Rugby league expansion back on the agenda in both hemispheres

But is adapting to make the most of your home market in the face of a global war in sports media stagnation. I feel we are misdiagnosing the problem. Have Switzerland stagnated? Has the human race in the last 30 years? The if "your not growing your dying " is a nice cliche. But like all cliches it's flawed and context reliant. I get the underlying benefits if you win, I just don't see a viable roadmap to achieve it and the NRL fan base seems to have gone to the lavar ball school of business- pimp the juniors and hope you can speak it into existence without actual planning. As I said the benefit is more than just the NRL (though thanks to guys like the author we have to please the existing NRL clubs first) but you don't get that junior groundswell without capturing scale so we become a third tier option on top tier costs. The Perth timezone is a bit meh as it's only got WA which from a mass media perspective is just Perth. Before you say it includes asia, we're going head to head against EPL and NBA in asia, who have a decade lead on us. The big risk is whilst we're fighting to expand we get our lunch cut,and completely by accident as none of these league care, by the US sports and association football. Sports is wholly reliant on that community connection. Its incredibly difficult and time consuming to build a new grass roots connection and our shot at a virtual community has sailed.

What about Perth Redbacks Red/Black ?

Nonsense, it is an amazing result far beyond expectations.

What proportion of NRL revenue is derived from membership and game day attendance?

Big Daddy, Are you kidding? Perth as 9 months of the best weather in Oz. Great place to live and bring up kids. Not bad "Big end of Town"- BHP , Rio Tinto ,Woodside etc to fund and support it. Has a Red Hot Fan base for most clubs if the try and exceed- Perth Glory & Wildcats. Relatively untapped player pool. If don't try you don't succeed. Melbourne Storm has just broken its 25,000 membership. - Pause for thought? ????

Who bothered about the Saffa 's say? Too brainwashed into thinking their opinion counts. We live in a country where the top two codes are AFL or NRL. We have two AFL clubs in Perth, one circus called the Western Farce. Let try a new NRL franchise back in Perth. We are certainly not doing bad for numbers rocking up to watch a game. 40,000 for the double header last year & the State of Origin just about sold out. We probably wont be saying that about the Wallbies V AB game?

It had occured to me that the West Tigers might be the perfect fit for just that reason. Unfortunately, I don't think that the Magpies fans in that merger might have planned to fly any further west than Campbelltown. If you are looking for a club to support Sam I would be more than happy to welcome you into "the Bunny Burrow". If you ever want to be initiated into the clan just bring me a chicken, a ceremonial knife and a box of matches. ;-)

Lets not follow the Western Farces mantra then? A winning team breed's success & Speccy's

I don't have a team, no. As for which team would work, Wests Tigers may not have to even change their name, haha. Plus their colours could be tweaked to be yellow and black which are WA's colours. But really, I don't think the average non-NRL follower would care what team it is.

Mushi ! "Is it a nice blank piece of paper geographical spread, and a fun exercise, but it doesn’t really tell me why going from what we have now to this in a commercial sense." Your right is doesn't involve the thought process but it's based around the existing model & I guess it's not commercially driven in a sense but growing the game is the game that I'm playing which in return could have commercial benefits but keeping it humility driven is very important part to this business & to me, I didn't go into specific detail as to how it can get done just wanted to put the list & see the reaction & maybe sway peoples opinion towards growing it from the bottom up & having an idea of a blue print for future growth. I'm no business men but I understand what you are saying, risk v gain short term viability v long term viability but stagnating has it's risk as well, if you notice my list it's about firstly expanding the lower tiers to grow into new & neglected areas for development such as country towns with populations that have universities & are closer to home & keep the talent pool alive & giving new places better access to pathway programmes & has commercial benefits but doesn't need to be entirely money driven for example if a tier 2 team in Wagga Wagga breaks even every year & doesn't lose money but producers top quality players to the NRL, this would be a gain for rugby league & the NRL, on a commercial sense the benefits would be felt more locally but on the grand of schemes it secures the town to Rugby League then to it's competitors & hopefully with some success on the field will bring more success off the field & have the potential to be a viable source & a important asset for the NRL business as a whole. The benefits for expansion into new territories such as Perth is gaining more audience, new times zones & a new group of talent pool but the risk are high as it could cost the NRL more money & the game is about making money not lose, if the overall benefits are met & the new team can at least break even in the short term & make money in the long term then they would be an asset to the game. The game is about commercial expansion v junior participation growth as junior growth is a good future indicator of a strong long term investment plan for this certain business, so building a strong junior base & having success in the lower grades where there is more locals for example West Coast Pirates is where success can be measured as a top tier is made of imports & being in a tough competition means there will be a wave of success & failures but keeping a strong junior base growing is key. I added a world 9's to start in Sydney with the idea of getting ethnic minorities that live in Sydney some exposure to league such a team made of local Chinese heritage that play league open up to the Asian interest at least in Sydney & with some success could open up a window in the Chinese market & I do see the potential with Asians to be good at the 6-7-9 positions which are highly valuable positions so could be great assets.

Is it a nice blank piece of paper geographical spread, and a fun exercise, but it doesn’t really tell me why going from what we have now to this in a commercial sense. First I think it’s also very important to highlight the core issues with the governance structures of our game at the national and club level. Do we honestly think we’re in a position to execute on expansion, assuming the cost v benefit equation is right. Any plan needs to look after the power base of existing clubs due to the ARLC structure, a power base which has seen 6 out 16 clubs deliberately breech the rules, one mislead on financing and few others require emergence funding. The NRL is not a competent high performing organisation, it is one which has been gifted an amazing asset (100+ years of cultural ties to rugby league) which can largely survive management. On the commercial argument for expansion remember there is highly likely diminishing returns for each game as the prime viewing times have already been taken. So just increasing the number of games won’t give a bump to revenue. So the issue is we have to see a path way for each of these clubs to deliver in excess of the 12.5% extra grant they’ll command, given you need to weight the returns based on the risks of undertaking the expansion . Now that isn’t just immediate revenue, player numbers and scale etc have strategic value, but given diminishing returns of extra games we need to with confidence map out a way that Perth become a genuine market and protect against the obvious down side that will we be paying to run a top tier sport on third tier consumption/support? Also realistically you’ll need to offer the Existing clubs something to protect their current position as they have the carriage of the ARLC, which increases the risks.

So they never paid any debts out - it cost them nothing? I find that hard to believe

No (I don’t think any of the leagues or teams in the NRL or SL are going to be generating 35% ROE before capital appreciation), part of my job is to find investors for businesses and as such assess what parts of their strategy and or operations are adding value and which are going to be viewed as risks. I was more highlighting that expansion into a new contested mature market for a business that enjoys a dominant positon built out of localised expertise/branding is a large risk that professional investors, ie professional assessors of risk vs reward, are acutely aware of given the litany of failures. So I’m just not sure we’re appreciating the risks of diverting resources and management attention expansion at a time with increased sports media globalisation is going to increase competing in our core markets and changing media consumption (which we’re already behind on) is likely to change how you monetise sports. The risk of expansion for a sport like Rugby League, which had its competitive advantage unintentionally built by ~100 years of happenstance, need to be taken very seriously as any lasting damage to its standing in core markets will be incredibly difficult to repair. This is very different to the shorter (but it shouldn’t be) time horizon of typical businesses. Ironically one meeting had an investor say “when you talk expansion, what is that process going to look like. Hopefully we aren’t just talking about putting dot’s on a map!” laughter ensues - of course no one would run the risks of expansion just to put dot’s on a map…well except for NRL writers. Look perhaps I’m pessimistic, as we’re talking about the future nothing is set in stone, but I look at the risks, I look at what has happened in other industries, I look at the obvious global trends in media and I don’t see much of a potential pay-off. Especially when I look at the quality of management and governance that we have. Our governance structure under the ARLC effectively gives the clubs a veto right on all things rugby league so any expansion would need to come with a sweetener for the local clubs, making it more expensive, which in turn creates more risk. Remember this is a group that thought Michael Searle was a commercial wunderkind because he had an accounting degree… In my mind AFL has always had such a natural advantage in “the war for Australian sport” because AFL states had both population and capital unified behind the game, and as such exported it better to other states, managed their home markets better and have entrenched it across the full breadth of society. League and Union unfortunately split up population and capital leaving two kind of half professional sports – one lacking commercial acumen and board room gravitas and the other lacking a genuine attachment to the people and humility. Super league did us no favours, we were already so against the structural issues we just couldn’t afford to have another divide in the sport.

Indeed he was. Lazurus and Nikou were the 'bonus' players that weren't involved with either Perth Reds or Hunter Mariners.

I agree Fred. The NRL should demote the Roosters to reserve grade and replace them with the North Sydney Bears. Then the Roosters can be the Bears feeder club, not that they could offer much by way of juniors. You have to love the irony of that, don't you Fred. The Balmain Tigers could soon be playing the Bears and the Jets in reserve grade if the Wests Magpies have a say in things going forward. The Magpies seem ready to fly back to Campbell and abandon the Tigers to their fate.

I don't think they bought anything. They were handed over control & appointed a team of NRL picked people to run the clubs while they sought new owners. If anything they probably covered their expenses plus some when new owners were found. Also clubs get loans from the NRL which they have to pay back with interest from what I've heard/read.

as a journalist steve mascord maybe you should do your research 1st. maybe im wrong but isnt the grant 13 million a year an the salary cap 9.5 million this season. ?

Where has Crosscoder been?? There has been nobody to defend the fantasy International Rugby League

Taipan that's exactly what I just said. Rugby League isnt and never will exist in the Pacific

I think you already answered my question "Red Rooster". By all means, take them with my blessing. ;-)