A-League bidders join forces with Cronulla

Nem.- Thank you for this observation.Professional football in Australia has to think "outside the box" if it is to keep pace with the rest of the world and that is something Rugby League would find hard to do under present set-ups,be they based on geographical or population limitations. Rugby League at this point in time cannot involve itself in the world's largest continental population, Asia, and ,as you suggest, it is going to take some outstanding vision in the minds of those who run sporting bodies to change that state of affairs. By far and away the easiest way to do that is to expand from "?????clubs" into "sporting clubs" catering to more than one sport,one could suggest that baseball and Rugby Union would add ready made expansion possibilities into the 'super club" operation. Huge advancements in stadium surfaces now allow for stadium fields to be used almost at will .but there is little doubt the cost of installing and maintaining these "benefits" is a step too far for a singular sporting identity. One cannot help but thinking of a "sporting association" in every major city or town and the fiscal benefits to be had from these identities if, as you say, they were run by people more motivated by profit sources than following the team of their developing years. Can we create a Barcelona ,a Real Madrid, a Manchester United or a Bayern Munich to name a few???? Of course we can but there is little doubt we have to move away from the present "modus operandi" if we are to do it in our lifetimes. Cheers jb.

Impossible geogaphicalaly it won't happen. The national park is a barrier and Fast trains cannot happen either the escarpment won't allow it .recent govt estimates concluded the cost to build a train tunnel under the escarpment for a faster train service was too expensive to justify the expenditure and the local passenger line is shared with freight train service so express trains are fantasy .

National parks irrelevant.. With a better train system eg more express trains and a better freeway it's only a matter of time. Penrith is now part of Sydney as is Katoomba, Gong is next...

Lionheart- In a funny way you actually highlight what could happen should the parent body that runs the Brisbane Stadia actually saw fit to" take over' the Roar and the Broncos as these two identities have shown the capacity to fill Suncorp to it's capacity even if it was for Grand Final attendances. As Nem has hinted it could possibly be described as a "super club" and wouldn't that be a huge step forward for both codes. Sure the amalgamation would have to be handled carefully for there is little doubt that Broncos are a great deal further forward in development at all levels than are Roar, but if you let your imagination work it could mean top "football" being played at Suncorp every week of the year and as Waz says,(and I believe him) there are many Brisbanites who would attend both codes, so the fact that, as you say, the operation of the stadia would become a totally different scenario from the present situation ,and if one lets the mind wander exactly the same occurrenc could take place in Townsville ,helping to fill their new stadium all year round jb..

The general public is very ill educated on Stadiums Qld role at Lang Park, Gabba, CBUS, Dairy Farmers etc, believing they're run for the benefit of QLD tax payers. Time to cut profit margins for the middleman and start to support local teams. I was quite astounded when the Sports Minister inferred in reply to a letter I'd written that of all customers at Suncorp, Roar least deserved any subsidy because they were a private concern.

So 40% of Sydney fc membership fan base is from the sutherland st George area so why put another team in that same area Sydney fc territory, the area can not sustain two teams so close together .FFA have lost the plot if they approve this south supydney franchise it will be to the detriment of Sydney fc and the new team

You forget we have the royal national park that can never be developed to seperate the south coast from Sydney ..We will never be part of Sydney .never happen

You know what I mean An A league team St gorge and Cronulla are not natural partners to a football team eg southern. Won't work

Agree with everything you’ve said there. And I would add to that a buyer would understand the local market they were buying in to, I’d rather buy a Melbourne based team than a Brisbane based team tbh because the Brisbane market (government) doesn’t treat any of its clubs well and access to corporate dollars is very limited. Roar may well be a basket case but The Reds have debts reportedly heading for $10m and plummeting crowds; The Lions are similar, requiring top up payments from the cash rich AFL to keep them afloat that in 1-2 seasons were equivalent to Roars total losses under the Bakries. And lets not talk about the blood bath that is sporting codes on the Gold Coast. Any new football club would travel a very familiar Queensland path, cumulative losses testing the resolve of shareholders until it breaks. Then rinse n repeat with new owners. It’s not the Roar that’s a basket case - it’s the Roar, Reds, Lions, Bullets, Suns and Titans all buckled under a state government sporting tax that makes it near impossible to survive without rich owners prepared to lose money every single year. Like Roar have.

"If the Broncos were going to invest/own an A-League franchise they would not do it with the Roar. The Roar is a basket case" That's exactly the target acquisition for investors. Smart investors look for acquisitions that fit their organisation and they'll prefer undervalued assets that are poorly managed; than paying a premium for well-run assets. That's why CFG would've targeted Melb Heart; rather than MVFC.

They’re not going to get involved no, I agree. But there’s more common membership between the two clubs than any other codes, past and present Bronco’s players attend Roar games with their kids and over the years there’s been more cooperation between Roar and Broncos than any other code. That cooperation continues today. Roar have 130,000 people on their FB page, an email distribution list of 300,000, regularly pull in 175,000-200,000 fans to Suncorp each season, and now have one of the best training grounds in the HAL and without doubt, the best academy set-up. A new club would offer none of that, so no - if they were to get involved with football it would be Roar as first choice and the new club a distant second.

Gosford like Picton and Woollongong, are slowly morphing into sydney and will be part of sydney in real terms by about 2040. Penrith used to not be seen to be part of sydney nor was emu plains or richmond, now it is. Castle Hill, Camden used to not be seen as part of sydney now it is, Castle Hill used to not be seen as part of sydney now it is, same with Dural now being seen as part of sydney. Bowral/Mittagong will soon be seen as part of sydney as well... Times changes and modern transport and sydney expansion and globalization means this satilite spots become graudally part of the sydney basin. There was a time I remember when Palm Beach people used to say , just out of sydney. it wasn't recognized as part of sydney, now no one thinks Palm Beach is not part of sydney. Berowra is now part of sydney as is woy woy I'd say. I remember Berowra people would say out of sydney, not anymore.. Heck I remember when people used to not look at Engadine as way out in the middle of nowhere, and Terry Hills as well used to barely be seen as part of sydney or on the fringes of sydney or way out in the middle of nowhere.. Times change and sydney is just getting bigger and old geography re-written and borders changed. The Gong is next, to be part of sydney just another suburb..

If the Broncos were going to invest/own an A-League franchise they would not do it with the Roar. The Roar is a basket case. They would look more into a new club. But ofcourse, just for reality sake, the Broncos are not going to get involved in the A-League.

There would be huge cost benefits from merging administrative functions & costs across various sports & even benefits from sharing knowledge across on-field operations. But, I would want the revenue ring-fenced... and, judging by the huge disparity in revenue generated by Broncos compared to Roar, I'm sure the Broncos fans would want this too. So, create an administrative entity within the consolidated "Super Club" and this entity will deliver "shared services" for functions like: Membership, Marketing, Legal, Finance, Travel, etc. with the Broncos & the Roar charged a fee for these services. Revenue generated by the Broncos & Roar are separated. It can definitely happen, but it needs business nous and business maturity. People who understand business leading the overall Super Club and people who understand each "Business Unit" (NRL, HAL, Netball, Basketball) in charge of the various sports clubs

If Broncos acquired Roar they would have to contend with an annual $3m loss, that’s not something a listed company would do lightly. The $5.75 per attendee “sporting tax” for transport would remain the same, and stadium hire is about the same for both codes. The only way Roar would make sense for Broncos is if Roars attendance shot up, which with their marketing reach is a possibility, but I can’t see NRLHQ being too pleased at that outcome lol.

They’ve already got one mate.

JB The agency that runs Suncorp Stadium is AEG Ogden, under contract to Stadiums QLD. They also are minor share holders in the Broncos (third with less than 1% of shares behind News Corp 70% and local builder BGM 22%), but they're a massive sports owning/operating company. Apart from stadiums in Australia, they're an affiliate of AEG, a global company that Wiki claims is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports events, and second largest concert operator, mainly in the US and Germany (the sports arm of the company was a co-founder of the MLS). Here's the Wiki page link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschutz_Entertainment_Group As far as I'm aware, News Corp is not really into owning sports teams. They owned Melbourne Storm at one stage, but no longer. It conflicts a bit with their core business of broadcasting sport and I doubt they'd be interested in the Roar. But wouldn't it be nice if AEG were involved here? They own LA Lakers and several other teams and stadiums.

I suggested something like this the other day re the broncos.

While it would be nice to have the Wolves back representing the whole of the Illawarra, it's hard to see this Hong Kong bid not getting the nod from HQ.

This article,and the reasoning behind it is something I have always wondered as to why it hasn't happened before now.. Last night Broncos pulled 46,000 into a stadium (despite being televised live) that will lie empty for half of the year, a few musical concerts being the main attractions during this period, causing disruption to other, more regular,customers like Roar and the Reds.. Broncos and Roar are two full time professional football teams and for a simple example, they both must employ the "same' type of backroom staff,men or women, fully skilled in their respective "arts".Both maintain training facilities, Roar having to pay for theirs. Now one wonders what sort of benefits were to accrue from say Broncos absorbing Roar into their overall plan of operation.One would have to imagine the state government agency who administer the stadium would have to change their stance on how they charge both identities were they to become one. Is this a way for our professional football codes to utilise what they have to have to operate without the petty inter-code "rivalry" which actually serve no real fiscal benefits? . This proposal,if genuine in content, is going to be an interesting focal point to follow in coming months / years. jb