Western Australia a candidate for new NRL club
WESTERN Australia has renewed hope it can win an NRL franchise in the "medium term'' after the league yesterday announced it would review its stance on expansion at the end of the 2014 season.
Australian Rugby League chairman John Grant said yesterday during a visit to Perth it was ``highly unlikely'' the NRL would not become an 18-team competition and asked WA fans to be patient.
``It is highly unlikely that given the growth aspirations we've got for the game in the next five years, that we won't have a sufficient base and momentum to create new NRL clubs,'' he said.
``We have to go through the right process to do that. This is not a five-year, ten-year decision, this is a 20, 30, 40-year decision. It has got to be right.
``We are playing a long-term game here. What I would say to the supporters of rugby league here and the people that got behind the proposal that did come forward, is it is a long-term play. We want you to stay involved and let's just see where the next step takes us.
``You didn't lose.
``Now it is an opportunity for WA to put the facts in front of me to make us more aware of the WA situation and will continue to work on that together.''
Grant confirmed the NRL was looking at playing three games in Perth next season.
It is believed two of those will be twilight games on Sundays, allowing the games to be televised live back to the eastern States on Sunday nights.
South Sydney is locked in, possibly against the Warriors in early July in the middle of the State-of-Origin series when the momentum around the code is at fever pitch.
Penrith is also believed to be keen on a clash with reigning champion Melbourne Storm and there is speculation surrounding the Canberra Raiders playing a game.
The Panthers will meet with WARL officials and NRL director commercial and marketing Paul Kind on November 8.
``We'll bring three NRL fixtures here this year,'' Grant said.
``Clearly WA is on our agenda and probably more so than it has been in the past in terms of that degree of involvement.
``We hope that will allow the fan base to remain polarised around NRL. We acknowledge the difficulties that the uncertainty around expansion has created.''
WA's hopes of an NRL team in the short term were crushed when the NRL completed negotiations with the Nine Network and Foxtel on a new TV rights package. Nine boss David Gyngell said there was no appetite for more games.
The ARLC announced on Monday expansion was off the menu when it unveiled a five-year strategic plan on Monday, launching a new logo and funding of $200 million for grassroots development.
But Grant said yesterday a new WA franchise could be admitted to the competition in the medium term.
``If we came out of the back of a review in 2014 and we determined that there was a case for expansion and we identified where expansion should be then I think you would want to move pretty quickly,'' he said.
``And it seems to me to be an opportunity to start to parallel some discussions if you had a sense of where the outcome is going to be rather than try and make it sequential.''
He denied the NRL was giving other codes such as Super 15 and the AFL a ``free kick'' by delaying a decision on expansion.
Grant used the comparison that the AFL had to spent $10 on every potential fan in the NRL heartland of western sydney whereas the NRL only had to spend $1 on each fan to keep them.
``It is different strategies for different outcomes and it depends on your bank account balance. That helps. We haven't got a bank account balance quite as strong as AFL at the moment,'' he said.
``But over time we expect that will be the case.
``You need to make sure that every dollar you spend you spend wisely.''
Grant conceded the WA time zone was appealing.
``There are advantages to schedule games so they can be watched live consecutively. That goes all the way from
New Zealand across to Perth so as we contemplate the criteria by which we make decisions that certainly has to play into it,'' he said.
West Australian Rugby League chairman Richard Campbell said the NRL had given his organisation a ``road map and some vision of where we want to be'' and was confident that sponsors would stay on board.
``Over the next two years I see ourselves as having a real chance of not only growing the code here but also going further into that development process for an NRL franchise,'' he said.
WARL chief executive John Sackson conceded it was a ``tough gig'' to keep WA rugby league fans on course.
``Certainly it is challenging. We are looking at a further delay after expectations had been set, and stakeholders' appetites had been wet,'' he said.
``But we have faith in our stakeholders, we have faith in our sponsors, we believe there is a real loyalty to us. They can see where the game is going now.
``At least now what John and the commission have identified is we have a real destination now. We have a real target to aim for and to plan towards and that is post-season 2014.
``If we can speed up the process then fantastic. That is really up to us to be aggressive.''
Grant conceded the NRL had allowed speculation over expansion go on for too long, giving WA fans false hope that a local team was imminent.
``We let the process run. I don't think we put enough boundaries around it, and I don't think we gave enough clarity,'' he said.
