Just for comparison's sake, last night on Fox Sports News during an item on the AFL moving its teams to Queensland for 10 weeks, it was estimated that this will cost the AFL $3 million a week in ongoing costs to do.
Interesting - and I reckon that's why Andrew Abdo had the refence to moving to NSW rather than Qld. He's a finance man. And it's an absolute high-wire balancing act they are walking this season.
Of course - ensuring the players are isolated from risk of Covid is the primary must. The slip-ups last week must be eliminated and bullet-proof procedures be in place and enforced. Given that has (will) happen then....
Relocating 4 further teams to NSW (Cowboys, Broncos, Titans, Storm) under stricter Covid "Bubbles" will cost far less than shifting 12 teams to Qld. The Raiders may stay in the ACT for a NSW comp, but definitely have to relocate for a QLD comp.
It'll come down to..
1 - if the border shuts and
2 - if the comp gets shut down by the NSW govt.
I think 1 is a very likely scenario at some point, but 2 is only a likely scenario if Covid gets far worse in NSW than it did in it's peak back a few months ago.
Regarding crowds... It might also come down to what revenue can be drawn from the gates. If the Border shuts down, will the NSW state govt will allow crowds to continue or not. I think Qld will have the advantage here as bigger crowds will be allowed at Suncorp. But this still wouldn't completely offset the costs or full relocation like the AFL -$3M a week is a far bigger hit to the NRL than AFL. So I don't think this will come into the equation of thinking of QLD vs NSW to host the comp.
Given Vlandys' record throughout the whole season I'm confident that even in the worst of scenarios, he'll have multiple contingencies already in place to keep the comp going, and successfully.
