

 

[Perth Red]

They would play at MES or the new ground. I much prefer MES.

Biggest hurdle will be in securing enough funding to run the team. No leagues clubs allowed, tough corporate sports market with Force and AFL and Glory already being established plus the memories of last time the companies supported RL and got badly treated by the powers that be. Crowd won't be an issue, we have drawn 14,000 for exhibition NRL games so I could see plenty of support available.

I would hope the Reds in JB cup is the first step but it needs a coordinated plan by the WARL/ARL and NRL to get the game big enough. the ARU and WARU were very succesful in establishing their game here within 5 years, unfortunately we don't seem to have the same will, money or abality.

 

[HAL]

lol

yeah sorry about that nq boy i was tired after work wasn't really concentrating

perth red u make some great points especially about funding from leagues clubs.
thats the biggest issue with it would be hard now with the new pokies tax and smoking laws thats why news limited is important for funding at the start and untill finacially viable like storm, cowboys okay maybe in the future with the storm.

it's gonna be a massive challenge to secure sponsorship and club stability as well as nrl new boys the gold coast cause as you say so much competition in perth now.
however rugby league is the greatest game of all so if it is back 100% by nrl eventually it will be successfull

 

[Quidgybo]

however rugby league is the greatest game of all so if it is back 100% by nrl eventually it will be successfull

The problem is that the NRL isn't a hand out, special funding sort of organisation. If you can't survive on the same grant as everybody else and if you don't signifcantly add to the profitability of the comp then you aren't getting in. Simple. If a Perth franchise requires special funding for several years before they become successful then the only place that is coming from is the ARL (based on their remit to spread the game rather than just strictly maxmising profit) or some other third party.

Leigh.

 

[Perth Red]

True, and I guess that is why the NRL are not falling over themselves to see the game developed in WA. Not sure if Fox care if the game exists or not here as they have 4 pro teams already that they are showing on Fox in WA. The trade off for the NRL comes in marketing and potential sponsorship increases that having a "national" game brings. I have no doubts that the AFL attracts greater sponsorship due to beeing seen as a game that can give profile to a product across Australia.

The ARU pumped over 15million $'s into getting the Force started. They obviously feel that having a WA team boosts the profile of their comp. The insular nature of RL makes me think the NRL will never see that. They are more interested in getting 2,000 more into Brookvale or Win then having a potential new area open up to RL.