It was going ahead anyway. The funding was the sweetner.
There are more people in PNG than in Port Moresby. I think most live in the Highlands. 7 million are of working age with an unemployment rate of 2.7% - advertisers want access to these people through TV and sponsorship. You only need a few bucks per head each year.
Besides, they always sell out their ground of 15,000 every time the PNG team plays there. I don't think packing a ground is going to be a problem there.
The $60 million doesn't go to the club anyway. It is similar to the stadium funding some clubs received for their facilities in Australia and designed to build the infrasructure required to support the team and junior development. PNG are playing catchup in that regard for sure, but it's not like large investments haven't been made at home either; albeit not to the same extent.
I understand the sentiment of not wanting to send taxpayer money to other countries, but at the same time, the PNG government gives favourable tax treatment to Australian companies in exchange for jobs on the ground. I don't know what the trade off is there, but I think we were winning that trade and now it's time to repay the favour. It's also a clear soft power play dressed up as sports funding - if us and China were best buddies, I doubt that would have occured, but good luck to them.
Just to put some numbers context around it, the Broncos generated 55M (+21M from NRL grants) in revenue last year with a net profit of around 5.5M - the breakdown is below. The Broncos compete against 3 other QLD teams (Dolphins, Gold Coast and Nth Qld), AFL, Basketball, Cricket and Soccer. PNG will compete with nothing. Every single sponsorship, fan and media dollar will go to this team without exception. It really is a sporting monopoly there and despite lower per capita GDP, once you start splitting up the larger Australian pie with the competitors for the same dollar, you probably end up in a similar spot as PNG that only has eyes for one team and one sport. To match the Broncos, they need to generate around $5 per head of population each season - the Broncos generate around $10 per head (5.5 million people in QLD). Once you account for sponsors and other revenue streams, you don't need to generate much from direct sales to individuals. Either way, I think you've made your mind up on this one so it doesn't really matter. Time will tell.
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