New Zealand 2 will deal a massive blow to NZ rugby

[Matua]

This is a load of crap. Wellington is a city of over 400000 people. It has only 15 senior men’s teams. The competition isn’t weak but there is no evidence it’s ‘on cap’ with some of the best nurseries in the world.

https://www.sporty.co.nz/wellingtonleague

My assumption is that he's including rugby in the nurseries rather than just league.

 

[Hey you guys]

This is all just feels from you, how on earth do you think it works? Where is the team going to be based? It's a no go.

Wellington and Chch are bigger than the Cowboys catchment area, similar to the Knights and Canberra, and in the case of Wellington it has a catchment area within a three hour drive of close to a million people.

I’m against another Auckland based team but what about using the north harbour stadium?

 

[Canard]

My assumption is that he's including rugby in the nurseries rather than just league.

No, it's because of the 4 or so Wellington locals mentioned, that have played in the NRL, somehow that puts them "on par" with most RL regions.

Which is frogshit.

 

[Vlad59]

No, it's because of the 4 or so Wellington locals mentioned, that have played in the NRL, somehow that puts them "on par" with most RL regions.

Which is frogshit.

Kinda what I was insinuating

 

[T-Boon]

This is all just feels from you, how on earth do you think it works? Where is the team going to be based? It's a no go.

Wellington and Chch are bigger than the Cowboys catchment area, similar to the Knights and Canberra, and in the case of Wellington it has a catchment area within a three hour drive of close to a million people.

Play at the same place the Warriors play.

 

[Hey you guys]

Play at the same place the Warriors play.

They sound like they’d be the NRL’s equivalent of moana pasifika.

 

[Matua]

I’m against another Auckland based team but what about using the north harbour stadium?

There's not a huge league following north of the bridge.

 

[Matua]

Play at the same place the Warriors play.

So you want a second Auckland team to somehow develop it's own identity while playing at the exact same place the Warriors play at. I think you're just taking the piss now.

No, it's because of the 4 or so Wellington locals mentioned, that have played in the NRL, somehow that puts them "on par" with most RL regions.

Which is frogshit.

Fair enough I'm not going to claim I know what goes in Gob's mind(s).

 

[Hey you guys]

There's not a huge league following north of the bridge.

Is there much of a population north of the bridge?

 

[T-Boon]

They sound like they’d be the NRL’s equivalent of moana pasifika.

I’ll google what that is

 

[Hey you guys]

I’ll google what that is

I wouldn’t bother mate.

there’s better things to do than waste one’s time reading up on super rugby teams and especially ones that are garbage.

 

[Matiunz]

that is a good point. I agree with the point. But for now, I'll stick with my position of another Auckland team (I'll think on it though).

Auckland doesn’t have a natural tribalisation , all Auckland 2 would do is canabilise the existing fan base and maybe pick up some disillusioned Warriors fan converts.
At the moment Warriors generally don’t spread resources much further than Auckland, NZ2 elsewhere gives the non Auckland player base better visibility and in the same frame leaves Auckland to concentrate on Auckland rather than spreading themselves thin.

Moana pasifika is essentially Auckland 2 in Super Rugby which isn’t working- if it’s not there in Union it won’t be there in league

 

[Matiunz]

Play at the same place the Warriors play.

Go Media is starting to get a bit crowded with An NRL, Super Rugby and A league team all based there already

 

[Matiunz]

Where I am coming from is if you had a second Auckland in 15 or 20 years it would be proven to be the right decision. Have a game there each weekend.
Wellington and Christchurch are potentially too small for an NRL team. Thusly it seems to me.

One way to look at it is both Christchurch and Wellington are around 500k, CHCH has a proximity to another 500k making the island just north of 1million, Wellington has Around a million in neighbouring provinces which would give it a catchment of around 1.5mil
just the home bases of those are on par with Canberra/ Newcastle, larger than cowboys and if you divide Sydney by its 8.5 teams it’s fairly close to that too

 

[Matiunz]

Is there much of a population north of the bridge?

Its a bit grey with what is included as West Auckland kinda blurs into North Auckland but from what I could see of the suburb population it seems relatively evenly split between south, central/east, west and North.

 

[Wb1234]

I’m against another Auckland based team but what about using the north harbour stadium?

Demolished most of the stands lol

Only main stand remains but it was a beauty

 

[Wb1234]

The idea of Auckland 2 has been mentioned before given the population base

Sharing stadiums isn’t a big issue either

But the warriors will be dead against it esp when chch and Wellington don’t have teams

 

[Hey you guys]

Demolished most of the stands lol

Only main stand remains but it was a beauty

I think there’s only ever been 1 main grandstand with the rest being uncovered seated areas.

 

[Gobsmacked]

The idea of Auckland 2 has been mentioned before given the population base

Sharing stadiums isn’t a big issue either

But the warriors will be dead against it esp when chch and Wellington don’t have teams

Obviously a firm No to Auckland 2.
In the event of a second NZ team however, I wonder about a possible away game at Eden Park.
Let's say the Sharks and Raiders play their home games against the Warriors and SI at Eden Park?
Double header..
Example:
Saturday 3.30pm NZ time ( 5.30pm Aus)
Sharks vs Warriors
5.30pm NZ time (7.30pm Aus)
Raiders vs South Island

Sold out annual event

 

[Hey you guys]

Obviously a firm No to Auckland 2.
In the event of a second NZ team however, I wonder about a possible away game at Eden Park.
Let's say the Sharks and Raiders play their home games against the Warriors and SI at Eden Park?
Double header..
Example:
Saturday 3.30pm NZ time ( 5.30pm Aus)
Sharks vs Warriors
5.30pm NZ time (7.30pm Aus)
Raiders vs South Island

Sold out annual event

I like the idea of a double header played at Eden park but not the idea of it theoretically involving both NZ NRL teams for the simple reason that introducing a second New Zealand based NRL team intentionally or unintentionally splits the support base geographically between Auckland/north island and Christchurch/south island and that it would be a wasted opportunity for NZ2 who could have played the raiders “home” game in say Dunedin or Nelson etc.

play a double header at eden park involving 2 Aussie based NRL teams and have the warriors play the 2nd game against another Aussie based team.

the same could be done at the new Christchurch stadium also using the same format.