Quidgybo
Bench
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Why can't we just have a 2nd "Brisbane" team playing out of Suncorp?
It's amazing how many people live in Brisbane and hate the Broncos.
If there is to be another SE Qld team it has to play out of suncorp stadium. It is the best RL stadium in the country and is underused.
Expansion teams should be placed to best serve Rugby League, not just to fill stadiums. We have a comp with a finite number of spots and only a certain amount of those can be allocated to SE Queensland. But do we really need a second team based out of Suncorp while areas such as Sunshine Coast (essentially Caboolture to Gympie) and West of Brisbane (Ipswich to Toowoomba) are left without teams? Brisbane city has a team, and it's (currently) the Broncos, like it or not. There are other areas in SE Qld that we as a game need to tap before we go back and start cutting up an existing market more finely.
Rule number one of national pro sports is you don't go starting new franchises where they'll cut into the market of an existing team. You put them where they'll grow the reach of the sport and lock out the competition (ie. AFL, Union, Soccer). Putting another team in Brisbane primarily to hurt those bastard Broncos or utilise one particular stadium just isn't the right motivation. Especially if it leaves an opening for a rival code to get in first on the Sunshine Coast or Toowoomba. This is a lesson we should already have learned. While we have teams treading on each other for the same territory and same dollar in Sydney, we leave the Central Coast open to the A-League.
None of this means we can't be creative about using a great venue like Suncorp. But rather than creating another Suncorp based side in direct competition to the Broncos, we should be treating Suncorp as a hub for blockbuster games across the wider region. Instead of another Brisbane city team, we should introduce two new franchises, one 70-100km north of Brisbane and one 70-100km west of Brisbane to go with the existing Titans based 100km south of Brisbane. If each of those three teams circling Brisbane played their six derby games against each other at the regional hub then there's an extra six 30,000+ crowds each year at Suncorp. Throw in one more high drawing home game from each of those three sides and you have 21 games at Suncorp each season.
But you don't just end up with a game in Brisbane city 7 out of every 8 weekends during the season. You also end up with 9 games on the Sunshine Coast, 9 games in Toowoomba and 9 games on the Gold Coast. Instead of ending up with teams in direct competition competing for the same fans and same dollar, we create teams that each have their own distinct market and sustainable support base. We cover the entire region, ensuring it's not just those fortunate enough to live in Brisbane city that have easy access to our game, while simultaneously leaving no area where rival codes can build a base without taking us on head to head.
For those Rugby League fans in Brisbane city who don't like the Broncos, they'd get a range of alternative games and alternative teams playing at Suncorp throughout the season. And for Rugby League fans in other parts of SE Queensland who find the trip to Brisbane city too far, there'd now be a local alternative. More games in Brisbane, more games at Suncorp, more accessibility to the game across the region and fewer openings for rival codes. It's win-win for Rugby League.
So why can't we just have a 2nd "Brisbane" team playing out of Suncorp? Because the game could achieve so much more by going elsewhere first.
Leigh.
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