The Case for Adelaide.....

[Bring back John Fifita]

i d be going a bit more local in terms of Australian sponsors
View attachment 46344

Touche..

Are they still around then? I haven’t seen nor heard of them in ages...

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Garbage reasoning, AFL doesn't compare, they aren't the measure to what or how relocations can/can't work and the lions were are merger, brisbane bears! Remember?

Roosters are one of the lowest memberships and attended teams in sydney, even after going back to back GFs, and called themselves "sydney"
In a city with 8 other "sydney based" clubs teams but only represent waverly council and bondi, they are useless and feed off all the other sydneys players, juniors, and sponsors.
But hey they are rich and are valuable to the league? Yeah Not really, they'd be more valuable in another city, like Perth or Adelaide,
But hey since you're the sydney landscape expert, living in logan, QLD.. i suppose we can all differ to your reasoning, when you dont even live in sydney... take a look on the map they represent sweet fk all yet claim to be everything
View attachment 46347

That small dark blue section on the harbour is all they got for expanding to, as you can see they offer nothing, and can't expand anymore than where they are

I really like that map..

Granted it doesn’t show / colour the Illawarra region.

Where did you get it from?

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

I got those data maps from https://pythagonrl.com/tag/tv-ratings/

Roosters aren't doing that bad. Cronulla, South Sydney and Parramatta are the only Sydney clubs ahead of them.

Gold Coast are doing quite well considering their poor on field form. They're ahead of Wests, Canterbury, St George and Manly.

Cronulla is ahead of all Sydney teams bar Parramatta and South Sydney.

South Sydney is the most popular club in Sydney, but Cowboys, Storm and Broncos draw more viewers across the nation.

Looking at Newcastle's poor ratings makes it obvious that @T-Boon is correct when he says the Knights should adopt Central Coast and take a few games there each year.

It's obvious that Canterbury and Wests are cannibalising each other and Dragons are preventing Sharks from becoming a bigger club.

Let Sharks absorb Illawarra and become the Southern Sharks, Southern Sydney Sharks or South Coast Sharks.

Wests Magpies and Bulldogs merge to become Western Sydney Bulldogs, colours black and white. This club would be a behemoth.

Easts absorb Manly and North Sydney territory.

Souths absorb Balmain and St George territory.

Souths and Easts @ SFS, with Souths playing some games at Western Sydney Stadium.

Bulldogs @ Homebush and some games at Campbelltown.

Parramatta @ Western Sydney Stadium.

Cronulla @ Endeavour and Wollongong.

Penrith @ Penrith.

St George to Adelaide. Adelaide Dragons.

Wests Tigers become West Coast Pirates in Perth.

Manly to New Zealand, possibly as Canterbury Sea Eagles, based in Christchurch, colours red and black.

6 x Sydney
2 x New Zealand
1 x Brisbane
1 x NQ
1 x GC
1 x Newcastle
1 x Canberra
1 x Adelaide
1 x Perth
Total = 15

Add Brisbane 2 and you get 16 clubs, with the potential to add Brisbane 3 and Melbourne 2/NZ3/PNG when they're ready to make it an 18 team competition.

 

[MugaB]

I really like that map..

Granted it doesn’t show / colour the Illawarra region.

Where did you get it from?

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=630ca770cb444ca5899be1273dbe91bf

No the map doesn't show the south coast region but you can assume St George-Illawarra are important enough to service that area, Manlys region is an interesting one, this map only shows what they could expand to, as Northern suburbs are still looked after by the bears in the lower grade and manly only has the coast of the northern beaches, (think like QRL's devils, and dolphins, occupying the same area) but i can adjust the map to properly show manlys proper reach, which is still large

This map is designed just to point out the relevance of each area and borders of junior catchments/councils, its not a reference of population, membership or tv ratings, but it points out that the self proclaimed "sydney roosters" are not nessesary in the landscape, not when talk of Over-Saturation of the city or Relocations talk comes up, business wise they are great, but any team that had a city presence would easily have the better sponsors, here is perspective =Roosters service nothing but 4 junior clubs, Perth has more than 24, and they don't have a licence...
Enough banging on about moving on the tigers, dragons or manly or demergers or whatever, accept that roosters should be the first to go. Or atleast properly take over the northern suburbs ( ala QLDs Easts Tigers taking over Northern suburbs Devils)

 

[MugaB]

View attachment 46351 View attachment 46352 View attachment 46353

I got those data maps from https://pythagonrl.com/tag/tv-ratings/

Roosters aren't doing that bad. Cronulla, South Sydney and Parramatta are the only Sydney clubs ahead of them.

Gold Coast are doing quite well considering their poor on field form. They're ahead of Wests, Canterbury, St George and Manly.

Cronulla is ahead of all Sydney teams bar Parramatta and South Sydney.

South Sydney is the most popular club in Sydney, but Cowboys, Storm and Broncos draw more viewers across the nation.

Looking at Newcastle's poor ratings makes it obvious that @T-Boon is correct when he says the Knights should adopt Central Coast and take a few games there each year.

It's obvious that Canterbury and Wests are cannibalising each other and Dragons are preventing Sharks from becoming a bigger club.

Let Sharks absorb Illawarra.

Wests and Bulldogs merge to become Western Sydney Bulldogs.

Easts absorb Manly.

Souths absorb Balmain and St George.

Souths and Easts @ SFS, with Souths playing some games at Western Sydney Stadium.

Bulldogs @ Homebush and some games at Campbelltown.

Parramatta @ Western Sydney Stadium.

Cronulla @ Endeavour and Wollongong.

Penrith @ Penrith.

St George to Adelaide.

Wests become West Coast Pirates in Perth.

Manly to New Zealand.

Again youre still banging on t he sane narrative of moving those three teams, and leaving easts where they are, it makes no sense nor will the three teams ever move since they were all involved in mergers last time consolidation happened, and the roosters didn't have to or want to do shit, during the superleague war, they just kept quiet, even though balmain or souths should have merged with them, in the end souths and norths got the boot, which fitted and suited roosters perfectly as they could then grow, but it all fkd up when folks started walking the streets.
Tigers won't be going anywhere, and the two areas they represent are important, (think QLDs souths magpies and Logan)

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Again youre still banging on t he sane narrative of moving those three teams, and leaving easts where they are, it makes no sense nor will the three teams ever move since they were all involved in mergers last time consolidation happened, and the roosters didn't have to or want to do shit, during the superleague war, they just kept quiet, even though balmain or souths should have merged with them, in the end souths and norths got the boot, which fitted and suited roosters perfectly as they could then grow, but it all fkd up when folks started walking the streets.
Tigers won't be going anywhere, and the two areas they represent are important, (think QLDs souths magpies and Logan)

There's a good reason those 3 teams were involved in mergers in the 90s/00s. They were on death's door.

Sea Eagles are never going to grow and they have fans in NZ. They can become NZ 2. That leaves the affluent Northern Beaches as a perfect area for Roosters to take over. Swans and Waratahs have a strong fanbase in this area that travels to SCG and SFS, so why can't Easts carve out a following if they put their mind to it?

Easts draw good ratings and have money. That makes them invaluable. Let them grow their territory and junior base and watch their fanbase grow over a 20 or 30 year period. Just getting 5k people from Northern Beaches to become season ticket holders would make the Roosters one of the better supported clubs.

Wests are a rabble and a Magpies/Bulldogs merger in black and white, Western Sydney Bulldogs makes so much more sense. It allows Bulldogs and Magpies to grow and have no other team between their catchment areas.

Dragons are just making up the numbers and are holding the Sharks back.

6 really strong Sydney clubs is better than the cluster we have at the moment.

 

[MugaB]

There's a good reason those 3 teams were involved in mergers in the 90s/00s. They were on death's door.

Sea Eagles are never going to grow and they have fans in NZ. They can become NZ 2. That leaves the affluent Northern Beaches as a perfect area for Roosters to take over. Swans and Waratahs have a strong fanbase in this area that travels to SCG and SFS, so why can't Easts carve out a following if they put their mind to it?

Easts draw good ratings and have money. That makes them invaluable. Let them grow their territory and junior base and watch their fanbase grow over a 20 or 30 year period. Just getting 5k people from Northern Beaches to become season ticket holders would make the Roosters one of the better supported clubs.

Wests are a rabble and a Magpies/Bulldogs merger in black and white, Western Sydney Bulldogs makes so much more sense. It allows Bulldogs and Magpies to grow and have no other team between their catchment areas.

Dragons are just making up the numbers and are holding the Sharks back.

6 really strong Sydney clubs is better than the cluster we have at the moment.

Repetition again, just because clubs are deaths door now, doesn't mean they will in 5 years time, again souths were a rabble, now one of the strongest clubs in the league, canterbury also throughout the past 3 decades were up and now down, your personal politics helping cronulla and roosters grow makes no sence, cronulla don't need to grow, the sutherland area is huge, so much so it dwarfs what st george had, and as the are also in illawarra nothing needs to be done, again only the roosters are capable of NOT growing. Look at the map, stop thinking of the media and on field performances, pretend they are all bidding for 7 licenses to represent sydney... seriously do you need both roosters and souths?

Only one team needs to relocate to continue to grow thats the roosters, all the other sydney clubs service the whole city, take any out, and it leaves a gaping hole unrepresented like what happened with North Sydney bears



I would think a BRL fan that hates the broncos, would see the irony in why the roosters are the same in Sydney

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=630ca770cb444ca5899be1273dbe91bf

No the map doesn't show the south coast region but you can assume St George-Illawarra are important enough to service that area, Manlys region is an interesting one, this map only shows what they could expand to, as Northern suburbs are still looked after by the bears in the lower grade and manly only has the coast of the northern beaches, (think like QRL's devils, and dolphins, occupying the same area) but i can adjust the map to properly show manlys proper reach, which is still large

This map is designed just to point out the relevance of each area and borders of junior catchments/councils, its not a reference of population, membership or tv ratings, but it points out that the self proclaimed "sydney roosters" are not nessesary in the landscape, not when talk of Over-Saturation of the city or Relocations talk comes up, business wise they are great, but any team that had a city presence would easily have the better sponsors, here is perspective =Roosters service nothing but 4 junior clubs, Perth has more than 24, and they don't have a licence...
Enough banging on about moving on the tigers, dragons or manly or demergers or whatever, accept that roosters should be the first to go. Or atleast properly take over the northern suburbs ( ala QLDs Easts Tigers taking over Northern suburbs Devils)

Thanks. I remember reading a while ago stories on the roosters n Rabbitohs... one of the roosters beefs being that the Rabbitohs took on and took over a lot of their junior territories. Goes some way to explain why the roosters are so small... and even smaller when north of Bondi is mostly affluence..

From Coogee southward to Botany Bay is SSyd juniors I think?

Coogee to me is the eastern suburbs..

 

[MugaB]

Thanks. I remember reading a while ago stories on the roosters n Rabbitohs... one of the roosters beefs being that the Rabbitohs took on and took over a lot of their junior territories. Goes some way to explain why the roosters are so small... and even smaller when north of Bondi is mostly affluence..

From Coogee southward to Botany Bay is SSyd juniors I think?

Coogee to me is the eastern suburbs..

Not really maybe borders it, but again the map is just a guide regardless, for example newtown is marked orange as in "tigers" territory but i'm fairly certian souths look after it, (or newtown jets itself) and Ryde-Eastwood area is definitely tigers area, but shows up here under "eels" and north shore/suburbs should be white under "no one"
So there is inconsistencies but nothing too much, Manly and Cronulla have a large footprint, they are important clubs for the NRL to have.
But the canterbury, souths and roosters bottleneck is where future consolidation should be looked at, hence why ive always said move both Canterbury and Roosters elswehere in terms of relocations, as souths already does these areas, aswell as the rest of the clubs already service substantial key areas of the greater Sydney

Sea Eagles = North
Rabbitohs = CBD
Panthers = Greater West
Eels = Western city
Tigers = Inner/South West
Sharks = South
Dragons = Illawarra

Roosters = Adelaide or Buldogs = Nz

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Not really maybe borders it, but again the map is just a guide regardless, for example newtown is marked orange as in "tigers" territory but i'm fairly certian souths look after it, (or newtown jets itself) and Ryde-Eastwood area is definitely tigers area, but shows up here under "eels" and north shore/suburbs should be white under "no one"
So there is inconsistencies but nothing too much, Manly and Cronulla have a large footprint, they are important clubs for the NRL to have.
But the canterbury, souths and roosters bottleneck is where future consolidation should be looked at, hence why ive always said move both Canterbury and Roosters elswehere in terms of relocations, as souths already does these areas, aswell as the rest of the clubs already service substantial key areas of the greater Sydney

I grew up in the shire, it’s a huge catchment. And while the Sharks have had their issues I’ve never been an advocate for them to relocate like many others.

Fair play to the Roosters who were squeezed out of some of their historic junior areas. Their club is a powerhouse regardless. Lived in Bondi for many years, there are junior teams but the place isn’t thriving with comps, the whole demographic of the eastern suburbs (particularly Bondi) has dramatically changed in the last 30 years. Had they not developed into a powerhouse club, and fallen into financial difficulties I’d agree they would be a candidate for relocation. But they are a force..

Newtown could go either way between Balmain or Canterbury areas. Whatever it is, AFL are in there at Henson park amongst other areas. AFL has grown its grassroots comps significantly. I played sport in the Canterbury districts for years until I moved to Adelaide. They are huge and I personally disagree they should relocate.. at all. I just don’t like them playing in near empty stadiums at Homebush, demeans them.

Many of these areas have changed vastly over the last 30 years, even longer. And probably the one that has been affected most in terms of juniors is my club. St George. It’s a smaller area by comparison to most others and highly multicultural with a large proportion of Asian communities (who generally aren’t interested in contact sports). That’s not being critical, it just is how it is. Had they not “acquired” the Illawarra catchment we’d been out on our arse.. and we’d have been the blatantly screaming obvious candidate to relocate.

I just wished our club management had the intellect and strategic thinking back in the 90’s - a very successful decade for us on the field... to build a club that could stand on its own two feet like the Roosters have. But we didn’t and had to go down the JV route. I’ve always thought with a name like “Dragons” we could have had a perfect opportunity to link into Asian communities and get them involved with the football club, crowds, juniors etc. promotions etc geared towards attracting bigger memberships. But it hasn’t happened because either we didn’t do it, or there was no interest. We’ve got a huge fanbase but they are spread far and wide..,

Anyway ...

There’s no perfect solution with relocations. But if there’s a case to be made for anyone to move..as loose and kooky as it might be..

Its one of the JV partners out of the tigers...

Either Balmain or Western Suburbs...

Left field... but..

Keep Campbelltown - a huge growth area, for either of the clubs that “stay”. The Balmain / Lidcombe area becomes a feeder to the relocated club (juniors etc)...or split amongst the neighbouring districts..

It means that the Tigers and Magpies are “reborn” into their original entities... Would fans from either side “like” to see their former club on its own again but in a different state...?? I know many who would.... mainly magpies fans..

It doesn’t resolve the “too many Sydney clubs” argument but I don’t agree there are...

And at risk of being accused of being a NIMBY, I don’t think the dragons could be split similarly only because I don’t think the Steelers could go it alone. Maybe they could?

The Adelaide Steelers
The Adelaide Magpies
The Adelaide Tigers
The Adelaide Dragons....??

Anyway I know that’s less likely to happen than me landing on the moon, and will be many holes in the theory. It’s a just a thought...

But I can’t see, apart from financial freefall, any of the current NRL clubs in their current format with relocation as a benefit...

(and yes, I appreciate that all of those 4 former clubs went into JVs because of many concerns in the first place that included finances ... anyway was a fun way to while away half an hour on a lazy Saturday morning...).

 

[MugaB]

I grew up in the shire, it’s a huge catchment. And while the Sharks have had their issues I’ve never been an advocate for them to relocate like many others.

Fair play to the Roosters who were squeezed out of some of their historic junior areas. Their club is a powerhouse regardless. Lived in Bondi for many years, there are junior teams but the place isn’t thriving with comps, the whole demographic of the eastern suburbs (particularly Bondi) has dramatically changed in the last 30 years. Had they not developed into a powerhouse club, and fallen into financial difficulties I’d agree they would be a candidate for relocation. But they are a force..

Newtown could go either way between Balmain or Canterbury areas. Whatever it is, AFL are in there at Henson park amongst other areas. AFL has grown its grassroots comps significantly. I played sport in the Canterbury districts for years until I moved to Adelaide. They are huge and I personally disagree they should relocate.. at all. I just don’t like them playing in near empty stadiums at Homebush, demeans them.

Many of these areas have changed vastly over the last 30 years, even longer. And probably the one that has been affected most in terms of juniors is my club. St George. It’s a smaller area by comparison to most others and highly multicultural with a large proportion of Asian communities (who generally aren’t interested in contact sports). That’s not being critical, it just is how it is. Had they not “acquired” the Illawarra catchment we’d been out on our arse.. and we’d have been the blatantly screaming obvious candidate to relocate.

I just wished our club management had the intellect and strategic thinking back in the 90’s - a very successful decade for us on the field... to build a club that could stand on its own two feet like the Roosters have. But we didn’t and had to go down the JV route. I’ve always thought with a name like “Dragons” we could have had a perfect opportunity to link into Asian communities and get them involved with the football club, crowds, juniors etc. promotions etc geared towards attracting bigger memberships. But it hasn’t happened because either we didn’t do it, or there was no interest. We’ve got a huge fanbase but they are spread far and wide..,

Anyway ...

There’s no perfect solution with relocations. But if there’s a case to be made for anyone to move..as loose and kooky as it might be..

Its one of the JV partners out of the tigers...

Either Balmain or Western Suburbs...

Left field... but..

Keep Campbelltown - a huge growth area, for either of the clubs that “stay”. The Balmain / Lidcombe area becomes a feeder to the relocated club (juniors etc)...or split amongst the neighbouring districts..

It means that the Tigers and Magpies are “reborn” into their original entities... Would fans from either side “like” to see their former club on its own again but in a different state...?? I know many who would.... mainly magpies fans..

It doesn’t resolve the “too many Sydney clubs” argument but I don’t agree there are...

And at risk of being accused of being a NIMBY, I don’t think the dragons could be split similarly only because I don’t think the Steelers could go it alone. Maybe they could?

The Adelaide Steelers
The Adelaide Magpies
The Adelaide Tigers
The Adelaide Dragons....??

Anyway I know that’s less likely to happen than me landing on the moon, and will be many holes in the theory. It’s a just a thought...

But I can’t see, apart from financial freefall, any of the current NRL clubs in their current format with relocation as a benefit...

(and yes, I appreciate that all of those 4 former clubs went into JVs because of many concerns in the first place that included finances ... anyway was a fun way to while away half an hour on a lazy Saturday morning...).

Yes well the wests tigers wont be demerging, and i did say moving only one either Dogs or Chooks, again relocation shouldn't be looked upon as a penalty, being successful on the field isn't helping them off it, if they want to spread their wings so to speak, they can't do it in Sydney, not with souths next door, and souths is just as successful, even moreso and have only one 1 GF since the 70s, that's success, being able to relevant even without winning, parramatta have been doing it since 86

 

[Perth Red]

No ones going anywhere

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

No ones going anywhere

That's right. I'm just giving my 2 cents on how I would like to see Sydney in 20 or 30 years time, as an outsider with no emotion attached to any of the clubs. I'm not familiar with how the junior and senior systems work down there, but I imagine it could be rearranged so that NSW Cups play more of an active role in providing juniors with a pathway to the NRL. That way we could have Balmain Tigers, Manly Sea Eagles, Illawarra Steelers, Newtown Jets, North Sydney Bears, St George Dragons and Western Suburbs Magpies fielding teams from U16 through to NSW Cup. It would be great to have Tweed Heads Seagulls in there and a few more regional teams.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Not really maybe borders it, but again the map is just a guide regardless, for example newtown is marked orange as in "tigers" territory but i'm fairly certian souths look after it, (or newtown jets itself) and Ryde-Eastwood area is definitely tigers area, but shows up here under "eels" and north shore/suburbs should be white under "no one"
So there is inconsistencies but nothing too much, Manly and Cronulla have a large footprint, they are important clubs for the NRL to have.
But the canterbury, souths and roosters bottleneck is where future consolidation should be looked at, hence why ive always said move both Canterbury and Roosters elswehere in terms of relocations, as souths already does these areas, aswell as the rest of the clubs already service substantial key areas of the greater Sydney

Sea Eagles = North
Rabbitohs = CBD
Panthers = Greater West
Eels = Western city
Tigers = Inner/South West
Sharks = South
Dragons = Illawarra

Roosters = Adelaide or Buldogs = Nz

Can you foresee the Roosters choosing to relocate to Adelaide?

Why would they when they're arguably the richest and safest team in Sydney?

Juniors don't mean squat in professional sport. All that matters is which teams have capital and a sustainable fanbase. Roosters shit all over the Dragons, Panthers, Tigers, Bulldogs and Sea Eagles in that department.

There's no reason why future generations cannot grow up playing juniors in the catchment areas of Bears, Jets, Sea Eagles, Magpies, Bulldogs, Dragons and Tigers but end up supporting a Sydney club that has absorbed those areas at the professional level.

Relocating Dragons to Adelaide and conceding their catchment to Rabbitohs eases the bottleneck you're talking about.

Send the Sea Eagles over to NZ and Roosters can develop ties with the Manly catchment.

 

[MugaB]

Can you foresee the Roosters choosing to relocate to Adelaide?

Why would they when they're arguably the richest and safest team in Sydney?

Juniors don't mean squat in professional sport. All that matters is which teams have capital and a sustainable fanbase. Roosters shit all over the Dragons, Panthers, Tigers, Bulldogs and Sea Eagles in that department.

There's no reason why future generations cannot grow up playing juniors in the catchment areas of Bears, Jets, Sea Eagles, Magpies, Bulldogs, Dragons and Tigers but end up supporting a Sydney club that has absorbed those areas at the professional level.

Relocating Dragons to Adelaide and conceding their catchment to Rabbitohs eases the bottleneck you're talking about.

Send the Sea Eagles over to NZ and Roosters can develop ties with the Manly catchment.

Dragons Also look after wollongong, a permanent move there already solves that issue, regardless but doesn't change any footprint, unless yoyr idea is to relocate them away.

Roosters are not the safest, yes rich, and a completely dire fanbase, your just eating up media words, favourable stats to suit the narritve and spittung them back out, their crowd figures are blown out by anzac day games vs dragons, and trips to adelaide, and CC,
Which is great business but not actually home crowds, a club that wins GFs back2back should be doing alot better in all metrics, but they are just average even after those wins, imagine they nose dive like the broncos did last year, mark my words, you'll see they aren't useful to the sydney footprint, and a THE most perfect candidate for an Adelaide relocation, no one will hate them in Adelaide, as they aren't moving there coz they're a busted club, like all the other clubs you've suggested, strong ties to exhibition home games and rivalries with Melbourne, and colors are the state colors, adding yellow, which is on their logo anyways.

Losing them in Sydney, means Souths play in their own stadium, in their own area, in the south of sydney, and no one at catchment level is affected, unlike how you want to move nearly every club based in Sydney to punt any struggling club away, just to leave "SYDNEY chooks" with a bigger pie. which in all honesty they won't do anything with as they don't grow or develop any juniors themselves, relying on norths to feed them.

If their isn't a top flight team representing the steelers, jets, bears, tigers or magpies directly then they all cese to be relavant, and will be increasingly harder to make top flight for player pathways, and roosters won't look after all of them, not when they dont even care about their own 4 junior clubs, and only rely on norths or poach from the CC.
This isn't me hating on the roosters, its me telling you the footprint suffers when you mess around with any other club, like it has since north sydney bears dropped out of 1st grade.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

On a different note...

I’ve picked up that FTA networks in Adelaide, mainly channel 9 (unsurprisingly).. have had regular cycle of NRL promo ads in the last week or two. And within that, especially Magic Round.

Maybe to try and get eyeballs on NRL while the AFL season is yet to start. But it’s shown here on the 2nd tier channels..

Just intrigued what the rationale is.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Dragons Also look after wollongong, a permanent move there already solves that issue, regardless but doesn't change any footprint, unless yoyr idea is to relocate them away.

Can Wollongong support a professional RL team playing 12 games at its venue?

The Illawarra Steelers were a basket case and drew horrendous crowds.

Why should the ARLC take a team out of Sydney and place it in a regional area of NSW that has a metropolitan population of only 302k, when there are cities in SEQ that have more people?

Wollongong - Wikipedia

The City of Wollongong only has 203k people.

City of Wollongong - Wikipedia

How can you justify Wollongong having a team of its own when Logan has 326k and is growing rapidly, with NRL teams in Brisbane and the Gold Coast to create local rivalries that will draw big crowds?

Logan City - Wikipedia

Logan also produces more RL players than Wollongong and is a dyed in a wool RL city. Wollongong has a fairly large soccer fanbase and fumbleball is growing. This is NSW-centric thinking on your behalf and it's holding back expansion in under-represented areas and cities that have no representation at all.

Roosters are not the safest, yes rich, and a completely dire fanbase, your just eating up media words, favourable stats to suit the narritve and spittung them back out, their crowd figures are blown out by anzac day games vs dragons, and trips to adelaide, and CC,

Roosters finished last in 2009, winning just 2 more games than the Broncos in a 24 round season.

Rugby League Tables / Season 2009 (afltables.com)

Their attendances for 2009 were 13,211, which put them above Parramatta, Melbourne, Cronulla and Canberra.

Rugby League Tables / Attendances 2009 (afltables.com)

Which is great business but not actually home crowds, a club that wins GFs back2back should be doing alot better in all metrics, but they are just average even after those wins, imagine they nose dive like the broncos did last year, mark my words, you'll see they aren't useful to the sydney footprint, and a THE most perfect candidate for an Adelaide relocation, no one will hate them in Adelaide, as they aren't moving there coz they're a busted club, like all the other clubs you've suggested, strong ties to exhibition home games and rivalries with Melbourne, and colors are the state colors, adding yellow, which is on their logo anyways.

If they get good crowds on the Central Coast then wouldn't that suggest they have the potential to develop a fanbase from Bondi through the North Shore up to Gosford?

Removing Manly from the picture would make the Roosters the nearest club and one that's associated with affluence. It would make them a good competitor to the Swans and Waratahs and help grow the game from the bottom up.

Losing them in Sydney, means Souths play in their own stadium, in their own area, in the south of sydney, and no one at catchment level is affected, unlike how you want to move nearly every club based in Sydney to punt any struggling club away, just to leave "SYDNEY chooks" with a bigger pie. which in all honesty they won't do anything with as they don't grow or develop any juniors themselves, relying on norths to feed them.

South Sydney can play at SFS alongside Sydney Roosters. That would ensure a game is played at the SFS every week. Surely that'll hurt AwFuL and Onionball more than having just the one RL club playing there, yeah?

The NSW Gov wouldn't be happy losing a major tenant to Adelaide after speeding millions of dollars rebuilding their stadium. How would the ARLC be able to convince the NSW Gov to spend money on other stadiums if we were to move clubs that just had one rebuilt for them?

Giving the Tigers' licence to West Coast Pirates or relocating them to Perth won't have much of an effect, as they play at small suburban grounds most of the time. If you were to merge Magpies with Bulldogs you could take the games that were previously played at Belmore, Leichhardt and Campbelltown and play them at West Sydney Stadium and Stadium Australia. That would actually be beneficial to the NSW Gov.

Sending Dragons to Adelaide won't hurt as Kogarah is not fit for NRL games and a rebranded South Coast Sharks can take 4 or 6 games to Wollongong.

If their isn't a top flight team representing the steelers, jets, bears, tigers or magpies directly then they all cese to be relavant, and will be increasingly harder to make top flight for player pathways, and roosters won't look after all of them, not when they dont even care about their own 4 junior clubs, and only rely on norths or poach from the CC.
This isn't me hating on the roosters, its me telling you the footprint suffers when you mess around with any other club, like it has since north sydney bears dropped out of 1st grade.

The Broncos are the only top flight team in the Brisbane metropolitan area, with the 9 BRL clubs from 1987 serving as feeder clubs. It hasn't prevented the Broncos from becoming the largest, richest and most profitable team in the league. The only problem is there isn't enough content in the city to meet the demand of its RL mad fanbase.

The problem with Sydney is it has neglected the grassroots and focused on propping up small Sydney clubs that weren't designed to survive in a fully professional era. The NSWRL Premiership was great as a Sydney semi-professional competition, but those days are over. If we want the game to survive and thrive in its biggest city then we need to reduce the amount of clubs to something sustainable. 3 in the west and 3 in the east of Sydney is a good mix for a city that has 5 million people. It'll provide more commercial opportunities for them as there will be 3 less teams to compete with for sponsors and media attention.

The NSW Cup can become an important competition in its own right, but it never will if there's 9 NRL clubs in Sydney. It's insulting to people from Queensland to say we should just have 2 teams in the world's second largest RL city, which has 2.4 million people, whereas Sydney has 9, with you wanting it to have at least 8, even though it's population is only twice the size of Brisbane. There's nothing unique about Sydney that means its suburban teams need to be treated better than the ones from the Brisbane Rugby League, Newcastle Rugby league, Canberra Rugby League, Gold Coast Rugby League and Wollongong Rugby League.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

^^

To be fair to the Steelers - their home ground facilities were pretty shocking at the time. Compare that to today with a modern facelift, they’d be light years ahead of the Steelers of the 90’s.

But while the facilities are far better... the access to the ground still remains congested and problematic..

It’s no doubt spectacular, right by the sea.. but that means everyone has to Funnell through from the west... traffic is a nightmare and public transport isn’t that convenient.

I flew my missus over a few years ago to watch a game at Wollongong n we stayed at a hotel right near the ground. It was sensational and after that, I thought there is a possible Avenue to redevelop the southern end and further cater for travelling fans, hotel backing onto the grandstand etc.. ... have a weekend away in the gong.. Adelaide oval have done a similar exercise and the facilities are first class...

The major downside was the drinks service in the upper deck of the main grandstand was easily the worst ive seen at any ground in Australia. That’s a big downside...

Anyway I’d think if Illawarra did go alone, they’d make a far better fist of it than years ago (And they weren’t the worst performing team in terms of crowds back then).

They’d gain double their current home games per year, which I believe would then attract more fans n memberships...

But It doesn’t resolve the hideous access issues to the ground. That would be resolved by...

a new stadium!!

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

^^

To be fair to the Steelers - their home ground facilities were pretty shocking at the time. Compare that to today with a modern facelift, they’d be light years ahead of the Steelers of the 90’s.

But while the facilities are far better... the access to the ground still remains congested and problematic..

It’s no doubt spectacular, right by the sea.. but that means everyone has to Funnell through from the west... traffic is a nightmare and public transport isn’t that convenient.

I flew my missus over a few years ago to watch a game at Wollongong n we stayed at a hotel right near the ground. It was sensational and after that, I thought there is a possible Avenue to redevelop the southern end and further cater for travelling fans, hotel backing onto the grandstand etc.. ... have a weekend away in the gong.. Adelaide oval have done a similar exercise and the facilities are first class...

The major downside was the drinks service in the upper deck of the main grandstand was easily the worst ive seen at any ground in Australia. That’s a big downside...

Anyway I’d think if Illawarra did go alone, they’d make a far better fist of it than years ago (And they weren’t the worst performing team in terms of crowds back then).

They’d gain double their current home games per year, which I believe would then attract more fans n memberships...

But It doesn’t resolve the hideous access issues to the ground. That would be resolved by...

a new stadium!!

I think Wollongong would be better served linking with the Sharks. The two areas are adjacent. I'd make the team's colours sea blue, red and grey, so that it represents both Cronulla and Illawarra. 6 games at a rebuilt Endeavor and another 6 at Wollongong would be a good split. Diehard fans could travel to all 12 games if they live in between the 2 stadiums and the games are played during the day.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

I think Wollongong would be better served linking with the Sharks. The two areas are adjacent. I'd make the team's colours sea blue, red and grey, so that it represents both Cronulla and Illawarra. 6 games at a rebuilt Endeavor and another 6 at Wollongong would be a good split. Diehard fans could travel to all 12 games if they live in between the 2 stadiums and the games are played during the day.

It is very logical geographically. And they would become an absolute powerhouse of junior talent...

Build a new stadium at Heathcote, at the ovals near Heathcote Station.., (my old stomping ground).

Sounds good to me..

Oh, what about St George?

Move them to Adelaide..

The Adelaide Dragons...

Sounds good to me..