Grant said the NRL could increase beyond the current 16 teams by the time a new broadcast deal is negotiated for 2023 and beyond, but it was unlikely. The $1.8 billion deal struck in November last year comes into operation in 2018 and will expire in 2022.
The NRL has previously stated no expansion beyond 2020. Grant conceded the idea of growing the elite level was not completely out of range for the 2023 negotiations.
“Perhaps, but it would depend entirely on what our participation rates are looking like,” the chairman said. “Participation is like a pyramid. If you don’t build up the base you can’t add more to the top.
“Remember our expansion strategy is around State cups. With the NYC (under-20s) ending at the end of 2017 that’s around 400 players coming out of there and going into the NSW and Qld Cups and a few into the NRL.”
“We’d see teams playing from around the Pacific, into New Zealand and from around Australia in that competition,” Grant said. “We’ll be putting much, much more of it on television as part of the new rights deal (starting 2018).
“We see expansion in that tier two competition having a much broader footprint. But another element of that is to make sure those clubs are closely linked to an NRL club so players coming back — who are not playing NRL — come back into those teams and make them strong on a competitive basis.
“So when people talk about expansion with me, I tell them it’s expansion at the tier two level.”
