Yeah maybe you’re right, but I still think the NRL needs to have a better presence in both the Central Coast & Wollongong otherwise they run the risk losing more fans to the A League (where the Central Coast of course already has the Mariners, while the idea of an A-League team in Wollongong has floated around in recent years) and other codes.
The Titans probably should be moved away from the Gold Coast (where just about all sport is cursed, even last year’s Commonwealth Games was to some extent) but we know that won’t happen while the AFL still has the Suns.
I agree. While it will probably always be in the shadow of the Broncos (just as the secondary AFL teams in each state outside of Victoria are), Brisbane probably can support at least two NRL teams.
But any 2nd team for the region has to have a strong point of difference from the Broncos because if we’re being realistic, the kind of lame “South Queensland Crushers” brand probably didn’t help its survival among the other factors already mentioned.
The North Sydney Bears are Crying out for Return, They had their chance to buy the Gold Coast Titans but Two Millionares Beat them to it, Yet the team are still not Improving on Field.
News Corp reports the first ever State of Origin match to be held at Perth’s Optus Stadium is close to a sell-out, with only 3000 tickets remaining. NSW fans lead all ticket sales having grabbed 60% of the seats.
The game will probably be up against Seven News and House Rules and almost over by the time MasterChef starts. For last year, Seven News in Perth had double the audience of the Sunday state of origin.
Seven run split programming for Wednesday SOOs but last year House Rules was shown on the Sunday night in all markets - it beat SOO in 2 states and came close in Melbourne.
The Sunday SOO was a bit of a disappointment, ratings wise. House Rules hit a season high that night.
I think that Origin Game 2 will be slightly lower than last year at anz due to 9Now streaming but will still smash Masterchef by over a million viewers. If worse, Masterchef would hit 600k on that night.
I figure out if the NRL did launch Next Generation Academies for their NSW/ACT Clubs, It’ll go like this:
Bulldogs: Far West and Orana
Dragons: South Coast
Eels: Mid North Coast
Knights: Hunter Valley
Panthers: Central West
Rabbitohs: Murray
Raiders: Southern Tablelands and South West Slopes
Roosters: New England and North West Slopes
Sea Eagles: Northern Rivers
Sharks or Tigers (Depending on a Relocation to Western Australia): Riverina