This weekend showed us what we should have known already: that the regions must be catered for to grow the NRL in Australia.
The NRL’s greatest shame is the Central Coast, where there’s a large rugby league culture and a 90-year-old team that’s been waiting for recognition since 1999.
We were made aware of this ridiculous situation by the crowd of over 19,000 people that rocked up to the Central Coast Stadium on Sunday to see the Storm take on the Rabbitohs. At the same time Canberra provided a similarly large crowd for the other blockbuster game when the 2018 Roosters met the Raiders.
We are used to the occasional large crowd in Sydney when Parramatta meet some of their traditional rivals. Games between the Roosters and the Buldogs, for example, usually attract crowds of only 10,000 to 15,000 spectators.
I can hear the detractors now. “Yes, but crowd numbers are not everything. What about television ratings? What about memberships, balance sheets, debt levels and history?”.
These things are important, but they don’t encourage the growth of the code – they only serve as justification for not removing anyone from the existing competition.
In the last week Andrew Johns and Gorden Tallis have ventured into print to say the code must grow, but with so many teams in Sydney this seems an impossibility. Who goes?
The answer at this time is nobody. To close a club or amalgamate it would probably require a 75 per cent majority of club members and of course the blessing of the NRL Commission.
My solution is not to subtract but to add. Eventually market forces will reduce the Sydney numbers, but until then the NRL Commission must make plans to install the Central Coast Bears as the next club as part of the NRL.
What about the dreaded bye? Well, here comes my next crazy suggestion: install another team in Logan in Queensland. This will even the numbers. They can play out of Suncorp on alternate weekends.
I am sure this will only add to the following of the code throughout Australia. The TV people will rub their hands together at the thought of more games, more ratings and a wider spread of followers.
Let’s not go crazy – Perth, Adelaide and Papua New Guinea can wait until they are more established.
The NRL Commission must try to plan for the next 20 years, not just next month. If they adopt a sensible long-term growth plan, we can look forward to rugby league becoming the best-run football code in Australia.
steveng
Roar Rookie
I agree, Sydney's population has changed tremendously from what it was and also being the top RL crowd. The NRL should have a look at how RL was and especially when games were played during the day e.g. Saturday's main game at the SCG and on Sundays and especially at local grounds! The worst thing (well for me being a Bunnies fan) was that the Bunnies took that dinosaur ANZ stadium as our home ground, its just dumb as that area has no ties and/or relevance to the Bunnies.
farkurnell
Roar Rookie
We also don’t have the player depth we use to have , constantly topping up from UK,NZ n Pacific.In 5 years we’ll be lucky to have 14 Quality teams
Brad H
Roar Rookie
Paul, Brisbane has one team, Sydney has nine. More teams means less quality football. There’s not enough NRL standard players for more than 16 teams.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
Are you suggesting that Logan is more established than Perth?
Paul
Roar Guru
why? what difference does it make to a guy breaking into first grade, whether he's playing in Townsville or Gosford, the latter because the NRL decided that was the best place to put a team?
Paul
Roar Guru
how can it be saturation when more than 500,000 people north of the Harbour Bridge have exactly ONE team covering their area - Manly? I note you make no mention of the other team in Brisbane, so does that mean it's acceptable to "expand" in Brisbane, but it's "saturation" in Sydney? At the end of the day, it's more opportunities for guys to play first grade. In my book, that's expanded opportunities for guys to strut their stuff and I'm not fussed whether it's called expansion OR saturation.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
Marco, I think you are comparing apples to oranges. Sydney people are very different to people in the other capital cities and the circumstances here in Sydney are completely different to Perth. Look at the attendances for ALL sporting teams across ALL codes in Sydney for evening games. People don’t like going to football at night and don’t want to leave their suburbs on the weekends. There is also the cost of living here as well, which compounds the issue.
Marco
Guest
Mmm, there are plenty of things to do in Perth,plus fine weather, cold nights. They got over 60,000 for the rugby union game on Saturday night then backed it up on Sunday with 55,000 at the AFL game. Both games had expensive tickets as well. The excuses for poor turnouts to Sydney NRL games can be a bit lame at times.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
Mbp, This proposal would be absolutely disastrous! People would leave the game in Sydney in droves. Two teams in Auckland and Melbourne? You serious? The game would just be making the same mistakes it made trying to merge and relocate teams during the Superleague war.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
And what wasn’t mentioned was the number of Souths fans at the game. Most likely drove up the F3.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
Paul, No, it’s not. Pitting another team in NSW is saturation, not expansion.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
Spot on Matthew. Expansion is more than a one hour drive to Gosford.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
I agree. Essentially, the Central Coast would be another Sydney team. Gosford is the same distance as Penrith from the Sydney CBD. Perth offers a new market for TV broadcasters and sponsorship exposure.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
17 games? Are you serious? What would Channel 9 and Fox do about losing 30% of the regular season content? They would cut the TV money by that same percentage. Let’s see what the elite players would say about a massive pay cut.
Brad H
Roar Rookie
Expansion is an issue that the league is luke warm on for a number of reasons. I wrote an article on this last week: https://www.theroar.com.au/2019/08/03/expansion-the-dirty-word-in-rugby-league/ Ultimately, the decision if/when a new city or region gets a team in to the competition will be made on which is the most value-adding. The NRL would consider broadcasters, sponsorship and financial viability I would imagine in their decision. Unfortunately for the Central Coast, the NRL does not gain anything from a team in Gosford. The area already has a large audience watching NRL on Fox and Channel 9. People up there already have a team outside of the region they would follow through broadcasters. It is also only 50 minutes drive up the F3 from nine Sydney clubs and there are bigger fish to fry in Perth and Queensland. History tells us that regions struggle. Look at Illawarra. The Illawarra region is bigger than the Central Coast and it couldn’t sustain a team on its own. The Gold Coast, Newcastle and Macarthur areas have all had their fair share of failures and struggles as well. I think that you are wrong about the Sydney crowd problem. The real issue with crowds is scheduling and the game day experience for the pricetag. Sydney is an afternoon sporting market. Night matches on Thursday, Friday and Saturday notoriously attract terrible Sydney crowds because there are other things to do in Sydney at those times that doesn’t involve freezing in 9 degrees weather. On the other hand, many people object to paying the price to watch live footy either at dilapidated suburban grounds or on the other side of the city, especially considering the amount of commuting the average Sydneyside does Monday to Friday.
dayer
Guest
why suddenly CC is the flavour of the month, not long ago it was Perth. NZL2 and bris2/Ipswich. Perth and CC can have teams Sydney teams that relocated
Marco
Guest
The NRL is always so upbeat on the state of the game and it's finances. It's a wonder they haven't made a firm commitment to expansion by now.
Rellum
Roar Guru
New teams only for outside NSW. New teams in Perth and Brissy. A team for the Central Coast should be a Sydney team relocated.
Paul
Roar Guru
I agree - in the long term, Fred, but I still believe the short term lies in a 2nd Brisbane side and another in Gosford.
Fred
Guest
Perth is far more important than a 2nd Brisbane team or the Central Coast