Berkeley_Eagle
Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
'Doomsday Document' maps NRL survival
By Steve Mascord | July 18, 2008 12:00am
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...003409,00.html
SELECTED NRL club bosses have been shown a radical \"Doomsday Document\" which plots a course for the game if several Sydney clubs collapse.
Gold Coast CEO Michael Searle has admitted working on a discussion paper which advises traditional clubs to merge or relocate to the Sunshine Coast, Darwin and Papua New Guinea or New Zealand in the event of complete bankruptcy.
Among other recommendations, it calls for the NRL to give teams that move $40 million to $50 million and those that merge a double grant every year for a decade.
The Daily Telegraph understands Brisbane's Bruno Cullen, Melbourne's Brian Waldron, North Queensland's Peter Parr and Wests Tigers' Steve Noyce are among the handpicked group to have seen the paper.
Searle did not want to discuss his exact involvement in the document but admitted he knew it intimately.
\"This is a plan in case Armageddon comes,\" Searle said.
\"We have to plan for the possi- bility the financial pressures on clubs in Sydney become so great, with the poker machine tax and the sponsorship squeeze, that they cannot survive.
\"The AFL talks about geographic dominance. With the sea change theory that people are moving to the eastern seaboard, I believe we can have demographic dominance.
\"As a game, we have to decide what our core market is. We have a different market to the AFL. Melbourne have been successful in the NRL but have cost a lot of money.
\"We need more Gold Coasts, not more Melbournes, coming on line right now.\"
On radio Searle has floated the idea of a Sunshine Coast or Ipswich-based team, a second New Zealand franchise and a joint venture between Darwin and Papua New Guinea.
But what he didn't say was that existing Sydney clubs would have to move to those places in order for it to work. That will be the recommendation that goes to the NRL in six weeks when work on the Doomsday Document is complete.
\"This is not an expansion plan - it'll only work with relocation,\" he said.
\"The NRL should offer 40 to 50 million dollars instead of eight or 11 for relocations. And if you merge, you should continue to get two clubs' grants each year for 10 years.\"
The most surprising element of the scheme is the first international joint venture in world sport.
The Northern Cyclones or Northern Birds of Paradise would play most of their home games in Darwin with two or three each year in Port Moresby - and draw millions of dollars in funding from both governments.
\"There are just under 3000 Australian companies operating in PNG and their Government has made an official inquiry into getting a club in the NRL,\" he said. \"The Northern Territory Government is spending money attracting our games to Darwin and Alice Springs. We have an opportunity to take the Top End off the AFL.\"
So is this is why Manly is looking at Sunshine Coast
