No new NRL team for 'at least six years'
ANY player looking to join an expanded NRL competition will have to wait at least six years, according to Michael Searle, the architect of the Gold Coast Titans and the league's new independent commission.
Searle was responding to news that a consortium was well advanced with plans to establish a second Brisbane team in 2013
Searle said the earliest a new team would be added to the competition would be 2017.
"With seven potential suitors, from Port Moresby, Rockhampton, Ipswich, Central Coast, Perth, Wellington, New Zealand and now Brisbane, it is hard to frame a market in such a congested field," he said. "But they will have to be in it for the long haul and have a real passion for the game.
"What I don't want to see happen with three rival bidders coming out of Queensland is for them to pull down the Broncos temple.
"The Titans have shown since we first came into the league in 2007 that we are built on a sustainable business model.
"Not once have we asked for a handout from the NRL, while the AFL is propping up the Suns and the Giants in western Sydney with $20 million handouts.
"Rugby league has shown itself to be sustainable in a challenging marketplace like Queensland."
Craig Davison, 53, yesterday quit his post after eight years as chairman of the Thoroughbreds, a Broncos-aligned coterie, to be the public face of the second Brisbane bid team.
Davison, who has built an outdoor furniture empire from scratch, says he can use the business model to establish a second rugby league team in Brisbane.
Davison, along with fellow Broncos minority shareholders John Geaney and Tony Scanlon, had sought a seat on the board of the publicly listed company, but they were apparently unsuccessful.
The three Queensland business identities own a combined 25 per cent stake in the team and are now looking to sell the stock.
Shares in the Broncos have traded between 40c and 26c in the past year and closed yesterday at 32.5c, valuing the company at $31.3 million.
"The shareholding that we own in the Broncos in three separate bundles has been in the marketplace since late last year," Davison said.
Yesterday The Australian saw a draft document outlining the Davison consortium's plans for the second Brisbane club to play at Suncorp Stadium.
It linked former Origin greats Wally Lewis and Mal Meninga as ambassadors for the new Brisbane bid. But Lewis and Meninga, in Sydney last night to play in an Origin legends fundraiser for Queensland flood victims, denied having any contact with the Davison group.
"What you've seen is a draft piece of paper with their names added first without speaking to them. But all will be revealed at a media conference in Brisbane on February 21," Davison said.
Crucially, the Brisbane franchise will be privately owned, as opposed to the rival southeast Queensland bid based in Ipswich.
The 10-page Powerpoint presentation titled "NRL expansion bid ownership opportunity" states that 40 shares will be issued at a cost of $500,000 each, guaranteeing the club $20 million to help set up its operations.
The club would play at Suncorp Stadium, but is in negotiations on a training facility.
The document provides a proposed timeline of 2013 for NRL expansion, something not confirmed by NRL chief executive David Gallop.
