NRL's growth mindset points to 18th team. And it ain't Perth.

[Colk]

It's a bit hard getting from a town in Far North Queensland to Townsville on a Thursday or Friday night. The only day conducive to patronage from FNQ to Townsville Stadium is Saturday. Sydney clubs don't have this burden, yet regularly draw abominable crowds around 5k, 6k or 7k.

There's no greater measurement of a Sydney club's fanbase than how many people attend games when an interstate team comes to town. Crowds for these games are dreadful and I've heard Sydney fans argue it's a reason to kick interstate clubs out of the league. I once saw a Roosters fan on The Roar claim the Cowboys offer nothing to the NRL because they don't draw big crowds at the Sydney Football Stadium when they play away there against the Roosters. The idiot was obviously too stupid to realise it's the responsibility of Roosters' fans to fill the SFS when they play there because it's their home ground. I've seen Cronulla fans on this board defend shit crowds at Endeavour by saying "interstate club brought no one" when they played their Sharks.

Exactly the Cowboys shouldn’t play games at home on Thursday of Friday night

 

[Perth Red]

Exactly the Cowboys shouldn’t play games at home on Thursday of Friday night

I don’t think they do very often do they? Just looked theyve got 4/12 this year which is 2 too many. Having said that the sponsors probably want more fta games.

 

[Colk]

I don’t think they do very often do they?

I don’t think so either but considering the geography the only option they have is a Saturday game

 

[Wb1234]

Exactly. Our goal is to become like Gridiron of the Oceania. Take the best athletes. It is obvious that we need to improve our junior links in Australis and look at ways to get the next Buderus and Barrett type of players through - that might be as simple as improving the size and reach of the second tier ot something else

It was an interesting article. If you can get up to 20 sides with 2-3 outside of Australia then that is not bad.

Even in Sydney clubs don’t produce near enough juniors. Penrith are showing the way

 

[Colk]

Even in Sydney clubs don’t produce near enough juniors. Penrith are showing the way

True. I think clubs need to also have designated areas outside of Sydney. Maybe the schoolboys competition is the way forward - I did read a promising article recently about the schoolboys team and the Storm

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Exactly the Cowboys shouldn’t play games at home on Thursday of Friday night

The 6pm game needs to be canned. Our governing body is a disgrace for letting News Ltd push this time slot on our clubs and fans. No other sporting body in this country would let a broadcaster do this to them.

 

[Colk]

The 6pm game needs to be canned. Our governing body is a disgrace for letting News Ltd push this time slot on our clubs and fans. No other sporting body in this country would let a broadcaster do this to them.

I agree. If you are going to play it (or any second game on Friday) then it should be a NZ side

 

[Perth Red]

I agree. If you are going to play it (or any second game on Friday) then it should be a NZ side

Problem is fox doesn’t want a low drawing team in that slot. I can broncos and dolphins getting a few next year

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

When it takes two sets of fans in Sydney to get the same size crowd as one set of fans outside of Sydney it certainly tells you something.

The craziest thing is there's people from Sydney who've deluded themselves into thinking it's the heartland of the game.

How can Sydney be the heartland when a Canterbury vs Cronulla game at Stadium Australia drew just 8,358 in 2019?

It's delusional for people to think the removal of Canterbury and Cronulla from the NRL will cause the broadcasters and hundreds of thousands of fans to walk away from the game. People who think the game's survival depends on nine small teams from Sydney are dumb and crazy. Their stance is devoid of logic and based solely on their emotional connection to the NSWRL. I can understand their passion, but that doesn't give them the right to hold the game back just because they cannot let go of nostalgia. Every year spent on artificially supporting nine unviable Sydney clubs allows AwFuL to get stronger in its heartland because it has no competition. We're not getting stronger in our heartland because we do have competition.

 

[Colk]

Problem is fox doesn’t want a low drawing team in that slot. I can broncos and dolphins getting a few next year

The 6pm slot?

 

[Perth Red]

The craziest thing is there's people from Sydney who've deluded themselves into thinking it's the heartland of the game.

How can Sydney be the heartland when a Canterbury vs Cronulla game at Stadium Australia drew just 8,358 in 2019?

It's delusional for people to think the removal of Canterbury and Cronulla from the NRL will cause the broadcasters and hundreds of thousands of fans to walk away from the game. People who think the game's survival depends on nine small teams from Sydney are dumb and crazy. Their stance is devoid of logic and based solely on their emotional connection to the NSWRL. I can understand their passion, but that doesn't give them the right to hold the game back just because they cannot let go of nostalgia. Every year spent on artificially supporting nine unviable Sydney clubs allows AwFuL to get stronger in its heartland because it has no competition. We're not getting stronger in our heartland because we do have competition.

We dont need to remove anyone, we just have to not let anyone hold us back! Plan for 20 teams over next ten years and with the right decisions the game is set for the next 40-50 years.

 

[Perth Red]

The 6pm slot?

Yeh, it’s actually one of fox’s highest drawing slots

 

[The Great Dane]

We dont need to remove anyone, we just have to not let anyone hold us back! Plan for 20 teams over next ten years and with the right decisions the game is set for the next 40-50 years.

I have no faith that the NRL is capable of making the right decisions.

I also think it's insane to think that the NRL would stay at 20 teams for 40-50 years assuming that all goes well.

 

[flippikat]

I forgot their name but there was another group that wanted the nz tv rights in nz. With that competition then I’m sure they will be keen to bid with an extra team in the mix

It wasn't TV - it was Spark Sport streaming service - basically a streaming service set up by one of our phone/internet companies (ex Govt-owned!) as a revenue stream for them.

Thing is, they're struggling against Sky, just lost the Premier League Soccer rights, and may not be able to bid for NRL next time.. they may not even exist.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

{A bit of history - NZ's phone lines used to be owned/run under the Post Office up until the 1980s - then with the wonders of Neoliberalism, the 3 core parts of the post office (telephones, post office, post office savings bank) were split into separate companies & the phone company & bank were sold off.
Years later, the privatised phone company (Telecom) was forced to split into a retail company (Spark) and a company that owned, operated & wholesale-d the lines (Chorus), because the Government realised after 20 years it was unfair for a retail phone company to OWN the lines as well - and be gatekeeper for others like Vodaphone etc who wanted to use the network}

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

It wasn't TV - it was Spark Sport streaming service - basically a streaming service set up by one of our phone/internet companies (ex Govt-owned!) as a revenue stream for them.

Thing is, they're struggling against Sky, just lost the Premier League Soccer rights, and may not be able to bid for NRL next time.. they may not even exist.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

{A bit of history - NZ's phone lines used to be owned/run under the Post Office up until the 1980s - then with the wonders of Neoliberalism, the 3 core parts of the post office (telephones, post office, post office savings bank) were split into separate companies & the phone company & bank were sold off.
Years later, the privatised phone company (Telecom) was forced to split into a retail company (Spark) and a company that owned, operated & wholesale-d the lines (Chorus), because the Government realised after 20 years it was unfair for a retail phone company to OWN the lines as well - and be gatekeeper for others like Vodaphone etc who wanted to use the network}

Sort of similar to Australia.

Telecom Australia aka Telstra were privatised in the 90s but continued to run the copper phone network. Optus and Foxtel had their own Hybrid Fibre Coaxial Cable networks, but sold them to the NBN.

 

[flippikat]

Sort of similar to Australia.

Telecom Australia aka Telstra were privatised in the 90s but continued to run the copper phone network. Optus and Foxtel had their own Hybrid Fibre Coaxial Cable networks, but sold them to the NBN.

Yeah.. funny how the Government figured in hindsight that the lines/infrastructure shouldn't be owned by any of the retail companies!

But bringing it back towards topic, the desire for telecommunications companies to get into their own "content" services is IMO misguided - telecoms companies aren't broadcasters, and it's all so much distraction from their core business.

Sure, sign deals with content makers to offer deals on them for customers ("sign with us for internet, get a deal on Netflix"), but assembling a package of rights, and even producing content themselves? Nah... very risky.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Yeah.. funny how the Government figured in hindsight that the lines/infrastructure shouldn't be owned by any of the retail companies!

But bringing it back towards topic, the desire for telecommunications companies to get into their own "content" services is IMO misguided - telecoms companies aren't broadcasters, and it's all so much distraction from their core business.

Sure, sign deals with content makers to offer deals on them for customers ("sign with us for internet, get a deal on Netflix"), but assembling a package of rights, and even producing content themselves? Nah... very risky.

It didn't work out for Optus in the 90s or for Telstra. Foxtel has never been profitable.

 

[MugaB]

I don’t think they do very often do they? Just looked theyve got 4/12 this year which is 2 too many. Having said that the sponsors probably want more fta games.

Yes the cowboys need 12 home games in Townsville every year, let the other clubs take games to regional areas around it, like parra does for Nt, and souths at cairns, etc

 

[The Great Dane]

Yes the cowboys need 12 home games in Townsville every year, let the other clubs take games to regional areas around it, like parra does for Nt, and souths at cairns, etc

Let Sydney clubs take games to regional areas you mean.

None of the one club cities should be moving games unless they have no choice.

 

[MugaB]

Let Sydney clubs take games to regional areas you mean.

None of the one club cities should be moving games unless they have no choice.

Well yeah that makes sense, most syd clubs, like dogs, sharks, rabbits, roosters need only 10 games in sydney as home grounds, the rest should be taken away elsewhere, it would help them financially and it means keeping the regional or 1 team cities keep 12 home games in their area, a great example is magic round in brisbane, instead of making broncos use up a home game, make their opponents be the home team thus gifting brisbane or suncorp in particular an extra game, same should be said for canberra, dragons, cowboys etc