Baltimore Blues USARL Team (Rugby)

[Don]

I was initially reminded of this:

But upon further inspection, they're not as close as I thought.

Its actually more like this:

[Rampart]

So, I'm taking this as rugby league is contracting in England (although the average attendance is growing each year). There are teams that draw well and some that are lucky to exceed 5000. And Rugby League in Australia is growing.

Just out of curiosity (because I don't know a lot about this). What type of impact did the formation of the NRL have towards the sport? Was it good for the game or bad for the game?

[maifang]

spam

[Gazzzaf]

So, I'm taking this as rugby league is contracting in England (although the average attendance is growing each year). There are teams that draw well and some that are lucky to exceed 5000. And Rugby League in Australia is growing.

Just out of curiosity (because I don't know a lot about this). What type of impact did the formation of the NRL have towards the sport? Was it good for the game or bad for the game?

The NRL unified the two (brief) warring factions in Australia, the ARL and Super League. However, News Limited remained half ownership at the time and are in the process of leaving the game to an independent commission, the ARLC. Since a media company has half owned the game from 1998 to now, there has been a massive conflict of interest by representing the league in the media poorly to sell papers as well as lowballing the game in media rights, setting the game back financially. The split competitions were unsustainable in Australia long term so it was inevitable that the NRL would happen, however it allowed a third party to force itself into the game with financial gain as a prime objective over the health of the game. I certainly hope this isn't the case with the AMNRL/USARL split because it would devastate the game there.

[Saintsfan]

So, I'm taking this as rugby league is contracting in England (although the average attendance is growing each year). There are teams that draw well and some that are lucky to exceed 5000. And Rugby League in Australia is growing.

what I will say is that in it's English heartland Rugby League is probably as strong as it's ever been. Indeed the London franchise even has had a cult following for maybe 30 years, despite not always being well run. But it hasn't grown anywhere else in the UK, really at all.

[fumbler]

So, I'm taking this as rugby league is contracting in England (although the average attendance is growing each year). There are teams that draw well and some that are lucky to exceed 5000. And Rugby League in Australia is growing.

what I will say is that in it's English heartland Rugby League is probably as strong as it's ever been. Indeed the London franchise even has had a cult following for maybe 30 years, despite not always being well run. But it hasn't grown anywhere else in the UK, really at all.

This could also be seen as true in Australia as the game says it is expanding in 2016? to two more teams, they are not talking about expanding into areas of "non league" territory like has been seen with the AFL. They are thinking of the areas Luigi posted before but Strongly Central Coast, Perth another Brisbane team abd CQ, tho i live in CQ and think Perth is a grat idea these are all wrong the League needs to hold on expansion for at least another 10 years and let flailing clubs move of thier own accord to these areas.

Sorry gaz but Central Coast is not a new league territory and should not be awarded a team, expand the league outside of NSW, i mean if Brisbane, the Cowboys or Titans were not in this league crowd averages would be topping 10,000 a game in Australia?

[Gazzzaf]

I totally agree, I live on the Central Coast and though it would be great to see a team playing out of Gosford it would be a shame to see expansion into a state with ten teams in it already. Comparitively, Qld only has three teams and is just as strong a league state. In fact it would be most ideal for a Sydney club to move to Qld where there would be an existing fan base; many have said that Manly could make the move to the Sunshine Coast and the Sharks have been suggested to move anywhere and everywhere, however relocation and merging is a sensitive issue in RL and it may be easy as a Canberra fan to say it needs to happen but there are long histories associated with these clubs and a precedent for fans leaving the code as a team is omitted.

In terms of expansion, Perth is a MUST and no other team has established itself as a clear front runner, I'd love to see a second team in New Zealand of the back of the Warriors' recent success. The Warriors now have the highest membership numbers of any team in the country and I think a smaller niche team in Wellington or Christchurch would work wonders for a rivalry and would double the number of games there.

Of the Broncos/Cowboys/Titans only the Broncos get decent crowds, the Cowboys are ok and the Titans are pretty ordinary although this is related to having the most expensive tickets in Aus since Stadiums Qld charges the Titans $300 000 per game played there.

Edit: and the average attendance at the moment is 17 235, subtracting the 30 746 that the Broncos averaged this years gives a crowd average of 16 334.

[RedSox44]

I was initially reminded of this:

But upon further inspection, they're not as close as I thought.

Its actually more like this:

Damn. Blues and Blue Crabs are almost way too close.

[fumbler]

I totally agree, I live on the Central Coast and though it would be great to see a team playing out of Gosford it would be a shame to see expansion into a state with ten teams in it already. Comparitively, Qld only has three teams and is just as strong a league state. In fact it would be most ideal for a Sydney club to move to Qld where there would be an existing fan base; many have said that Manly could make the move to the Sunshine Coast and the Sharks have been suggested to move anywhere and everywhere, however relocation and merging is a sensitive issue in RL and it may be easy as a Canberra fan to say it needs to happen but there are long histories associated with these clubs and a precedent for fans leaving the code as a team is omitted.

In terms of expansion, Perth is a MUST and no other team has established itself as a clear front runner, I'd love to see a second team in New Zealand of the back of the Warriors' recent success. The Warriors now have the highest membership numbers of any team in the country and I think a smaller niche team in Wellington or Christchurch would work wonders for a rivalry and would double the number of games there.

Of the Broncos/Cowboys/Titans only the Broncos get decent crowds, the Cowboys are ok and the Titans are pretty ordinary although this is related to having the most expensive tickets in Aus since Stadiums Qld charges the Titans $300 000 per game played there.

Edit: and the average attendance at the moment is 17 235, subtracting the 30 746 that the Broncos averaged this years gives a crowd average of 16 334.

Sorry for the thread hijack

So in my world you would have:

NQ Cowboys

CQ BullSharks

Brisbane Broncos

GC Titans

Newcastle Knights

Gosford Sea Eagles Central Coast

North Sydney Roosters

South Sydney Dragons

West Sydney Griffins

Southern Steelers

Canberra Raiders

New Zealand Warriors

Melbourne Storm

Adelaide Rams (my choice Mayhem)

Perth Reds (my choice Falcons)

Darwin Cyclones

Teams in bold are new teams, coloured blue are moved or merged teams.

The only real difference i would change is leave Manly where the are and merge St George and the Rooters together and send Souths to Gosford.

I put a team in Darwin to get it up the AFL and the soccer for not having a team in a sports crazy place and Adelaide is a good oppurtunity it doesn't have a Union club and it was working there in Super League times.

[Luigi]

I totally agree, I live on the Central Coast and though it would be great to see a team playing out of Gosford it would be a shame to see expansion into a state with ten teams in it already. Comparitively, Qld only has three teams and is just as strong a league state. In fact it would be most ideal for a Sydney club to move to Qld where there would be an existing fan base; many have said that Manly could make the move to the Sunshine Coast and the Sharks have been suggested to move anywhere and everywhere, however relocation and merging is a sensitive issue in RL and it may be easy as a Canberra fan to say it needs to happen but there are long histories associated with these clubs and a precedent for fans leaving the code as a team is omitted.

In terms of expansion, Perth is a MUST and no other team has established itself as a clear front runner, I'd love to see a second team in New Zealand of the back of the Warriors' recent success. The Warriors now have the highest membership numbers of any team in the country and I think a smaller niche team in Wellington or Christchurch would work wonders for a rivalry and would double the number of games there.

Of the Broncos/Cowboys/Titans only the Broncos get decent crowds, the Cowboys are ok and the Titans are pretty ordinary although this is related to having the most expensive tickets in Aus since Stadiums Qld charges the Titans $300 000 per game played there.

Edit: and the average attendance at the moment is 17 235, subtracting the 30 746 that the Broncos averaged this years gives a crowd average of 16 334.

Sorry for the thread hijack

So in my world you would have:

NQ Cowboys

CQ BullSharks

Brisbane Broncos

GC Titans

Newcastle Knights

Gosford Sea Eagles Central Coast

North Sydney Roosters

South Sydney Dragons

West Sydney Griffins

Southern Steelers

Canberra Raiders

New Zealand Warriors

Melbourne Storm

Adelaide Rams (my choice Mayhem)

Perth Reds (my choice Falcons)

Darwin Cyclones

Teams in bold are new teams, coloured blue are moved or merged teams.

The only real difference i would change is leave Manly where the are and merge St George and the Rooters together and send Souths to Gosford.

I put a team in Darwin to get it up the AFL and the soccer for not having a team in a sports crazy place and Adelaide is a good oppurtunity it doesn't have a Union club and it was working there in Super League times.

That's not the reason why Darwin doesn't have a team in any first level sporting competition, the reason is the weather. Would you like to be playing rugby league in 35 degree heat when it's supposed to be winter and playing soccer in a 35 degree heat plus a bloody thunderstorm in summer. Darwin isn't happening.

EDIT: Also, south sydney and sydney are never going to move or change. There's too much history, think about if the Montreal Canadiens or the Green Bay Packers moved.

[Sodboy13]

Would there be enough funding and/or fan support for an enclosed stadium in Darwin that could handle all codes? I mean, enclosed, climate-controlled sports stadiums are a pretty standard thing.

[Gazzzaf]

That's not the reason why Darwin doesn't have a team in any first level sporting competition, the reason is the weather. Would you like to be playing rugby league in 35 degree heat when it's supposed to be winter and playing soccer in a 35 degree heat plus a bloody thunderstorm in summer. Darwin isn't happening.

EDIT: Also, south sydney and sydney are never going to move or change. There's too much history, think about if the Montreal Canadiens or the Green Bay Packers moved.

I have to agree here, its ONE of the reasons, the others being the lack of population density (particularly for a non heartland area) and corporate support. There's a reason that there isn't any national side in Darwin. The other idea of late has been to have a team that is half Darwin and half Papua New Guinea but that would also be difficult (although PNG is RL mad and has corporate support from mining it would be hard to convince players to want to move to PNG, a third world country).

Souths wont move but don't be surprised to see if the Roosters have to move or merge eventually, they don't have the supporters that Souths do and are more reliant on poker machine money and taxes/regulations are seriously eating away at that source.

Would there be enough funding and/or fan support for an enclosed stadium in Darwin that could handle all codes? I mean, enclosed, climate-controlled sports stadiums are a pretty standard thing.

The only reason Darwin is considered a capital city is that its the biggest city in an otherwise sparsely populated state. Its 16th on the list of city population at around 125 000 with around 10% of this population aboriginal (many of whom are poverty stricken). There is a mining and tourism sector but the population doesn't justify them pumping money into a stadium used 12 times a year.

Also, my ideal setup would be:

7 NSW Teams

Newcastle Knights

Central Coast/North Sydney/Northern Beaches (Sea-Eagles OR Bears, the other to move to Qld)

St. George Dragons (10 games Wollongong, 2 big games in Sydney)

2 West Sydney Teams (Parramatta/Penrith merger + Bulldogs)

West Tigers (inner west)

1 Inner city (Souths/Roosters, would never happen)

5 Qld Teams

Brisbane Broncos

Nth Qld Cowboys

Gold Coast Titans

2nd Brisbane Area Team (Jets?)

Another regional team (CQ or Sunshine Coast Bears/Eagles)

Rest of Australia

Melbourne Storm

Canberra Raiders

Perth Reds

Adelaide Sharks (relocated from Cronulla)

2 New Zealand Teams

AUCKLAND Warriors

Wellington or Christchurch

Thats 18 teams that covers almost all major population centres in the country as well as most of New Zealand. It would be tough to see Sydney clubs move/fold/relocate but in 50 years time that league would be much stronger for it. It was heading this way throughout the 1980's and 90's but the end of the Super League war and rationalisation (less teams) put an end to that. If they could move traditional Sydney clubs but still engage their Sydney fans it would be ideal. I'd have the West Sydney teams playing out of Homebush and the Inner City teams out of the SFS, then offer Sydney memberships for relocated clubs which would ensure 5-7 games played in Sydney/Central Coast/Newcastle a year for Bears/Eagles and Sharks fans.