In this first part of NRL survey results, we look at the universal issues of sport and the issues regarding NRL competition size and team transfer contracts.
We had 247 survey responses – 135 of which did not reach the end of the survey. I’ve added recommendations based on these survey results.
First, let’s look at the universal nature of sport – the issues that all sports fans have. The recommendations in this section are for all sports not just for the NRL. An overwhelming 93 per cent of respondents said the number of people in a venue watching events is more important than how big a venue is built.
Recommendations
1. Host events in venues with a capacity that matches your average attendance.
2. Build new venues to a capacity that supports the average attendance of all proposed permanent tenants that plan to host regular events there.
3. Upgrade existing venues if sell-out crowds are becoming a consistent occurrence with a permanent tenant that hosts events there regularly.
Why do people support teams? Simple – location, location, location. From State of Origin to the FIFA World Cup, geography is what makes a great sporting spectacle and drives passion in sports fans. In all, 57 per cent of respondents said the main factor in choosing a team to support is either being ‘local’ or the ‘closest geographically’. No one said they support a team because of a particular coach.
Recommendations
4. New teams should be based in areas which have supporters of that sport.
5. Host home games in areas which have most of the supporters of that team.
6. Do not appoint a manager with the opinion that it will boost supporter numbers.
Can’t get to the game? Well television or more recently, internet streaming, is the way to go. If you are required to pay to view it through these mediums, the fans though say make it cheaper but not any more expensive. In total 72 per cent of survey respondents agree with this.
Within those survey respondents that agreed, 56 per cent of them say it should be free while the other 44 per cent say it should be cheaper but not free. Only 1 per cent thought it should be more expensive.
Recommendations
7. Increase free coverage.
8. If through subscription services, make it cheaper than what it currently is.
9. Do not increase prices to view sporting events through a visual medium.
The above was based on questions universal across all sports but in our survey, 92 per cent were followers of NRL – the code which this survey and the rest of this article focuses on. The following is based on questions answered by NRL followers.
Our survey respondents supported all teams but the most popular were the Warriors (7%), Rabbitohs (7%), Bulldogs (9%), Cowboys (10%) and Broncos (20%). While three non-Sydney teams appeared in the top 5 most supported teams, Sydney teams (56%) were more supported compared to non-Sydney teams (45%).
So what about expansion? How big should NRL be? Well it is currently a 16 team competition. 63 per cent of respondents think there should be more teams, 26 per cent think it should stay as 16 teams while 11 per cent want less teams. The most popular choice was ‘18′ (38%).
Recommendations
10. Expand to an 18-team competition.
11. Do not downsize the competition.
So downsizing the competition is clearly a no go in the opinion of the fans. However, if it had to occur, the most popular choice was that the least financially viable team should go (33%).
So what teams should join? This question was answered by both NRL and non-NRL followers and the most popular choices overall was a Perth or Western Australian team (41%) and a second Brisbane team (15%). But as we mentioned earlier, people mainly only follow teams based on their location.
The one thing we could not tell from this survey is whether the 56 per cent of people who chose Perth or Western Australia and Brisbane are actually from there. The table below is the closest thing to finding out though (figures rounded):
| Expansion Team | Support based on: Location | Other Reasons | Difference |
| A second Brisbane team | 10% | 5% | 6% |
| Perth/Western Australia | 22% | 19% | 2% |
| A second New Zealand team | 5% | 3% | 2% |
| A combined New Zealand/Fiji team | 5% | 3% | 2% |
| Central Coast Bears | 5% | 3% | 2% |
| Ipswich Jets | 4% | 2% | 2% |
| Adelaide/South Australia | 2% | 1% | 1% |
| Central Queensland | 5% | 4% | 1% |
| Illawarra Steelers | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| North Sydney Bears | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| None | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Papua New Guinea | 0% | 1% | -1% |
Recommendation
12. The next teams should be from Perth or Western Australia and Brisbane, providing there are rugby league fans there to support those teams.
A controversial issue in the NRL lately is that of team transfer contracts and the latest date to sign that contract. Currently it is no later than June 30th but a majority 65 per cent of survey respondents say contracts should be negotiated from start to finish post-grand final until January first.
Recommendation
13. Players should only be allowed to negotiate team transfer contracts no earlier than the end of the grand final and no later than January first.
Thank you all for your time and patience in completing the survey! I hope you found this article insightful. In Part 2, we look at the experience, choices and treatment of NRL venues.
The Link
Guest
Brisbane 2, NZ and Perth in that order. Perth with 1.8m population and growing can sustain an RL team. An RL team can most likely match the Glory and Force for interest and support.
duecer
Guest
I would suggest that a yearly game will always outdraw regular season games. Based on the logic of your post the AFL should put a team in Wellington because it outdraws Phoenix crowds. This is not to say it's a good idea, but the true crowd figures will only be known once they have regular seasons.
marco
Guest
I guess from a business perspective you would be happy to put your hard earned money into trying a WA team again. If its such a sure thing then the NRL should go for it.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Exhibition match? They were for premiership points for one thing. And if you notice there will be Sea Eagles v Warriors, Rabbitohs v Titans playing for premiership POINTS in 2016 in Perth. So quite an endorsement for WA NRL. You should really look at the facts before saying the wrong or misleading thing. WA is the third strongest league state in terms of playing numbers, TV growth was evident from 2015 and the game has a long history in the state. Added, the media there has shown in the past it is willing to promote the game. Taking it away from them in the first place was a big mistake.
marco
Guest
What jibe? A good crowd at an exhibition match doesnt count for much. There was only 1 game in Perth in 2015. Thats hardly a leap of faith from the NRL. Can the NRL afford to prop up 2 new clubs in 2 new territories ? Maybe, but it would probably be at the expense of others. Time for the realists to step up and the dreamers to listen. The Broncos have an easy ride.
PGNEWC
Guest
Maybe there doesn't need to be so many teams in the big smoke? e.g. Easts and Cronulla?
Kirk
Guest
There is a real imbalance considering 9 teams come from a League city of 4.5 million and 1 team comes from a League city of 2 million. The SE QLD region should really have 4 teams minimum, but the Newscorp Broncos won't allow it.
Kirk
Guest
There was a thing called Super League which probably didn't give that Perth team much of a chance.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
Marco, have you seen the crowds the NRL have attracted to Perth in the last few years? Obviously not. Plus Perth & surrounds have seen growth in several new clubs, so your 'little interest' jibes don't wash. And on Adelaide & Perth, they failed due to Super League & lack of funding by the NRL which keeps clubs like GWS & Suns in existence in the AFL. If the NRL had/is doing what the AFL are doing to prop up expansion clubs we may have seen Adelaide & Perth exist today. Your hubris is just another jibe that some how rugby league is a less attractive sport than your favoured code AFL. Give it a rest.
marco
Guest
Both Perth and Adelaide had rugby league teams. Forget about surveys, both of these teams failed. There are NRL teams in strong league areas that are fighting for survival but people are constantly saying to expand into other areas like Perth where there is little interest. Newscorp just paid bigtime to partner up with the NRL. Do you think they are going to let another team come in and take away business from the broncos cash machine ? There will be resistance. The broncos get more exposure than any other team. There is a reason for that. Money!
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
you mean the way the media harps on about NRL player behaviour but when its say an AFL player, it's "move on nothing to see here". That code has several players & ex players up for all sorts of charges incl sexual assualt but doesn't seem to affect that sport. I would like to see NRL fans step up and defend the sport against bias media like the A League fans have done. It's a code war out there & the media are playing its part to protect certain sports while denigrating others at will. Also, crowds for all football codes are experiencing crowd decline. Luckily the NRL has just signed a huge TV contract on the back of TV ratings & increased social media numbers so jim, I wouldn't worry too much, the game will bounce back as it becomes more professional.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
And Sheek, David Gallop has expressed the exact same sentiments about the A-League. There is one thing we can say about the NRL, they get big ratings regardless of who is playing and we're they're from, and having such high TV revenue, arguably they are in the best position of all the four football codes to have clubs in smaller cities, but as a general rule, it's hard to argue with what you've written.
sheek
Roar Guru
I will say this, the AFL is smart. Way smarter than the other footy codes in Australia. They don't bother with provincialism. Their 18 teams are located within the five largest population areas of Australia. Geelong & Gold Coast are both close enough to be absorbed into the respective Melbourne & Brisbane Greater Metropolitan Areas. That's a lot of gravitas for player recruitment, fan support, live attendances, corporate sponsorship & local TV viewing. Provincialism does work for rugby league. But only to a point. Newcastle, North Qld & Canberra have deep roots in rugby league going back a century. But here's the thing: It makes no sense, no sense at all, that the 2nd biggest rugby league city in Australia, Brisbane, has only one team in the NRL. No sense at all. The next two teams in the NRL must come from Brisbane & NZ. Having only one team in NZ makes as much sense as having one team in Brisbane. Which actually, is not much sense at all. Forget Perth. Whatever interest is over there is too small to sustain a team long-term. Especially when it's in hot competition with two massive AFL teams, one A-League team & one super rugby team. And forget all these other provincial locations in NSW & Qld. The NRL is Australian, it's not the NFL.
StatMan
Roar Rookie
I cannot do a Perth survey to see if they want an NRL team because I am not from Perth, I cannot control where survey respondents come from on 'The Roar' and lastly, because 'The Roar' probably will have issues regarding privacy.
jim
Guest
I also found the survey to be somewhat puzzling. The biggest issue for me is 3 consecutive seasons of dwindling crowds despite, obviously, the population growing by 1.5% each year. Titans and Raiders crowds are poor. And, per capita, Broncos crowds are quite poor. Rugby league also has a shocking off-field rep. The bad PR some of these players generates is off the scale and never-ending.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
I think Perth would have enough support to warrant an NRL team. Large crowds to NRL matches, outdrawing the Force & Glory suggest so not to mention numerous new clubs popping up in WA of recent to cater for the growth.
Johnno
Guest
Agreed rubbish article and survey. It's not an official NRL survey, the NRL know what's best for the game, Dave Smith/John Grant/Todd Greenburg/Shane Richardson, esteemed men of the NRL, not you statsman.
marco
Guest
Why not do a Perth survey to see if they want an NRL team? Most of these types of surveys are done in Nsw and Qld .
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
It wasn't the easiest of surveys. Some of the questions were downright mindboggling
Harvey Wilson
Roar Rookie
I didnt even see a survey