Thats a fair call on the Western Corridor bid. My apologise on the Brothers bid I read an article on the NRl website about the bid and they made it sound far like a far more traditional bid.
Apologies are totally unnecessary, it's not your fault that the "journalists" at the NRL website, Courier Mail, and others that have reported on the Brothers bid have totally failed in their job and failed to research the bid before reporting on it.
Apart from the odd direct quote from people at the bid everything that I've read about the Brothers bid in the mainstream doesn't correspond with their own bid material at all, they are presented as a "Brisbane bid" when they plainly aren't and have no interest in being a "Brisbane bid", and your average Joe can't be expected to verify everything that is reported to them.
The only reason that i know any different than what has been reported about them is cause I take a keen interest in the business and politics side of sport, which even I admit is a strange interest, and actually took the time to look through the Brothers bid material.
I do however want to add that I'm not against the Brothers bid per se, and in theory I have no problem with them taking a spot in the NRL, however I do want people to be informed about them and what they are about before supporting their bid.
The logistics of a PNG team are definetley much harder then any other bid and there are multiple obstacles that would need to be overcome. I think having the team based in Cairns will help aleviate security concerns. As you stated money is the biggest issue but it can be overcome if the right investors can be found, again this is for years in advance who knows how the situation could get better or worse. They are on the radar as Peter Beattie has mentioned them multiple times. There is a reason they werent part of the four I choose to be in a 20 team comp but I belive they do have a case worth considering.
Frankly Peter Beattie doesn't have a clue what he is talking about, he's just saying things that'll sound nice in the media, he and the NRL/ARLC at large haven't done the research but once they do they'll come to the same conclusion that I have that anything including PNG is a total nonstarter and it's all because of internal problems in PNG that they (the NRL) don't have much control over.
I mean %40 of PNG's population lives under the poverty and the majority of the %60 over it still couldn't afford a ticket to the game on a regular basis even if they were as cheap as A$5.00 a match, PNG has absolutely massive crime and corruption problems that the NRL would have to face, and it's not just the players that they'd have to worry about but more so it's the officials, cause mark my words it wouldn't take long for some rogue entities in PNG to start attempting to bribe and/or threaten them, I could go on but I think you get the point.
But the main thing going against PNG is that they simply aren't worth that much commercially, I mean the PNG broadcast market isn't worth anything, and apart from a select few it's not worth that much to advertisers or sponsors either, and if anything adding a club there will subtract some of the value of the broadcasting rights to Australian broadcasters...
PNG is 50+ years away from being in a position to support an NRL club, it's sad but it is what it is...
Central Coast I placed as a relocation candidate who I believ would be perfect if a Sydney team is sturggling and needs to relocate. They keep there existing brand in a market still close to the original home.
But is that the best solution to the problem? I don't think that it is.
I don't want to go into a long thing in an already huge post, so I'll keep it short, basically the hyper focus on the top tier of sport in this country is killing opportunities for growth, engagement, and participation.
Promoting and utilising the lower tiers would probably be the single best thing that the NRL could do for the growth of the sport in not only in this country but potentially all of the Asia-Pacific, making it possible for a club based in Mudgee, Dubbo, the CC, or anywhere really, to gain similar notoriety and exposure to an NRL club and to make it possible for them to become potentially profitable businesses (obviously not of the same scale as an NRL club) would be huge, absolutely huge, and a big part of that would mean legitimising the lower tiers and placing clubs that aren't really up to scratch for the NRL (business wise) into those lower tiers where they can not only survive but thrive kills a lot of birds with one stone so to speak.
But of course for any of that to happen the attitude of what is best for me first then what is best for the sport would need to change...
The Central Coast mariners aren't in a great position but there still functioning. Again I didnt have them in my original 20 but still think they have a case worth considering.
Only cause they have a rich benefactor that owns them and is willing to eat basically all of their loses and pay for their existence, one way or another eventually he'll leave, maybe he'll get sick of funding a losing team, he'll just get sick of eating the losses, maybe he owns them until his final breath, but eventually he'll leave and they'll be right back where they started...
Now if we had a system where they could run a professional/semi-professional club for cheaper than the cost of running an NRL club, but they still got similar exposure to the NRL clubs, then maybe...
My biggest concern with adelaide is they have 5 senior clubs and six junior clubs. Its a very small grassroots system. NRL dosent get great TV coverage in South Australia either. As you said it could done like the Storm where you introduce the NRL team and hope it has effect on the grassroots. If I take Brothers out I would give Adelaide the last spot in the 20. But I think there are issues there.
The only way that any of that is going to change in a place like Adelaide is if the NRL gets more exposure in SA, and the only way that it's going to get more exposure in Adelaide is with a big time professional team based there to compete with the AFL clubs on a day to day basis...
The only reason that the Storm have failed to have a large effect on the grassroots in Melbourne is cause they've taken all that potential investment of time and resources and shipped it to Queensland, specifically to Brisbane and the Sunshine coast. Is that wrong, yes, should the NRL mandate that every club has to invest into local juniors or at least offer incentive to invest into local juniors, yes, but they haven't and they won't cause a handful of powerful people in Sydney won't let that happen cause it would disadvantage their clubs and would make it impossible for their clubs to use others like Canberra, Penrith, NZ, Newcastle, etc, as feeder clubs for their clubs by letting them develop the talent then throwing all their money at the best prospects once they are developed and on the market...
Christhcurch Bears I think works beacuse it brings the Bears brand back into the comp and the red and black are the colours Christchurch sports teams use.
Have you asked Christchurch? Cause they might not be excited by the idea of being lumped with a brand from Sydney lol.
And again is that the best solution to the problem!? Cause it seems to me that out of a false sense of pride (and entitlement, but that's a different discussion) that some people at the Bears are willing to completely corrupt and throw the brand and history under the bus to play in the top tier again, when that probably isn't the best potential outcome to their current predicament.
