A discussion thread on the future of RL and where we fit.

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Mark, firstly this all assumes that the RL pie is diminishing, frankly I don't think this is true at all. The TV revenue is going up and in the future a commission will ensure that less and less money is siphoned out of the game.

Secondly the days of worrying about having too many Sydney teams has past, not to say that one wont leave or wind up, due to their own mismanagement, but the game has become so dependent on TV revenue that it really doesn't matter if the teams are only a few suburbs apart.

I would rather see more teams, either in a two level format or in an expanded competition with each team only playing each other team once per year. The game has the present capacity for 8 more top level teams at present I feel. These teams should be strategically placed to either expand RL into the other states (Perth, Adelade), Internationally (PNG, second NZ team, Fiji) or secure RL heartlands (Central QLD, Central Coast, Northern NSW, West Brisbane). The secret is balancing the expansion of teams we will need to support against teams that will almost certainly make money, ie. PNG and West Brisbane.

Other then expanding the NRL we need to look at ways for the game to raise revenue, like SOO has become a center piece of the games revenue stream.

My suggestion is to make SOO a stand alone event, played on a Saturday night. On the same weekend we would have the following events :

Indigenous Cup.

This would be a three week event including the Aboriginal Allstars, a Maroi Allstars and a Polonysian Allstars team. Each team would play each other once, one game on each of the SOO weekends on the Friday night. Each team would have one home game.

City v Country.

Forget having the CvC as a selection thing, which it blatently is not anyway, use it as a tool to take RL to country areas, play games on the sunday afternoons of the SOO weekends. We should introduce a QLD CvC comp as well.

Toyota Cup

Play a toyota cup SOO, Indigenous Cup, NSW CvC and QLD CvC.


Combined this would give us 8 TV games on a rep weekend, a hell of a lot of advertising potential, and an opportunity to have a carnival type atmosphere about the whole weekend, it would mean more rep opportunities and a chance for top Toyota Cup players to show off.
 
Duff link said:
I think a solution that doesn't involve mergers or kill offs has to be found.

Everybody hates everyboy else too much. All you'd do is alienate people.

History needs to be maintained. Without history, there is no passion.

Spot on mate, the game is built on a lot of it's traditions and I have never been in favour of simply punting a side because there are too many in Sydney. You punt that side and it hurts Rugby League as a whole, to transplant it into an area that may not be Rugby League heartland and attract similar crowd numbers to the killed club

If clubs die a natural death, so be it, but don't support killing off any clubs at all
 
Here are my thoughts using the opening message as a starting proposal.
3 Conferences (each with 6 teams):
NSW Conference
(North) Manly Warringah Sea Eagles  ;D
(West) Parramatta Eels/Penrith Panthers*
(Central) Wests Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs
(East) South Sydney Rabittohs/ Eastern Suburbs Roosters
(South) St George Illawarra Dragons/Cronulla Sutherland Sharks
* teams can either merge or relocate to either Western Australia or Queensland

Qld Conference
(North) North Queensland Cowboys
(East) Brisbane Broncos
(South) South Queensland
(Central) Central Queensland
Gold Coast Titans
(West) West Queensland

Regional Conference
Newcastle Knights
Central Coast Bears
Canberra Raiders
Melbourne Storm
New Zealand Warriors
(Western Australia)

Top two teams from each conference is placed in finals and best third placed two teams (based on points and then for and against if equal points).

Draw for finals is done similar to that for UEFA Champions League (numbered balls or similar).

Finals as follows:
1st Round Eliminations (over two weeks)
Team A v Team B (home and away) winner Team I
Team C v Team D (home and away) winner Team J
Team E v Team F (home and away) winner Team K
Team G v Team H (home and away) winner Team L

2nd Round Eliminations (over two weeks)
Team I v Team K (home and away) winner Team M
Team J v Team L (home and away) winner Team N

Final
ANZ Stadium
Team M v Team N

This gives us 5 weeks of finals football and no weeks off for a break for teams (great money earner and all fans get to see their teams play at home)
 
Why is it that you can see the pie diminishing Mark?

Sure have been on a down cycle economically, but is that always going to be the case. The stronger businesses are going to be looking to reclaim a greater market share and sponsorships=greater exposure.
 
Spud...I see the pie diminishing as there's more sports wanting dollars, more A league teams, more AFL teams, more Super 14 / 16 or whatever they are teams....and as a result I think it's obvious that getting major sponsorship dollars is going to be harder not easier for Clubs...maybe I am wrong, but I'd be surprised if it's not getting harder to get the same dollars as they had pre GFC.
 
Some good ideas there Rusty but the Polynesion Allstars wouldn't work you only have to look at the Kiwi tour of 2007 to see why.That team had Tongan's and Samoan's in that team and they didn't get along and it showed with there results.
 
Just on the central quensland bid, to put it in perspective.  IF we get a team into the nrl they will be based in Rockhampton.  The catchment area would extend north to Mackay, south to Gladstone and west to Emerald.  This covers an area with a population of 190 000 people.  The junior player numbers for this area exceed 5000.  
The team bid is being driven by a local business man named Geoff Murphy.  He is one of qld's richest men with an estimated worth of $90 million.  This bloke is extremely focused on getting a team in Rockhampton.  The city council has already commited $40 000 to the bid, and the consortium headed by Murphy has the fiscal muscle to give the nrl a $15 to $20 million equity guarantee.

They consider themselves a fair chance to enter the competition, and the area certainly develops a fair share of footballing talent both past and present.
 
Mergers can work if they are amicable, ala St Choke/Steelers & Wests/Tigers (at least they weren't totally hostile). It seems to me that most fans of those clubs were retained in one form or another.

To do what Mark is suggesting would mean the end of Cronulla, Canterbury and forcing Souffs & Chooks into an unhappy merger. I believe the Parra/Penriff merger could work, so I would do the following:

Relocate Souffs to Adelaide, merge Parra & Penriff as well as Chooks & Cronulla. Start a new team in Perth and a new team in either Sunshine Coast or NZ South Island.

Sorry, no team for the Central Coast because it just won't work. We are all refugees from Sydney with established club passions. A new team still wouldn't work, there simply isn't enough cash here to support a team.
 
Thanks Moz, sorry didn't know the full details of that when I posted it first up but being in Brizvegas I do hear (and read) a lot about it, so I knew that the CQ proposal was a strong one
 
St Choke and Steelers was more of a take over.

Souths and the Rooster's won't work and it would be worse then our merger with the Bear's. The same could be said about Penrith and Parramatta
 
I would have

North QLD
Central Qld
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Sydney North -  Newcastle, Manly and a Central Coast team rep side
Sydney City - Roosters & Souths rep side
Sydney West - Tigers Eels & Panthers rep side
Sydney South - Dragons Bulldogs & Sharks rep side
Canberra
Melbourne
Adelaide
Perth
Warriors
South Island NZ side

14 teams play each other twice in home and away series with a top 5 finals series.

Sydney teams that make up the rep sides retain their identity and play against each other as reserve grade comp with inclusion of Magpies, Bears, Jets and Steelers. Reserve grade comp played as curtain raisers to 14 team "Super" comp. Players who lose form can be sent back to their respective feeder clubs.  
 
No worries Mark.  An interesting side note, Steve Bell's father Paul is also in the consortium.  He is a former Mayor of Emerald.  That would make Steve royalty in CQ. :)
 
Moz, 190,000 people in what size of an area.

realistically they cant expect to get more than about 5000 to each game, that would be like putting a team in Hervey Bay the population just wouldnt support it and rockhampton - Mackay to Emerald has a lot of bare dirt between those 190k supporters

The only other place currently in QLD that could support another team would be

1 - The Sunshine Coast (Just need Stockland park to be developed)
2 - A second Brisbane team.

It's a nice thought to have a team in Rockhampton but realistically it's a pipe dream
 
certainly this is a good topic.

I have nothing against central QLD, hell I live on the cusp of it. I just can't see it being a long term success.

Grow areas that have the population to support it and then move into regional areas.

Personally I would love to see a Sunshine Coast team. 1.5 hours from brisbane so you would get the crowds from Brisbane and the gold coast, 2.5 hours from here so you get people from up this way.

It has around 2million people on the Sunshine Coast so certainly has the population.

Plus it has to be one of the most beautiful places in Australia.......I hurry up and sell house so I can move there
 
To maximise TV income seperate the games. Meaning regular season get's x amount, finals get's y amount, SoO gets z amount and so on.

They also have to look after the International game giving the RLIF more power as well i.e the Sam Burgess thing earlier this year any other code if the club refused to release him, he would have been suspended for 2 weeks.
 
Dan the sunny coast would be a good spot, I'll be heading up there myself in a few years when retirement day comes around
 
Mark from Brisbane link said:
Dan the sunny coast would be a good spot, I'll be heading up there myself in a few years when retirement day comes around

No need to retire there mark, plenty of work up there, and from living in Sydney so long and spending an hour getting to work even though I was 5 stops from the city on the train or just across the bridge, a 1.5 hour commute from paradise wouldn't kill you
 
Spuds Bodyguard link said:
Why is it that you can see the pie diminishing Mark?

Come out and have a look at the standard and the diminishing numbers in Group 9 (I am sure its typical of any of the country areas), from which the likes of Daley, Sterling, Mortimers, etc etc etc has come from.

There are less teams, and those teams have failed or struggle to field 4 grades which has always been a breeze in the past, there was a second division and a pub comp just 20 years ago.

The standard of the NRL is at an all time low, there are 4 or 5 players in each teams 25 that shouldnt be allowed to play 1st grade.

16 teams is way too many, 12 is the right number but at the moment I dont thinks we have to talent for 10 teams.

So dont worry about too much the NRL, get the game going stronger in both QLD and NSW schools and country areas and the results will flow through.
 

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