The decision on NRL Expansion – what is the basis of the decision?
This news item was posted at 1:43 pm on the 28th July, 2010
When deciding the location of an expanded NRL club, the decision making process is simple. Three vital factors need to be identified and every applicant for an NRL licence will be scrutinised or rated against these three key requirements. The applicant with the best overall rating will be the one which can demonstrate that it is the most commercially viable, the best supported and the club with the highest local player content. That is, the club that will benefit the NRL and other NRL Clubs by ‘growing the pie’ as David Gallop insists.
The contenders are:
- Central Queensland
- Perth
- Adelaide
- Ipswich
- Sunshine Coast
- Gosford
It is commonly accepted that the three vital variables are:
- The position and popularity of Rugby League in the respective community / region / city which is under consideration for NRL expansion
- The status of a currently available or committed stadium. i.e. NRL compliant stadium and associated facilities
- The number, nature , popularity, and resourcefulness of any competitor in any other national sporting competition based in the same region, city, etc
1. This is easy to measure. Count the numbers of registered players in formal competitions, i.e. active participants – normally juniors, and look at the television audience who watch the “big games” e.g. State of Origin. I know these numbers for Central Queensland. We have almost 7,000 registered juniors playing Rugby League and over 400,000 Central Queenslanders watched each of the recently played State of Origin games.
I can’t find the numbers of players for Perth, or Adelaide. I would expect that player numbers would be much lower than our numbers and I know State of Origin viewers in these cities were less than 10% of CQ viewers of the same game. Junior numbers are strong in Ipswich, the Sunshine Coast and Gosford but nowhere near the CQ numbers.
2. This is also easy. Perth and Gosford have NRL compliant stadia. CQ has been promised one by our very supportive State Premier (and Government). Adelaide is uncommitted and Ipswich and the Sunshine Coast will not have a separate compliant stadium unless they play at Suncorp which is not ideal for them. It’s really the home of the Broncos.
3. Again really easy. Central Queensland has no other national sporting team representing the region. It’s all “BLUE SKY”. Perth is home for two AFL teams, one A League, one Super 15, two National Basketball teams and the State Cricket team. Adelaide is almost the same but doesn’t have Super 15. Ipswich, and Sunshine Coast both encompass the Broncos (Roar, Lions, Reds) territory and Gosford is an important region for the Newcastle Knights NRL Club.
From my somewhat biased tallying the winner is an absolute no brainer.
- Central Queensland is the easy winner of criteria number 1
- Central Queensland is equal first in number 2
- Central Queensland is the easy winner of number 3
So the obvious overall WINNER is CENTRAL QUEENSLAND by a “knock-out.”
Show your support for our own CQ NRL team. Join as a Member or Corporate Partner online.