0
Expanding not so easy
By Rebecca Wilson Expanding not so easy | The Daily Telegraph
March 15, 2008 12:00am
NRL boss David Gallop mentioned in dispatches recently that he would love to see a rugby league team in Wellington, New Zealand and another in Perth.
AFL chief Andrew Demetriou remains determined to see two more teams - one in Western Sydney and another on the Gold Coast.
And this week, rugby union boss John O'Neill joined the expansionists by claiming that a Super 14 team in Japan was exactly what rugby needed at this stage of its history.
Of course, they say no team will fall off the other end while all of this brave new era takes shape.
Demetriou is arrogant enough to believe Australia can sustain an 18-team competition without any clubs falling by the wayside. Gallop is the same - no team in the cluttered Sydney market would suffer if new franchises were introduced to development markets.
But each of these ego-driven leaders should take a long, hard look at the facts before any of these new clubs become a reality.
Football clubs rely heavily on three major revenue streams for their livelihood - sponsors, television rights and bums on seats.
One of the greatest clubs in the NRL, the St George Illawarra Dragons, have admitted they are a financial basket case. They can barely afford to pay their players - and that's with an injection of funds from their leagues club.
The Dragons rarely fill a stadium. Like so many of their Sydney cousins, the week-to-week battle to keep the club alive is getting tougher. As recession bites, it will become even tougher.
Peter Holmes a Court and Russell Crowe have achieved saturation media coverage with their South Sydney experiment.
The pair will tell anyone who listens it is working a treat. The bottom line is that Souths can't fill a stadium either and have been forced to move 40km from their home base to the former Olympic Stadium because of financial incentives offered by stadium management.
The place is running at a loss and no amount of glossy magazine shots featuring Hollywood stars or Armani-clad players is going to change the bottom line.
The AFL has too many clubs in Melbourne. While we hear all day about the sponsorship wonder that is Collingwood, Demetriou doesn't tell us too much about the financial disaster that surrounds the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and Richmond.
These clubs are stuffed. Even the Swans - the one AFL team in Australia's biggest city - rarely achieve a sellout. QBE boss and Swans tragic Graeme Pash said you don't sponsor footy clubs to turn a big profit. You do it for love or you don't do it at all.
Demetriou seems determined to put a second team into Sydney. We have read a mountain of propaganda recently about the AFL nurseries that are burgeoning in the western suburbs of Sydney.
A growing number of junior players won't guarantee success in Australia's toughest football market. Just ask the Sydney Kings basketball team - threatened with extinction in a city that has more junior basketballers than league and union players put together.
Big numbers of juniors do not translate to big sponsor dollars. The Gold Coast has always had a strong junior base. But the only reason the Gold Coast Titans look viable is that the area is now Australia's fastest-growing and one of the wealthiest regions in the country.
Demetriou, Gallop and O'Neill argue that expanding their competitions will make the television pie a lot bigger. But even TV rights can't continue to go up in an economic climate that is a lot less attractive than a decade ago.
John O'Neill is eyeing off Japan for a Super 14 franchise. He has a different problem from Demetriou and Gallop. There is no doubt Japan is a lucrative market because of its huge population and the fact it is the home of many big corporations.
But not many Japanese really like rugby. They have a small club competition manned almost entirely by foreigners at the end of their playing careers.
It is hardly a thriving rugby nursery. It is most definitely not a place many players fancy as a rugby destination.
O'Neill's rather whimsical view of Japan is similar to former league boss John Ribot, who actually advertised in Sydney newspapers for Cantonese commentators during his tenure at the now- defunct Super League.
Naturally enough, he received no replies and the sport has never been played in China.
Union, league and AFL must go through a process of consolidation in the next couple of years. Football is going to suffer in a tough economic climate and footy bosses need to batten down the hatches in preparation.
Perhaps Gallop, Demetriou and co. could have a look at the fortunes of clubs in their biggest markets - Sydney and Melbourne - before they embark on more nonsense in new places.
They will both find more than one basket case that may not make it beyond the next couple of seasons.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by beige
