With most of the media’s focus on the NRL’s recent move to take over America, it’s important to remember that they still haven’t taken over Australia. Despite its official name having an N in the title, it’s national in name alone.
Yet for some strange reason, there’s talk of new teams from PNG and New Zealand. The obvious question needs to be asked then, why don’t they want to expand in Australia?
PNG is a dangerous place if you take a look at Smart Traveller and will be dependent on massive Australian government handouts, which could be taken away. Then there’s the problem of local support for a FIFO team that will be based in Cairns (840km away) or Brisbane (2092km away) but fly into Port Moresby just for matches before leaving again, as Justin Olam has raised concerns over. It’s also worth pointing out that Olam “remains the only player to have come through the PNG Hunters pathway and go on to play in the NRL” (ESPN).
As for a team in Wellington or Christchurch, it would have even more problems than Auckland does right now, with the pull of Auckland for the best players being a significant additional challenge. Not to mention that NZRL have themselves said that a second NZ team isn’t viable and isn’t a priority for them. As for population, Adelaide is three times the size of either and has a rectangular stadium, unlike Wellington.
Expanding the NRL needs to happen locally, in new markets.
First up, the Wests Tigers should be moved to Perth to become the West Coast Tigers. It has recently been reported that their interim CEO Shane Richardson has admitted that they have been inflating membership numbers by declaring non-paying juniors. As he told the club’s own Behind The Roar podcast (not affiliated with The Roar): “We’re the lowest paying membership club in the Sydney area. We’ve been including 9000 juniors who don’t pay at all, so there is no income to the club, and we’ve been declaring we have 20,000 members but we haven’t got 20,000 members.”
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Essentially the Tigers only have around half the number of paying members that they were actually declaring, with that base split between the Inner West and the South West areas of Sydney. Then there’s discussion of a move to Liverpool to find new fans and a better stadium than Leichhardt. They add very little to the NRL and should be the first go-to option for a team to be relocated to Perth.
Next up, the North Sydney Bears should become the Adelaide Bears. This will take the league to 18 teams and will cover each of the five major capitals, thus making it truly the NRL. While the Adelaide market is smaller than Perth, it is still a city of 1.3 million people. If the Rams had stayed around for longer instead of being lost during the Super League War they might be drawing good crowds today based on their crowd average of 15,300 in their first season.
After Perth and Adelaide, two more teams could come in to make it 20 teams all up. The best options are Sunshine Coast and Tasmania, which are the next two largest markets in Australia.
The Sunshine Coast is crying out for a team and will have a perfect stadium once the upgrade is complete. With a decent-sized and rapidly growing population, as well as rivalries with three other nearby teams in the Broncos, Dolphins and Titans; the Falcons will be successful immediately and will help balance the distribution of teams between New South Wales and Queensland.
Finally, a team in Tasmania could actually make a lot of sense.
The current AFL bid is facing strong opposition due to the cost of the new stadium, which is budgeted for $715 million but could easily go over a billion dollars. Compare that to the $170 million cost of a rectangular stadium for the A-League bid, which would be just $85 million if split 50/50 between state and federal governments. Then if you split that 50/50 between the A-League and NRL then it’s just $42.5 million per team, which is excellent value.
The bid itself has a stadium deal which would have a breakeven figure of 5000 per match, but with a second tenant to split the bills it could be just half that. In fact, it would be cheaper for Tasmania to have teams in both the A-League and NRL than it would be to have just one AFL team. Two for the price of one.
Victoria is already a captive market as a source of tourists to Tasmania, so an NRL team could help generate new exposure for Tasmania in Sydney which hasn’t been targeted as much. A joint A-League and NRL bid, offers significant advantages over the rival AFL bid. As for the name, they could be called something new like the Vikings to tap into the Queen Mary connection, or they could link up with Newtown and call themselves the Jets.
So that’s how the NRL should expand. It’s a simple plan, but a good one. It’ll also save the NRL a lot of time working it out for themselves when they can just follow my advice above.
I honestly don’t know why they’d need to do their own research.
FredP
Roar Rookie
No second Melbourne team?
woodart
Roar Rookie
all nrl teams should be in sydney,then the rest of aus can have a proper national rugby league comp, run by the arl
KiwiBear
Roar Rookie
@ Pneuma Which is exactly why you don't!
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
Perhaps its time to start again, 2027 will be a 18 team comp All existing licensees expire end of 2026 season Applications for 2027 to be lodged with the NRL by end 2025 season Put up or shut up
zonecadet
Roar Rookie
I would have though Parra Stadium should have been the bigger build, a little easier for the bulk of Sydney's league fans to get to, kind of.
zonecadet
Roar Rookie
Um, "League loving" they may be, attendees, they are not. Like a lot of Sydney League fans I've met over the years. Leichhardt is not a pro-level stadium in terms of fan amenity, Campbelltown has not much more. The NRL needs to be National and 'losing' a team from Sydney will hardly be a problem, more growth in new areas.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
More evidence of UN corruption
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Black and silver sounds pretty drab but hell it looked good and tough on the field.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
All the more reason the professional protesters should be protesting.
Rob9
Roar Guru
Brisbane doesn’t need 3 teams. They just got their second (which of course was long overdue) and while the league has made Sydney ‘work’ with 9 teams, it’s still far from an efficient landscape and not something they should be looking to replicate in Brisbane. If what’s there now hasn’t got you into rugby league… you’re probably not going to get into rugby league. The population of the Sunshine Coast is closing in on half a million people (and growing fast), it’s an hour away from Brisbane (more than that by car most of the time), it’s a heartland of the game and they have no NRL representation. It shouldn’t be next but it should absolutely be on the radar and a lil event coming to the South East corner in just under a decade presents a unique opportunity for the NRL to align interests.
Don
Roar Rookie
Bitumen greens? Indonesia has successfully pressured both labour and coalition governments over the last 20 years to ignore the genocide and human rights abuses in West Papua.
Don
Roar Rookie
You’d put a 3rd team in Brisbane before doing anything on the Sunshine Coast. And there’s a well funded and well organised bid ready to go. A Sunshine Coast side is well down the list of best options. But better than PNG.
Megeng
Roar Rookie
I’d just do everything. Let everyone in to a new second division. With promotion and relegation. Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Tassie, PNG, South island, West’s, North’s, Newtown, South Brisbane, Ipswich , Logan, etc. maybe not Bulimba but
Rob9
Roar Guru
A whole generation has grown up with the West Tigers. They just need to be clear about their identity (difficult now with their Concord development) and fully embrace the south west where the potential lies. Pre the Olympics venue review, Sunshine Coast Stadium was set to increase its permanent seating capacity to 12k with a full capacity of 16k. Temporary seating would expand this 20k for the Olympics soccer. With the facility review rumored to recommend a more regional focus, it’s unlikely the planned development will be scaled back and if anything could be scaled up. The Olympics presents a prime opportunity for the NRL to work with the state government to set up its SEQ footprint for the future and the Sunshine Coast should be apart of their vision for the region. Advocating for that ‘temporary’ seating to become permanent and possibly adding another 2-5k to the plan isn’t exactly outlandish. As well as delivering an Olympics-ready venue in the State’s third largest city (and the country’s 9th), it clears a significant hurdle for the NRL to make an entrance to the Sunshine Coast in 8-10 years.
Brendan
Roar Pro
100% we needed a retractable roof on the SFS, I agree. Instead, we got promised a “curtain”, to block out empty seats, which I thought was odd. With Parramatta, the steeper seating allows better sight of the field. I was saddened, however, that the memorial pool was removed. There are always pros & cons.
G - DAD
Roar Rookie
Bring back the Black and Silver I say ,great colours.
KenW
Roar Rookie
Wests have something of geographical problem. Called Wests, based on 2 teams that are now firmly in the eastern half of the Sydney metro area, while their modern base, and where they should be focusing their attention, is south. They have long-term performance problems but they already have a large and fertile region to focus on. They might rebrand to the Illawarra Dragons and have a single home game at Kogarah or the SFS as “St George” each year. What problem would they be solving? Right at the start, they made the decision to be the 'St George Dragons - now also serving Wollongong' - they've stuck to that for 25 years and it's worked for them. It sucked a bit for Steelers fans but they correctly identified that was the least painful option. What driver would they have to change that and cause a whole bunch of new pain?
Busty McCracken
Roar Rookie
Western Red Bush Chooks?
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Yes and rebrand the titans back to the Giants.
Andrew
Roar Guru
If Perth gets a team would they consider resurrecting the Western Reds brand? It is after all a uniquely and original WA brand, which you'd think would get plenty of people on board, not to mention provides a modicum of tradition, even it was only 3 years.