Would a 2nd Melbourne team add value to the NRL?

[Steel Saints]

Team 22 could be either Adelaide or Melb 2. However Melb 2 should not play out of AAMI Park. Not sure if Hindmarsh for Adelaide is the answer either.

 

[AdelaideSharky]

Team 22 could be either Adelaide or Melb 2. However Melb 2 should not play out of AAMI Park. Not sure if Hindmarsh for Adelaide is the answer either.

Hindmarsh capacity wise is perfect but the ground itself is too small.

If one casts their minds back to 2009 when the Sharks played Canterbury at the ground, the in-goals were far too short as the ground's main tenant is the Adelaide United soccer team.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Team 22 could be either Adelaide or Melb 2. However Melb 2 should not play out of AAMI Park. Not sure if Hindmarsh for Adelaide is the answer either.

Where would you want them to play though? AAMI is perfect for RL and very well located

 

[Wb1234]

No

But maybe 50 years down the track Geelong

But only after chch, Wellington, Ipswich, Adelaide, Fiji and Hawaii

 

[Vlad59]

Melbourne/Victoria shouldn't be considered for a second team until they are producing junior players and have local competitions at a level which is comparable to other NRL clubs.

‘Road to AAMI Park’: The secret to Storm program that’s key to rugby league exploding in Victoria

‘That’s rubbish’: Secret to the Storm program that has rugby league exploding in Victoria

www.foxsports.com.au

well they kind of are already. But I don’t that’s an argument for a second team for at least a decade. Need to consolidate a lot more before even considering that.

 

[James Rick]

Would a Geelong based team need a new stadium?

 

[Pippen94]

No

But maybe 50 years down the track Geelong

But only after chch, Wellington, Ipswich, Adelaide, Fiji and Hawaii

Population of Melbourne will be well over ten million then. That's only place that makes sense.

 

[flippikat]

The original ARLC looked at a second team & it pops up every few years so it's obviously been bubbling away for a while.

To keep it simple: In a 24 club comp, sure, but that's literally decades away.
If it's 20 or 22 clubs then who misses out from Adelaide, BNE3 and NZ2?

Aside from that Melbourne isn't the sporting Mecca the Herald Sun claims it is. We can look at the A-League to see why it could be an issue.

For 22 clubs you just need to take the current 17 plus Perth Bears & PNG (19) - then add Adelaide, BNE3 & NZ2 as you said.. and we'd have a footprint thats set for some time - and the two closest rivals to the Storm geographically would be Canberra Raiders & Adelaide.

I imagine a Melbourne v Adelaide rivalry in the NRL could be interesting - sadly we only saw a year of it in 1998, so it never had the chance to develop then.