So with the offseason truly upon us. I thought i'd start a discussion about how the NRL and rugby league in general should look to expand.
**Perth:**
Personally I'm unsure of whether perth can sustain an NRL team, crowds there of 15k for one match dont suggest more than 5-8k averages if a team played 12 games there a season. A combined team might work. Adelaide and Perth perhaps? or Perth and Nsydney.
**Sydney:**
I think Penrith and the Eels will have to merge eventually, Parramatta Panthers sounds nice, or Penrith Eels? Too many teams in sydney and I'd prefer a merger to relocation. Perhaps the same with Cronulla. Merge with central coast or even North Sydney perhaps. I would also like Manly to expand into the North Shore. Wish that merger had worked out, was perfect geographically.
**New Zealand:**
I don't think NZ needs another team, but they should spread out their games a bit. it would drive up crowds too, only having maybe 8 games in Auckland and 4 'exhibition' games in South Island, wellington, christchurch, new plymouth places like that.
**PNG**
I'd love to see a PNG based team within 10 years. I've said before they are crazy about rugby league, only country with it as the national sport, and with a big population of 7 million i could see a NRL team thriving there. You can see that in the PM's XIII match, packed stadium with people hanging of trees just to get a glimpse of some NRL players. Probably quite a few kinks to work out over there before we can introduce a team but it'd be great for the game and to get another powerhouse alongside England, NZ and Aus.
**Other International**
I'd love to see 3 professional rugby league competitions world wide in the long term, maybe in 20, 30, 40 years haha. But they'd be a European league based around the Super League which has seen consistent growth since inception. Crowds have doubled I think since 1996\. And will pass 10k average after the world cup i hope. There's now a french team in the ESL, i'd love to see more european countries join like Russia. I saw they had a RL match in russia with a 25k crowd, pretty good. Also maybe Italy.
Next would obviously be the NRL which would be an australiasian league including the islands, Oz, NZ, maybe even a chinese or indonesian team (that's probably a bit farfetched though :laughing: ).
And finally would be the smallest of the 3, an American league that includes Canada. It would be centred around the existing competitions, a unified one obviously, and would average crowds of 5k or so with 8 maybe 10 teams. Obviously playing 2nd fiddle to the premier sports in the states, NFL, NBA, MLB, even soccer. But to get even a small foothold there would be amazing. You could potentially have 10 million watching the NRL GF every year after expanding into europe, americas and NZ.
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A lot of this is farfetched and a million years in the future but it's nice to think long term :slight_smile:
Thoughts? i'm probably gonna get kicked out for being a crazy after that last bit haha
**Perth:**
Personally I'm unsure of whether perth can sustain an NRL team, crowds there of 15k for one match dont suggest more than 5-8k averages if a team played 12 games there a season. A combined team might work. Adelaide and Perth perhaps? or Perth and Nsydney.
**Sydney:**
I think Penrith and the Eels will have to merge eventually, Parramatta Panthers sounds nice, or Penrith Eels? Too many teams in sydney and I'd prefer a merger to relocation. Perhaps the same with Cronulla. Merge with central coast or even North Sydney perhaps. I would also like Manly to expand into the North Shore. Wish that merger had worked out, was perfect geographically.
**New Zealand:**
I don't think NZ needs another team, but they should spread out their games a bit. it would drive up crowds too, only having maybe 8 games in Auckland and 4 'exhibition' games in South Island, wellington, christchurch, new plymouth places like that.
**PNG**
I'd love to see a PNG based team within 10 years. I've said before they are crazy about rugby league, only country with it as the national sport, and with a big population of 7 million i could see a NRL team thriving there. You can see that in the PM's XIII match, packed stadium with people hanging of trees just to get a glimpse of some NRL players. Probably quite a few kinks to work out over there before we can introduce a team but it'd be great for the game and to get another powerhouse alongside England, NZ and Aus.
**Other International**
I'd love to see 3 professional rugby league competitions world wide in the long term, maybe in 20, 30, 40 years haha. But they'd be a European league based around the Super League which has seen consistent growth since inception. Crowds have doubled I think since 1996\. And will pass 10k average after the world cup i hope. There's now a french team in the ESL, i'd love to see more european countries join like Russia. I saw they had a RL match in russia with a 25k crowd, pretty good. Also maybe Italy.
Next would obviously be the NRL which would be an australiasian league including the islands, Oz, NZ, maybe even a chinese or indonesian team (that's probably a bit farfetched though :laughing: ).
And finally would be the smallest of the 3, an American league that includes Canada. It would be centred around the existing competitions, a unified one obviously, and would average crowds of 5k or so with 8 maybe 10 teams. Obviously playing 2nd fiddle to the premier sports in the states, NFL, NBA, MLB, even soccer. But to get even a small foothold there would be amazing. You could potentially have 10 million watching the NRL GF every year after expanding into europe, americas and NZ.
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A lot of this is farfetched and a million years in the future but it's nice to think long term :slight_smile:
Thoughts? i'm probably gonna get kicked out for being a crazy after that last bit haha