NRL confirms plans for Perth expansion

[Nashy]

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has vowed to try and strike while the iron is hot in Perth following the closure of Super Rugby’s Western Force.

But it won’t come in the form of a rushed together NRL team.
Perth is seen as a likely destination of the league’s next expansion team, following the collapse of the Western Reds in 1997 as a result of the Super League war.

However any expansion of the current 16-team competition is not expected until at least the next television rights deal in 2022, when additional Queensland teams, a second New Zealand side and even a Pacific franchise are also considered likely options.
But Greenberg said the game would look to make small moves into the state given the lack of either rugby code in the city as of next season.
“You won’t see us just landing a new NRL team there because of what’s happened to the Force but what you will see is us looking strategically at Perth to play games,” Greenberg told Triple M.
“Next year you can expect us to look very closely at what we can do in Perth for new opportunities also what we can do to continue our junior development programs and grassroots as well.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=FoxSportsAus

 

[tommy]

striking while the iron is hot- in 2022.

 

[Kimlo]

striking while the iron is hot- in 2022.

Must have a really large thermal mass that iron

 

[jarro65]

To be honest, i'd rather see a team in Perth than Auckland.

 

[Super Freak]

It really shows the lack of foresight from the NRL that they didn't have this already planned ready to pounce for when an opportunity opened up..

It's not like Force's problems happened overnight.

People in Perth have been calling for years for an NRL team.. And then an opportunity opens up, and the NRL wants to wait another 4 years..

Meanwhile it gives other codes the opportunity to take Perth.

 

[Alec]

I hope they don't add teams without removing some.

 

[mitch222]

Shift the titans there

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Professional sport elsewhere is already decades beyond the era of nationalisation, as the NRL plans to give existing clubs in a non-national competition more say in its future direction.
The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957. South Melbourne became the Sydney Swans in 1982. Yet rugby league shut down franchises in Perth in 1997 and Adelaide in 1998, has no plans to go back, and now existing teams with a vested interest in hoarding the sport's revenue are about to be given seats on what was an "independent" commission.

Pushing back: Toronto Wolfpack. Globalisation is a train; you're either on board or you're not. Photo: AP
Nationalisation is an established policy in other pro sports. They have long since moved on to internationalisation and we stand at the cusp of an epoch that will threaten many sporting leagues: globalisation.
Internationalisation, which sees basketball and ice hockey in the US embrace all of North America, which saw American Football toy with a failed European League, which brought us Super Rugby and the New Zealand Warriors, is close to reaching its natural commercial conclusion.
The difference between internationalisation and globalisation from rugby league's point of view is very important. Internationalisation involves satellite leagues in many countries, with increasing intercompetition such as the European Champions League and our World Club Challenge. Where the sport is strong in one territory and weak in another, or one country is richer than another, outpost franchises may be formed. Rugby league was richer in Sydney than Brisbane, so the Broncos joined the Sydney competition.
Globalisation comes in over the top of this process with giant brands that engulf everything in their paths: the Premier League, the NFL, the NBA and MLB. It is logical, predictable evolution. For any local business, including sports franchises and competitions, staving off this clear societal change is difficult and becoming more so.
Under globalisation, local versions of the same sport will struggle to compete with the big brands, the way Henny Penny failed to stave off KFC. Sports which themselves are local peculiarities will find the task even harder - like the Chiko Roll fighting against the Subway sandwich.
Discord would argue that the NBA to young Australians in 2017 is what the NSWRL was to Queenslanders in 1987 – distant, glamorous, wealthy, visionary. But with a bit of planning, evolution can become cultural imperialism.
It seems that scarcely a week goes by when one colleague or another is not in the US at a major sporting event. The doors are flung open to them and they get to speak to iconic athletes one-on-one, while their workmates back home struggle to get 10 minutes with the back-up halfback at an NRL club.
What is the NRL doing to push back? Globalisation is a train; you're either on board or you're not. Where are the American reporters coming here to see the sport that, in 2025, is supposed to be having its World Cup in their homeland? How often does anyone at the NRL speak to their US and British rights holders, Fox Soccer Plus and Premier TV? What promotions are being done involving players and clubs to help these broadcasters feel they have an investment in the sport, the way ESPN does when it promotes the NBA in Australia?
Clint Gutherson's post-try celebration last week was an imitation of NBA star Steph Curry. Would Ron Hilditch have been able to name a single NBA star?
Most importantly, do we continue to assume that because your kids still like their NRL, their kids will if they live in an age when the big global sporting brands come to town once a year, when the NFL has a team in London, and today's free-to-air TV channels are nothing but a historical curiosity? If they are watching sport on their mobile or via a wireless transmission straight into their cerebral cortex, will they really want to watch something between two suburbs played in front of 9000 people?
But don't worry about all that, NRL clubs. You're about to get a seat on the independent commission and 130 per cent of your wages bill paid by head office.
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This article by Steve Mascord in the SMH pretty much sums up the NRL.

 

[Accept]

It really shows the lack of foresight from the NRL that they didn't have this already planned ready to pounce for when an opportunity opened up..

It's not like Force's problems happened overnight.

People in Perth have been calling for years for an NRL team.. And then an opportunity opens up, and the NRL wants to wait another 4 years..

Meanwhile it gives other codes the opportunity to take Perth.

The AFL has already taken Perth and will never let go. The NRL need to concentrate on their own backyard where support is dwindling rather expanding to a place which will inevitably fail.

 

[Accept]

This article by Steve Mascord in the SMH pretty much sums up the NRL.

Except that he is comparing RL to sports which are popular nationwide and are followed by all walks of life. League has neither of those luxuries. Rugby League's front on physicality and popularity which exists in only working class areas will ensure that it will never be a huge game globally. Sad but true. RL just isn't the type of sport that will ever appeal to the masses.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Except that he is comparing RL to sports which are popular nationwide and are followed by all walks of life. League has neither of those luxuries. Rugby League's front on physicality and popularity which exists in only working class areas will ensure that it will never be a huge game globally. Sad but true. RL just isn't the type of sport that will ever appeal to the masses.

Think more vision, planning, foresight, or rather a lack of all those things.

 

[tommy]

Except that he is comparing RL to sports which are popular nationwide and are followed by all walks of life. League has neither of those luxuries. Rugby League's front on physicality and popularity which exists in only working class areas will ensure that it will never be a huge game globally. Sad but true. RL just isn't the type of sport that will ever appeal to the masses.

Give it another 30 years and the tackle will be outlawed. Maybe then.

 

[Accept]

Give it another 30 years and the tackle will be outlawed. Maybe then.

Exactly. You and I and everybody on BHQ all know what a great game it is but there is not near enough of us. RL will always grow but never at a substantial pace.

 

[Accept]

Give it another 30 years and the tackle will be outlawed. Maybe then.

Exactly. You and I and everybody on BHQ all know what a great game it is but there is not near enough of us. RL will always grow but never at a substantial pace.

 

[Porthoz]

Except that he is comparing RL to sports which are popular nationwide and are followed by all walks of life. League has neither of those luxuries. Rugby League's front on physicality and popularity which exists in only working class areas will ensure that it will never be a huge game globally. Sad but true. RL just isn't the type of sport that will ever appeal to the masses.

Rugby Union is almost as physical as RL, and is way more boring to watch, be it live or on TV. Yet Rugby Union is probably close the second most popular team sport in the world, daylight from Soccer, but quite possibly just under or above Basketball.

This chicken little mentality is why the game isn't evolving in the first place.
Every RL game brought to Perth in the last 5 years, has resulted in excellent attendances (higher than the average Sydney ones), and the game has enough money from TV rights to invest in grass roots and marketing in the emerging markets, such as Perth.

Same goes for the Gold Coast, even if it is a fickle market, it has a place in the RL world, but needs a properly managed team, not the basket cases that we have seen under Searle and now the Hayne/Henry shit as well...

 

[CaptainHook]

Good on Greenberg for at least acknowledging the elephant in the room. The silence was starting to become deafening.

This is pie in the sky stuff but in a perfect world I'd promote the Ipswich Jets to the top grade. Have them play out of Suncorp. This would free up the ISC a team and they can take the Darwin proposal forward.

Relocate a Sydney team to Perth - the Wests Tigers make sense but there are other candidates.

Adelaide, I fear, is a lost cause.

If the NRL is not serious on nationalising the competition they could always circle the wagons and reinforce it as the dominant code in our little corner of the world by tossing out the invitation to Hobart and a second NZ team.

 

[Super Freak]

The AFL has already taken Perth and will never let go. The NRL need to concentrate on their own backyard where support is dwindling rather expanding to a place which will inevitably fail.

The demand for a team in Perth is increasing each year. Games that are taken over there have great attendances, better than most clubs on this side of Australia.

The job has already been made easier for the NRL. It's not like they will be trying to put a team in AFL heartland where a lot of people either hate or never even heard of Rugby League, people in WA are screaming for a team to support over there.

If they can get competent people running the show over there, it can be a success.

 

[Nashy]

The demand for a team in Perth is increasing each year. Games that are taken over there have great attendances, better than most clubs on this side of Australia.

The job has already been made easier for the NRL. It's not like they will be trying to put a team in AFL heartland where a lot of people either hate or never even heard of Rugby League, people in WA are screaming for a team to support over there.

If they can get competent people running the show over there, it can be a success.

They have a full junior and reserve system that's been established and running forever, and a brand new stadium on the way. The NRL have to go there, they just have to. They wouldn't need to do anything, haven't they had a bid for a licence now for about a decade?