Regardless, it’s pretty much true. The most recent NRL expansions were Melbourne (5 million people with no existing team), Gold Coast (720,000 people with no existing team) and Dolphins (2.3 million in rugby league mad Brisbane with only 1 team). And the consensus with Brisbane for several decades is that it has needed more than 1 team. None of those are examples of cannibalisation.
And the players? So those teams never started with players from other NRL teams? of course they did, that is also cannibalisation. If you are talking fans, are you now saying that every single fan of any new team has never been a fan of another team? I call bullshit on that assertion. Still cannibalisation.
Here’s the list of places that the NRL can expand to: Perth, Adelaide, Wellington, Christchurch. All cities without existing teams. Then beyond that Sunshine Coast, Central Coast, Hobart. Also cities without existing teams. Potentially also second Melbourne and Auckland sides. I’m not saying all those places will get teams but it shows how many options the NRL has.
Shit, with some of those dreams why not include PNG, Singapore, bali, the moon and mars while you are at it You're only naming locations where you assume a team could be able to go. Doesn't mean they will be successful or even last there. I mean you have to look at this thread to see how desperate you Aussies are to prop up your teams with players when you don't have the talent available for your current teams.
And despite your rewriting of history it wasn’t just Covid that killed those other teams. Japan made their decision to pull their team in March 2019. Covid shut downs didn’t start until 2020. It was pure coincidence, 2020 was always going to be their final year. Jaguares were a financial basketcase for years. And South Africa were always going to ditch Super Rugby for Europe because of time zones and that’s where the money is. So yeah, you’re sticking your head in the sand there. Fiji won’t see out the decade. The country is smaller and poorer than the other three that already ditched the comp. They also don’t bring anything to comp in terms of broadcasting rights, which is the biggest financial driver.
And if Super Rugby only exists to set up the All Blacks, well conversely it clearly has done nothing to help the Wallabies.
Japan pulled the Sunwolves, simply because they couldn't agree to financial terms. South Africa blamed NZ for pulling out of Super Rugby, because of covid, they had teams in both hemispheres.
And the Jaguares, despite your assertions, came second in 2019 and where doing fine when the comp had to end. Not to mention they were financed directly by World Rugby, And you call me a revisionist. And Fiji offers plenty, of course myopic Aussies never see it.
Where’s Super Rugby expanding to? The Australian teams struggle. Force was already axed once in 2017 and is basically propped up by a single financial backer, so an Adelaide team isn’t happening, let alone any of those other Australian locations. And New Zealand is tapped out.
See, another Australian who doesn't know what they are talking about. There is already contingency for another NZ team. If the comp goes back to pools and has an Aussie pool, NZ pool, there will also be a Japan pool.
Of course if we are going to be as fanciful as you, even the Americas could form a pool. But I will leave the day dreaming up to you.
He didn’t say they would switch. He said they “would form league sides as well”. Meaning a club like the Crusaders would have a Crusaders union side and a Crusaders league side.
Multi-sport franchises are the way of the future.
That is as stupid as it is fanciful. For starters NZR would never allow it, and even if they did, why wouldn't they just funnel their best players in the SR team? Take the money from the NRL and run a crap League team, and put their resources where they really want to.
The biggest obstacle with this happening is that these two sports are directly competing for talent.
It is a bit of a different situation to say a league/fumbleball team owning a netball team for example.
It really isn't difficult to see. How anyone with more than half a brain can contemplate it is insane.
I've had a look at the lowlights across SR over the weekend and the crowds are terrible at some. The Moana pacifika game looked like 3 to 5k , Force 4 to 7k and reds in Townsville about the same. 3 games drew decent crowds for obvious reasons but 3 out of 6 games would have run at a significant loss after stadium rent and rated extremely poorly on TV .
This isn't an attractive sport to watch and without a " big event " type buzz is a dismal product as a whole.
Is Super Rugby dying?
3 out of 6 games looked like it was already dead.
And that was the first round where they put the best fixtures together to kick things off.
It's over.
If I was a Union fan anywhere in the Pacific, It wouldn't be Sadness I'd be feeling at this stage. It would be acceptance.
Enjoy it while you still can.
Yeah but you haven't been right about anything in this thread, and you don't seem to want to start now.
