PNG bid for NRL

[Perth Red]

Maybe a bit premature release!

ONLINE PNG NRL BID MERCHANDISE SALES IS UNDER GOING TESTING BY ANZ. WE EXPECT COMPLETION BY FRIDAY 24/12/2011.
WE APOLOGISE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.​

 

[mikail-eagle]

Its only the online sales that have been defered by a week...every other means of purchase or becoming a member started of yesterday.

 

[mikail-eagle]

More NRL teams should be doing this.....

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/26518
PNG duo off to junior camp in Brisbane

Source:
The National,Friday 09th December 2011


TWO players from the PNG NRL Bid’s U15 development squad left for Brisbane yesterday to attend the Brisbane Broncos junior academy camp with all expenses paid for by the Bid’s national all schools programme.
The players selected by the Bid development team from the U15 national camp are Jeff Giegere and Newman Waikilin.
The Bid is providing trainer Solomon Kulianasi an opportunity to further his education in rugby league.
The players and official will also attend the NRL clubs T20 and senior team training sessions at the invitation of the Brisbane Broncos.
PNG NRL Bid development manager Shane Morris, who will be attending, said it was an honour for Giegere, Waikilin and Kulianasi.
“The Broncos camp is for the elite and best young players, coaches and officials in Queensland. The boys will have an opportunity to mix with the best young Australian children in a high performance environment.”
He said giving them exposure at this level was going to greatly enhance their attitude towards rugby league and improve their skill level.
“It will give them an insight into what is required to be at an elite level in rugby league and I suspect they will return to PNG as vastly improved players from the experience.
“It is a big thing for the boys. It is not a holiday. They are there for a reason and we expect them to represent PNG proudly at the camp.
“This is what the Bid is all about, providing opportunities and a pathway to PNG youth and officials in rugby league. This is happening through our junior development programme and we are already starting to see fantastic results,” Morris said.

 

[Perth Red]

More NRL teams should be doing this.....

.

Maybe if PNG were paying more teams $300k they would be! Lets not foolishy think Brisbane are doing this in the altruistic name of expansion

 

[mikail-eagle]

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20111212/sport07.htm
NRL bid needs support of all
The support of the country as a whole is essential to drive the NRL Bid campaign forward.
This was the main message that was stressed at the official launching of the NRL Bid merchandise and membership program which also coincided with the official launch of the online merchandising and membership site last Thursday at the Vision City in Port Moresby.
NRL Bid chairman Philemon Embel said during his speech that a requirement set by the NRL for any bidding team to be eligible to be a part of their competition was for them to demonstrate that they had a strong fan base and good support from the community.
He said that if our general population of nearly 7 million citizens can sign up for memberships or buy the bid merchandise then that would help the bid team in meeting the requirement set by the NRL. He said that it was financially challenging to run a team in the NRL but he was confident that such financial burdens would not be faced because of the good support the bid campaign was receiving from the cooperate franchises.
He said that this bid may have started of as a dream but now it was time to turn it into reality.
“The bid may be seen as just a dream but so far we have done everything right and this dream will soon be achieved,” Embel said.
Also present at the launch was NCD Governor Powes Parkop, who also expressed his strong belief in the success of the bid.
He said that the aim of having a team in the NRL was achievable but the only obstacle was the lack of belief that people had.
Parkop said: “We can only have a team in the NRL if we keep believing and supporting the bid team.”
The league fans who gathered to witness the occasion were lucky to buy the first lot of merchandise at reduced prices and were given some additional value to their items when Brisbane Broncos stars Corey Parker and Jack Reed signed them.
The items on sale included caps, bags, T-shirts stickers and many others.
There were three types of memberships on offer – Platinum, Gold and Silver and cost K800, K150 and K40 respectively.

 

[Perth Red]

Some support for the PNG bid from the UK:

Smith also proposed that PNG should be the next franchise granted entry into the NRL.
Some people may scoff at his idea, but rugby league would only strengthen by marching into a new country.
"Yes (to expansion) if they can tap into an area with an already deep interest, and a classic example of that is PNG," Smith said.
"PNG would bring passion, entertainment, flair and TV revenue. The game is huge in PNG. It is a national sport.
"It would also strengthen their national side. Look what has happened to the New Zealand national side since the Warriors came in. They are reigning world champions. It would do the same for PNG."

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/...ue-and-nrl-clubs/story-e6frf3ou-1226240555060

 

[dangerousdave]

The only real obstacle I see to the PNG bid is how to get players to go there.

Otherwise, itd do wonders for the country

 

[Perth Red]

Stadium, players, value to NRL and income are their main problems. Sadly they are all massive issues that it would be hard to solve.

 

[El Diablo]

wonder what they want to speak to him about?

gusgould91 Phil Gould



@SenMarkArbib hello Sir .. Hope all is well .. Can Michael Searle and I please come and talk to you about PNG at some stage? .. Thank you

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Stadium, players, value to NRL and income are their main problems. Sadly they are all massive issues that it would be hard to solve.

Stadium will be built.
They have thousands of players.
They will pay millions to NRL for TV rights.
They will have seven million fans and plenty of sponsors.

There are teams in the NRL and other bids who have far less going for them.

 

[Perth Red]

Stadium will be built.
They have thousands of players.
They will pay millions to NRL for TV rights.
They will have seven million fans and plenty of sponsors.

There are teams in the NRL and other bids who have far less going for them.

Stadium isn't built, build it then apply ( I would love to see them get a 50k stadium, they'd sell out every game and would be an amazing TV spectacle!). The budget the Givt announced for the stadium is not much and probably will end up little more than grass hills
Non up to NRL standard, that means for at least the first 10-15 years they will need a core of Australian/NZ players in their squad to be competitive. Can they attract anyone, Melbourne has enough problems convincing players to move out of NSW!
Really? Any evidence that PNG TV has millions to spend on NRL, they don't at the moment
Yes but how many of those fans could affords $25 a ticket or $199 a jersey? Sponsors wise again they sound like they may but no one has yet signed up to any significant investment. When you look at how little Penrith (for example) bring in through gate receipts and sponsors you have to wonder how a PNG side would go in finding the $10-14million a year income they will need

 

[dangerousdave]

Stadium, players, value to NRL and income are their main problems. Sadly they are all massive issues that it would be hard to solve.

Yes but these are all issues that can be potentially overcome despite the obvious difficulties. What I meant was that even if the country completely turns its self around in the next 10 years, it is difficult to imagine how Port Morseby could provide a lifestyle which would attract Australian based players

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Stadium isn't built, build it then apply ( I would love to see them get a 50k stadium, they'd sell out every game and would be an amazing TV spectacle!). The budget the Givt announced for the stadium is not much and probably will end up little more than grass hills
Non up to NRL standard, that means for at least the first 10-15 years they will need a core of Australian/NZ players in their squad to be competitive. Can they attract anyone, Melbourne has enough problems convincing players to move out of NSW!
Really? Any evidence that PNG TV has millions to spend on NRL, they don't at the moment
Yes but how many of those fans could affords $25 a ticket or $199 a jersey? Sponsors wise again they sound like they may but no one has yet signed up to any significant investment. When you look at how little Penrith (for example) bring in through gate receipts and sponsors you have to wonder how a PNG side would go in finding the $10-14million a year income they will need

You want a poor country to build a stadium with NO guarantee it will be used. The Gold Coast didn't even have to meet those standards so why apply a different standard to PNG? The stadium is ready to be built just as soon as they are given the green light. And to suggest you have any idea how much it will cost to build a stadium there is laughable.
They are already developing their players. No one knows what their players are capable of because they've never been given a chance to prove what they can do with professional development and coaching. No other new franchise can supply a team of local players either. PNG adds an ENTIRELY new player pool to the NRL. NO other club can do that.
Who said PNG TV companies would pay for the rights? I said the NRL would receive millions for the TV rights. You clearly have no idea what the plan is. PNG will offer more money to the NRL than any other franchise, except maybe Brisbane II.
Why the hell would a PNG fan have to pay $25 for a ticket or $199 for a jersey? You are applying Australian standards to people in another country that is completely different. You also seem to think it will cost the same to run a club in PNG as here. It's ridiculous to think that a PNG team will be an identical copy of an Australian club based in Port Moresby. Anyone who subscribes to this needs to open their tiny minds.

 

[Karl]

I'd love to see PNG get a team into the NRL, but a lot of the difficulties mentioned are very real and the "solutions" lean toward hope as a strategy. It is a high risk play for the NRL.

Don't forget the volatile political situation up there too. Getting investment and sponsorship into something like this in PNG is going to be difficult.

A couple of years ago I had to get some documents from one part of Moresby to another to be signed. The lawyer I was using said it would take hours. I was looking at a map and said "mate, it's just a few blocks over, why hours?" and he said "because there are a bunch of guys having a bit of tribal warfare on the corner of x and y, so I'll either need to wait or go around the world for sport to avoid the area". Don't underestimate how hairy it gets up there. Another mate was a pilot up there for years, and the stories he has will curl your toes. I've heard the same sorts of things from engineers who work in the mining industry for companies like Worley Parsons.

 

[docbrown]

Having seen it firsthand I don't think it's much worse than southside LA. Like any poor area the main problem is unemployment and lack of opportunities. Now this will be alleviated somewhat as the country creates an industrial base but it's still going to be an issue.

I still think they are years away from getting an NRL team (at least a good 15-20) but as others have said, the best thing we can do is recruit players and give concessions and get the government to ease the restrictions on working in Australia. Investment in PNG grassroots and the comp could increase the semi-professional nature of the local competition. If the NRL were to invest in the comps in the local Pacific and South East Asian region, it opens up their player pool.

 

[Spitty]

I really think the only issue is the safety of staff and visiting players.

I've heard a few people in the know with TV money say that PNG will add more to our TV money than any other club. Including the head of UK Sky Sports (and I'd assume he'd know). Money for the club won't be any issue at all, given the amount of fans the club will have they won't need to charge exorbitant prices for game entry and merchandise, plus the club has an unobstructed opportunity at sponsors and any short fall could easily be made up by the government.

I don't think a PNG club would need to achieve as high a standards on field as other NRL teams do, to gain support. They could loose every game in there first year and still have massive amounts of support. Therefor they could play a mostly local players roster. Obviously over years if the right system is put in place the standard of local players would rise significantly.

But they'd need foreign staff to coach and develop the talent in order to achieve that. The concern is how to you get these guys to want to live in PNG and how can we guarantee the safety of visiting players.

Let's not forget that the one thing that PNG has that no other expansion team has, is a direct line to millions more players who if nurtured right can expand the player pool massively. With the exception of Perth every other expansion bid already supplies a large amount of players to the NRL and the inclusion of those bids would only increase their player supply slightly.

If we want to keep expanding, we need players. Calling on all those that went to ESL, 90% of which went because they weren't good enough to play in the NRL anymore is not the answer.

 

[docbrown]

Some good points Spitty. I honestly think every game there would be packed even if they didn't win a game all season. That said they might get hostile towards the team if they did lose on a regular basis.

However it's the 30,000 people outside the ground trying to get in that you really have to worry about. They'd have to erect some massive screens. You'd want some massive concrete blockades outside.

 

[bobmar28]

Yes but these are all issues that can be potentially overcome despite the obvious difficulties. What I meant was that even if the country completely turns its self around in the next 10 years, it is difficult to imagine how Port Morseby could provide a lifestyle which would attract Australian based players

How about free accommodation?

 

[Karl]

What if you based a PNG team out of Darwin?

 

[docbrown]

And what, fly them North just to play matches?