This guy's got the right idea-
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeme...important-part-of-its-future/?sh=7377cef54ec4
That's how you make the NSW Cup a self-sustaining product in it's own right with it's own fan-base, not by turning it into an opener for the NRL played in front of a couple hundred people.
Only thing's I'd change is I'd move the focus away from Sydney and the other markets that already have NRL teams, and more onto NSW as a whole. Why not e.g. Wagga, Coffs, Dubbo, etc, instead of e.g. Penrith, Redfern, and Canberra?
Also we'd have to find a way to broadcast the whole competition and get it under people's noises, that way it'd be simple and convenient to follow a team's whole season and the teams could start building strong fan-bases.
Why not try to convince Nine and/or Fox to bring back Monday Night Footy, make it the second tier night with the game of the round (NSW cup live in NSW/ACT, Qld Cup live in Qld, the other played afterward on delay), and stream the rest on Kayo or Stan. I'd bet that they'd draw similar numbers to the A-league or Super Rugby, maybe even out rate them given time.