NRL in Perth makes more sense by the day

Boom.

These are the geographic regions and their populations used by Oztam for the 5 city TV ratings. When talking about expansion you should remember that from Coolum Beach to the NSW border is included in the Brisbane total and Central Coast is part of Sydney. They do not come under regional ratings. Sydney including the Central Coast(4.486million) Melbourne region including Geelong(4.361million) Brisbane region including Gold Coast(2.870million) Adelaide including most of SA(1.383million) Perth and surrounding area(1.768million) http://www.oztam.com.au/pdf/TV_ratings/metro_coverage_maps.pdf

and more news another ccbear,brent adams has been voted in to see david gallop also with michael hanley in the supporters meeting.so the ccbears have 2 reps out of 6 at the face to face with the NRL.this is a big plus for the bears.GO THOSE MIGHTY BEARS.love it..HERE COME THE BEARS!!!!

oh and mate if you have a capitol city the size of brisbane, and if they weren't drawing crowds then you'd have to ask yourself whats wrong here....they are a 1 town team... same as NQld..and also the GC... the central Coast residents have proven themselves year after year to go to NRL games and other sporting events on the CC at blue tongue stadium..and don't worry the NRL have noted it also.. I would also like to congratulate CCBears stalwart Michael Hanley who was elected to a 6 panel of supporters from hundreds who entered to have a face to face with David Gallop next week and to discuss the issues in league from a supporters point of view.. and of course the inclusion of the CCBears into the NRL comp for 2013.. and don't worry james, I think with the Bears back in this comp and with their sustainable business plan, no clubs will missout infact they will probably prosper more..

oh James.. some more facts here. 1) the NSDRLFC first mooted the idea of moving to the CC in 1991 before the CRL were formed in 47 this whole catchment area was always north sydneys. 2) he bears voted to relocate to gosford in 97 on the proviso a new stadium was built. 3) the 32million dollar stadium was funded by the State, and federal govts and also by the Gosford council and oh just a few MILLION by the NSDRLFC.. it was Norths who located all the funds to build this beautiful stadium, which now only gets used in the summer months to it's full capacity and thats by the Mariners.. 4) the BEARS have a 21 year playing right to the stadium. 5) I could go on.. but it has all been said before.. The Bears will be the 17th licence and encompass 1 million population who haven't a team to represent their area since 1999.. 6) the Bears bid will be submitted on March 31st next year, we should hear by June 2011 if not sooner.. ;-) Yes we are ready to go now.. we have been ready to go for 10 years... where have all the other bids been for 10 years.. the only reason they have been talking about expansion is because the Bears have kept the pressure up..thats dedication .. so why the hell wouldn't you grab all this dedication, and supporters and finally give them their team..gallop said over 40 000 fans were lost from the game when the bears were removed, well i think thats being conservative the Bears bid/proposal will be second to none..we have proved in 7 short months what we can do since our launch more major sponsors about to be announced.. oh and relegation won't work..it would just be considered another NSW Cup, QRL cup comp.. and these comps sadly don't draw... Bring on the Bears as we have always said the CCBs no17.. doesn't concern us who are the 18th, let them fight it out amongst themselves.. because we sure as hell have had to fight more so then any other club... to get back in this comp..yes we deserve it, selfish maybe, but you haven't been through what the Bears supporters have been through.. knocking down every obstacle in our way over the years.. the geographical catchment area of the CCBears is from Milsons Point to lake munmmorah.. to find out more go on our website to learn more before spruiking... yes go on our website and you'll see how advanced the Bears are.. www.centralcoastbears.com. bring on the IC...

mate, the number of teams in the league is governed by money, money and money. If the avg salary of an NRL player is above the average of the AFL or S15 or English SL then we wont lose our star players. This is the biggest problem facing the NRL by far. The next biggest problem is the AFL setting up shops in the NRL's backyard. Central Coast fans think we should take on the AFL by...putting another shop in our own backyard?! Mate, come on, think about it :^) Youre smart, Im smart...you just need to think on this for a week. RL is more important than Bears-oriented nostalgia. Sorry, its a tough comment but rings true.

The 1 million population refers to the Central Coast and North Shore/Hills district areas. No doubt there will be some overlap of areas on the fringes but anyone with a knowledge of the history of Rugby league could see the marketing possibilities of Central Coast Bears v Manly & Newcastle, plus there is the notion of justice to correct the wrongs of the past. Where a team is located is irrelevant provided they ultimately add revenue to the pie. Just putting dots around a map of Australia achieves nothing unless a franchise is driven by a groundswell of local support that can't be ignored, like the Central Coast. FYI the Bears in the 1990's were the 2nd most watched team in the NRL. The NRL knows this and can use this to their advantage in leveraging TV rights deals. Having said that, I agree ultimately there needs to be 2 new QLD teams - a 2nd Brissie team and later a CQLD team. There are no threats to these areas from other codes so no urgent imperative, unlike the Central Coast. A 20 team comp by 2020 has a nice ring to it - CC & Perth now, and Bris2 & CQLD in 4 or 5 years.

the Central Coast is another NSW team and NSW teams dont fetch crowds as well as Qld teams. Secondly, the Central Coast doesnt have a million people and this 'catchment area' to which u refer must surely be shared with Manly and Newcastle. After all Sydney has 4.5 million ppl and NSW has 7.1 million. Lets get this straight Qld pop 4.4 million - 3 NRL teams NSW pop 7.1 million - 11 NRL teams Why should we add another NRL team in NSW?!?!?!?!? Especially one SOOO close to Sydney. Baffles me.

I agree Rob C with your point about 18-team competition (although it may go to 20) within Australia, but I do think it could possibly grow overseas, like PNG but also another NZ team and quite possibly a Singaporean (I know the country is Malaysia) team (a bit like the NBL had with the Slingers). And, even, possibly Indonesia or Bali (although, financially, Bali is a bad choice). But imagine taking the game over there, it would increase revenue, as you could broadcast it to other countries with greater self-interest. May be Rugby League needs to invest outside heartlands, whilst constantly strengthening the heartlands.

Promotion and relegation will not work in Australia on a national level for any sport. The distances are to great and it is to risky to lose the only team in a major city from the top level. To prevent this by making certain teams safe is just not fair to the teams that do face relegation. Now the following is what I think is the ideal NRL: Expand and relocate to create a 20 team competition. It should be based on 4 conferences. The 5 teams in a conference play each other home and away(8 rounds) and each play the teams in the other conferences once(15 rounds) for a 23 round competition . The 4 conferences would be based on geographic location. The teams within the QLD, Southern and NZ conferences would remain constant while the NSW teams would change conferences each year. This system would guarantee more local derbies. The following is an example of how a 20 team comp could look in its first year(Roosters and Sharks would relocate or drop to a lower level): QLD Conference-Brisbane 1, Brisbane 2, Gold Coast, North QLD, Manly Southern Conference-Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Central Coast NZ Conference-Auckland, Wellington, South Island, South Sydney, Newcastle NSW Conference-Dragons, Bulldogs, Wests Tigers, Parramatta, Penrith What is also needed is 2 new 35k-40k seat rectangular stadiums in Sydney(even better if they had retractable roofs). One at Liverpool for ALL Bulldogs and Wests Tigers home games and one at Blacktown for ALL Parramatta and Penrith home games. I would think that for many games these stadiums would almost sellout. They could also be used by A-league teams. 10 games per round. 3 friday-NZ 7.30LIVE(5.30AEST) QLD 7.30LIVE and NSW 7.30LIVE, 3 saturday-5.30LIVE, 2 *7.30LIVE or WA 7.30LIVE(9.30AEST), 3 sunday-NZ 2.00LIVE(12.00AEST)+ could be 2.00LIVE, 4.00delayed and evening game from WA 1 monday-LIVE 7.00 The table could be all 20 teams or split into each conference. Could be top 2 of each conference and 2 wildcards for the finals or it could be an 8, 10 or 12 team final series. SOO would be held on a Sunday with no club games that weekend. To provide TV games for Friday and Saturday I propose Toyota Under 20's State of Origin(Under 20's players must play this game before they can be selected for senior SOO) and NZ vs Pacific Islands. All these would be 3 game series. No Anzac Test with internationals and world cup to be played OCT-NOV. Below the NRL there would be a feeder competition of seperate independent teams called the ARL Championship. 8 teams from NSW and 8 from QLD. Same state teams play home and away(14 rounds) and then play teams from the other state once(8 rounds) to form a 22 round competition. The Sharks and the Roosters could play in this comp. Most games could be played on Saturday afternoon to avoid NRL games Now at this point promotion and relegation might work. Beneath the ARL Championship could be 12-16 team state based competitions in NSW and QLD. This could even feed down into even lower divisions in each state. But the NRL would remain a franchise model with no promotion or relegation. I would suggest that this is the ideal ultimate structure for a true nationwide rugby league competition. If only money was no object and I was in charge.

The Central Coast's catchment area contains 1 million people and they have the 3rd highest base of junior rugby league teams in Australia. It's a sure-fire success, brings back the history/brand of a foundation club in the Bears, corrects the major error of the Super League fallout (the discarding of the Bears and Central Coast). There are no risks, a huge demographic spread for sponsors and Foxtel, free-to-air etc to grow the base - its an area crying out for a team that are guaranteed to turn back to the NRL away from soccer and Aussie Rules. The League will shore up its core area before taking any risks other than perhaps Perth. Geelong in AFL and the Gold Coast in NRL are comparably situated.......would either code NOT have a team in these areas???? Hence the CC Bears will prevail, probably along with Perth.

Central Coast is so close to Sydney its not funny. Its effectively another Sydney team. And why preach to the converted? Gosford is a pretty small area. We dont want to spread our TV revenue thinly among lots of teams. Lets have 17 teams (only add Perth for 2013) and see how our financial situation is. We want to be the league that sucks the best talent away from rugby and AFL and SL in England - not vice versa.

How could they have been declining before SL? SL was a major whisper before their inaugural season even began and they signed up after just a couple of home games - you are quite right though the second game had a lower crowd than the first.... I get your general point though, RL doesn't have a decent profile in Perth now and just plonking a team down isn't going to produce full houses every week. The good thing is I don't think anyone in power is kidding themselves otherwise or they would have gone back to Perth already. They have already shown that they are in for the long haul with the Storm and Perth will have better odds to success than that venture since there is already a core of support (small though it may be).

Well speaking as a former Perth school kid (from the 80s) I can say we did have some very limited exposure to 'rugby' (I think Rugby Union) in our school sports, just as we had exposure to sports like lacrosse, basketball, baseball, soccer etc etc. In terms of weekend club sports 90% of the kids who play winter sport played football (AFL) with the rest playing soccer and maybe hockey... I never came across one rugby player amongst school mates and only heard about RUnion being played by kids at some of the private schools. When the Western Reds came it was followed as a novelty by some for a while but the modest following it did have was pretty fickle and was declining... And it was declining even before SLeague reared its ugly head. If the NRL ever decides to return to Perth then it must be prepared to make a generational (20+ yr) commitment just as the AFL are doing with GWS and GoldCoast. I think the NRL will try to fix the Storm up before going out on a limb with another development team.

Central Coast's catchment area includes the North Shore of Sydney (700K), hence the population for the bid's purpose is 1 million. I feel Perth has more potential than Adelaide and should be included along with the Central Coast as the next expansion teams.

Storm is not a failure. Its juniors etc are coming along very well. Perth has managed to get quite a few players into the NRL, but this is just a hangover from the Reds days when there were 4 grades in seniors and juniors and these players were given great coaching etc. The game dropped off quite a bit after The Reds, but recently Kalgoorlie has come into the perth comp as has Bunbury. A mate of mine has a pub in Gnowangarup down south east and has enough shearers etc to form a team and wants to do so. Quite a few Kiwi, Pom and Eastern state kids have moved into the city/state and want to play thier game and once they get kids from AFL to have a game (usually at school level) they generally appreciate how hard and skillful the game is. Being in Perth I want Perth in the NRL, but can understand the other arguements. One one or two need to merge or move out of Sydney. Cronulla is the obvious one, but no other team sticks out in my mind. Keep Sydney solid and slowly expand. The game will again get back to where it was before Murdoch screwed it. Stop worrying about the AFL. They are more worried than we are at the top as they know the next TV deal will be far more better for Rugby League and only moderately so for their game.

Correct Nth Sydney is part of the CC catchment area.Corporate backing and to regrow the game at grassroots level in that area,which drifted off after the Bears got the proverbial heave ho. The Storm is hardly a failure after 10 years ,even now after the salary cap debacle,they get 11,000 playing for pride and charity.Moreso when they started from a miniscule base.They have as much chance, if not more than the GWS in West Sydney. The Storm once News disengages will be taken over by a private consortium that is already waiting in the wings. The NRL realises the need for the Storm to remain,from a TV point of view,from a sponsorship point of view and simply because large sums have been injected into junior development since 06.This is showing though their junior sides. To omit the second largest city in the country is plain foolhardy.When the Storm play another NRL side,the Pay Tv ratings are high.The Storm are in for the long haul. Re NZ,Sky News paid $12m pa for their last Tv deal.Expect to pay more this time.Hardly a view of a TV organisation not beleiving there is substantial support on the box.

so when people refer to the CC catchment as having 1m people I presume they include north sydney?

What happened to that Ipswitch/Logan bid? That's a good location for a team in SEQLD.

Top 10 Cities in Australia by population* 1. Sydney NSW 4,399,722 2. Melbourne VIC 3,892,419 3. Brisbane QLD 1,945,639 4. Perth WA 1,602,559 5. Adelaide SA 1,172,105 6. Gold Coast-Tweed QLD/NSW 558,888 7. Newcastle NSW 531,191 8. Canberra-Queanbeyan ACT/NSW 395,126 9. Wollongong NSW 284,169 10. Sunshine Coast QLD 237,562 * 2008 Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate The Central Coast (NSW) with a population of 298,000 (2006 Census) is not currently recognised as a "city" but as can be seen from above if it was it would come in at no. 9. The NRL has team(s) in the majority of these population centres with Perth & Adelaide being the most obvious exceptions.