On February 9, 2019, Peter Badel from Brisbane’s Courier
Mail wrote an article making the claim that 2 Sydney NRL clubs should be axed
and at least 1 Brisbane team should be created to fill the void.
While he makes some sound arguments, such as the
struggles that some Sydney clubs have, some of the other claims need to be
challenged.
He argues that a second NRL side in Brisbane would crush
rival codes there and his evidence is by highlighting how essentially, the
Broncos have already done much of that and would likely have the same impact on
a second Brisbane NRL team.
“The AFL’s Brisbane Lions are a skeleton of the powerhouse that won a hat-trick of flags in 2001-03.
“The AFL’s Brisbane Lions are a skeleton of the powerhouse that won a hat-trick of flags in 2001-03.
Football’s Brisbane Roar have seen crowds drop 34 per
cent in the past 12 months.
Rugby’s Reds — once a genuine threat to the Broncos on
the scale of crowd figures — have lost major traction in a code that has lost
its marbles.”
He also went on to say that the South-Eastern corner of
Queensland has an estimated 3.5 million residents.
Nowhere in his piece does he mention the Robina based
Gold Coast Titans, purely because they would weaken his argument.
2018 saw the Titans record their second lowest crowd
average since their 2007 inception, with 12,807 fans turning up on average per
game, down from their peak of 21,618 in 2008 and almost 1,000 per game less
than in 2016 when they last reached the finals.
He then supports his argument with an outlandish quote
made by Nick Livermore, one of the shareholders in the Brisbane Bombers expansion
bid team. Livermore said:
“With crowds of 24,000, a second Brisbane team would make a $1 million profit. And that’s not factoring in the NRL grant, which is now greater than the salary cap.’’
“With crowds of 24,000, a second Brisbane team would make a $1 million profit. And that’s not factoring in the NRL grant, which is now greater than the salary cap.’’
Only one team averages crowds of 24,000 and that’s the
Broncos. A second team would change that and bring their average crowd figure
down, just like the Crushers did when they joined the competition in 1995.
Furthermore, the Titans have never averaged crowds of 24,000
in a season and they don’t have the Broncos within a stones throw of them as an
excuse.
In 1996 when Brisbane had the Broncos and the Crushers,
the South Queensland side averaged 10 thousand less fans per game than the
Broncos. The Crushers had 13,016 fans per home game. In 1997 they were
averaging less than 10 thousand per home game.
If that figure was carried across today, using the 2018
crowd averages, the second team would struggle to average 22,000. And if the
Titans is a guide, those strong crowds will last for 3 to 4 years.
South Queensland survived for 3 years.
Let’s have a look at how those 3 years (1995, 1996 and
1997) worked out for Brisbane.
1994 – Brisbane averaged 37,705 per game (11 Broncos
games)
1995 – Brisbane averaged 28,466 per game (11 Broncos
games and 11 Crushers games)
1996 – Brisbane averaged 18,109 per game (10 Broncos
games and 11 Crushers games)
1997 – Brisbane averaged 12,536 per game (9 Broncos games
and 11 Crushers games)
1998 – Brisbane averaged 20,073 per game (12 Broncos
games)
There’s a reason why Broncos games attract big crowds,
they have no competition. As soon as competition arrives the Broncos crowd drop
and the number of fans attending games in Brisbane drops as well.
Livermore then cherry-picked data to support his
evidence, attacking the Wests Tigers crowd figures, one of the worst performing
teams in the past 5 years and a club who uses several home grounds each year.
He questioned what the club provides and their existence in the competition.
So here’s where we get to my view.
I detest the notion of axing clubs. People have this
impression that fans of an axed club will just support another team. Axing
clubs also axes fans.
Relocations are nearly as bad, although small moves,
within the proximity of the clubs base, can always be considered – ie – Manly covering
the Central Coast, Gold Coast covering South East Brisbane/Ipswich.
In an ideal world, the Wests Tigers would be permanently
based at Campbelltown.
The code needs to expand. Perth has to be one of the new teams and I’d argue that a team from the Sunshine Coast (representing the region and northwards up to Bundaberg) should be top priorities, that way you don’t have a new team eating away at the Broncos, while still getting another team that is within reach of the Brisbane populous, while also being based in an area with a larger population than Townsville.
The code needs to expand. Perth has to be one of the new teams and I’d argue that a team from the Sunshine Coast (representing the region and northwards up to Bundaberg) should be top priorities, that way you don’t have a new team eating away at the Broncos, while still getting another team that is within reach of the Brisbane populous, while also being based in an area with a larger population than Townsville.
An 18 team competition is very much achievable and
reasonable and a 20 team competition should be the end goal with a team from
Adelaide or Darwin (as they are in a different time zone) and a team from New
Zealand, either Christchurch or Wellington.
I don’t believe that plonking a team where one exists is
expansion. You haven’t created a new market, you haven’t expanded anything.
I’m very much supportive of another team in Queensland,
but I don’t believe we should be white-anting the Broncos, because that would
likely just create a repeat of the problems that Badel stated are rife in
Sydney.
We’ve done Queensland right. Let’s not ruin it.
