Tell it Straight – PLEASE

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mozgrame

Engorged member
www.cqnrlbid.com.au/2014/03/tell-it-straight-please/
CEO Denis Keeffe. CQ NRL BID. March 3rd, 2014

Earlier last week we witnessed the arranged and much staged media hype around the so called “Charity Cup” pre-season game between the Melbourne Storm and the Canterbury Bulldogs played at Suncorp Stadium.

According to the post-game interviews with the organizers, the Brisbane Bombers NRL Bid, the crowd was 10,083 and this apparently conclusively proved that Brisbane wanted and needed a second NRL team. Can someone please explain the whole thing to me because I just don’t get it?

Ten thousand people in a world class stadium ( Suncorp, with a capacity of 50,000 +) in the middle of Brisbane on a fine and sunny afternoon, involving two the NRL’s premier teams is not a compelling argument by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, I think the opposite is obvious. I.e. the Broncos absolutely rule the Brisbane NRL scene so any pretender into this over-crowded sports market will not raise a blip on the interest scale. Not now and not for a long time.

From a regional Queenslander’s perspective, I think to claim that a crowd of 10,000 involving two premium NRL teams, as successful and point proving is somewhat embarrassing. In my many years as an administrator in regional Queensland I have been involved in quite a number of NRL pre-season and a few premiership games.

Cairns has conducted NRL preseason games for about ten consecutive years and from memory the average crowd was about 15,000 ( I do remember a game when over 18,000 attended) in a ground with a normal capacity of about 4,000. I might add that some of these games were played in extremely wet conditions but that did not deter the real passionate supporters of our great game.

Mackay staged many NRL preseason and competition games over the recent years and again from memory the crowds were in the vicinity of 15,000. Both Cairns and Mackay have populations less than one tenth of the Brisbane population but the big difference between both of these regional cities with respect to NRL is – they do NOT have regular NRL games played in their cities, like Brisbane does.

There are many variables in sports promotion and marketing and this column is not large enough to itemise them all but the three main ingredients that contribute to a successful sporting promotion are
•SUPPLY – how many events are conducted over a specific time e.g. a season, in the immediate vicinity, and what is the competitive environment (same and other sports, price, accessibility, etc.)
•DEMAND – the consumption rate of take-up in the community – how many people want or are able to consume the product
•AVIDITY – the passion or feeling for the performing team/s and or the sport involved and the desire to be involved with all aspects of the team/s or sport.

I am not going to be critical of the Brisbane Rugby League fans so I will not comment on their avidity for the great game but from the recent “Charity Cup” game “supply” of regular NRL games right now is about right with the “demand".
 
You cant make a decsion based on one pre-season game. You have to do it on average attendances over a couple of years.
 
The thing is there would have been 5000 dogs fans, 2000 storm fans and the rest would have been leauge fans who were not fans of either team playing on the day.
When we play at Brookvale North there are thousands of Manly fans there and it's the same at least when the dogz play there.
 
The Brothers Confraternity will be very strong and i support them, they are already based across three states and have a strong junior following, Manly will always be my team, but i am a Brothers Junior, go the Bretheran get into the NRL.
 
tell it straight, In brisbane there will be more Interest in a second brisbane team than the dogs and storm. Lets say between the 2 clubs they get 50 000 for both games each week, broncos and bombers, 40 000 will go to the team that is higher on the table and 10 000 will go to the lowest ranked brisbane team. This will reverse at will as the season progresses as does the teams fortunes

Poor buggers will struggle wearing 2 jerseys to a game in the warm months, and at time will even chant for the wrong team at the wrong game.

Go the brombcos
 
Tell it straight. The CQ team is a feeder club and glorified mouthpiece for the donkeys. Of course the Donkey's don't want a rival Brisbane team cutting into their parade. 10 straight friday night games. The Centrals team in the Q Cup has never attracted corporate dollars or players to go places in that competition. Yet deserve a spot in the NRL. Please. I hate to say it but the Gosford Bears have a better argument.
 
I have no idea what you're talking about in regards to the Capra's sponsor/corporate affiliations. Here's a link below so you can get a clue. Also, I can tell you there is no great love story between the Capra's and the Bronco's. Feeder club for now, but watch this space in the near future.

http://www.capras.com.au/sponsors/principal-sponsors/

It may be harder to attract players to the Capra's, but they are constantly producing talent that is then signed by NRL clubs. There is so much talent in this area, and the only way to play NRL is to leave. If we had an NRL side here, local talent wouldn't have to move on. There is a huge list of players that are currently playing in the NRL from this region.

More from Denis;

FACTS not EMOTIONS

The CQ NRL Bid’s Chairman, Geoff Murphy wrote an article last week that was widely published and more widely commented on. Geoff rightly pointed out that the south east of Queensland is very well serviced with a great deal of national sports entertainment options while some communities of regional Queensland e.g. Central Queensland, seriously lacked facilities and opportunities that most metropolitan based Queenslanders took for granted.

As a proud Central Queenslander, Geoff Murphy made reference to the fact that CQ lacked these vital services despite the fact that CQ was responsible for the production of so much of Queensland’s wealth and prosperity as well as being the region of origin of so many champion Rugby League players.

His argument is irrefutable because his article was based on facts. Some of the feedback and comments to the article really astounded me. I do understand that Geoff Murphy has been a leading business man in CQ for decades. Because of his passion for his region, he is very involved in many community and social activities that he considers important to the development of a fair and prosperous CQ, so there is bound to be opinions that oppose some of his ideas and concepts. Some of the comments opposing the establishment of a NRL Club and the building of required infrastructure in CQ were based on inaccurate statements. We all believe in free speech and the right to oppose but the opposite view should be accurate and if possible balanced.

The most inaccurate assumption was that “Rockhampton” did not have a population large enough to support a national team. YES, we know this. This NRL team is NOT a Rockhampton organization, it is very importantly a CENTRAL Queensland one and will service all of CQ. I admit that the stadium will be located in Rockhampton because that city is the obvious centrally located city in which to provide this facility.

The facts around population size and location are absolutely crucial to the whole sustainability arguments that the NRL are demanding of all expansion proponents. The CQ NRL Bid has defined the region of influence comprises twenty (20) Local Government Areas (LGAs) across CQ. The boundaries are greater Mackay, including the Whitsundays in the north, west to the NT border and greater Bundaberg, including the Fraser Coast, in the south. The Bid is constantly receiving support from these regions and at times beyond these so called boundaries.

From the Queensland Government’s Office of Economic and Statistical Research the LGAs as defined above, represented a population of 718,356 in 2011 and a projected population of 799,502 by 2016. Another important fact is that just over 450,000 people live within a four (4) drive of the stadium in Rockhampton. This number is slightly more than a similar distance for Townville in North Queensland who have supported their own NRL program for twenty (20) years now since 1995 when they entered the NRL.

Another vital statistic is this more than enough CQ population is the most AVID (supporters) of Rugby League in the world. A CQ NRL club will prosper in this environment. FACT.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
6 5 1 59 12
6 5 1 20 12
6 4 2 53 10
6 4 2 30 10
7 4 2 25 9
7 4 3 40 8
7 4 3 24 8
7 4 3 -8 8
7 4 3 -18 8
7 3 3 20 7
7 3 4 31 6
7 3 4 17 6
6 2 4 -31 6
7 3 4 -41 6
7 2 5 -29 4
6 1 5 -102 4
6 0 6 -90 2
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