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It looks all but certain that the NRL has got the final figures for their new broadcast deal to commence in 2018, with all eight games live. But eight games only allows for 16, or maybe 17 if a team has a bye, teams. Why don’t the NRL want to expand?
NRL CEO Dave Smith appears to have put the concept on the backburner.
“This deal assumes 16 teams,” Smith said in a press conference.
“We have had discussions about whether we could introduce a 17th team and they have been good faith discussion and there is the ability within the contract to do this.
“If you do the modelling typically what happens is that you get all the costs that suggest you move to 18. But I’m not talking about that today, this deal is about a 16-team competition, it is about eight games a weekend.
“But there have been some conversations about expansion and we have built some flexibility.”
There are enough players and officials in the game that could easily create two new clubs. Placed in the right spots, these clubs can add an extra game without there being a problem with the TV rights.
The ideal places to expand to from a broadcast perspective would be Perth (two hours behind) and Wellington (two hours ahead).
However, a bid from Brisbane/Ipswich would be a better bet than Wellington, based on TV ratings, due to the huge rugby league-mad market that is Queensland.
There is plenty of talent in Queensland too, so they wouldn’t have any trouble attracting players. As for fans, they shouldn’t have any trouble attracting over 20,000 per week to home games.
The South Queensland Crushers were one of only four teams (along with North Queensland, Auckland and the Broncos) to average over 20,000 fans in their debut season of 1995, the year the league world was rocked by the Super League War.
And wouldn’t a Brisbane derby bring out the fans? There is no reason a battle between two Brisbane teams couldn’t attract 40,000+ to Suncorp Stadium.
As for Perth, every second week you have a game a little bit later without affecting any of the other matches. That is a broadcaster’s dream expansion scenario.
Perth has a bid team, West Coast Pirates, that have been playing junior reps in the Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball in NSW for several years.
And before Perth announced the name of their bid, the Western Australia Reds were playing in these competitions, as well as the NSW Cup.
Perth are definitely prepared to have an NRL team again. One-off matches in the West get big crowds. With their own team, they could go close to selling out home games.
Players who have spent part of their lives in Western Australia who are playing in either the NRL or Super League include Cory Paterson, Adam Quinlan and Curtis Rona.
Even with all the added positives of an extra game, the NRL still seems to want to stick with 16 teams and kill Monday night football in favour of Thursday night football. If the NRL wants to cede ground to the AFL and Super Rugby, particularly in places they have no presence currently, they should stick with the plan.
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