Gold Coast Bears/Nth Sydney/Gosford

[mongoose]

Do you not see the hypocrisy?

You berate Gosford as being too small, not a new area, not growing and bringing no value to TV rights. Yet you support a team from an area that is all of those things. If the NSWRL followed your advice in 1980s there would be no Raiders.

I've asked before and I will ask again. If you think fans in RL heartland who don't have a team to support are less important than people in Perth and Adelaide, and let's be realistic, they will never watch the game, why aren't you demanding the Raiders become the West Coast Raiders?

After 22 years of unrivalled success, the Storm have only inspired 3,500 people across Victoria to play the game.

Perth Red gloats about the Storm getting 90,000 people across Melbourne to tune in when they played the Broncos on theain channel. What the idiot either does not understand or is leaving out is that is similar to what the Lions average on 7mate in Brissie when you consider that Melbourne has twice as many people.

If you think that is impressive, the Lions and the Suns are the least watched teams of the 34 clubs from the NRL and AFL. Let that sink in.

Is that your definition of growing the game?

Is that what you want from Adelaide and Perth?

What value would a Perth or Adelaide team add to the TV rights? They would be stuck on 9Gem drawing 30,000 or less viewers in their home markets. A team in Gosford would draw far more than that.

The AwFuL would not like it one bit if the NRL put a team in Gosford. It would make it harder to get kids to play fumbleball.

You are probably right. If the NRL started from scratch today Canberra might miss out. But they were added in 1982 when the code wasn't a billion dollar sport and when players were not full-time professionals. It takes 3 hours to get from Sydney to Canberra by bus, you don't need to jump on a plane. By the way If you started from scratch today you would not have 9 Sydney clubs either.

 

[greenBV4]

You berate Gosford as being too small, not a new area, not growing and bringing no value to TV rights. Yet you support a team from an area that is all of those things. If the NSWRL followed your advice in 1980s there would be no Raiders.

I've asked before and I will ask again. If you think fans in RL heartland who don't have a team to support are less important than people in Perth and Adelaide, and let's be realistic, they will never watch the game, why aren't you demanding the Raiders become the West Coast Raiders?

The difference is people in the heartlands are already watching league and already have a team, so adding a new team won't generate more fans, it'll just maybe convert a few, aka cannibalise

Bringing a team into a brand new area with little to no existing fans gives an opportunity to ADD new fans

And I think a big reason for the lack of Victorian juniors in the storm system is because they unfortunately straight up havnt really tried, its easier and more effective to generate and develop players from other states and thee funding for NRL Vic just isn't there to change anything, the facilities are straight up sub par

But juniors don't really have much of a correlation to fans anyway, Melbourne are easily in the top 5 best supported clubs in the NRL across a range of mediums, have good national TV numbers, especially on ptv, the 4th highest membership base, usually are around the top for average crowds, and claim to have the second highest social media following of ALL Australian sports team (thats a big deal this day and age)

The question that needs to be asked is are you adding a new team to generate more juniors or to generate more fans?

are you adding a team to generate more fans or to generate more juniors? The answer to that is the answer to the best pick

 

[Perth Red]

In a city of 2.5 million that is RL mad. Of course it is going to be the biggest club in the world. What's stupid is you want this RL mad city of 2.5 million to destroy its history and have just 2 clubs so you can plonk teams in smaller cities that hate the game and have little to no history.

RL in Brissie dates back to 1909 and IS BIGGER and MORE PRESTIGIOUS than the RFL. Get that through your skull.

Your ridiculous plan would be like destroying every key piece of literature that was ever written because you want to create room for future drawings that you want to be drawn by people who have no interest in art. You can grow the game without ripping up its foundations.

You're just a stupid troll.

bigger than the rfl? Hahah

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

You are probably right. If the NRL started from scratch today Canberra might miss out. But they were added in 1982 when the code wasn't a billion dollar sport and when players were not full-time professionals. It takes 3 hours to get from Sydney to Canberra by bus, you don't need to jump on a plane. By the way If you started from scratch today you would not have 9 Sydney clubs either.

It would be short-shorted to not include Canberra in a competition that was created today. The Raiders have added a lot to the NSWRL/ARL/NRL over the years, despite not being from a massive city. They have a great mascot, a unique colour scheme and represent a large area.

We probably wouldn't add 9 Sydney teams if we were starting from scratch, but we're blessed to have them established in today's day and age. AwFuL would like nothing more than for half of those teams to fall over. It would make their pursuit of eating into RL territory so much easier. The death of the BRL and the Broncos' role in Super League was great for AwFuL as it meant they only had to compete against one club in south-east Queensland during the early 2000s. They capitalised on it big time, too.

The difference is people in the heartlands are already watching league and already have a team, so adding a new team won't generate more fans, it'll just maybe convert a few, aka cannibalise

Bringing a team into a brand new area with little to no existing fans gives an opportunity to ADD new fans

And I think a big reason for the lack of Victorian juniors in the storm system is because they unfortunately straight up havnt really tried, its easier and more effective to generate and develop players from other states and thee funding for NRL Vic just isn't there to change anything, the facilities are straight up sub par

But juniors don't really have much of a correlation to fans anyway, Melbourne are easily in the top 5 best supported clubs in the NRL across a range of mediums, have good national TV numbers, especially on ptv, the 4th highest membership base, usually are around the top for average crowds, and claim to have the second highest social media following of ALL Australian sports team (thats a big deal this day and age)

The question that needs to be asked is are you adding a new team to generate more juniors or to generate more fans?

are you adding a team to generate more fans or to generate more juniors? The answer to that is the answer to the best pick

I am not against the idea of expanding into new areas per se, I just think the game needs to shore up its heartland areas before it can be in a realistic position to take on a task that massive. Participation rates have gone backwards over the last two decades and the game is under attack in its heartland.

Whether we like it or not, we are different to the AFL. They had the good fortune of being established in Brisbane and Sydney before rugby league was invented in England, so they've always had a base to work with outside of their heartland. These areas were producing players long before AwFuL started their invasion.

RL has existed in WA since the 1950s, but not to the same extent as fumbleball in NSW and Queensland.

When they decided to expand it wasn't to "spread the gospel", it was to bring in money from new licences. A significant amount of their income is generated from club memberships and attendances, which are strongest in their heartland areas. We cannot compete with that.

Out of curiosity, how many Victorians have been converted into RL fans who attend games and watch on TV regularly?

I am talking about born and raised Victorians who have come from families that have no ties to NZ, Queensland or NSW. If the bulk of attendees are expats from Queensland, NSW and NZ then they're not really new fans.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

bigger than the rfl? Hahah

QRL has more registered players under its jurisdiction and they're of higher quality, too.

In 1999 the Queensland Cup champions, Burleigh Bears, defeated the Great Britain Lions. Let that sink in. The champions of Queensland's second tier competition beat the best the RFL could put together.

The best club side in the entire world back in the 1980s was the Wynnum Manly Seagulls. Even the NSW State of Origin coach said they would beat the NSWRL Premiers. There's no way any English side could match it with a side that had Wally Lewis, Gene Miles and Colin Scott. No money from pokies back in those days either as they were illegal in Queensland, which is why the Sydnes clubs could afford to lure many of our best players away and kill interest in the competition.

The fact Brisbane was able to run 8 clubs full of world class talent during this period without pokies in a much smaller city, competing against Sydney clubs bankrolled by pokies shows just how big the game is up here and what a waste the last 30 years have been with just the Broncos as its representatives.

The Queensland side that dominated Origin in the 80s was largely made up of players from the BRL. The tribalism in Brisbane created a much better breed of footballer than what we see today. The Donkeys' fall in the early 2000s pretty much coincided with the retirement of players who grew up under the hardened BRL system during the 1980s. The system left in its place was substandard and produced lesser footballers.

 

[greenBV4]

Out of curiosity, how many Victorias have been converted into RL fans who attend games and watch on TV regularly?

I am talking born and raised Victorians who have come from families that have no ties to NZ, Queensland or NSW. If the bulk of attendees are expats from Queensland, NSW and NZ then they're not really new fans.

The whole AFL OR NRL mindset is wrong, there's no rule that says you can't follow more than one code

And the Storm know this, they have accepted that a majority of Victorians already have their afl club, and they are number 1, so instead of trying to compete with that they have tried to position themselves to be everyone's number 2, "a team for all of Melbourne to get behind", and I think that has worked great for them

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

The whole AFL OR NRL mindset is wrong, there's no rule that says you can't follow more than one code

And the Storm know this, they have accepted that a majority of Victorians already have their afl club, and they are number 1, so instead of trying to compete with that they have tried to position themselves to be everyone's number 2, "a team for all of Melbourne to get behind", and I think that has worked great for them

That's why no one plays the game down there. Rugby league, or more accurately the Storm, are something people watch when their AwFuL team isn't playing. It's not a game they want to play, and only a few are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on them each year. That's not sustainable long term as the players that make up the team have to come from somewhere. Repeat the situation in Adelaide and Perth and we will end up a bigger gap between the haves and have nots, like in 1995.

The jury is still out on Melbourne. Bellamy is retiring in 2021 and Smith cannot play much longer. Take those two out of the club and it will be brought back to the rest of the field. Just how many of those 18,000 fans who've adopted the Storm as their 2nd team stick around when they're no longer world beaters remains to be seen.

The NRL will not be able to recreate Melbourne in Perth and Adelaide.

 

[Perth Red]

QRL has more registered players under its jurisdiction and they're of higher quality, too.

In 1999 the Queensland Cup champions, Burleigh Bears, defeated the Great Britain Lions. Let that sink in. The champions of Queensland's second tier competition beat the best the RFL could put together.

The best club side in the entire world back in the 1980s was the Wynnum Manly Seagulls. Even the NSW State of Origin coach said they would beat the NSWRL Premiers. There's no way any English side could match it with a side that had Wally Lewis, Gene Miles and Colin Scott. No money from pokies back in those days either as they were illegal in Queensland, which is why the Sydnes clubs could afford to lure many of our best players away and kill interest in the competition.

The fact Brisbane was able to run 8 clubs full of world class talent during this period without pokies in a much smaller city, competing against Sydney clubs bankrolled by pokies shows just how big the game is up here and what a waste the last 30 years have been with just the Broncos as its representatives.

The Queensland side that dominated Origin in the 80s was largely made up of players from the BRL. The tribalism in Brisbane created a much better breed of footballer than what we see today. The Donkeys' fall in the early 2000s pretty much coincided with the retirement of players who grew up under the hardened BRL system during the 1980s. The system left in its place was substandard and produced lesser footballers.

Ok for starters you didnt say QRL, you said "Brissie"
Secondly RFL has 10 FT professional clubs and 24 semi prof clubs. Brisbane has 1 FT club and ?6 semi prof Brisbane clubs. RFL has over 500 amateur teams under it compared to around 150 in Brisbane.
But yeh keep telling us how much bigger Brisbane RL is than the RFL you derp.
The 1980's? There you go back in time again, catch up to the 21st century mate.
PS I remember well being at Craven Park in 1983 when my team beat the touring grubby QRL State team (and Mark Broadhurst infamously laid out the niggling Qlnd hooker), glory days!

 

[Perth Red]

ot a game they want to play, and only a few are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on them each year. That's not sustainable long term as the players that make up the team have to come from somewhere. Repeat the situation in Adelaide and Perth and we will end up a bigger gap between the haves and have nots, like in 1995.

Thats ok, dont bother with Brisbane2 and we will give a home to the best Qlnd players like Melbourne have done. everyones a winner. Given even hundred year old established heartland clubs attract 60% plus of their roster from somewhere else at times I'm not sure you have much of an argument.

RL has existed in WA since the 1950s, but not to the same extent as fumbleball in NSW and Queensland.

.

Really? In the early 90's we had over 10k registered players in WA. Did Sydney really have 25k AFL registered players in that same era?

Do you consider Cowboys a waste of time and total failure given they have more NZ born players in the team than they have NQ players? In fact they have around 75% of their squad not born in NQ. You must be keen to see them kicked out as well are you? We had more people playing RL in WA 30 years ago than NQ has now, maybe they kicked the wrong expansion team out?

In 2017 AFL reached over 700k kids through promotional and engagement activities in school in Queesland.
If you want to know why AFL is doing so well in NRL states compared to NRL in AFL states it is this. It has little to do with the Lions or the Storm or GWS. AFL spends tens of millions a year in NRL states in grassroots development, NRL spends about 3million.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Ok for starters you didnt say QRL, you said "Brissie"
Secondly RFL has 10 FT professional clubs and 24 semi prof clubs. Brisbane has 1 FT club and ?6 semi prof Brisbane clubs. RFL has over 500 amateur teams under it compared to around 150 in Brisbane.
But yeh keep telling us how much bigger Brisbane RL is than the RFL you derp.
The 1980's? There you go back in time again, catch up to the 21st century mate.
PS I remember well being at Craven Park in 1983 when my team beat the touring grubby QRL State team (and Mark Broadhurst infamously laid out the niggling Qlnd hooker), glory days!

The RFL governs a country that has what, 60 million or 70 million?

Brisbane has 2.5 million.

The last time I read an RFL annual report it said there were about 35,000 registered players in the entire country. There are more people playing the game in Queensland.

The QRL 2019 Annual Report says there were 62,009 participants for that year.

62,009 Overall
47,214 Juniors

https://www.qrl.com.au/contentasset...a3566c0703/qrl19_annualreport_board_final.pdf

Do the maths.

The game is far bigger in Queensland than England. Even you admitted the biggest RL club in the world is based in Brisbane the other day you dickhead.

The amount of money those pommy clubs run on is chump change in comparison to what is needed to survive over here. There wouldn't be a pommy club pulling in $40 million a year like the Broncos.

 

[greenBV4]

only a few are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on them each year.

well its a few more than the majority of the other clubs in the NRL

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Thats ok, dont bother with Brisbane2 and we will give a home to the best Qlnd players like Melbourne have done. everyones a winner. Given even hundred year old established heartland clubs attract 60% plus of their roster from somewhere else at times I'm not sure you have much of an argument.

The VRL system has produced 3 NRL players in 22 years. The QRL and NSWRL have produced hundreds, if not thousands of NRL players in that time. If you cannot see the difference then you should consult a doctor who specialises in treating people with brain disease.

I've shown you the data on how many people watch RL in Australia. It's why a team in Melbourne is next to useless and 3 or 4 in Brissie will add value to the TV deal. But you're a stubborn old bugger who will never admit to being wrong about anything, so you respond with shit like saying Brissie 2 should be scrapped so you can prolong your failed experiment. Too bad mate, Brissie 2 has been gjven the green light by the bloke running the game and useless fumbleball wastelands don't get a team they won't appreciate.

If your ideas are so good why are they constantly rejected?

Really? In the early 90's we had over 10k registered players in WA. Did Sydney really have 25k AFL registered players in that same era?

What happened to those 10k?

The same thing that will happen to the 18k fans who attend Storm games when the team start going downhill.

Do you consider Cowboys a waste of time and total failure given they have more NZ born players in the team than they have NQ players? In fact they have around 75% of their squad not born in NQ. You must be keen to see them kicked out as well are you? We had more people playing RL in WA 30 years ago than NQ has now, maybe they kicked the wrong expansion team out?

Michael Morgan and Valentine Holmes were born and bred in Townsville and have gone on to play for Australia and win a World Cup.

How many Western Australians have done that?

From memory, Justin O'Neill is also from Townsville and played for Queensland.

Jake Clifford is from Tully. That's just the players from memory.

Corey Jensen (Townsville), Garrett Smith (Mackay), Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (Cairns), Kyle Feldt (Townsville), Reuben Cotter (Mackay).

9 players isn't bad. There would be others plying their trade for other clubs.

There's no way a Perth team would have local born players of that callibre lining up for them, and that's despite the fact NQ only has 400,000 people draw from and Perth has 4 to 5 times as many.

Whats the number in Perth now?

In 2017 AFL reached over 700k kids through promotional and engagement activities in school in Queesland.
If you want to know why AFL is doing so well in NRL states compared to NRL in AFL states it is this. It has little to do with the Lions or the Storm or GWS. AFL spends tens of millions a year in NRL states in grassroots development, NRL spends about 3million.

How many fumbleball juniors are there in Queensland?

8,000?
10,000?
15,000?

Not a very good conversion rate if only 15,000 of the 700k kids they proselytised the game to took it up.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

well its a few more than the majority of the other clubs in the NRL

How many of them are in Victoria though?

Most of the people who say they support the Storm are Queenslanders. I see a lot of Polynesians at Storm home games. Maybe Fitzsimons is right when he says it's mostly Queenslanders, New South Welshmen and New Zealanders living in Melbourne attending their games.

 

[Perth Red]

1. If your ideas are so good why are they constantly rejected?

2. What happened to those 10k?

3. How many Western Australians have done that?

4. 9 players isn't bad. There would be others plying their trade for other clubs.

5. How many fumbleball juniors are there in Queensland?

1. People who look at their feet will never see beyond the horizon
2. They gave up the game when they got treated like sht by the East. We dropped from 10k to a low of around 1200 in 2005. Since then we have steadily started to rebuild up to around 3500 now. Who cares what the per head of pop is, its numbers that matter and in the early 90's we had more registered players than NQ have now, FACT.
3. Who knows what we might have achieved if we had been given the opportunity like NQ were. Waqa Blake (Fiji) and Curtis Rona (Wallabies) are both high quality players through the WA jnrs despite the adversity we face.
4. More NZ players than local players, hmmm double standards much?
5. A sht load more than RL jnrs in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. Not because AFL is intrinsically a more appealing game to play but because the AFL has invested the money in converting them. Just in the SEQ comp there are 71 Jnr clubs! I doubt there is 71 Jnr RL clubs in Vic, WA and SA combined. An absolute abject failure by the NRL and a clear example of why AFL will dominate in decades to come.

 

[Perth Red]

How many of them are in Victoria though?

Most of the people who say they support the Storm are Queenslanders. I see a lot of Polynesians at Storm home games. Maybe Fitzsimons is right when he says it's mostly Queenslanders, New South Welshmen and New Zealanders living in Melbourne attending their games.

I presume you have some reference from market analysis for this claim? No? I am surprised!
Besides, even IF true, who cares where they were born? As long as they don't up sticks and move home then its brilliant that we arent losing people to AFL when they move to Melbourne an dthat they are making the Melbourne Storm one of the best supported clubs in the NRL. I'm sure if we had a team in Perth and gave the ex pats a RL option to follow they would be heading to HBF park instead of to Optus to get their live sport fix, a win for RL.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

1. People who look at their feet will never see beyond the horizon
2. They gave up the game when they got treated like sht by the East. We dropped from 10k to a low of around 1200 in 2005. Since then we have steadily started to rebuild up to around 3500 now. Who cares what the per head of pop is, its numbers that matter and in the early 90's we had more registered players than NQ have now, FACT.
3. Who knows what we might have achieved if we had been given the opportunity like NQ were. Waqa Blake (Fiji) and Curtis Rona (Wallabies) are both high quality players through the WA jnrs despite the adversity we face.
4. More NZ players than local players, hmmm double standards much?
5. A sht load more than RL jnrs in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. Not because AFL is intrinsically a more appealing game to play but because the AFL has invested the money in converting them.

What evidence do you have that the WARL had more registered players in the 90s than NQ does today?

The QRL doesn't publish that information, so what are you basing it on?

Curtis Rona and Waqa Blake were originally from the east coast, weren't they?

NZ population is over 4 million.
NQ population is 400,000 or under. Polynesians have the ideal bodysize for the modern game. So yeah, you will see a lot of them at every club you donkey!

 

[Perth Red]

What evidence do you have that the WARL had more registered players in the 90s than NQ does today?

The QRL doesn't publish that information, so what are you basing it on?

Curtis Rona and Waqa Blake were originally from the east coast, weren't they?

NZ population is over 4 million.
NQ population is 400,000 or under. Polynesians have the ideal bodysize for the modern game. So yeah, you will see a lot of them at every club you donkey!

People involved in the game back then.
The QRL annual report has player registrations at 8,000 in NQ
They came through WA Jnr RL system. Who cares were they were born. Pretty much half of Perth was born somewhere else. Or maybe we should claim Ponga as a WA player, given he was born in WA?
On one hand you use population for your argument, then next breath you use actual numbers. Make your mind up! Simple fact is that all clubs sign players from wherever they can, they really dont care where they were born or where they played Jnr footy. Fans no longer care where the player went to school or whose SG ball side he was in. Its professional sport, you want to see your team win, no one cares what passport they've got.

 

[MugaB]

Bring in all the BRL clubs, west panthers, norths devils, brisbane brothers, Ipswich jets, redcliffe dolphins, wynnum seagulls, souths magpies, easts tigers...
Then have them complete for BRL championship and winner gets a licence

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Bring in all the BRL clubs, west panthers, norths devils, brisbane brothers, Ipswich jets, redcliffe dolphins, wynnum seagulls, souths magpies, easts tigers...
Then have them complete for BRL championship and winner gets a licence

The three clubs closest to Brisbane Broncos' headquarters at Red Hill (Fortitude Valley Diehards at Albion, Pastroral Brothers Leprechauns at Grange and Western Suburbs Panthers at Bardon) went bust. Crushers set up their HQ at Grange and went bust too. These areas are quite close to Red Hill. Next club has to be on the southside of town or out in Ipswich or up in Moreton so that there's some distance between them and the Broncos.
.
Easts, Wynnum Manly Manly, Ipswich and Redcliffe are the only viable clubs.

My preference would be for Redcliffe to team up with Sunshine Coast Falcons to represent Moreton Bay Region and Sunshine Coast.

Easts and Norths Devils could get together to represent the east and south side of town, but I doubt they would want to go together. Both clubs are located east of the CBD, one north and one south, so it could be to the eastside of town what the Broncos are to the west.

Wynnum could go with Easts to represent the eastern suburbs, Redlands and Logan, but I doubt they will ever do it. I just think an established club, even if it's a merger between 2 of them, will have history on its side and subdistrict clubs to draw players and fans.

A new club like the Bombers has to build from scratch.

The Brothers bid doesn't make much sense. They have clubs all over the state, but I cannot see people identifying with it in today's day and age.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

People involved in the game back then.
The QRL annual report has player registrations at 8,000 in NQ
They came through WA Jnr RL system. Who cares were they were born. Pretty much half of Perth was born somewhere else. Or maybe we should claim Ponga as a WA player, given he was born in WA?
On one hand you use population for your argument, then next breath you use actual numbers. Make your mind up! Simple fact is that all clubs sign players from wherever they can, they really dont care where they were born or where they played Jnr footy. Fans no longer care where the player went to school or whose SG ball side he was in. Its professional sport, you want to see your team win, no one cares what passport they've got.

You're a disingenuous bugger, aren't ya?

I brought up the birthplace of Melbourne fans because the main argument for teams in fumbleball states is bringing new fans to the game. I know from experience that most of the people who support the Lions in Brisbane are Victorians, Tasmanians, South Australians and Western Australians who live here. TV ratings for the Storm in Melbourne are not very good, yet they're apparently one of the most watched teams around the country. That can only mean they're being watched by people who don't even live in Melbourne. So yeah, I have serious doubts over just how many new fans the Storm have brought to the game. I am not talking about people who "Like" them on Facebook or say they're a Storm fan but never watch a game and wouldn't know where they are on the ladder or who plays for them, but people who buy merchandise, attend games and subscribe to Foxtel to follow them on TV. A person who says they're a fan but hasn't watched an actual game in years isn't one.

Would the Storm be watched in such large numbers in NSW and QLD if they weren't in the top 4 every year?

Teams who are successful have the best players and draw more interest from fans than the ones at the bottom of the ladder. All of this success has only led to 18,000 people attending Storm games. The highest drawing TV game in Melbourne last year only got 68,000, and it was when the fumbleball wasn't on.

If this is the height of their success, what's going to happen when Bellamy retires in 2021?

Smith will probably be gone by then. You cannot honestly say they will still dominate when those two are gone.

If this is the blueprint for success in the southern states, how are you going to have Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne on top at the same time?

Blokes like Smith and Bellamy and rare and don't come along very often. The likelihood of flooding three teams in non-heartland areas with the best players from the heartland areas so they can dominate the competition for the next 20 years are almost zero, and that's what will be needed to prevent them from having crowds as low as 5,000 showing up to games.

Do you think the fans from the heartland will stand for the NRL rigging the competition to manufacture success for teams from Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne?

That's what it will take to make it work. Fans from Sydney and Brisbane will stop going to games, switch the channel and start watching some other sport.