My proposal to League Survive, And be stronger

[Kimlo]

Cutting teams is not the solution, It would significantly decrease our bargaining power in the next TV deal.

That would mean 4-5 games per week depending on the week, that would SIGNIFICANTLY decrease the value of the next TV deal.

We shouldn't be looking at cutting teams, We should be looking at MOVING teams.

Bulldogs are the strongest club in Sydney they're going no where.
Newcastle have the strongest on average crowds in Sydney they will stay.

Souths need to re-locate to central cost,
Manly need to re-locate to Perth
Cronulla need to re-locate to Adelaide
ST George need to be either cut from the competition or re locate again, I don't know where to.

The end result would still have 16 teams but only 5 clubs in Sydney

We would then have Four Queensland Teams, 5 Sydney teams and a Team in Perth and Adelaide.

With a truly national game, We could be pushing for the next tv deal to be double if not more to around the 1 billion mark for 5 year deal.

This would effectively mean the NRL could FINANCIALLY be able to raise the salary cap to 7-10 million dollars without financial hardship.

The end result, With a higher salary cap, Hardly any players will leave the game, and we will without doubt start to get players back from superleague and maybe even back from union.

$8 million cap means an average of $320 000 per player.

p.s Why on earth would you merge the gold coast (who have been hugely successful) with the cowboy who have among the highest crowds in league.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Why would a team relocate to a State where Rugby League is not even given an article in the papers? It looks as if the NRL will die unless they find a way to produce more funding for the clubs and players.

 

[gUt]

I think one solution is to stop playing at the White Elephant. St George, the Tigers, the Bulldogs etc fill up their old suburban grounds when they play there, but no one wants to go to ANZ. Souths should be made to move, Cronulla too.

 

[schmix]

Souths need to re-locate to central cost,
Manly need to re-locate to Perth
Cronulla need to re-locate to Adelaide
ST George need to be either cut from the competition or re locate again, I don't know where to.

The end result would still have 16 teams but only 5 clubs in Sydney

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Sydney/NSW geography, but that would leave us with zero teams in Sydney's south, none in the north, one in the east/CBD, and four in the West. I realise that the west is the heartland of league in Sydney, but that's hugely out of proportion.

Regardless, I'm more in favour of mergers than relocations. Especially Souths to the Central Coast. Why people continue to think this will work is beyond me [icon_shru

 

[Kimlo]

Souths need to re-locate to central cost,
Manly need to re-locate to Perth
Cronulla need to re-locate to Adelaide
ST George need to be either cut from the competition or re locate again, I don't know where to.

The end result would still have 16 teams but only 5 clubs in Sydney

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Sydney/NSW geography, but that would leave us with zero teams in Sydney's south, none in the north, one in the east/CBD, and four in the West. I realise that the west is the heartland of league in Sydney, but that's hugely out of proportion.

Regardless, I'm more in favour of mergers than relocations. Especially Souths to the Central Coast. Why people continue to think this will work is beyond me [icon_shru

I'm no expert, obviously some of those teams would have to spread out to evenly cover sydney, This is not a detailed plan, just an outline of what should be done, the details are not for me.

 

[ethos]

Basically we need a change in leadership. Gallop is weak and needs to be more aggressive in terms of promoting and expanding the game. At the moment the marketing of the NRL sucks.

As others have said we need to bring the games back to the fans. Offer cheap tickets once a month, family days.. whatever, as long as we get more fans coming through the gates.

And the NRL needs to get more money from it's next TV deal.

 

[schmix]

I'm no expert, obviously some of those teams would have to spread out to evenly cover sydney, This is not a detailed plan, just an outline of what should be done, the details are not for me.

Fair enough. I do understand the general idea, and you make a very good point about the tv deal with less teams.

 

[Hamm.0]

OMG! Seriously people, let's think before we scream.

Firstly, the fiasco known as SBW-gate, is a one off by a player receiving very poor advice from somewhere.

Gasnier went. But he exercised a clause in his contract. Rooney is a has been. Cross was mediocre at best. Shciofske (sp) was over the hill. Barnes was a union player, moonlighting in RL and so was Walker.

Perspective people! The Tuquiri/Rogers and to a lesser extent, Sailor defections were by far bigger than any other LEGAL defections.

SBW broke contract. This is a one-off extreme. (leave Lyons out of this arguement.lol)
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Now that we have cleared that up, I agree we need mergers not culling. We should defiantly try to keep the comp at 16 teams. However, if a club refuses to merge, than maybe they should be threatened with relegation to the Jim Beam Cup.

Next, we need one governing body. The ARL/NRL/NSWRL/QRL has to get together and sort this shit fight out. The game is never going to be able to grow with its administration the way it is.

From there, the QRL and NSWRL would be given control of governing their own clubs (obviously including all juniors). The QRL and Jim Beam comps would still run as the feeder competition.

I would be cutting the QRL/NSWRL season down, and having a Nation wide "Super Bowl" type concept, involving top 4 teams from both comps in a knock-out mid-week comp. This would allow even more TV coverage, mid-week. Also wouldn't affect the NRL player’s longevity, as only players who have made a certain amount of appearances for the season would qualify. Added to this, for growth of the code, I would try everything humanly possible to get the Barter Card Cup to have a few teams in said competition. 9if not an invitational XIII from the Pacific Islands, obviously subsidised by the NRL)

Next, let's talk relocations/mergers. Firstly, there are too many Sydney based clubs. Fact.
I have always been a fan of Perth; however, the NRL sort of missed the boat there. Sure they still have a league following, but IMO, the real growth place for a Pro Sporting outfit in Australia is......Darwin. Mark my words, the first pro-football comp with a team up there, will be a success, guaranteed.

A team in Darwin first and then maybe look at Perth or the Central Coast. If I was Gallop, it would be Darwin, then Central Coast.

So, we have to make 2 Sydney teams want to relocate to said locations. How does the NRL make that attractive? Concessions. The AFL did it and the NRL continue to do it for Melbourne. Source revenue from SoO and NRL and build a friggin stadium, in conjunction with the NT government.

Next, let's talk the Salary Cap. Raise it! Ok, but how people!? How? The NRL IS currently raising the cap, however much like the Liberal government DIDN'T do with our economy, this must be done slowly and steadily to avoid unbalanced player contracts. Concessions for one-club players are a must. It is the only way clubs can offset the salaries of key players, without driving the code as a whole broke. There would have to be major restrictions of course, like only 3 players per squad, etc. And there will always be the risk of underhanded offers, like mentioned by The Rock's example of how to keep Gasnier. (This would be hard to police, but if left unchecked would ravish the game in seasons to come.)

At the end of the day, the NRL will never be able to match $750,000 contracts to more than 1 player per squad and would really be hard to maintain period. The proof is in the size of the Australian economy. We are a country of 21 million, with 3 major winter codes. There just isn't enough money to go around, unlike countries that have 10 million in one city alone.

However, all this said; the NRL is not in crisis. I still remember how our game was doomed when we lost one, than two big black Bronco wingers. :roll:

 

[Hamm.0]

Schmix, why don't you think the CC option for a Sydney team would work?

If the CC doesn't want a team, Capricornia could maybe handle one, however, I'm unsure QLD could handle a 4th team just yet. eusa_think

 

[Coxy]

hammo, you've basically said what i said in another thread about this that naive broncopwn missed. you can't dictate mergers. you CAN dictate how many licences are on offer and where. that's the path they need to take.

 

[Foordy]

so broncospwn been checking out the bulldogs forum (the Kennel) i see [icon_razz1

 

[schmix]

Schmix, why don't you think the CC option for a Sydney team would work?

If the CC doesn't want a team, Capricornia could maybe handle one, however, I'm unsure QLD could handle a 4th team just yet. eusa_think

I'm not sure it would work for any Sydney team, but I was specifically referring to Souths in this case.

I'm just basing it on history. The Northern Eagles were a dismal failure up there, all you heard from people on the Central Coast was that they want their own team. I can't see them embracing the worst NRL team of the last 20 years (sorry Bree) as a team that deserves their support.

I admit I wasn't that old when the Northern Eagles were around, so I may have missed some crucial reason they weren't supported up there that doesn't apply here.

Darwin is an interesting idea, but do they have the money and infrastructure up there to support a team? They would certainly have a solid supporter base.

 

[schmix]

And I agree that the NRL is not in crisis. The raids from union will end once they realise they've spent fortunes on two players who spend more time injured than on the field, and one who's main weapon is illegal in their game.

Not to mention the fact that French rugby clubs are only allowed a maximum of 2 players from Aus/NZ, and will take an NZ union player over an NRL player any day of the week.

 

[Major JW Hochstetter]

I think those who are criticising David Gallop's leadership qualities and lack of action in certain areas need to understand that his job desciption is made up of a single word - puppet. Apart from trivial issues, the decisions affecting the game as a hole are made by, and in the interests of, the owners of the game in Australia. And we all know who they are.

If Gallop were to stand down tomorrow, the decisions made in the future would still be exactly the same and his replacement would have very little effect in terms of change. People talk about confident, forward thinking men like Michael Searle and Peter Holmes A Court as being the kind of people we need running the show, well they'd also have their hands tied if they were in Gallop's shoes and perhaps its the reason why many excellent candidates simply don't show any interest in getting involved above club level.

The role of the NRL CEO these days is simply to be a mouthpiece of News Ltd and its plans for the game, aswell as to feed the fans appropriate propaganda, both positive and negative, where required (eg. the whole League is dying line that has been getting a run consistently for the past few months).

Therefore, the views that many of us have to improve the game that are in the interests of the game alone simply won't be happening whilst News has a controlling share of game and continues to run it in a way that is soley for the pruposes of regaining their lost coin and shaping the game in way that will be directly profitable to them in the future (which will include continuous underselling of our media rights).

The game is far from being in a vulnerable position, but it does require positive reform. This is nothing new, of course. But be assured that as long as we have an outside entity having a controlling share in the game, every decision that is made will be made in the interests of said entity. Its certainly great to be in partnership with a media company, but for it to have a controlling share in the game is ridiculous if we have any intentions of moving forward in any meaningful way.

As far as i'm aware, News is unlikely to even begin considering an exit for another decade as they are still taking money out of the game to pay for the mess that they and the ARL caused a decade ago. So until then, any reform we see will be in the interests of whatever their agenda is.

 

[Coxy]

northern territory won't work anytime soon. too undeveloped.

 

[Major JW Hochstetter]

One positive move that came out of today's Roosters/Sea Eagles game was allowing the fans to run onto the field after full time like they used to ages ago. Obviously in this day and age, security is an issue and that's the main reason why this just simply doesn't happen anymore, but it truly was a great sight to see the thousands of punters out there with the players after the game.

Given security concerns these days (mostly drunken morons, but the potential is there for worse), i've seen it mentioned that perhaps only the kids/teenagers should be allowed to run onto the field and then it could become the norm for NRL games. With the success of today, its something that would be well worthwhile trialing again at another venue. What better way to keep kids in the game and, of course, giving extra incentive for families to attend.

 

[Hamm.0]

northern territory won't work anytime soon. too undeveloped.

At the end of 2007, Darwin and Palmerston (for those that have never been up the Top End, Palmerston is basically Darwin's Logan City or Caboolture, basically a satellite city, which should basically be just be named part of Darwin proper.) had a combined population of 141,000. Townsville's total population is 143,000.

Darwin is considered in the top 3 fastest growing population bases in Australia.

If the NRL jumped on board now, think of what might lay in the future.....or just wait until some other code gets it, just like Perth in the 90's.

Darwin will only continue to grow and Territorians pack every single event held up there. There is, quite simply, nothing else for them to spend their money on. Not just Darwin proper either, name the club as NT and much like the NQ Cowboys, everyone will jump on the wagon.

A Northern Territory NRL franchise would explode!

 

[Russo]

THe AFL have moved on Darwin already (surprise surprise) with a Darwin / NT team to play on the AFLQ next season so if Darwin was an option we need to move quick. I agree Hammo there is potential plus up there but not sure if League is the game up there that it once was with AFL the number one game in town.