Broncos underperforming off the field

Roar Pro

By NF, 22 May 2012 NF is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: AFL, Brisbane Broncos, Brisbane Lions, Queensland Reds, Rugby League

+ enlarge image

Ben Te'o in action during the NRL Round 26, Brisbane Broncos v Manly Sea Eagles. AAP Image/Action Photographics/Charles Knight

Related coverage

With all the talk about Sydney crowds, and their constant disappointment and embarrassment to the rugby-league community, we need to examine a powerful team that underperformed in every metric off the field despite their constant success.

I speak of the Brisbane Broncos.

Only recently have the Brisbane Broncos garnered 25,000 members.

This is pathetic when you consider other Brisbane teams, which have had greater membership numbers despite lesser success. I refer to the Queensland Reds (30,000 members after one premiership-winning season) and the Brisbane Lions, which outdid the Brisbane Broncos between 2000-2005.

Nevertheless, people proclaim Brisbane to be rugby-league heartland. But if anything, it’s a bandwagon city.

The ignorance of the Broncos administration to intentionally prevent a second Brisbane team into the competition gives all the other codes a free kick.

Currently the Broncos reap all the talent, sponsorship, and the entire town to themselves. But despite this, they are underperforming in terms of attendances, averaging 33,000 in 2011.

Given the six premierships and consistent finals appearances garnered by the Broncos they should be averaging 40,000 minimum, with around 35-45,000 members.

Also, there should be a second Brisbane team as a derby would create a guarantee sell-out at Suncorp Stadium.

It could be used to push the Broncos harder in their market. Just like when Fremantle and Port Adelaide entered into their respective markets, it pushed both West Coast and Adelaide in promoting memberships and attendances.

The Broncos once averaged 43,000 in 1993, which is ages ago.

It is time for the Broncos to step up there once again.

Looking to join The Roar team? We're searching for an experienced Group Sales Manager to lead our team in Sydney. Yes, this does mean you get to work with the site all day long! If you're a digital media sales star, we want to hear from you. Apply now.

The Crowd Says (94) | Page 1 of Comments

May 22nd 2012 @ 5:06am
Chris said | May 22nd 2012 @ 5:06am | Report comment

1. Broncos Average Home Crowd figure so far for 2012 = 36,512, (Ticket Prices to the Broncos Home Game have increased by $5 per game)
2. This is increase on 2011 of 35,464 (which including two home semi finals)
3. There has only been 5 Home Games in 2012, which include pulling 30,017 v Raiders and 30,083 v Titans, two of the comps lower rank teams.
4. Manly Sea Eagles are Defending champions have only average a crowd of 14,214. There stadium holds 23,000…why has that not been a sell out??
5.Defending Super 15 Champions Qld Reds Average 2012 Home Crowd figure so far for 2012 = 33,439 (and they have more season tix members). Last year they where talking about moving back to Ballymore as there crowd numbers where so low and the club was running at loss every year
6.Two Time A-League Champion Qld Roar average 9,279 per 15 games in 2012

Broncos loss Darren Lockyer, have not real star player maker, my thoughts at the start of the year, that crowd levels would be down. however, Crowd numbers are at a 15 year high. and this is on the back of ticket prices rising.

The NRL put a 2nd Team in South East Qld to compet against the Broncos, and the Titans are almost Broke. The SE Crushers fail, Numerous other Gold Coast teams have fail. Brisbane Lions are running at massive losses. QLD Reds ran out loss for years, until they won Super15 last year.

Plus remember, most major coporate companies Head Office are based in Sydney and Melbourne, and it is usually head office who decides where the funds go. My company is based in Melbourne and it all goes to A-League Victoria Teams and AFL Melbourne base teams. nothing for Sydney or Brisbane

It took Brisbane Broncos 20 years to get into a financials stable position and they have managed to substain it for a number of years now.

All this needs to be consider before putting a second team in Brisbane. Maybe Sydney clubs should be learning off Brisbane Best Practise, instead of putting them down all the time!
- May 22nd 2012 @ 6:34am
  peeeko said | May 22nd 2012 @ 6:34am | Report comment
  
  The titans are not broke due to normal activities and the crushers would have survived if not for the super league war
  - May 22nd 2012 @ 8:31am
    Australian Rules said | May 22nd 2012 @ 8:31am | Report comment
    
    3. The Titans game is a derby. Should be almost the biggest game of the year.
    4. Manly have always drawn small crowds and they don’t have an entire city of 2million people all to themeslves.
    6. The Roar averaged 13,400 per home game in season 2011/12 (you can’t honestly compare the supporter bases of the Broncoa and the Roar)
    http://www.worldfootball.net/zuschauer/aus-a-league-2011-2012/1/
    
    The Broncos organisation was one of the main drivers of the Superleague War – for them to cry poor about anything is laughable.
    
    But more than anything… it is patently absurb that in 2012 there is only 1 NRL team in Brisbane. Talk about giving one club an almighty “free kick”..!
    - May 22nd 2012 @ 11:49am
      Jaceman said | May 22nd 2012 @ 11:49am | Report comment
      
      My memory is that the Crushers were letting people in for free at the end so thats never a good sign….Brisbane have tried a 2nd team and failed and the Roar, Lions and Reds have now sucked oxygen out of the city. Sure those 3 could be all on the bottom for a while but any new Brisbane team would significantly affect the Broncos and you dont want News Ltd their owners as an enemy… Oh yes and please dont add in double header numbers to inflate the Broncos numbers although to be fair most were Broncos fans. The Broncos get good numbers but they are contenders every year or thereabouts if there were a second team they would have to share access to all those good Brisbane NRL juniors….
      - May 22nd 2012 @ 10:51pm
        Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:51pm | Report comment
        
        “Brisbane have tried a 2nd team and failed”
        
        How disingenuous can you get?
        
        The Crushers were a victim of the Super League war. If they had have been introduced into the competition at any other stage then they would have succeeded.
        
        I’ll tell you who has failed miserably. The Brisbane Lions. The other day they only got 16,000 fans, despite there being thousands of Victorians in Brisbane to prop them up. About 7,000 of their “members” are old Fitzroy Lions fans who live in Victoria. The club loses millions of dollars each year.
        
        I can tell you what a second NRL team in Brisbane will do to the sporting landscape. It will make life very difficult for the Lions. Every major business in Brisbane wants to be associated with a Brisbane-based NRL team because it’s guaranteed to get their product out to hundreds of thousands of people. The Lions are only able to get their product out to about 50,000, if that. A second NRL team for Brisbane would see the Lions lose even more money each year.
        
        “if there were a second team they would have to share access to all those good Brisbane NRL juniors….”
        
        So?
        
        For every 1 good player that is picked up by the Broncos, another 9 go on to play in Sydney or are stuck in the Queensland Cup because there are limited spots at the Broncos.
        
        May 22nd 2012 @ 10:57pm
        planko said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:57pm | Report comment
        
        I agree look at Daly Cherry Evans is your classic example !
        
        May 23rd 2012 @ 1:01am
        81paling said | May 23rd 2012 @ 1:01am | Report comment
        
        It does not matter if the Bronco’s go broke they are a company, all that happens is they are liquidated, the franchise re-starts as a club. Who cares as the fans and members still have their team. As for poor performances off the field just look at the storm almost 15 years in still needing $23m in News handouts and their their club NRL entitlement of $3.5m from the NRL.
        Where are these Melbourne corporate dollars for NRL? as the storm certainly do not see them but they see plenty of QLD talent flowing in their direction.
        Brisbane is a growing city and QLD a growing state, there are plenty of corporate dollars there, they do not have to come from multi-national companies in fact most sponsorship $ come from local successful companies like the Queensland founded QBE insurance who sponsor the Sydney Swans.
        In fact there is plenty of room for 2 more teams in that area to expand to a 20 team comp with Perth and NSW central coast. The only losers will be NEWS in the short term (who will loose their monopoly and talent pool for the storm but, in the long term gain from more TV games, a greater audience and increased sales at the gate for the Bronco’s) and of course the AFL who picked up corporate $ from Citibank (Bears old sponsor) and would of course have to compete for those again plus all the other emerging corporate dollars in QLD.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 8:45am
  eagleJack said | May 22nd 2012 @ 8:45am | Report comment
  
  Quite easy to skew your 2012 attendances when the last home game drew 42,000 for a double header. Of which 10-15k were there purely to watch the Bulldogs and Titans.
  
  Also it should be noted that Brookvale Oval capacity is diminished at present due to redevelopment. You will have noticed the crowds at Brookvale this year look big but that hasn’t been reflected in the numbers.
  - May 22nd 2012 @ 11:50am
    Jaceman said | May 22nd 2012 @ 11:50am | Report comment
    
    Eagle Jack,
    
    I thought the redevelopment was finished as Manly played away for 5 weeks BTW what were the improvements – its not oobvious on TV???
    - May 22nd 2012 @ 10:08pm
      Sea Eagle of Brisbane said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:08pm | Report comment
      
      Jaceman, just cool off brother. We are a Suburban Club, not a 2 mill City like the Bronx. We have Pay TV Aerials all over the North Shore, almost 75% of the people who live there. Life is far too comfortable to leave the homes for the games, but it does not mean that we are not as passionate about footy. (I moved up to QLD for work temporarily).
- May 22nd 2012 @ 9:13am
  oikee said | May 22nd 2012 @ 9:13am | Report comment
  
  Yes, well said Chris, and 100% true. The last team the Reds played (lions) are gone next year, they need to try another South African area as this team is bust.
  The Lions lost 3 million and i think a Adelaide club lost 4 million, so that is 7 million, about the same as what the Storm was losing, now they are turning the market around in a depression, and lets have it said, all this in a depression.
  The Broncos are booming, and i just read the Rugby world cup is sinking 17 million into Australian rugby to prop up 17 million loses.
  
  Soccer, yes we know their pproblems, no need to sink the boot into them, they need help, not mocking. The Broncos Memberships are the most expensive in Australian sport, so 25 thousand members is huge. I just read that the Warriors have sold 30 thousand jerseys compared to 7 thousand last year.
  
  The Maroons and Blues are just a monster merchandise seller. Yesterday when i went to buy my carton of xxxx, the only beer being sold while i was their was xxxx. These were going out the door 4 or 5 cartons on a trolley at a time.
  Huge business, massive, jaw-dropping to say the least. 40 dollars a carton.
  
  The Titans are on their knees as well, lets not sugar coat it.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 10:44pm
  Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:44pm | Report comment
  
  “The NRL put a 2nd Team in South East Qld to compet against the Broncos, and the Titans are almost Broke”
  
  Only because Searle took money out of the football department to prop up the club’s failing property arm. If he didn’t do that then the club would be profitable.
  
  “other Gold Coast teams have fail”
  
  Only one. The Chargers. The other teams (Seagulls, Giants and Gladiators) were based in Tweed Heads, NSW.
May 22nd 2012 @ 6:33am
peeeko said | May 22nd 2012 @ 6:33am | Report comment

Paragraph 6 “the ignorance…” very well said.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 1:11pm
  Gaz said | May 22nd 2012 @ 1:11pm | Report comment
  
  ‘Ignorance’ if you owned a pub would you like someone else building one on the opposite corner?
May 22nd 2012 @ 7:59am
Gleeso said | May 22nd 2012 @ 7:59am | Report comment

The Broncos ought to be the biggest football club in Australia. Right now that honour goes to Collingwood which I dont get because most people dont even know exactly where Collingwood is. Right now the Broncos are not even as big as West Coast Eagles.

The Broncos definately need some competition.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 1:22pm
  Gaz said | May 22nd 2012 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
  
  Give them a break Gleeso, Collingwood has been around since 1892, more or less 100 year start on Brisbane. You’d expect them to have it right by now!
May 22nd 2012 @ 8:26am
Jeff McGinn said | May 22nd 2012 @ 8:26am | Report comment

And Collingwood are not s popular as Manchester United, but who cares!… Go Broncs, Go Storm, Go NRL.
May 22nd 2012 @ 9:02am
jamesb said | May 22nd 2012 @ 9:02am | Report comment

would a 2nd brisbane team take some support away from the broncos?

I do think in the super league era, the broncos did lose quite a number of supporters, in which those fans have gone back to supporting sydney clubs.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 1:04pm
  KSI said | May 22nd 2012 @ 1:04pm | Report comment
  
  I don’t think the Broncos would lose members but the new club would survive. When the Broncos entered the comp it pi$$ed a lot of BRL supporters off. A lot of those people refused to support them. I think they are the people that will support the new team and especially if its the Ipswich or Redcliffe bids.
  
  Also you can’t compare AFL membership to NRL membership. They have only just recently become similar.
May 22nd 2012 @ 9:23am
oikee said | May 22nd 2012 @ 9:23am | Report comment

The Broncos are the biggest supported club in Australia, this survey was done last year, bigger than Collingwood, Bigger than all the clubs. The underbelly support for the Broncos is massive, they are heading to 1.5 million supporter base. Thats is huge, no club can match this support, the only other teams who come close are the Blues and Maroons. The Blues have the biggest single supporter group in the country, something like 15 thousand blue wigmen, all buying into a 3 game membership.
The Maroons have a membership as well now because you cant get tickets to the games it is that huge.

The tickets to a sellout game at Suncorp this year sold within 8 minutes, so 52,500 tickets gone in 8 minutes, alot of them are now sold as membership tickets, so you can get a seat. No sport in australia has the selling power of origin, no sport sells out 105 thousand tickets for 2 games at Suncorp in 2 hours.
The average price of tickets is 160 dollars, this is big business, getting bigger not smaller.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 9:39am
  eagleJack said | May 22nd 2012 @ 9:39am | Report comment
  
  oikee while I don’t doubt that the Broncos have a very large supporter base I think 1.5 million is a stretch. One thing you have to understand about these surveys is that a similar survey found the Sydney Swans to have one of the largest supporter bases in the country. Why? Because when a Sydneysider is asked who they support in the AFL they invariably say the Swans. 90% of them could not care less about the Swans but they have heard of them and so tick the box or tell the telemarketer. Similarly the people of Brisbane and South East QLD would answer the Broncos when asked which League team they support.
  - May 22nd 2012 @ 9:46am
    PLANKO said | May 22nd 2012 @ 9:46am | Report comment
    
    Eagle not getting involved today might try and get some work done !
- May 22nd 2012 @ 6:55pm
  Farmerj said | May 22nd 2012 @ 6:55pm | Report comment
  
  Im in NZ so I dont know about ticket prices but you say $160 is average, really? If thats the case, lets say they sell roughly 180000 tickets across the 3 games, just over 50 000 in Melbourne and Brisbane and 75000 maybe in Sydney, at $160 each, thats $29 million in ticket sales alone, let alone tv income. No wonder the players say they are being underpaid.
  - May 22nd 2012 @ 7:48pm
    oikee said | May 22nd 2012 @ 7:48pm | Report comment
    
    Suncorp is the dearest stadium to attend. Origin tickets are priced at a premium.
    http://www.qrl.com.au/default.aspx?s=marooniacs
    Becoming a member can gaurantee you a seat. Otherwise your taking a chance, and as i mentioned, the 52500 seats sold out in 8 minutes, that must mean that they now have alot of members. It use to take a hour to sellout.
    - May 22nd 2012 @ 8:05pm
      NF said | May 22nd 2012 @ 8:05pm | Report comment
      
      oikee who cares that Origin is sold out in Brissie what about the Broncos game can you explain to me why Origin always sell-out yet Broncos struggle to get 40,000 to there games it ain’t right. You said league is religon in QLD but it ain’t showing it.
      - May 22nd 2012 @ 11:02pm
        Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | May 22nd 2012 @ 11:02pm | Report comment
        
        Because not all rugby league fans in Brisbane like the Broncos. The only time I’ll dare to go to Lang Park to see a Broncos game is when my favourite team, the Cowboys, are playing them. There are a lot of Cowboys supporters in Brisbane. You should see how many of them rock up to Lang Park for the Broncos vs Cowboys game.
        
        I’m a ticketed member of the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls. I estimate that at least 1,000 people attend each home game at Kougari. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the bigger games draw up to 2,500 or 3,000. It costs $10 to get into the ground, so it’s not as if the people aren’t diehard supporters. The fans who turn up are as loyal as it gets — the Chook Pen makes more noise than some NRL clubs! The Dolphins and Easts Tigers are supported pretty well.
        
        I’d like to see the QRL and ARLC build up the QLD Cup. If it was marketed right and given more marquee players then I could see its average attendance rising to 5,000. A little bit of money could also be made by airing two games per weekend on TV.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 8:59pm
  Sea Eagle of Brisbane said | May 22nd 2012 @ 8:59pm | Report comment
  
  According to the latest survey published few weeks ago in Brisbane, 65% of Broncos supporters will leave the team for the next Brissy team, whoever comes in to town (Most likely Ipswich, Bombers are less likely by the day). Most of the Broncos supporters are there because there is no choice in the City. Oikee, please do not get too cocky, when there will be 2-3 teams here, won’t be 1.5 mill who support the team you like. Such as life.
  - May 22nd 2012 @ 10:14pm
    yewonk said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:14pm | Report comment
    
    so what you are saying sea eagle is instead of nrl teams growing supporter bases to that like the afl the nrl are just going to cannibalize themselves for the sake of expansion. by the sounds of your comment your looking forward to it.
    sea eagles supporter you say rrrrrrrrrrrrrright.
    - May 22nd 2012 @ 11:12pm
      Sea Eagle of Brisbane said | May 22nd 2012 @ 11:12pm | Report comment
      
      Rugby league is a TV sport like NFL in the US. You can see all the action in afl ball games because there is no touchdowns and no need to replay who kicked the ball.
      One can fumble the ball 5-10 times before kick a goal; it is not permitted in League. We need skills to catch the ball at the first touch.
      Hmmm.
May 22nd 2012 @ 9:45am
tigergerry said | May 22nd 2012 @ 9:45am | Report comment

Terrific article and bang on the money

The Broncos mamagement are a disgrace for not making the Broncos the biggest football club in Australia ( of any code). You spelt out all the right reason’s, ie, biggest rugby league nursery in Australia at their disposal, unprecidented continued success on the field as well as having some of the best players to play the game the past 20 years, ie Lockyer, Langer, Renouf, carne, Lazarus, Tallis, Lewis its goes on and on!

The Broncos should indeed have at least 40 000 members and be close to capacity for every home game reagardless of the opposition.

Just shambolic mamagement but I guess typical of rugby league management in general..
May 22nd 2012 @ 10:09am
oikee said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:09am | Report comment

I dont think you can blame the broncos management, as they had Bruno and everyone heard my thoughts about him and his not growing memberships in all the years he sat on his hands running this club,
They were at 12-13 thousand members when he left, last year? Now they have hit 25 thousand and growing, so the new magagemnet have finally woken the giant.
The supporter base was 1.28 million, last year, this is from around the country, not just in Brisbane, so saying that a survey of just Brisbane people will say the Broncos is wrong. You know perfectly well that the Doggies have about 10 thousand in Brisbane, the Dragons probably more, Manly has a few, the Titans and Cowbpys also have a Brisbane following and base.

Again, not everyone likes the Broncos, for whatever reason, and they will grow bigger if they did have a derby team based in Brisbane, and i just read in the league weekly that the Bombers, Brisbane Bombers are likely to get the nod, which i think is a good move. We dont want to disrupt Ipswich or Redcliffe as feeder comps, plus they already play in the Queensland cup comp.
The Bombers or whatever they are going to be called, will give everyone else around a wide area, a team to barrack for, this should have happened years ago, so again, it is not the Broncos fault or problem, look at the top when you think why league has floundered, withered. Signing 5-6 year deals for games, players and tv rights have to stop. No one should be foolish enough to (in these times) sign such deals.
League has suffered enough.
May 22nd 2012 @ 10:34am
Big I said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:34am | Report comment

Broncos season member here, ready to inject some sanity into this discussion.

First, the Broncos situation.
- 25,000 members. Half the tickets for the season a sold before a ball is even kicked – not too shabby.
- We are the best drawing NRL team television-wise, so we have played all but one game this year live (on free to air television) on Friday nights. Casual supporters don’t need to buy a ticket or pay for foxtel when you have this much access to the team you support.
- If you’ve ever been to a Broncos game, you will know it is a very family-friendly/focussed atmosphere. You never see the banner-waving hardcore fans you would see at a Manly or Dragons game (this is one of my biggest gripes – I would love a more passionate atmosphere). There is a huge focus on women and children, and Suncorp Stadium is fairly hardcore in terms of policing crowd behaviour. As such, we would draw far more people playing our games on a Sunday afternoon when the times are more suitable for younger supporters.
- We are a GENUINE four code market, with a lower population than Sydney and Melbourne. There is only x number of fans to draw from. The Lions, Roar and to a lesser extent, the Reds, have far more fair-weather supporters than the Broncos. You only need to see this during the recent lean years each team has endured. The Broncos still drew great crowds even in the 2010 season, when they failed to make the finals.
- Remember the floods? We do. And there are still a significant number of families affected by this. Football tickets (to any code) are not high on the priority list for those people.
- You reference 1993 membership numbers. I note this is during the 92-93 premiership years, which obviously had a positive effect on attendances. I also note at this time the Lions were the Bears and only began basing themselves at the Gabba in that year (previously at Carrara). Rugby was still an amateur game I believe (and played at Ballymore), and the NSL was…well, the NSL. Essentially, their competition was insignificant.

On other matters…
- The Reds draw great membership figures as there is a very healthy private school (i.e. rugby) network to tap into. But they struggle as much as anyone up here. Don’t forget, apart from the last two seasons the Reds have been consistently one of the worst franchises in Super Rugby, and were looking at moving back to Ballymore recently to help stem the losses they were making. If the Reds don’t win it this year, you won’t see those sorts of figures next year. Meanwhile, the Broncos grew their membership base this year with a semi-final finish.
- There is no FTA coverage for Super Rugby and A-League, and these days less coverage for AFL given the implementation of Fox Footy Channel. Unless the casual fan wants to shell out on a Foxtel subscription, they HAVE to go to the game to see the Reds, Lions or Roar. It is very rare you can’t catch a Broncos game on Channel 9, be it live or on replay.
- A second team will fail. Why cannibalise one of your best-performing markets by splitting the group into two underperforming teams? You aren’t going to suddenly find 30-50k new ‘fans’ by putting in a second team in the same area. The NRL needs to be opening up new markets, and there are areas that are SCREAMING out for a team, have a supporter base and in most cases existing infrastructure (Perth, Gladstone/Rockhampton, Central Coast).
- You mentioned the Lions outdid the Broncos during their premiership years – how are they travelling now? Exactly. It was great while it lasted, but Brisbane will never be a huge AFL market, and they are back at the bottom of the pile again. Installing the Suns down the road hasn’t exactly kicked off a membership/supporter frenzy for either club has it? The Lions would KILL for the numbers the Broncos do, as would most NRL clubs.

Having said all that, I would love the Broncos to have more members, draw even bigger crowds, be the undisputed number #1 club in all codes, etc. But to say the administration are ignorant and underperforming is a bit of an over-reaction. The Broncos are one of the most professionally run and well-marketed teams in the country. Their community-engagement initiatives are first-rate, they are run profitably, prefer to nuture their own talent rather than buying big names from other clubs (with the exception of Falou and almost Inglis in recent years) and for the most part, keep their players in line. Channel 9 aren’t going to kill the golden goose, so as long as we are live on television each Friday night you aren’t going to see a rapid increase in numbers anytime soon.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 10:47am
  Patrick said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:47am | Report comment
  
  Great reply. Totally agree.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 12:37pm
  Australian Rules said | May 22nd 2012 @ 12:37pm | Report comment
  
  I’ve always thought the Broncos are the NRL equivalent of the West Coast Eagles:
  Both entered competition the same time (1987/88); biggest club in their state, exist in a heartland, massive supporter base.
  
  But the numbers show the Broncos to be underperforming:
  
  1. Brisbane has a greater population than Perth (about 2.1M vs 1.7M)
  2. Since their inception, Broncos have won 6 Premierships (the last in 2006), the Eagles won 3 (last in 2006)
  3. Broncos have about 25,000 members, Eagles about 57,000 (and there’s a waiting list to join)
  4. In 2011, the Broncos averaged 33,000 in a 53k stadium, the Eagles averaged 38,000 in a 43k stadium
  5. Broncos have no “direct” competition, the Eagles compete with Fremantle for fans and corporate sponsors
  
  Yes, since the Reds fell over, there’s no NRL team in Perth – but the direct competition of Freo is far more challenging in terms of competing for market share.
  
  It’s ridiculous that there’s still only 1 NRL team in Brissie. The fear of “cannibalisation” is such small-minded thinking. A second team will INCREASE the overall footprint of the sport in a given area… and you get the added bonus of a genuine derby game (which have been huge in Perth, Adelaide, Brissie (with the Suns) and Sydney.
  - May 22nd 2012 @ 1:42pm
    KSI said | May 22nd 2012 @ 1:42pm | Report comment
    
    Fremantle is to Perth what Gold Coast is to Brisbane. Plus the QLD Reds are a Brisbane “heartland” team.
    
    Bris Lions = West Force
    
    Soccer equal
    - May 22nd 2012 @ 2:33pm
      Australian Rules said | May 22nd 2012 @ 2:33pm | Report comment
      
      Fremantle have about 45,000 members, average 35,000 per game and are cash-rich. They’re a long way in front of the Titans…but I understand the comparison.
      
      The Lions have way more history than the Force, plus a recent era of success…though they have dipped in membership and attendance to be around the 21,000 mark for both.
      
      Agree soccer is about the same.
      Ultimately, Brissie and Perth are reasonable comparisons and agree with posters above who suggest that given their circumstances, the Broncos should be the biggest club in the country.
- May 22nd 2012 @ 5:10pm
  SportsFanMelb said | May 22nd 2012 @ 5:10pm | Report comment
  
  Well said Big I
- May 22nd 2012 @ 11:15pm
  Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | May 22nd 2012 @ 11:15pm | Report comment
  
  “A second team will fail.”
  
  If it’s marketed to the Ipswich-Logan LGAs then it I cannot see its average attendance being less than 20,000. Rugby league is the most popular game in the cities of Logan and Ipswich. Almost 300,000 people live in Logan City. Over 160,000 in Ipswich.
  
  Whether the team is called the Ipswich-Logan Jets or South East Queensland Jets, it will draw a lot of support in two heartland cities.
  
  A Moreton-based team would succed. The Moreton Regional Counil has over 350,000 residents. Bring in the Moreton Bay Dolphins and you’ll have a massive fanbase to tap into. The team could also draw support from the Sunshine Coast.
May 22nd 2012 @ 10:39am
oikee said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:39am | Report comment

Big I, i have been trying to get this across to the fans on here, and yes, family friendly, it does get good some games, others are dull. Origin is light=years apart. You go to origin games even the families are lunatics.

Well said mate. Spot on.