Wellington and Fiji bids combine as the 'South Pacific Cyclones'

[Burns]

Wow, who saw this coming?

A second New Zealand team in the NRL would be known as the South Pacific Cyclones and play up to half their home matches in Fiji.
The consortium backing a Wellington-based team to join the NRL in 2018 has revealed further details of its bid, including the official name of the club and its plans to expand across the Pacific with the inclusion of Fiji.
Consortium spokesman Robert Picone said a large organisation in Fiji was keen to support the Wellington bid, which was now a South Pacific bid.
Picone said the new team would be known as the South Pacific Cyclones and home games would be equally split between Fiji and Wellington.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/island-home-wellington-nrl-bid-reveals-name-and-plan-to-play-games-in-fiji-20151022-gkggy3.html

 

[insert.pause]

seems half pregnant imo, not sure Wellington would embrace it.

 

[Perth Red]

I thought the Wellington bid were going to be spit with the Sth Island? Does Fiji have an NRL standard stadium? only one I can see is ANZ stadium and that only has a stand for 4000 seating and rest is grass hills and has a running track around it.

The bid for a second New Zealand NRL franchise has received a significant boost, with the consortium signing a $10 million deal with Christchurch's Celebration Lions Sports Trust to enter a feeder team in the NSW or Queensland Cup.
The agreement gives the bid team a strong foothold in the South Island and will strengthen the new club's rivalry with the Auckland-based Warriors.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...ew-zealand-20150129-1315t5.html#ixzz3pNUHFK7e

 

[Diesel]

Wellington and Fiji seem like a strange match. The Cyclones name, while a good nickname is a rip off of the Wellington Hurricanes. Anyhow, any potential growth for RL has to be a plus

 

[The Great Dane]

Terrible idea and a classic case of targeting to many disparate markets and spreading the brand to thin.

They're trying to appeal to everybody and managing to appeal to nobody.

Almost undoubtedly the Kiwi's will come to view the team as a club for Fijian/Islanders and stick with the Warriors (a real NZ team) instead of picking up the new club, and the Fijians will come to view the club based in Wellington as a Kiwi team and either stick with their current NRL team if they have one or lose interest.

The large Fijian organisation would be better off waving some cash in front of the faces of a few current teams to come over and play a game or two in Suva, it'd probably cost them less and it's also a realistic proposition.

 

[insert.pause]

it won't happen, when the game expands in NZ it will be a NZ club.

 

[Last Week]

The large Fijian organisation would be better off waving some cash in front of the faces of a few current teams to come over and play a game or two in Suva, it'd probably cost them less and it's also a realistic proposition.

I agree. This is their best hope of having NRL teams playing in Fiji.

Fiji won't be in the NRL much earlier than PNG. So we're talking 50 or so years..

What would Fiji bring to the competition commercially? We all know they have the playing talent, but that's really about it.

On a club level,
- the Fijian team would struggle to keep up with Australian and NZ clubs for sponsorship, 3rd party deals, government funding, etc etc.
- No Australian or NZ clubs sponsors would gain any advantage by being exposed to the Fijian market.
- They would struggle to sign overseas players and hold onto their best local products.

On a competition wide scale,
- I doubt the local Fijian broadcaster would be able to pay the NRL enough to cover the cost of a Fijian team as well as increasing the club grants to the other clubs(Nine and Fox could pay more).
- Local Australian or NZ broadcasters will get no gain in viewership from a Fijian team (just like the value of NRL to SkyNZ is because of the amount of Kiwis watching NRL)
- Australian and NZ broadcasters would pay the NRL more for another team in Australia or NZ, which in turn would also benefit the current clubs more.

All around, there is no way that a Fiji presence in the NRL would be of any significant commercial value to the NRL and it's clubs, that another Australian or NZ team couldn't better.

NZ will get another team eventually, but more work needs to be done I think.

 

[paulmac]

Crazy Idea.Next expansion will be Perth & Brisbane.A 'NZ United' bid would be next in the queue with PNG Hunters ( who would be a more natural fit with Fiji).

 

[CQ Italia]

The Fiji NSW Cup Bid hasn't combined with Wellington. It's just purely a Wellington bid.

 

[RL The greatest game]

Crazy Idea.Next expansion will be Perth & Brisbane.A 'NZ United' bid would be next in the queue with PNG Hunters ( who would be a more natural fit with Fiji).

I still think we are going to have 2 relocations for Sydney teams.
One to Perth and one to the CC. I know some people dismiss the CC Relocation, but its going to happen.
Another NRL club in Brisbane/Qld is a given. Another NZ side playing out of Wellington is imo a given as well, but after Perth and Brisbane/Qld

 

[The Great Dane]

I still think we are going to have 2 relocations for Sydney teams.
One to Perth and one to the CC. I know some people dismiss the CC Relocation, but its going to happen.
Another NRL club in Brisbane/Qld is a given. Another NZ side playing out of Wellington is imo a given as well, but after Perth and Brisbane/Qld

A current Sydney club relocating/semi-relocating to the CC would be a sensible move (Easts come to mind), however expansion on the CC is a terrible idea.

 

[Gruenen]

I would love to see a Wellington Club in the NRL, our city falls within the Wellington Province, and Wellington Province has a big catchment area Including (4 x Cities: Wellington CBD, Lower/Upper Hutt, Palmerston North and Wanganui) total pop: over 500,000, if you add in Napier/Hastings and New Plymouth Cities pop combined just under 700,000.
The point is Wellington is ideal, with an excellent Transport system for commuters, a fantastic stadium (Westpac Stadium, currently shared with by Hurricanes and Phoenix) and a stable local league club Comp. While Union is a stronghold in Wellington, League patrons from as far as New Plymouth, Wanganui (3 hours Drive) Palmerston North (2 Hours Drive) would fill the stands. I for one would as would by fellow work colleagues. In addition cities like Palmerston North (Manawatu Arena) Napier (Mc Clean Park), New Plymouth (TSB Stadium) have excellent Stadiums. New Plymouth (Taranaki) has a good stable league comp ably overseen by Howie Tamati CEO Taranaki Sport (and a former Kiwi Rep).

 

[Albert Rosenfeld]

I would prefer a team just from Upper Hutt because its name is more familiar and ordinary people can identify with Upper Hutt as a place to live.

 

[Gruenen]

I would prefer a team just from Upper Hutt because its name is more familiar and ordinary people can identify with Upper Hutt as a place to live.

Whilst I was working in Wellington from 1989 onwards, Wainuiomata was practically a strong League area. I remember the Lomax boys, and even worked with Uncle/Father - John Lomax.

The teams I remember most was Upper Hutt back in the 1980's our Boyz from WangaVegas had reached the finals and hosted Upper Hutt Wanganui prior to my shift to Wellington. That day we got our backsides kicked, by what was a very classy Upper Hutt Team.

More later, Wainuiomata became a very strong team my colleague Trevor Hill had close affiliations with Wainuiomata. Not sure if he was kin folk to Gavin Hill a former Kiwi Rep and Bulldogs player.