Stalled and stagnant Sydney clubs

[cumbrian Mackem]

The West tigers, Canterbury bulldogs and St. Georg-Illawarra dragons clubs all seem to have hit a brick wall in recent times in terms of off-field issues like having no permanent or decaying home grounds, falling/poor crowds and even identity crisis.

This leads me to the conclusion that these clubs need to either relocate or merge with other Sydney clubs or face going out of business.

What are the options?

Dragons move to Wollongong fulltime?

bulldogs merge with west magpies and play out of Liverpool?

Tigers relocate to Brisbane?

 

[Perth Red]

Whilst clubs are getting half their revenue from the nrl and pokie dens topping up the other half they arent going anywhere no matter how sht they are.

 

[MrE_Assassin]

Well, Wests Magpies are already merged with Balmain to make the Wests Tigers…. So unless you’re suggesting a three-way merger (which let’s face it, a two team merge for that club has already been disastrous) I don’t see that happening.

Dragons moving permanently down the road is plausible but I don’t think you’d see that happening because of their history in the game and Kograh, plus there is stacks of cash to be made in that area from gaming machines.

Maybe (and I’m not saying I want this to happen) the Bulldogs move to NZ, remain as the Canterbury Bulldogs but have sister-city homes in NZ and Aus. Maintain the Canterbury leagues club in Aus for good revenue and develop the game in NZ.

Otherwise I think you’re going to have to look at other clubs but good luck because pretty much all of them have some reason for existence in their current format. Maybe Manly moves up the road to Central Coast and stops isolating themselves to just the peninsula… but given there has been money dumped into Brookvale I don’t see that happening either.

 

[siv]

Canterbury - Macarthur alignment makes a lot if sense

Wests have devided they want to be a Ashfield aligned inner west team

 

[gallagher]

Do me a favour and just piss the tigers off

 

[This Year?]

I love a good Sydney club bash.

My idea would be this:
Broncos, Titans, Cowboys and Storm to QRL.

Warriors back to NZ and let the PNG and Pacific Nations create their own comp (PRL)

Illawarra, St George, Wests and Balmain to get their individual licences reinstated in NSWRL.

Still have SOO and internationals and instead of the WCC have to grand finalists from ESL,PRL, QRL and NSWRL in a round robin comp.


Or......TOPBALL!

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Brisbane Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs (Christchurch)
Western Sydney Magpies

 

[cumbrian Mackem]

Brisbane Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs (Christchurch)
Western Sydney Magpies

I like these suggestions a lot. The tigers could relocate to Brisbane and play out of suncorp stadium with the broncos allowing the dolphins to become the moreton bay dolphins playing out of Redcliffe.

The bulldogs could either relocate to Christchurch as you say or even merge with the magpies to become the western Sydney bulldogs or western bulldogs preferably playing out of a new purpose built stadium in Liverpool.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

I like these suggestions a lot. The tigers could relocate to Brisbane and play out of suncorp stadium with the broncos allowing the dolphins to become the moreton bay dolphins playing out of Redcliffe.

The bulldogs could either relocate to Christchurch as you say or even merge with the magpies to become the western Sydney bulldogs or western bulldogs preferably playing out of a new purpose built stadium in Liverpool.

There's a Western Bulldogs in AwFuL. Sending the Canterbury Bulldogs to Christchurch allows them to retain their identity and grow the game in NZ. Magpies get to use their preferred identity and become the defacto team for Western Sydney. Easts Tigers are a strong club based in Coorparoo, Brisbane. I'd give them an NRL licence and the right to be known as the Tigers.

 

[cumbrian Mackem]

There's a Western Bulldogs in AwFuL. Sending the Canterbury Bulldogs to Christchurch allows them to retain their identity and grow the game in NZ. Magpies get to use their preferred identity and become the defacto team for Western Sydney. Easts Tigers are a strong club based in Coorparoo, Brisbane. I'd give them an NRL licence and the right to be known as the Tigers.

What happens to balmain tigers?

I like western Sydney bulldogs if western bulldogs is taken. Either way the current tigers and bulldogs imo are a waste of 2 NRL franchises that could go to an expansion area like Perth or Christchurch and a 3rd brisbane team.

In an ideal world I’d also boot the sharks and sea eagles and replace them with north Sydney bears and another expansion area like Adelaide or even Darwin or Tasmania to give the NRL a true national footprint but with the redevelopment of brookvale and shark park these clubs look to be safe for now.

 

[siv]

Relocate Wests to Perth
- colours & name are a perfect match

Relocate Easts to Adelaide
- colours close match
- already have strong local support & Melbourne rivalry
- instantly get some juniors
- perfect club to use their resources to grow the game in AFL territory

Bears return as the Northern Sydney CC based club

 

[Cactus]

Shouldnt that be :

Wests to Perth
Souths to Adelaide
Norths to Darwin

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

What happens to balmain tigers?

I like western Sydney bulldogs if western bulldogs is taken. Either way the current tigers and bulldogs imo are a waste of 2 NRL franchises that could go to an expansion area like Perth or Christchurch and a 3rd brisbane team.

In an ideal world I’d also boot the sharks and sea eagles and replace them with north Sydney bears and another expansion area like Adelaide or even Darwin or Tasmania to give the NRL a true national footprint but with the redevelopment of brookvale and shark park these clubs look to be safe for now.

Balmain would cease to exist. Brisbane has its own Tigers brand that's been based at Coorparoo for 80 years. The Eastern Suburbs Tigers are one of the strongest rugby league clubs in Australia and have a larger district than Balmain, stretching from Bulimba in Brisbane's east to Yarrabilba in Logan's outer south-east. Its Leagues Club is so large and strong that the Broncos Leagues relied on it for support a few years ago. Logan is a strong growth region of Greater Brisbane and has produced a long list of world class rugby league players over the last 40 years.

Darwin should be looking to field a team in the Queensland Cup and link up with the North Queensland Cowboys.

I do think the Sharks and Dragons are competing with each other for survival. Southern Sydney doesn't have the population to support two NRL clubs. Dragons have the more recognisable brand and larger geographic footprint, so Cronulla should go to Adelaide or Perth. Southern Sydney Dragons and Adelaide Sharks would be good for the game.

The Bears won't be back. The best case scenario is for Manly to rebrand as North Sydney Sea Eagles and promote themselves as the club for North Shore, Northern Beaches and Central Coast.

 

[MrE_Assassin]

Shouldnt that be :

Wests to Perth
Souths to Adelaide
Norths to Darwin

Nah, move the Bunnies to the South Island of NZ. They can stay as Souths then.

 

[Diesel]

Souths to Adelaide = Souths Australia Rabbitohs

 

[MugaB]

Shouldnt that be :

Wests to Perth
Souths to Adelaide
Norths to Darwin

Does that mean Easts to Welington then, that's pretty far east

 

[Perth Red]

Surely Easts to China and renamed the Far Easts

 

[MugaB]

Surely Easts to China and renamed the Far Easts

Compared to where theyve been relocated from, it woud be far Far FAR north

 

[MugaB]

I dont mind that relocation strategy, leaves Manly, Sharks, Eels and Dogs in each corner of the city, with Dragons in the gong, and Panthers far out west, its not too bad of a spread, maybe getting manly and sharks to take 4-5 games each to the SFS, and hopefully better transport options from brookvale to the city, maybe the game would grow better in sydney without the inner city teams in the way, west tigers, souths rabbitohs, easts roosters, norths bears, keeping those names without specifically adding the words of Perth, Adelaide, Darwin or Wellington, seems ingenius if they did ever get relocated, and it keeps the heritage of these original teams

 

[mongoose]

Roosters or Rabbitohs won't relocate with the new SFS nearly completed. They probably also have the biggest sponsorship deals of Sydney clubs and get a certain level of prestige being in central Sydney.

Manly, Sharks and Panthers grounds all getting upgrades so they won't be moving.

Eels have Bankwest.

That leaves the Tigers, Dragons and Bulldogs.
Tigers are probably under the pump more than anyone and if they get the spoon this year then talk about their future could get interesting... Problem is they are actually a very popular club in Sydney and have the potential to get big crowds if they were finishing top 4.