Wayne Bennett backs second Brisbane team

[Porthoz]

Wayne Bennett believes the time is ripe for Brisbane to get a second NRL team
The NRL’s greatest coach Wayne Bennett has broken his silence on the expansion debate to declare it’s time for the code to introduce a second Brisbane team to coexist with the mighty Broncos.
As NRL CEO Todd Greenberg prepares to launch a wide-ranging review of the code, Bennett – Brisbane’s foundation coach – says rugby league can no longer ignore the power of the southeast Queensland market.
The expansion issue has gained fresh momentum in recent weeks, with Cowboys coach Paul Green backing a second Brisbane team and ARLC chairman Peter Beattie declaring the NRL must expand or die.
Bennett has preferred to stay silent on the highly-charged expansion debate. Now the super coach has emerged as a powerful voice.
If anyone is best placed to appraise whether Brisbane is ready for a second team it is Bennett, who delivered all six premierships to the Broncos from 25 years of service before joining the Rabbitohs this season.

Greenberg will deliver a detailed report on the code at the end of this year, including his views on NRL expansion, and Bennett is adamant Brisbane can sustain a second team for the next broadcasting deal in 2023.
“Brisbane is ready for a second team. It needs a second team,” Bennett told The Courier-Mail.
“There are so many areas in southeast Queensland that can sustain a second Brisbane team.
“We can have a Brisbane team playing every week at Suncorp Stadium – how good would that be?
“The reality is no club in Sydney at the moment wants to give up their identity or their place in the game, so that’s the issue for the NRL.
“What I do know is that the NRL should take control and give a new (Brisbane) team two or three years to be ready to get quality players without diluting the product.”
Rugby league’s last experience with a second Brisbane team ended in tears.
The South Queensland Crushers entered the big league in 1995 before being killed off at the end of the 1997 season as part of peace talks following the bitter Super League war.
The Broncos have since enjoyed a 31-year monopoly in the key southeast Queensland market, but Bennett scoffed at suggestions a rival city team would erode Brisbane’s status as an NRL powerhouse.

“The Broncos won’t be affected,” he said.
“They’ve had a 30-year headstart and if they keep working hard, the Broncos will have nothing to worry about. They’ve had 30 years to have a presence in the market.
“It’s nonsense to think a second (Brisbane) team can’t work because of the Crushers. The Crushers would have worked out but then the Super League war happened and they had to get rid of clubs to bring the game together.

“Look at European soccer, they have strong brands and rivalries – Manchester United and Manchester City are big clubs.
“If you bring in another Brisbane team, it would be great for the bottom line. You would be guaranteed two sellouts at Suncorp every year with a genuine Brisbane derby.
“Southeast Queensland is a very big place, there’s more than two million people.
“The area can easily accommodate two Brisbane teams.”

LINK

Putting dows his candidacy as inaugural coach of another Brisbane team, or just butt-hurt throwing shade at the Broncos?

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Definitely interesting timing

 

[Huge]

Well WB was probably asked his opinion and gave it. People condemn him for not talking and condemn him for talking. The Crushers started life as the QRLs team although their interest was flat out denied by the QRL and it was only after their hand was forced did they admit they had part funded it. It was founded on lies and performed like a poor ISC team. It deservedly was killed off and none of that was down to the Broncos.

Many of us would be happy with another team in Brisbane and that's not butthurt.

 

[Porthoz]

Well WB was probably asked his opinion and gave it. People condemn him for not talking and condemn him for talking. The Crushers started life as the QRLs team although their interest was flat out denied by the QRL and it was only after their hand was forced did they admit they had part funded it. It was founded on lies and performed like a poor ISC team. It deservedly was killed off and none of that was down to the Broncos.

Many of us would be happy with another team in Brisbane and that's not butthurt.

Except it's not the first time he was asked that question, and has up until now, always been against it...

 

[Huge]

Except it's not the first time he was asked that question, and has up until now, always been against it...

Oh, I didn't know that. Any links to his previous statements?

 

[big k]

It's butt hurt from him.

 

[Socnorb]

Does that now mean that the rest of the media will be against it?

 

[Porthoz]

Oh, I didn't know that. Any links to his previous statements?

I'm posting from memory, but I'm sure they are easy enough to find. I'll look them up later tonight if no one finds them before me...

 

[tommy]

Where would the supporters come from though? Everyone already has a team. I'm thinking they will get hardly any supporters except for people who hate the Broncos and have them as their second team. Perth makes more sense...or a second Melbourne team that actually tries to grow the game in Melbourne rather than getting juniors from everywhere but Melbourne.

 

[Renegade]

Where would the supporters come from though? Everyone already has a team. I'm thinking they will get hardly any supporters except for people who hate the Broncos and have them as their second team. Perth makes more sense...or a second Melbourne team that actually tries to grow the game in Melbourne rather than getting juniors from everywhere but Melbourne.

there's this weird assumption that despite overwhelmingly the best crowds every year, that everyone in brisbane actually hates brisbane and they either turn up to see them lose and/or its the opp fans making up the vast majority of the numbers.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

there's this weird assumption that despite overwhelmingly the best crowds every year, that everyone in brisbane actually hates brisbane and they either turn up to see them lose and/or its the opp fans making up the vast majority of the numbers.

NSW is the centre of the universe remember, so if they hate us, everyone else has to as well

 

[Wolfie]

Surely it would be a club like Redcliffe if there were to be a side added to the NRL.

 

[Sproj]

Surely it would be a club like Redcliffe if there were to be a side added to the NRL.

I imagine it would make sense to use the Ipswich Jets. They are already established and in a league mad district.

 

[Wolfie]

I imagine it would make sense to use the Ipswich Jets. They are already established and in a league mad district.

Redcliffe are more stable and have a better infrastructure imo. They seem the logical choice if an ISC team is going to make the step up.

 

[Huge]

Surely it would be a club like Redcliffe if there were to be a side added to the NRL.

Yes, best claim in the region but I think it will be an amalgam of interests. I think there will be plenty of supporters in Brisbane and some of them will be half committed ex Bronco supporters. I believe the last thing that would succeed over the distance would be a relocated club so I'd think a brand new club would get plenty of support. That said a well run and upfront organisation (happy now?) which demands honesty in all dealings would be embraced and would get me to a few games too. They would have to be competitive though.

 

[Allo]

Redcliffe in the box seat to become Brisbane’s second NRL team
Redcliffe is the shock frontrunner to become Brisbane’s second team to rival the Broncos with the ARL Commission keen to establish an NRL foothold on the peninsula.
The Sunday-Mail can reveal Redcliffe is the No.1 target to one day join the Broncos, Cowboys and Titans in the big league as NRL CEO Todd Greenberg prepares to begin a wide-ranging investigation of the code’s possible expansion zones.
Well-placed sources have told The Sunday Mail that if a Sydney team went bankrupt tomorrow, Redcliffe would be on standby to receive an NRL licence.

Redcliffe powerbrokers last night said the Dolphins would have the resources to bankroll Queensland’s fourth NRL team, declaring: “We’re keen as mustard”.
The NRL has come under fresh pressure to recognise southeast Queensland’s importance to the code’s national footprint with leading coaches Paul Green and Wayne Bennett saying the time is right to launch a second Brisbane team.

For the past eight years, the Brisbane Bombers, Central Queensland and Ipswich’s western corridor bid have worked so tirelessly and vocally they were regarded as the standout contenders to clinch another NRL licence, possibly for the code’s next broadcasting deal in 2023.
But Redcliffe has jockeyed into the box seat.
NRL powerbrokers now rate the Brisbane peninsula powerhouse ahead of Ipswich, the Bombers and Central Queensland as a prospective NRL team.
The code’s governors believe a second Brisbane team may still be at least five years away, but that time frame will be expedited if a Sydney-based NRL rival sinks into heavy debt, with the NRL warning they will not provide a financial bailout.
ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie confirmed Redcliffe is on the radar and a serious option for an NRL licence.
“Clearly Redcliffe has got the skills (to run an NRL team),” Beattie said.
“I wouldn’t be too specific because you need competent people to run the club.
“We don’t want to set up a club that runs into trouble.
“There has been interest in Ipswich (from previous NRL administrations), so you have to look at all areas.

“We have to look at the people running the club, what is their financial viability, what’s their business case, because this (a possible second Brisbane team) is not something we want to set up to fail.”
Greenberg’s end-of-year report will provide a definitive blueprint for the code’s growth. The ARLC will ensure that any expansion plan be a competitive process that explores every option.
Redcliffe _ currently a feeder-club to the Broncos _ ticks the boxes in a number of critical categories.
Founded in 1947, the same year as Parramatta and Manly, Redcliffe are one of Queensland’s most famous clubs with a rich 72-year history. They are the reigning premiers in Queensland’s elite league competition, the Intrust Super Cup, and possess the financial backing of the powerful Redcliffe Leagues Club.
In 2015, Redcliffe received $4 million in federal government funding to complete a $12m upgrade of home ground Dolphin Stadium. The 10,000-seat stadium is the perfect training headquarters with a view to playing NRL fixtures as a cotenant with the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
Redcliffe is part of the wider Moreton Bay region, which is home to 425,302 residents - double that of Ipswich’s population of 210,000.

The Brisbane metropolitan region has 2.4 million people, but Redcliffe would also expand their development area to include the Sunshine Coast.

Redcliffe makes sense. It’s far enough away, isn’t technically in Brisbane and has the population and history just as much as any Sydney club bar Souths, Merge and Rorters. They’ll need some marquees to get them from the top of ISC to something above wooden spoon territory rather quickly otherwise the outrage if they replace a Sydney club will be deafening

There’s also a counter-article quoting a guy from the Bombers saying Reddy will fail ... because of course he would be saying that. **** the Bombers. Even more plastic than the Titans (maybe)

 

[Allo]

there's this weird assumption that despite overwhelmingly the best crowds every year, that everyone in brisbane actually hates brisbane and they either turn up to see them lose and/or its the opp fans making up the vast majority of the numbers.

There’d be elements of that no doubt, particularly with the influx of southerners migrating up here, but I think it’s more a case of it being something to do on a Friday night while most people are in the city after work

 

[Renegade]

There’d be elements of that no doubt, particularly with the influx of southerners migrating up here, but I think it’s more a case of it being something to do on a Friday night while most people are in the city after work

i very much doubt the % of the crowd at suncorp is against the home team.

at a stretch it might be a 50/50 for the kiwis