The stadium is already the biggest in the QCup. They don’t need to pour more money into another redevelopment. Redcliffe city is also in the Moreton Bay LGA and so is Pine Rivers Shire. Renaming a successful team with a neighbouring Shire name would be suicide. Renaming them as Moreton (the level above that represents both Redcliffe and Pine Rivers) I think would work. I would have them play 4 lesser drawing games at Redcliffe, and 8 in suncorp

That’s why I think it would work. Moreton Bay is the name of the council that Redcliffe is in, but Wynnum and the Redlands are on Moreton Bay as well and are seen as part of that ‘region’. If you are a kid in virtually any bayside area around here and like the colours or name of the dolphins, and broadly think of yourself as part of the bayside, then I think you would go for the Dolphins. People on here don’t seem to realise that the region you identify with can be fluid – think Golden State Warriors in the NBA (very vague geographical region) or Oakland Raiders in the NFL (basically the non-Franscisco team for all those who are not qquite part of the San-Fran region/catchment

Redcliffe is less than half the distance from it’s CBD than Penrith is and we all consider Penrith part of Sydney. I live only a few one from Redcliffe and people there consider themselves part of Brissie or at least part of the Greater area. I would rename them Moreton Bay Dolphins if they made the NRL anyway

To back up what RandyM said, a bunch of fallacies and overlooked points in your article:

1. Tickets sold/bums on seats is not an important metric of financial viability of a new team. It will help and may correlate to sponsorship dollars – but broadcast dollars are what is truly important and given the viewing numbers for Broncos, Cowboys and Storm (I will get to them in a minute) I think a second team up here is a no brainer and will work

2. Comparing crowds in Gold Coast to potential crowds in Brisbane makes zero sense – they are very different markets

3. Comparing potential crowds in Brisbane to crowds from 20 years ago would make more sense, but would still not be a reliable forecast. Crushers crowds averaged about 20,000 in their last year – and that was 20 years ago with a smaller population – so I don’t think we would have to worry as much as you think

4. You are right that you won’t convert us Broncos fans. That is why the best bids are those of Redcliffe and Ipswich. I see more Redcliffe jerseys around the Northside than I do Titans. They would not be short of support. You would harness their fans.

5. I have met dozens of Storm and Cowboys fans in and around Brisbane who support them because they hate the Broncos and want to support Queensland players. You would only have to convert some of these people.

6. It would be a long-term project. Get children on board now and in 10-20 years you would have 10000 more fans easily if you run the club well. Look at Melbourne City or WSW in the A-league. there was room for new teams in those cities. Now 5-10 years on they have a generation of kids raised in the areas supporting them

Well said Randy

I love it. Didn’t get to see any of today’s play (was at the cricket), but would rather watch it than many super rugby and even some league games

You’re all wrong. The single biggest factor in the lack of success at the Broncos is the loss of Cyril Connell (greatest scout in the history of the game).

That’s just patently untrue Battler. The furthest Sydney club is Penrith at about 70km from Sydney CBD. Compare Robina to Brisbane CBD which is over 80km. Many parts of the GC are over 100km from Brisbane. I’m so sick of Southeners pretending we’re one and the same. Queensland deserves another team farm more than NSW deserves its 10!

And I’m a Broncos fan who would welcome another team – another rivalry, another strong crowd for the Broncos, more Queenslanders getting to stay/develop at home, good for the local economy, fun night out for Broncos fans if there is no Broncos game that weekend etc. Lots of benefits

Great tactic by the NRL. The agreement to play GFs in Sydney would be null and void if the NSW government doesn’t fund the upgrades. Freeing up the NRL to move the GF to Brisbane which would go off – it would sell out in minutes. 25 years is a long time and I would love to see a GF in Brisbane in my lifetime

It definitely appeared backwards out of the hands from the one angle show on TV

My personal bugbear is anyone in NRL or AFL who treats Gold Coast like a suburb of Brisbane and acts like we have two teams up here

Can’t really speak for the Suns, but I think a common criticism we Queenslanders have of the Titans are their branding. I heard a story once that when the Broncos were developing their brand colours, they were talked out of using a Blue and Yellow colour scheme because Queenslanders had been booing Blue-jerseyed teams for decades. There particular shade of light blue is pretty NSW. There are also already teams with blue and yellow colour scheme. Maybe it would help if they focused on the orangey-yellow part of their jersey – mostly orange with a stripe of blue, maybe some maroon (unoriginal I know) or a bit of a navy stripe.

They have also never really had anyone that you would go out of your way to watch, or would be the hero of kids with posters on their walls. Maybe Scotty Prince? Signing a genuine star would help get bums on seats and people talking about them. Mal Meninga in his new Director of Culture role may help with that

Well said Randy. Burleigh, Southport and Coolie are way different from Surfers and Broady. More relaxed vibe and different sorts of accommodation styles, bars and restaurants, and ‘culture’ and ‘lifestyle’ (whatever those mean to different people)

If you like a good atmosphere and tasty beers, might I suggest what I did both times I went down to CBus this year (Titans vs Broncos and Wallabies vs Pumas). Go to Burleigh State Primary school where you can park easily and there’s a free shuttle bus that runs regularly to the stadium. Then walk down to Black Hops brewery for a few pre-game beers. Great vibe and great beers. They don’t sell food but let you bring in takeaways. Then after the game you just get the shuttle bus back to your car. I don’t think the brewery is open later at night but there are heaps of cool bars in Burleigh if you were keen to drown your sorrows.

Have you been there and actually looked for the culture though IAP? Gold Coast probably doesn’t rival Melbourne for arts and theatre and sporting culture, but as far as dining culture I wouldn’t write it off. It has a surprising number of fine-dining restaurants, cocktail bars, emerging coffee and craft beer bars. It’s definitely not just a night club district as some people write it off as. I think this type of culture was what the author was getting at.

I agree with everything you said too Barry. He does mention merging Sydney (roosters) and Souths in the article though. But no mention of anything to do with Cronulla and Manly – the two clubs who struggle most – and mention of further decreasing League’s presence/team representation in SEQLD just does my head in.

And I agree – you should need to pass a HIA before being allowed to post on the Roar.

Wow. This article is about the most nonsensical, stupidest articles I have read on the Roar. I actually thought your first article was rather insightful and well-reasoned, but this has just brought your credibility down to rock-bottom.

You speak of crowd averages being the major metric for forced-consolidation, but then say that you would merge the Broncos and Titans! The Broncos have the highest average crowds in the NRL – why would they/should they merge? You have also allowed smaller growth areas and regional cities like Newcastle and Canberra to stay, while forcing the Gold Coast to merge. I notice you have suggested this for the AFL too. I am tired of southerners conflating Brisbane with the Gold Coast, like the Gold Coast is merely a suburb of Brisbane. It is a city of 500,000 people, an hour or more’s drive from Brisbane and is Australia’s 6th largest city. This means that the Gold Coast has its own unique challenges, which are far removed from Brisbane’s – that the Titans are yet to overcome – but they are certainly a growth area and deserve to stay, and definitely ahead of Sydney teams. I would also assume that in your dreamland NRL that this merger would play games in Brisbane and Gold Coast – if your major metric is crowd figures, why would you take away games from your largest (crowd) market. So poorly thought-out its not even funny.

Don’t get me started on your ideas for Super Rugby – you want to make decisions for NZ and SA in terms of the number of teams when crowds, memberships, viewership in those countries is not the issue (and not our decision to make)! SA was the major driving force behind expansion of the Super Rugby last time, and when they eventually didn’t get their way they put 2 teams in the European competition – so lets see how it will go to further consolidate their teams for them – lets see if they stay! With your model first SA and then NZ would eventually both leave SANZAAR (they have the major rivalry) leaving us with nothing! And you want to reduce Australia further to 2 teams – see how that went for the Force! You mentioned growing the game in Japan (and in NRL markets like Auckland and Canberra) but I am assuming one of the Super Rugby teams you would cull is Melbourne – a team actually building and developing into something. And you say keep the Jaguares because they are ‘good’ – got any other justifications for them champ? They would want to be ‘good’ when they contain the majority of their national side!

Don’t forget the ISC – Redcliffe vs Burleigh was a cracker (didn’t see Easts vs Ipswich)

Well said Mary. Couldn’t have said it better.

It annoyed me last week when I asked a workmate about who he tipped in the finals and another workmate interjected to ask us what we thought of the mad monday stuff. This was a guy who normally watches the footy and is happy to discuss the on-field stuff. I decided then and there that I am only really interested in the on-field stuff and from now on I am not going to discuss or read about the negative off-field stuff. Don’t give them oxygen I say!

Found it a little bit funny how you went to the trouble of saying in your table up the top of the article that the Shark’s position was locked but then went through multiple ways that they could move in the body of the article ????. Surely the most likely way (and it is a long shot) that the Sharks move at all is if they lose by any amount (but let’s say 15-20 rather than 23-37), and the Broncos think that they can make up that difference. Essentially because the only F/As that could change relative to each other are the Sharks’ and Broncos’.

Little bit worried about Broncos defence if they get into their heads that they should throw the ball around and try to rack up a cricket score….

If my team (Broncos) get eliminated, then it will be anyone playing Melbourne for me. Wouldn’t mind seeing Warriors win their first and could find myself happy enough if Souths won another one. Other than that don’t care for the other teams

Can’t see why the Sharks would want him – their spine seems sorted. Can’t see who else would want him either:
Broncos are in the market for a halfback and potentially a fullback and are desperate for a playmaker – hopefully that rules out Barba given his performances for us before
Titans could be in the market for a half but have already ruled out signing one bad boy by the name of Corey Norman so that rules them out.
So that pretty much leaves …. Parramatta….

Who is this Aristotle? Never heard of her

I completely agree, I’ve said for a long time that he is the best, most dominant player I’ll ever see

Think harder then. He would definitely be in the top 5 players who played for them that come to mind. And as Emcie said, they have named a medal after him so they clearly already thought highly of him. He is also widely credited as the guy behind the idea for the Indigenous All Stars match which started at CBus Super Stadium (Robina stadium)