Why not expand and keep the Sydney clubs as well? That way you are not losing any fans at all.
Because the current setup is not sustainable in the long term, we're spending too much money on clubs for too little return.
To fix that we need to remove some of the pressure on the clubs that are struggleing and the best way to do that is to remove their competition.
Sydney has 9 RL clubs, 2 AFL clubs, 2 A-league clubs, 1 Super Rugby club and heaps and heaps of other forms of entertainment, the smaller RL clubs can't handle all that competition so the best move is for us to remove some of that competition so the other clubs have the best opportunity to strive.
And where do you get the number of active fans from? What makes some one an active fan over an inactive fan?
My numbers were rough estimates.
An active fan is someone that actively engages with the club, i.e. they're members, buy the clubs products, watch as many games as possible, go to games, esc.
Where a casual fan is some that identifies as a fan of the club, but doesn't actively support them.
the same clubs that are largely responsible for the massive TV deal we have
they are already bankrolling the storm at $5 million more pa than anyone else, why should more of their money go to loss making teams when they are the ones who earned that money.
good luck to them to get every cent they can get.
Wow you've got that all knotted up.
So because there has always been a majority of Sydney clubs there always should be, even if it would be more profitable to have less clubs in Sydney and more in other cities.
That doesn't make any sense at all.
i dont think the people on here arguing for sydney clubs to relocated are being honest / realistic about how succesful the non sydney clubs are.
and how much they add to the TV deal.
newcastle are the only non sydney club which is at potential. warriors get a pass.
the rest are all one team towns and their crowds are frankly disgraceful.
and if you are talking about wanting to expand look at the basket case that it the gold coast titans, thats what you want to add to the NRL?
edit : am in actually in favour of expansion
Well actually clubs like the Broncos, Storm, Cowboys and yes even the Raiders add more to the TV deal then your average Sydney club as they add access to different TV markets then just Sydney.
The TV deal would be worth jack shit if the broadcasters couldn't get exposure for advertisers during a popular program in the Brisbane, regional Queensland, Melbourne, southern NSW and ACT and Auckland markets.
If we were selling the rights to a comp with teams only based in Sydney our rights would be worth less then the A-leagues, our program would still be more popular, but the lack of direct exposure to markets outside of Sydney would kill our TV rights value.
current crowd update
Gold Coast titans 10,761
Canberra Raiders 9,636
Worst sydney side : Cronulla 12,071
Cowboys 12,430
storm 12,708
Out of the 6 lowest crowd average, 4 arent from sydney
How can there be an average for the Raiders this season when we've only had one home game?
Which BTW was against the Titans whom bring a whole three away supporters to Canberra games.
end of the day guys you are watching the NSWRL competition.
thats what the NRL is. the NSWRL built the most succesful league competition on the planet and it was the one that expanded the game.
Firstly the NRL is not the NSWRL anymore, not matter how much you wish it was.
Secondly sure WE built the most successful RL competition in the world, that was almost killed in under five years, by a rushed and badly planned rival!
the heart of the game is in sydney, its been like that since 1908 and it will never change.
if you dont like sydney follow another sport.
if the sydney teams wanted to break away they would be fine and the rest of the comp would be stuffed.
The heart of the game is not in Sydney and it hasn't been since the early eighties.
If the rest of the competition wanted to break away it's Sydney that would be in trouble.
Imagine if a new competition came along and took the Broncos, Storm, Knights, Raiders, Cowboys, Titans, Warriors and two Sydney clubs with them, maybe the Rabbitohs who behind all the smoke and mirrors are struggling to make ends meat and the always ambitious Bulldogs. That's 9 clubs, maybe more if things went down differently.
Then add to that Brisbane 2, Perth, Wellington and the second coming of the North Sydney Bears (giving us one team each in the north, west and south east of Sydney) and you've got a league with very strong foundations and most of the superstar players already on contract, maybe more with some sneaky brown paper bags here and there.
That'd leave what's left of the NRL with 7 clubs, maybe they rush a Hunter Mariners style club in to fill the comp out to 8, and nearly all are based in Sydney.
The only things that the NRL would have that we'd want is SOO, the Kangaroos, a handful of players and a few clubs.
Tell me again who'd be "stuffed".
