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

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Mark from Brisbane

“ Boomer still Booming”
Premium Member
Tipping Member
Firstly this may well have been "done to death" somewhere in the past but I'd love to know the current posters thoughts on this.

Looking back now the Super League "concept" (taking out the News Ltd ownership) may not have been a bad idea (although they wanted 12 sides and this sees the current 16 remain)

5 Clubs in Sydney

Illawarra-Dragons (south)
Wests-Tigers (west)
Parra-Panthers (west)
Easts Rabbitohs (city)
Manly (north)

I kept two in Western Sydney as it's such a RL "heartland" and we do have GWS AFL starting there, so I feel two there is ok.

And with the three that are gone we use these licences to create


Central Coast Bears

Ipswich Jets

Central Queensland Comets

Greater sponsorship opportunities, opens up new markets and apart from the obvious "we'll march on NRL HQ to keep our team" you'd get, it makes a good deal of sense (well to me at least).

Thoughts anyone??
 
mate im from illawarra theres such a big nursery down here  of good young players,, i dont knw why the hell theres isnt a team down here alone ..they dont have to merge.. 3 quarters of st gerorge illawarras personnel are illawarra products..
 
Mark you should know there is sweet F-all in central queensland. It's a nice thought but sticking to the southeast is probably better
 
Aware of that jjai....but it's about dollars, and making a diminishing pie of money go a bit further...the Central Comets have sponsors ready to go, and there would be companies up here all over a new RL club like a rash...and how it would affect Sydney is this.....it then means that the sponsors of say the Eels and the Panthers put money into one club not two.
 
No mate the CQ bid is based around Mackay, and that;'s the richest mining area outside of WA in the country
 
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.
 
Mark, nice work getting rid of those Bulldogs but they can't keep calling it the national rugby league if thy don't expand outside of NSW & QLD.

Perth has to be a serious contender for a side.
Qld has 3 as of now, give them 1 more and give the CC a side.
 
but i am happy they couldnt get brett..  lol  they only wanted brett not glen their dad said if you dnt take glen you cant have brett  & thats how they missed out on the snake ..  good for us ;D
 
Actually WAMF I mistyped.....well I had typed this in, and then backspaced and lost it....gee I'll have to read my posts before I stick them up won't I?

And to truly make it a national team I would propose to move the Bulldogs to Perth, which would give us a 4th state and make is a 'National" competition.

You'll see I still mention 16 sides., so I hadn't missed the Doggies just sent them to the far reaches.
 
That sort of thing would kill the game.

We need to bring the old teams back. Have two separate comps & a combined finals series.
 
Ultimately league is a tribal game. Remove the tribal aspect with mergers and I can not see it surviving in the short term (maybe long term but there would be a lot of pain with soul less clubs running around)
 
I'd prefer a return to a tribal Sydney comp where the jets and bears are back in, and the Brisbane comp returns to what it was with strong local teams. With National TV both comps would rate, and the finals could be made up of the top 4 from both comps - like the conference system in US sport.

Failing that I'd be happy for Manly to represent the northside as suggested, and play up to half the home games at North Sydney oval, which is far easier for away fans to get to by train. (And would shaft Warringah Council for taking Manly's annual rental fee for granted)

And before anyone asks I never supported Norths
 
Mark from Brisbane link said:
You suggesting a relegation / delegation situation??

No, more like Shoe suggested. Side by side comps. Maybe not the Jets & all the Q Cup teams, but I'm open to ideas. I was thinking Norths, unmerge the Tigers & Steelers, bring back Perth & chuck in a couple of the stronger Q cup teams.

I don't think any club could survive a year in a 2nd teir in this country. Plenty are struggling to survive in the top comp. Sposors contracts would all have relegation bail-out clauses in them.
 
Oh by the way these are not necessarily my ideas, just dragged them up from a while ago, threw in the Central Queensand and extra team in Brisbane and seeking thoughts from the current crew as to how you viewed them.

Personally I can see it would create a lot of ill feelings and probably lose a bunch of fans, but I am a realist in that I can see the sponsorship and money pie decreasing, and clubs needing more and more to survive....so perhaps the only way we will see this happen is clubs will have to die a natural death (with perhaps the Sharks looking like the first one to go)
 
At the moment there would only be 1 team that would be out if I was CEO and that's the Sharks I'd be tempted to move them to Adelaide.

Central Coast and W.A Reds will be the next two teams in.
Ipswich or Sunshine Coast or Wellington probably the next.

The problem for Central Qld is the same  as Illawarra both rely on mining for sponsership etc. and resources have a tendency to run out
 
That's more teams Ant, and I actually reckon the funds may not be there in the future to fund those extra teams. They are talking about an increased amount for the new TV contract which is all well and good but with the current exodus of players a lot of that is going to have to go to increased salary caps, and it's the "other" sponsorship I see as being a diminishing pie
 
Mark from Brisbane link said:
That's more teams Ant, and I actually reckon the funds may not be there in the future to fund those extra teams. They are talking about an increased amount for the new TV contract which is all well and good but with the current exodus of players a lot of that is going to have to go to increased salary caps, and it's the \"other\" sponsorship I see as being a diminishing pie

I realise that and have had discussions of this type on another forum and many people actually agree that perhaps by 2025 we might have a 20 team competition again. It could be profitable if run properly i.e Sydney teams playing each other twice and then playing the out of town teams.

Pretty soon the ESL won't be much of a concern with them tightening there international player quota, border control etc.
Players going to Rugby Union most have come back and the AFL buying Hunt and Folau will prove costly IMO
 
Mark from Brisbane link said:
No mate the CQ bid is based around Mackay, and that;'s the richest mining area outside of WA in the country

it may be the richest mining place but once you get north of Bundy, towns start to thin out and are further apart and less population.

I just don't think it has the population to make it successful and central queenslanders Mackay - Rocky really probably don't know how to spell NRL let alone follow the game
 

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