I am genuinely perplexed about the introduction of a 2nd Brisbane team, simply because 17 teams will not give the NRL any extra games each week. I am guessing that they are hoping that one more team brings in more fans and more sponsors, but for mine, if people enjoy watching league, they're already following or sponsoring a team. There may be a very short-term windfall in a bunch of people snapping up merch, but that's about it.
I want to hear people's conspiracy theories here. I don't trust the NRL to be honest about anything, let alone their intentions. For example:
* Now that Vlandys and his dodgy crew have taken over, any illusion that the NRL is a truly independent, national comp is well and truly over. Have NSW's self-interested powerbrokers been able to overcome the NRL's "we need Melbourne to be a permanent success" mindset, and they are now looking to weaken the Storm in order to bring more premierships back to Sydney teams?
* Did they actually do this because they want to get rid of (or merge) an underperforming Sydney team, and instead of just biting the bullet, they are going to stage it over a few years, bring in the new replacement team and slowly let the underperforming team perish to the point where they say "it just makes sense to go back to 16 teams"?
* Or are they genuinely likely to end up with 18 teams, but figured it wouldn't be viable to bring in two at the same time and have the two compete with each other for hype, interest, and sponsors?