Major expansion U-turn is needed

[Perth Red]

Mate things have seriously deteriorated in the 30 years since the fall of apartheid.

Chronic corruption across the board, significantly widening income inequality, significant increases in violent crime and organised crime across the board.

Rule of law has deteriorated in most of the country and for the most part police either act as the punitive arm of the ANC or as another gang. One of the, maybe the, largest industry in the country are militarised private security firms.

All their infrastructure is collapsing and it's purely down to political corruption. Critical water shortages because of mismanagement, rolling daily power outages nationally, crumbling buildings and transport infrastructure, etc, all because of corruption, nepotism, and frankly racism in the ANC and halls of power. Food security is increasingly becoming a concern as well.

They have 32% unemployment (and many experts reckon they're significantly underestimating) and about 60% of the nation are on the dole or some equivalent government payment. On top of that about 1.5% of the population pay about 60% of South Africa's income tax and that pool of people has been shrinking.

There're mainstream players in South African politics with openly violent rhetoric, most famously Julius Malema and the EFF. South Africa is the only country with diversity quoters for the majority population and institutionally discriminatory practices against Boer, ethnically English, Indian, Khoisan, and even some of the less politically powerful Bantu tribes of the time, are endemic. The occurrence of political and racial violence against the Boers is particularly concerning and escalating.

I could go on, but the point is that South African society is one spark from exploding into a million pieces.

Explains why they've all moved to Perth!

 

[Brian potter]

Did we really need another thread to discuss the same things?

I believe we do in light of yet another announced warriors sellout .

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

SA isn’t great but they’re still one of the more prosperous societies in Africa and they survived the fall of apartheid without descending into complete anarchy so I don’t think the current issues they have are insurmountable.

People steal railway cables and copper wiring.

Cable theft 'significantly' impact South Africa's railways: operator - Times of India

South Africa's state-owned freight logistics firm on Thursday called on the government to urgently crack down on criminals stealing railway cables -- saying the thefts are disrupting service and severely damaging the economy.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Sewerage leaks into freshwater.

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/the-harsh-reality-of-sas-ongoing-sewage-crisis-and-its-undeniable-link-to-drinking-water-quality-2c01b1fe-0dc0-4612-a97a-6895419934c3

Forced electeical blackouts are common.

Africanews | Power cuts return in South Africa

South Africa is on track to become the next Zimbabwe.

 

[docbrown]

You can now buy some good ETFs that are shorting South African companies.

 

[Matiunz]

I believe we do in light of yet another announced warriors sellout .

Interesting the amount of empty seats we are seeing in ‘sold out’ games.
From what I’ve been hearing there’s a decent amount of people buying season tickets and only going to selected games as it’s more cost effective than buying per game. Eg buying a 10 game pass for $300 and going to say 7 of those is cheaper than paying $50 each game

 

[Perth Red]

Interesting the amount of empty seats we are seeing in ‘sold out’ games.
From what I’ve been hearing there’s a decent amount of people buying season tickets and only going to selected games as it’s more cost effective than buying per game. Eg buying a 10 game pass for $300 and going to say 7 of those is cheaper than paying $50 each game

Whats weird is they are often in large blocks, not just individual ones dotted around the stadium? Is it a ticketing issue, a scalping issue or sold out signs going up when its not really?

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Would the whinger be talking about empty seats if it was a game in Perth?

 

[Matiunz]

Whats weird is they are often in large blocks, not just individual ones dotted around the stadium? Is it a ticketing issue, a scalping issue or sold out signs going up when its not really?

Yeah that’s what I noticed too, the scenario I mentioned would be more likely to see a few seats a scattered but blocks would maybe suggest sponsor freebies etc?
Conspiracy theorist in me could suggest another explanation in that “sponsor tickets” could fluctuate in order to guarantee a sell out which looks better than say 1-2k under capacity

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Perth will be the 18th team.

 

[Colk]

Perth will be the 18th team.

Any evidence or just a feeling?

 

[Vlad59]

Before it’s too late.

The NRL needs to shelve any ridiculous and unrealistic plans of putting a professional NRL franchise club in PNG in favour of fast tracking NZ2 before RL blows a once in a lifetime opportunity to seriously grow the game in New Zealand to never seen before levels.

a professional PNG NRL team is unsustainable while New Zealand is currently a ripe RL market country there for the picking.

act now and strike while the iron is hot NRL. You won’t regret it!!!

You are a moron. Drink warm beer in England and stfu

 

[Vlad59]

Whats weird is they are often in large blocks, not just individual ones dotted around the stadium? Is it a ticketing issue, a scalping issue or sold out signs going up when its not really?

Get a stadium. Get a team. And then work it out. Until then shut up.

 

[The Great Dane]

Explains why they've all moved to Perth!

Unironically yes.

There's been a massive flight out of South Africa in the last few decades. Most are heading to the usual suspects, the US, UK, Canada, and yes Australia. It'd be fascinating to see what rate of South Africans are emigrating to the Netherlands.

 

[The Great Dane]

Yeah that’s what I noticed too, the scenario I mentioned would be more likely to see a few seats a scattered but blocks would maybe suggest sponsor freebies etc?
Conspiracy theorist in me could suggest another explanation in that “sponsor tickets” could fluctuate in order to guarantee a sell out which looks better than say 1-2k under capacity

In the past the Raiders have been known to do a thing where instead of a traditional sponsorship deal they'll get a sponsor to buy a few thousand memberships and distribute them to their employees in exchange for promotional activities. IDK for sure, but maybe the Warriors are doing similar.

Just goes to show how meaningless membership numbers are these days.

 

[Brian potter]

You are a moron. Drink warm beer in England and stfu

Must be hard for you seeing potentially new NRL sides with bigger and better stadiums than shark park.

heck even the stadiums in Port Moresby are bigger and better than shark park.

 

[Brian potter]

Get a stadium. Get a team. And then work it out. Until then shut up.

lol!!!!

a sharks fan talking about stadiums.

 

[Brian potter]

As it is South Africa is basically a failed state and things are deteriorating so badly there that it may not even exist in 2040.

absolutely tragic. Nelson mandela must be spinning in his grave.

They're a single bad election from complete anarchy or a civil war, and corruption is tearing what's left of their society apart even if it doesn't completely collapse. Add to that all the logistical complications with such large time zone differences, which are directly responsible for helping to screw RU in Australia into the ground BTW, and it's a terrible idea.

its definitely a country on the edge and one to keep an eye on in the short-term future.

as for the time zone issues it was probably the biggest reason why SA teams left the southern hemisphere super rugby competition and headed north to the European competition.

Maybe in some hypothetical future where international travel becomes much cheaper and quicker and their society has stabilised it'll be worth considering, but I doubt that happens in our lifetimes.

again such a shame as South Africans are ready made RL players who would have a huge positive impact on our game.

 

[Brian potter]

Perth will be the 18th team.

Anyone but PNG.

 

[The Great Dane]

absolutely tragic. Nelson mandela must be spinning in his grave.

The reality is that a lot of what Nelson Mandela stood for has catastrophically failed in practice, but the mainstream simply isn't ready for that discussion yet.

its definitely a country on the edge and one to keep an eye on in the short-term future.

as for the time zone issues it was probably the biggest reason why SA teams left the southern hemisphere super rugby competition and headed north to the European competition.

again such a shame as South Africans are ready made RL players who would have a huge positive impact on our game.

You don't need NRL sides based in Africa to recruit African players, if anything the current situation might make it easier to recruit some young South African juniors. I'm sure there're plenty of families across Africa that'd jump at the opportunity to immigrate to Australia in return for a scholarship to a good school and the opportunity for their son to make a good living playing sport. The logistics of such a program might be outside of the NRL's reach though.

Probably a fair amount of athletes and union players who'd consider the switch for better pay and opportunities as well. The NRL's not going to sign a Springbok any time soon, but that doesn't mean there aren't some diamonds amongst the rough over that way.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

It would indeed but like you say highly unlikely to happen unfortunately.

what could be a more realistic scenario is if the crusaders or hurricanes become a dual-code club like what harlequins did with the London broncos in super league in 2006.

I personally would be against any dual-code clubs as at the end of the day the games of RU and RL are competitors at best and enemies at worst.

The only reservations I would have with that is that the two clubs are NZRU owned and I don't want RL teams in the hands of RU as you can guarantee they will treat the league team like the poor cousin and all of the best talent in the pathways will get given to the Union team.