The next NRL expansion location? Tasmania

After the treatment Tasmania has received from the AFL, maybe the NRL can move in and fill the vacuum.

When the AFL overlooked Tasmania by placing teams in Western Sydney and the Gold Coast, they lost a lot of friends in the state. Then when they turned down a Tasmanian bid for a women’s team that would have only cost $500,000, they alienated even more supporters.

The AFL’s attitude and actions are a textbook example of how to lose friends and alienate people and the NRL could take advantage of this.

There is currently a bid to host an A-League team in Tasmania at North Hobart Oval which would be turned into a temporary 10,000 seat rectangular stadium during the A-League season for $15 million. While this might work for an A-League team during the AFL off season it wouldn’t work for an NRL team.

There’s no guarantee that David Gallop will even approve the North Hobart Oval plan anyway.

In his capacity as CEO of the NRL David Gallop almost knocked back the Gold Coast Titans bid because of the lack of a suitable stadium. It was only when the Queensland Government committed to build one that he let them in, and he could repeat this for Tasmania.

In an interview with Four Four Two Saturday, Andrew Wilke made clear that the renovation of North Hobart Oval wouldn’t change the ground from an oval to a rectangle.

“Now the North Hobart Oval, it’s a lovely venue and it’s of course circular for Aussie Rules. And it would be important that it stayed that way for an Aussie Rules field for Aussie Rules reasons.” – Andrew Wilke.

Tasmania already has two first class oval stadiums at York Park and Bellerive. And yet when it comes to having the only Tasmanian team in any national football code they want to make them play out of a second rate multi-purpose oval stadium.

So not only is soccer playing second fiddle to Aussie rules but to an amateur suburban league at that. And there’s no thought at all about the other rectangular codes who could be tenants at the stadium who are once again ignored by the AFL centric government in Hobart.

If David Gallop knocks back Tasmania’s A-League bid because of North Hobart Oval, then it will be clear that it’s because of the Tasmanian government’s favouritism towards the AFL. But this could could open the door for the NRL which they could then exploit.

I know there isn’t currently a bid for a Tasmanian NRL team in the next possible round of NRL expansion, but I can’t see why there shouldn’t be one.

The record A-League attendance in Tasmania was set in Launceston by 8,000 people whereas the record NRL attendance is 12,000. This was set at North Hobart Oval even though rugby league is a much smaller sport in Tasmania than football.

If the crowd size can be repeated when the Storm face the Bulldogs in February then a Tasmanian NRL team might be viable. But there would still be the need for a new permanent rectangular stadium for the NRL season.

If NRL Tasmania lobbied together with Football Federation Tasmania for a new permanent rectangular stadium, it might have a chance of getting up as long as the design is affordable.

Audi Sportpark in Ingolstadt, Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, the proposed Tauranga Domain Stadium in New Zealand or Dolphin Oval in Redcliffe would be good designs to use or adapt.

The proposed 15,000 seat Tauranga Domain Stadium is estimated to cost $25 million once built, so even if the cost blows out to double that it’s still affordable.

The 15,800 capacity Audi Sportpark in Ingolstadt cost 20 million Euros when it was opened in 2010.

Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster has 15,000 seats and cost 20 million pounds in 2007.

The redeveloped Dolphin Oval in Redcliffe designed by PDT Architects will have 10,000 seats when it is reopened in June at a cost of $12 million, which is about the same as the North Hobart Oval plan.

In fact these stadiums are affordable enough that Tasmania could build two new stadiums for around $100 million or less. If you divide $100 million by 500,000 people in Tasmania and spread it over 20 years it works out to $10 per year per person.

I think designs such as these show that there are options which would be suitable and affordable for Tasmania while having two stadiums would also have the advantage of allowing matches to be scheduled in different cities to avoid a clash between codes.

Considering the state of Tasmania’s economy and limited options for growth in mining and forestry the tourism sector will be the driving force for the new Tasmanian economy. Having exposure year round through two national football codes would greatly help the state to raise its tourism profile.

It would therefore be well justified for the federal government, if necessary, to give financial assistance to Tasmania to help fund the construction of two new stadiums of a standard which would be suitable for presentation in international broadcasts.

I think that NRL Tasmania should voice an interest in making an NRL bid in the national news media and invite potential sponsors and interested parties to the match between the Storm and the Bulldogs in February.

If it goes well and the right people take interest then we might just see Tasmanian teams represented in national codes year round. But not in the AFL.