I haven't lived in Perth, but I have visited Perth, and Adelaide, and Melbourne (last 12 months) all recently and I'll tell you that AFL is MASSIVE in all 3 cities. They have a stranglehold on the places and we simply do not have the resources and time to put in to growing anywhere other than where there is a profile now
wouldnt you say rugby league has a stranglehold on SEQ? It doesnt seem to stop the AFL having at least one team there. All we want is a slice of the market in Perth , no one is thinking we are all of a sudden going to challenge AFL for top spot there.
Expand our base or die...please...remember the last time we tried to expand our base? The game almost died then. Both the ARL and Super League tried to make Perth work and it simply didn't. Both organisations gave up on Perth already as being too hard.
last time we expanded it was damaged by greed and self interest. If Super League hadnt of come alomg it is quite likely the reds would be here right now. They gave up on perth becuase they had just spent around $1 billion fighting each other , they had to cut costs.
The stakeholders in the game don't have any interests in Perth besides Foxtel - Channel Nine isn't owned by the same organisation (CVC Asia Pacific) that owns the east coast stations (WIN Television - who it must be noted does not necessarily play ball with Channel Nine). The major newspaper in Perth is essentially owned by the Stokes family. How is the game supposed to grow when the stakeholders have no real motivation to help it - in fact they only have motivation to help AFL against the fight of League.
Just becuase nine perth arent owned by the same company doesnt mean they wouldnt help rugby league. Last i heard WIN also essentially own 50% of the dragons. That would make them a pretty decent stakeholder in the game. Also nine in perth have no local sport to show , i would think they'd be interested in televising a local team.
It may surprise you to know that several of the channel nine commentators have expressed support for Perth. Sterlo and Voss in particular. Two pretty smart rubgy league brains i would have thought.
offcourse channel nine arent going to be pushing for a perth team , becuase as you pointed out they dont own nine perth. Pretty much all companies speak from a position of self interest. That in return doesnt make it the right call for rugby league. We need to break the power the networks have , not increase it.
And speaking of The West Australian - did Cory Patterson's news (which was reasonably covered on the east coast) even rate a mention in the West Australian? Certainly didn't rate a mention in the West's
League coverage online which besides coverage of results is sparse to say the least. The WAFL gets a better coverage let alone the NRL.
why would it rate a mention if they dont have a team?!
if you look at the SMH or tele , a huge proportion of their AFL coverage is swans specific. Without the swans there would be little or no AFL coverage in Australia's biggest city.
You guys bagging me for commenting - have you been to Perth? Have you visited Perth recently? Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of one of the papers from Melbourne or Perth or Adelaide and see how intense the coverage of AFL is over there. Then try and find the League section. I was in Melbourne during Grand Prix week and in the Herald Sun there is seriously 20 pages of AFL coverage and a column at the back of the sports section for League - and News Limited own the bloody team!
we all know AFL is hugely popular in those cities. It doesnt mean over time we cant capture a piece of the market.
In regards to perth soccer and union have both received pretty good support in Perth. Sure the union crowds have been going down but this has more to do with playing from a rubbish stadium.
If we are confident in our product , there is no reason we cant pull big crowds at re-developed stadium in perth.
I love League as much as you guys, however we have to be realistic. We do not have the resources to make Perth work. Do we want to put the game at risk by investing large amounts in to AFL heartland when we have clubs over here (Cronulla, Newcastle) who are battling to stay alive here?
thats the thing , one argument is there are to many teams in this market already. If Newcastle are struggling why would we then put a team 100Km down the freeway on the central coast?! pure madness IMO. The revenue streams in NSW are drying up , we need to bring in new money. Teams in new markets have this potential.
