So why haven't the NRL cut a Sydney team yet or allowed one to fall over?
You think it makes so much sense but they haven't done it... Why?
They haven't done it for two reasons-
1. The majority of the people running the game (naturally) have prior experience in the game and aren't truly independent (no body is truly independent), each of these people hold biases for the clubs (and states, countries, etc) they supported/played at/worked for and don't want to see them go through hard times because we have a culture in our sport (and in Australian sport in general) of loving the club before the sport and not the other way around.
2. The sport at the NRL level is effectively ruled by the media, because the NRL/ARLC are so scared of negative publicity that they let the media dictate to them how to run their business, strangely they haven't learnt that any publicity is good publicity.
The idiots advocating moving an existing team. Have you not learnt anything in the last 20 years?
The situation 20 years ago isn't comparable to now, there were so many added variables after the SL war that simply aren't an issue anymore.
If you're looking for closer comparisons, then the only ones you'll find in our game are Glebe, Annandale, Newtown, and arguably Uni.
Culling/moving clubs does more harm than good, just look at the North Shore for example.
If you left them (North Sydney) in and they died naturally, people wouldn't take it as hard, you forcibly kick them out and people do. Fans of broke teams wouldn't have turned away from the game like fans of shafted teams did, hence RU's strength and the growth of AFL in Sydney.
It is somewhat like "a lover spurned" - the response of fan who has lost their club is at first all wrath and vindictiveness. In changing codes they are looking for a fresh start. To stay with RL they are constantly lamenting their lost club. They are deliberately turning their back on the sport that has betrayed their loyalty.
All these problems are generational, they die with the people who held them. They can't be handed down to ones children because the children simply don't hold the same emotional attachment to the old clubs as their parents did because they never interacted with the old clubs.
Please mate Glebe and Annandale,let's bring modern history into the equation.They had little pro competition from other codes then if any.
Sydney then was far more compact, did not have the traffic issues that exist now, did not have a cashed up AFL pouring money into Sydney nor a strong Wanderer's club.Much larger numbers of kids playing rl.
Firstly it's absolutely ridiculous to suggest that RL had little to no competition in Sydney back then, they did, RU, Soccer, Boxing, horses, greyhounds, cricket, golf, etc, etc, were all fighting for participation, spectators, sponsors, etc, sure it was on a much, much smaller scale back then, but that is true of all sports in all countries back in those days because the professional sports industry was still developing back then.
Secondly, fine if you don't like Glebe and Annandale (despite them being the most analogous situations) then use Newtown as an example, if you refuse Newtown as an example then we have to start looking at other codes and countries for analogous events(the most recent examples coming from the NFL), but they aren't bad examples, they just have variables that wont apply as much to us as they do/did to them.
The removal of North Sydney did zilch, to grow any other Sydney club including the Tigers.
That is both the NRL's fault for not having a plan for the region after the Bears left (another thing that was largely impacted by the SL war that shouldn't be an issue anymore) and the Bears themselves fault who have consistently blocked both Manly and Easts attempts to grow into the region, especially when it comes to juniors.
However, the Rabbitohs have seen growth in their juniors through an agreement with the Bears, this growth could have been exponentially bigger if the middle man that is the bears were taken out of the equation, but what you gonna do.
Of course there is short term pain for the NRL club involved and long term gain for the other codes involved.The Swans never had it so good when we flicked a club and joined others.If there had been no SL war Swans would be struggling.AFL fans are different to NRL fans ,they still follow their club,rl fans are too fickle.
Nobodies ever shown substantive evidence of this that I can find!
They always point to the growth of the Swans (and to a lesser extent the Tahs) after the SL war as evidence, but they fail to show that the Swans had been slowly growing in Sydney since at least the late 80's (and that the Tahs popularity has trended with RUs' in this country, up when we were given the WC and down after the WC).
Not once has somebody shown a mass exodus of RL fans to AFL or Union in response to losing their club, mass exodus from the NRL sure, but not a net growth for the AFL or Union as a direct result of a club getting cut.
Also I understand a fair swag of Rabbitoh's fans reside outside the Eastern Suburbs now, due to rising housing costs.
Not sure what that's got to do with anything.
I've witnessed the ups and downs of clubs here and interstate .The Raiders were kings when Mal was in his prime, then the Brumbies came along and ate into their support.Only now with the Brumbies failing and the Raiders doing well are their crowds rocking.RL crowds are fickle, no matter where the code is played.
Lol, you really shouldn't talk about the sporting culture in the ACT, cause you've got no clue.
The Brumbies didn't eat into the Raiders market, sure their is cross over in the fan base (quite significant cross over), but that cross over crosses over to Cricket, Soccer, etc, as well, hell a lot of the guys I know used to go the Cannons, Raiders, and Brumbies games all on the same weekend on the odd occasion that they were all on the same weekend and didn't clash (personally I was never into the Basketball), quite a few of them (including myself) still go to other sports whether it be the Cavalry, Braves, Capitols, United, or whatever.
What ate into the Raiders support was 20 year of mediocrity without a board that wanted to make any changes to try and make the club more successful, and multiple different administrators and other people at the club that were openly hostile fans.
Until David Furner was sacked and John Mcintyre stood down the club had been effectively run as a job mill and money making scheme for one family in Queanbeyan at the expense of competitiveness of the club on the field, they were happy for the club to finish middle of the table every year so long as they were able to fund local rugby league and take the left over money for themselves, but the fans slowly got sick of the self interest running the club and jumped off over time. There's a reason that Raiders fans used to call the club the Furner family farm!
Now that it's not a problem they're coming back, a little success is helping as well.
The Brumbies recent problems have been loosely related to the Raiders becoming more successful, as they got used to being the hottest ticket in town but that's not really the case anymore, but their problems are more a result of a mixture of bad governance and the fans not being happy with them becoming so closely connected to Tuggeranong Vikings at the expense of the rest of the local clubs. But we won't go too deep into the Brumbies woes here.
If the Raiders have say 5 bad years and crowds drop dramatically ,then what.Find another expansion area?
Crowds alone should never be enough to regulate/relocate a team, however I think being more to the point you're question is really would I be happy with the Raiders being dropped from the NRL, and the answer is yes and no, it depends on the situation in which they were dropped.
I can see situations in the future where it could theoretically be in the best interests of the game for the Raiders not to be in the top league, however so long as Sydney is over saturated it'd make no sense whatsoever to remove a club like the Raiders.
