Roar Rookie

npollard

Roar Rookie

774 Article Reads
3 Articles Written
20 Comments Written

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Member Since:: June 2012
Based In:: Sydney
Favourite Sports:: League, Tennis,

Latest Articles

Showing articles 1 - 3 of 3 |

NRL interchange system needs an overhaul

27 Jul 2012

At least three of the weekend’s NRL matches exposed major shortcomings with the NRL’s player interchange system.

NRL grand final, Test matches and Origin for sale

7 Jun 2012

When Melbourne hosted the first of this year’s State-Of-Origin games, it caused a furore among rugby league fans in NSW.

NRL fails to keep pace with technology

2 Jun 2012

Laws in all areas of life are challenged by advances in technology. Rugby league is no exception.

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npollard's Recent Comments

npollard has written a total of 20 comments

Crowd comparison averages for 2002 and 2012

Well researched and nicely written piece jamesb. I like the comparisons of 2002 and 2012. It’s a pity we had to endure a full decade between important milestones in the recovery of the game post SuperLeague and News Ltd. Looking at the attendance figures, I found the Melbourne Storm numbers the most significant especially given that there is a group of fans who regularly question the value of their inclusion in the NRL. Their average home crowd is approx 33% up from 2002 for the regular season and the overall season attendance average is up to 14108 from 9088 which is a 55% increase. It will be interesting to compare again at the end of 2013. This is the first season where matches are scheduled for the first 20 rounds of the season instead of releasing the schedule of each round just 5 weeks in advance. Many clubs have complained that they are unable to properly promote their matches and their members and fans have said they would attend more matches if they had a full season schedule.

5 Nov 2012

NRL expansion must still be considered by ARLC

Unfortunately the NRL can’t instantly behave like the AFL. They have only just become independent of News LTD. The commissioners with the exception of Chris Sarra and Wayne Pearce are corporate business leaders. Their decisions on expansion will be based on sound business principles. Any expansion team will present a degree of risk. They will assess the risk much like an investment. A bid that has been on the table for 12 years has a broad range of corporate sponsors, with a compliant stadium, an existing membership base and a brand with history on a population footprint of 770,000 with a high pick-up rate is low risk. They do not want to have to bail out an expansion team. I don’t know the details of the Perth bid but they are very new and was not supported by the WARL. The leading identity was an expat to Perth with mining support only and they needed to get government backing to get a compliant stadium. It’s just a higher risk proposition. Remember the ARLC is starting from ground zero with no accumulated wealth. Since the NRL was formed in 1998, they were never able to negotiate freely on Broadcast rights and sponsorship because of conflict of interest with News LTD. (Must have been like complaining to your mother-in-law about your wife!) The revenues they did get for 14 years were then divided in two with half going to News LTD in order to recoup the $850M lost on Super League. All the while the AFL since 1993, have been negotiating freely and re-investing. They own Etihad stadium and have the money to employ more development officers in NSW than the ARL. Interestingly, prior to 2011 when the Gold Coast Suns joined, the AFL went for 4 new expansion teams in heartland areas (Perth and Adelaide), which are low risk and the two non AFL locations which were relocations(Sydney and Brisbane). The AFL saw the value in sustaining a known brand, to help mitigate the risk. They have only moved to the fully backed AFL bid in Gold Coast and West Sydney after nearly 20 years of building wealth and assets. That’s smart business.

14 Sep 2012

NRL expansion must still be considered by ARLC

This is a well written and concise article Beowulf. I agree with much of the content. As you can see from many of the comments, there is a lot of passion within the Rugby League community about expansion. It is a shame there is such an ‘us or them’ attitude about expansion. Many of those who are against any individual new team do so because they see a decision on expansion at the expense of the team they wish to gain admission. Perth supporters are against a 2nd Brisbane team and the CC Bears. CQ supporters are against Perth etc. Much has been written about the recently signed broadcast contracts removing expansion from the agenda. This is not true. The ARLC’s priority now is the recruitment of the new CEO. The NRL has given the AFL a 19 year head start (AFL formed a commission in 1993) and we are all impatient to see change to catch up on lost ground. The ARLC will address expansion and do what is best for Rugby League. They have much to do now they know their revenue stream enabling them to form strategy for any type of development. Expansion will not be a one team proposition. With revenues in place, the ARLC will follow the lead of the AFL and come up with an expansion plan. The NRL does not yet have the accumulated financial resources like the AFL have, which allowed the AFL to fund their most recent expansion into Western Sydney and the Gold Coast. The critical factor for a new NRL expansion club’s success, will be their business plan as they need to prove themselves capable of survival without NRL funding. With this in mind the CC Bears are a solid proposition. Another Queensland team based in Brisbane and playing out of Lang Park would also be a likely successful business venture because of stadium and customers. The population foot-print for the Bears is approx 770,000 and offers a much higher pick-up rate than Adelaide or Perth. The Bears brand is known to many and engenders sentimentality within a very favourable demographic on Sydney’s North Shore. From a business viewpoint the CC Bears is a low risk expansion. I would love to see a team from Perth. Prospective submissions up to this date seem to lack maturity and are reliant on individual wealthy sponsors. This is not a solid and sustainable way forward and recent history of A-League soccer clubs as well as problems recently at the Gold Coast Titans show the risk of this type of business model.

12 Sep 2012

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