Expansion, Manly and the Coasts

[Beowulf]

Those who insist on getting bogged down in the Sydney vs regional argument are really just trying to avoid dealing with the fact that this corridor is already spolied for choice while other areas of Australia and New Zealand either have only one choice or no choice at all within any reasonable travelling distance.

Leigh

Incorrect - there is no choice for northern Sydney - its Bears or no interest in League, and the travel distance from the CC to other grounds by public transport is longer than from Brisbane or Ipswich to the Gold Coast. Your 'distance' argument I concede applies to the Rocky, PNG or Perth bids, but if your using the proximity argument to deny the Bears, you deny western corridor/Brisbane2 first.

 

[Quidgybo]

Incorrect - there is no choice for northern Sydney - its Bears or no interest in League, and the travel distance from the CC to other grounds by public transport is longer than from Brisbane or Ipswich to the Gold Coast. Your 'distance' argument I concede applies to the Rocky, PNG or Perth bids, but if your using the proximity argument to deny the Bears, you deny western corridor/Brisbane2 first.

Not at all, I discussed both distance and choice. As the crow flies there are already nine sides to choose from playing within 71km (!) of Bluetongue. Depending on which area of SE Queensland you talk about, there is either only one (anywhere north of the CBD), two (south of the CBD) or no choices (Toowoomba, northern end of the Sunshine Coast) within similar proximity. And as you correctly concede if you're a fan in Perth, PNG, CQ or Wellington then you're really out of luck travelling easily to home games of your nearest team let alone having any choice.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?p=7304567#post7304567

Leigh.

 

[flippikat]

Not at all, I discussed both distance and choice. As the crow flies there are already nine sides to choose from playing within 71km (!) of Bluetongue. Depending on which area of SE Queensland you talk about, there is either only one (anywhere north of the CBD), two (south of the CBD) or no choices (Toowoomba, northern end of the Sunshine Coast) within similar proximity. And as you correctly concede if you're a fan in Perth, PNG, CQ or Wellington then you're really out of luck travelling easily to home games of your nearest team let alone having any choice.

Damn straight.

I'm an NRL fan in Wellington - and I support the Warriors, being a NZ-based team.

However if there was another team closer to where I live, I'd switch - they'd be my local team.

And if there was a team based within 71km of where I live, me and the wife would certainly get out to more than the 1 home game per year in Auckland that we've been to in the last few years. (Budget, travel time, work commitments just make it hard to travel across the island all that often)

The Bears bid is now a double-edged sword for the NRL.

Turning them down (after so much encouragement to go to Gosford since the late 1990s) will just piss off the Bears lobby, yet letting them in will just exasperate those of us who have to travel great distances to see the top-level of the game in person.

 

[Beowulf]

Not at all, I discussed both distance and choice. As the crow flies there are already nine sides to choose from playing within 71km (!) of Bluetongue.
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?p=7304567#post7304567

Leigh.

But you can't fly by crow to a game...not sure where you live, but if you're in Sydney, 71km may as well be to the moon given travel logistics. Many I know from the Central Coast have never been to Southern Sydney, ever.

 

[Quidgybo]

But you can't fly by crow to a game...not sure where you live, but if you're in Sydney, 71km may as well be to the moon given travel logistics. Many I know from the Central Coast have never been to Southern Sydney, ever.

I live in Dallas Texas, an urban area significantly bigger than Sydney with public transport that is significantly worse. And I spent many years living in North Queensland where it's not unheard of to travel 800km to see a game of football.

You've still managed to miss the big picture. Call it 150km if you like. It's still hardly onerous compared to the distances many of us would need to travel to get to see even one team. As I said, in the area between Newcastle and Wollongong you're spoiled for choice.

Leigh.

 

[adamkungl]

The day will come when your brain will begin working.

Extrapolation would suggest no, no it won't.

 

[Dragon_Taylor6]

I thought Sydney may have been bigger when it comes to area?

 

[Quidgybo]

The Dallas-Fort Worth "metroplex" is about 90km across at its widest point. That's about the same as the distance from Campbelltown to Gosford and compared to around 60km for Penrith to Bondi. I'll concede it doesn't have a huge harbour to navigate around but then the last place I lived was on the wrong side of the San Francisco Bay Area which is bigger again. And it goes without saying that public transport in most American cities makes CitiRail look like a millionaire's private jet.

Leigh.

 

[dangerousdave]

I thought Sydney may have been bigger when it comes to area?

Sure is, Dallas-Fort W has a higher population though

 

[bobmar28]

The Dallas-Fort Worth "metroplex" is about 90km across at its widest point. That's about the same as the distance from Campbelltown to Gosford and compared to around 60km for Penrith to Bondi. I'll concede it doesn't have a huge harbour to navigate around but then the last place I lived was on the wrong side of the San Francisco Bay Area which is bigger again. And it goes without saying that public transport in most American cities makes CitiRail look like a millionaire's private jet.

Leigh.

And Dallas has one team - Cowboys. How sensible.

 

[adamkungl]

lol if cities in Australia had 1 team each there would be 2 teams in the comp - Sydney and Melbourne. Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide = country towns.

 

[rednblack]

And Dallas has one team - Cowboys. How sensible.

I guess that means you don't think Brisbane needs another team then, since it would be insensible to have more than one...?

 

[Haffa]

I live in Dallas Texas, an urban area significantly bigger than Sydney with public transport that is significantly worse. And I spent many years living in North Queensland where it's not unheard of to travel 800km to see a game of football.

You've still managed to miss the big picture. Call it 150km if you like. It's still hardly onerous compared to the distances many of us would need to travel to get to see even one team. As I said, in the area between Newcastle and Wollongong you're spoiled for choice.

Leigh.

So you've never lived in Sydney?

Not at all, I discussed both distance and choice. As the crow flies there are already nine sides to choose from playing within 71km (!) of Bluetongue. Depending on which area of SE Queensland you talk about, there is either only one (anywhere north of the CBD), two (south of the CBD) or no choices (Toowoomba, northern end of the Sunshine Coast) within similar proximity. And as you correctly concede if you're a fan in Perth, PNG, CQ or Wellington then you're really out of luck travelling easily to home games of your nearest team let alone having any choice.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?p=7304567#post7304567

Leigh.

71km on a map isn't the same as 71km, from gosford its easier to get to Parramatta then it is to get to Manly most of the time. Forcing manly to move and introducing the bears on the coast wont help increase support for rugby league in the Northern Beaches/North Shore.

Like I said in another topic, the only way Manly covers the coast or the bears on the coast covers the northern beaches is if a bridge is built from Palm Beach to Umina and I doubt thats in the governernt or the NRLs budget.

What good are the bears without Manly? I'm sure even Manly fans would love to have that great rival back.

 

[woodyk2]

Id love to see the cenral coast bears...wouldnt go for them but it would be fantastic for the game.

 

[firechild]

I'd like to see the Bears back but I just don't see how the Central Coast would be a priority over Perth, QLD or even a 2nd NZ team.

 

[age.s]

I can't believe the last few pages have included lengthy discussions about whether CC is part of Sydney metro and a city in f**king USA. If CC is Sydney metro than Brisbane already has a second team, and the sporting situation in Dallas is no more relevant to the NRL than the happenings on the moon.

You only have to look at threads like this one to see what the Bears would bring to the comp. Proud passionate fans, a viscious rivalry (f**k yeah), Rugby League heritage and a team for one of the biggest junior nurseries in the country. Argue about whether another theoretical team could add something to the comp, but anyone suggesting the Bears would add nothing is either simple minded or having a lend.

Back on topic, I wouldn't want to see Manly moved for similar reasons. If their financial situation forces them then so be it, but killing/moving clubs alienates fans. That's a negative for the game no matter where and how it happens.

 

[Loudstrat]

I have learned lots of things today.

• People in Dallas travel by crow
• Bobmar wants 2 teams in Australia
• A population with enough people willing to pay money to support a new football team by attending games, buying merchandise and watching TV have less to do with rugby league clubs than the flght path of crows in Texas.

F*ck me Quidgey if you are not the dumbest f*ck ever to nut out how to post on a forum.

I know you have a vast knowledge of Sydney having never lived closer than 2000kms away, and think Gosford is the next suburb to Kogarah and Penrith. It may surprise you to know that Sydney is a city that is bisected by a number of natural barriers of steep rugged terrain, some are waterways, some are mountains. That is why:

• It took the British government and their military a quarter of a century to work out how to get out by land
• The only ever incidence of an extinct prehistoric species discovered still living was in 1994 - 100km from the Harbour Bridge
• Last week a bushwalker died in rugged terrain after cutting his leg. It took 24hrs for police and ambulances to get to him. Police described the location as one of the most remote in the state. They had to use train, boat and an arduous mountain climb to get to him. That was halfway between Sydney and Gosford.

Also think of this - Quidgey and similar simpletons who think like him never stoppedto wonder why - in the 40th anniversary of the comp expanding outside NSW,

• The comp has been won only 9 times by non NSW clubs,
• Only 3 non NSW have won the comp,
• All 3 have cheated at some stage to do it
• The only non Sydney side to win the comp and never cheat was Newcastle.

9 times outside, 29 times inside. That terribly poor pitiful Sydney-Newcastle corridor full of it's dying teams - how do they survive and win all those comps

And look, there is another million in here unrepresented!!!!!!

I wonder what he crows in Dallas have to say -or sqwark - about that!

Quidgey - you obviously have never lived in a place that has experienced tribalism. The entire North Shore wants the Bears back. They do not want to support Manly. The entire Central Coast wants the Bears back too.


As for Flipkat - maybe you and your missus would move to where people are. Three are people in Birdsville who struggle with the concept of having 2 teams within a marathon crows flight of each other too.

When you mental capacity increases to enale you to understand the concept of lots people having lots of money who want a club in their area, you might finally understand how f*cking stupid your arguments are!

 

[Quidgybo]

When you learn to post without the personal bullshit I'll take the time to read more than a couple of words of it.

Leigh.

 

[Quidgybo]

So you've never lived in Sydney?

I have lived in Sydney. For about three years. Long, long ago.

71km on a map isn't the same as 71km...

Call it 150km if you'd like. Again, you're getting caught up on a small detail and missing the point. There are plenty of fans who'd kill to have a team within 500km, let alone have nine of them within such close proximity.

I sympathise with the Bears position and I'd love to see a team based on the Central Coast. But I think it needs to come from a redistribution of the abundance of existing licenses already allocated to the Newcastle-Wollongong corridor. Whether that is from relocation or the Bears buying out an existing license doesn't really matter to me, but I don't want to see a 10th side based in this relatively small geographic area while the game short changes other areas.

Leigh.

 

[firechild]

Are you really argueing that people who live miles from anywhere deserve to have a team closer to home? There are 5 million people in Sydney and less than a million over an area that covers about half of Queensland. Your argument comes unstuck.