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Hawaii

mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,411
We need a Pacifika Cup league

Teams from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Hawaii, Cook Is

What about New Caledonia? It's actually the closest pacific island and the biggest but doesn't seem to have any involvement in Aussie sports. Probably because it's a french territory.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
I'm not gonna realistically entertain the idea of a Hawaii based team joining Australian club leagues - at least not yet. A few things would need to fall into place to even make the idea possible, not least of all the NRL willing to actually expand outside of Brisbane's suburbs.

BUT as an interim step, a thriving international game again provides the answers.
Rugby League's international tournaments - the Oceania Cup and European Cup - should be in a pyramid format to allow P&R for every competing nation. A valuable opportunity which Union does not allow for its tier 2 members.

What that would mean is, the winner of the American tournament (currently Jamaica defeating USA, Canada, Chile, but will later include the likes of Brazil, Argentina, etc) would play off with the Asia-Pacific winner (which could include Vanuatu, Japan, etc) for promotion into the next Oceania Cup B.
Following that through, we could have the USA playing the likes of Samoa and PNG out of Honolulu. Planting the seeds to really kick the game off there.

What about New Caledonia? It's actually the closest pacific island and the biggest but doesn't seem to have any involvement in Aussie sports. Probably because it's a french territory.

New Caledonia is the key piece of the new Pacifique XIII venture aiming to get into Qld Cup in the near future, and aligned with the FFR. Wonderful initiative for the game in the Pacific and France.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,855
I'm not gonna realistically entertain the idea of a Hawaii based team joining Australian club leagues - at least not yet. A few things would need to fall into place to even make the idea possible, not least of all the NRL willing to actually expand outside of Brisbane's suburbs.

BUT as an interim step, a thriving international game again provides the answers.
Rugby League's international tournaments - the Oceania Cup and European Cup - should be in a pyramid format to allow P&R for every competing nation. A valuable opportunity which Union does not allow for its tier 2 members.

What that would mean is, the winner of the American tournament (currently Jamaica defeating USA, Canada, Chile, but will later include the likes of Brazil, Argentina, etc) would play off with the Asia-Pacific winner (which could include Vanuatu, Japan, etc) for promotion into the next Oceania Cup B.
Following that through, we could have the USA playing the likes of Samoa and PNG out of Honolulu. Planting the seeds to really kick the game off there.
You are living in a fantasyland if you think the IRL has the resources or power to push competitions like that of any significance.
They are an incompetent toothless tiger that spends all their time having meetings arguing over fanciful ideas that they can’t pull off anyway.

Even if they could organise the USA Hawks to play in Honolulu every year, they and the USARL don’t have the business acumen nor the resources to put on anything more than a bunch of amateurs playing at a local park with no significant marketing behind it, and that’s never going to ‘really kicking off’ anything.

Nah if you really want to push into Hawaii (or any major market) you need the NRL’s resources and support from local investors.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
You are living in a fantasyland if you think the IRL has the resources or power to push competitions like that of any significance.

Those competitions already exist. Linking them up wouldn't take any significant resources.
Mind you, we'll both agree that they need a lot investment in how those regional tournaments are staged, it's currently poor.

The real fantasy land is expecting the NRL to invest in the USA when they can't even reach 2 capitals in their own country.

Nah if you really want to push into Hawaii (or any major market) you need the NRL’s resources and support from local investors.

Probably, but that could mean anything from supporting/empowering the IRL to launching expansion clubs
 

greenBV4

Bench
Messages
2,508
what is the population of New Caledonia?
about 300k, the P XIII bid involves all the french speaking islands though (New Caledonia, Vanuatu, French Polynesia & Wallis and Futuna) which is almost 900k, Noumea's population (where the team will be based) is 100k.

for reference Hawaii's population is 1.4 mil, Honululu 350k
 
Last edited:

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,410
about 300k, the P XIII bid involves all the french speaking islands though (New Caledonia, Vanuatu, French Polynesia & Wallis and Futuna) which is almost 900k, Noumea's population (where the team will be based) is 100k.

for reference Hawaii's population is 1.4 mil, Honululu 350k

They could be like the NRL version of the West Indies.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,855
Those competitions already exist. Linking them up wouldn't take any significant resources.
Mind you, we'll both agree that they need a lot investment in how those regional tournaments are staged, it's currently poor.

The real fantasy land is expecting the NRL to invest in the USA when they can't even reach 2 capitals in their own country.
I know they already exist, but as I said before they are totally insignificant competitions with little to no mainstream penetration. The chances of any of them having a major impact on the sport going mainstream in any of the countries that participate are slim to none, especially when they do nothing to create a pathway to professionalism for local players.

I also don't 'expect' the NRL to invest in the USA. Firstly I wasn't really talking about the mainland at all, only Hawaii, and I said they should push into Hawaii, not that I expect them to do so.
I think there's little to no chance that they would be ballsy enough to try something like that, but then again if in 2013 you had told me that there'd be Canadian teams in the RFL system I would've thought you were high as well, so who knows.

Probably, but that could mean anything from supporting/empowering the IRL to launching expansion clubs
Why would you want to support/empower such a useless organisation? They'd just take your money and resources and waste them all on meetings trying to get every member to agree on what to do.
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,564
What about New Caledonia? It's actually the closest pacific island and the biggest but doesn't seem to have any involvement in Aussie sports. Probably because it's a french territory.

Happy for New Caledonia to join a Pacificka League
 

wain

Juniors
Messages
332
for reference Hawaii's population is 1.4 mil, Honululu 350k

thats actually understating it a little bit. The US measures its population differently. For example, google the population of LA and it will state 3.99 million, but the entire metro zone is over 10 million.
So the island of Oahu, of which Honolulu is located in, is actually just under 1 million. Most of those are in what we would describe as 'Honolulu city'.

My wife is from the US, and in my mind Ive been dreaming of moving to Hawaii for years, and starting a league there. I absolutely agree that there is great potential. I think using the Polynesian nations as headliners (Tonga v Samoa, etc) and having a local Hawaiian team/league play the undercard would be a great way to grow the sport there. Get the fans in the door to watch their heritage nations and grow support for the local league that way.

For what its worth...that's also what Id do if I was running the USARL and wanted to grow the sport with heritage areas.
Salt Lake City with large Polynesian community
Boston with Irish community, etc.
They may not know league, but they will support their heritage.

One day :)
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,564
I might go so far to say Hawaii and California should be in this Pacifika League
 
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