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The NRL has been looking to expansion in attempts to both increase its revenue and make headway on its biggest rival, the AFL, in winning over the Australian public for the dominant share of the country’s winter sporting market.
While I do believe expansion is necessary for the game and does indeed help sell the product of the code more, it must to be handled in a sensible manner and one which will be good for the game in the long run.
Since 2005, six major bids of interest have been put forward with the Central Coast, Wellington, Papua New Guinea, Perth, Central Queensland and most recently a second team in Brisbane.
On top of this, there have also been suggestions that some of the current Sydney based clubs in the league should relocate or simply fold to make this process easier for these potential bids to pass.
In my personal view, I think that any form of relegation-based approach the NRL takes to achieve its goals is nothing short of ludicrous and unfair to supporters who have given decades of support to their clubs, only for them to be cut from the competition or rebranded to make way for a new club.
Such bids as a team in Papua New Guinea or a second team in Brisbane are something which I hope never eventuates in my lifetime of supporting this great game.
Putting a team based in PNG isn’t practical based on the current facilities, getting players to sign to play out of the country and the money that the NRL would have to invest to get such a project up and running.
Having a second team in Brisbane on the other hand is something which I just don’t see as needed or helping the code explore into other markets.
The clubs intended name as the ‘Brisbane Bombers’ just doesn’t bring any flair or imagination at all. Not to mention copying from an already existing club name in the AFL.
The Broncos are a one-city team with a monumental fan base and successful history that the entire city of Brisbane has adored for more than two decades.
It’s not like down here in Sydney where we have that culture from one suburb to the next of having a club in Parramatta, Cronulla, Manly, Belmore, Bondi and the Sydney based derbies every weekend.
You can definitely argue that it will bring a game to Brisbane every weekend and increase the games revenue overall, but that’s only if the city chooses to embrace another club with open arms and I’m just not sure the NRL is truly trying to expand the league if that is the way they go about it.
The Central Coast Bears is easily the most promising candidate in my mind for the next expansion period.
The city of Gosford gets at least half a dozen games a year held at Bluetongue and it is obvious they would like to have their own NRL based club in the league to support.
They have excellent facilities, a well thought out corporate structure, over 7000 current memberships and a strategic target area to grow their support.
Other bids from Central Queensland, Wellington and Perth aren’t what the NRL should be focusing on right now until they can sort out the current financial struggles of the already existing clubs in the league and until after a bid like the Central Coast has been made a reality.
I leave the rest of the debate up to my fellow Roarers to have their say on all the topic of expansion, and who they think deserves a team in the NRL.
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