General 2 wellington NRL bids

[kiwi's 13-6]

There was a newspaper article couple of weeks ago about NRL expansion and there being two bids from the wellington region. Does anyone know who is behind the two bids? i assume Wellington rugby league behind one? the article said something about 2nd bid primarily based in wellington but playing home games in other centres eg Christchurch. anyone know or heard anything about who is behind that bid in particular?

with the owners of the A league side wellington phoenix wanting to redevelop the petone recreation ground into a a new home stadium as phoenix play in summer Wellington NRL side could be winter tenants.. probly need to be a tad bit bigger than the 12,000 capacity the phoenix are going for say 15,000 to 18,000 and then could take bigger games eg local derby game against warriors to the cake tin to deal with bigger crowd.

also this would be awesome year round for petone and shops, cafes, bars and restaurants along Jackson street would be busy before and after games year round with A league and NRL sides based there. Hutt valley is way more of a league playing area than wellington city and petone is closest part of hutt valley to the city and porrirua making it reasonably easy to access by car and public transport from other area of wellington region. anyway after whatching warriors against parramata last week i think we need another side warriors never going to buck there slack act up after 20 years of over hype, 20 years of players who do some of the most moronic things ever seen on a league field, 20 year of stupid penalties, 20 years of management lacking clues and failure to look after the game outside of Auckland i dont care what the warriors payroll stoogees say its time for the warriors to come to the bitter end of being a one team per country side

 

[Sup42]

I hope they get a club.

The Warriors have had their chance.

In a lot of ways the Warrior brand has done a lot of damage to Rugby leagues profile in NZ.

People who want to wait remind me of the days when people were upset that there was a new TV channel in TV 3 playing a lot of American sitcom rubbish ( It really was rubbish ) and behaving informally behind the news desk.

Traditionalist refused to watch TV 3 news on principal. I was the opposite, I switched to support the competition on principal.

The Warriors need competition , they need a rocket , they need to wake up and fight for their share of the NZ league market.

I pray for the day another team / organisation gets to shake up the Culture at the Warriors.

I will support the new Franchise hard , and if the Warriors deliver on my invested life time of Loyalty I will continue to support them as well.....looking forward to people having choices.

 

[snake77]

As far as I am aware the first bid is local to Wellington most likely the Wellington Rugby League involved or local league identities and is the Orcas/Dolhpins? bid that has been mentioned since the time the Titans were brought into the comp. The second one came out of the blue while the 9's was on and the NRL was in town, private ownership by some NZ businessmen based in Australia.

Don't know how far advanced both bids are or how much money they have to finance their bids. Both are probably behind Perth and Brisbane.

Posters on here based in Wellington would have more of an idea on the potential crowds a team could get week in week out. Looking at the Hurricanes when things aren't going well the smaller stadium if it was a little higher then 12,000 may sustain their crowds in terms of average and any larger crowds if they are on a roll and a big match comes to town. The real big matches, derby against the Warriors, finals could be moved to WestPac.

A second NRL team gives us our own local derby which I'd be keen on. We would also most likely play them twice a year and would be our most likely opponent for round 1, so no more Eels ambush.

 

[Paleaaesina2the20]

No one will watch it after the first season in Wellington. The Phoenix have the lowest average attendance in the A-League, haven't managed to get a season average of 9,000 in the past 6 seasons. The Hurrincanes are notoriously bad as well, can't find updated stats on them but last i heard they had the worst attendance in the Super Rugby comp.

I reckon a team based in Wellington would average 10,000 per game in the first season then around 7,000 per game after that.

 

[snake77]

The plan of moving games around the country would probably be quite smart then.
I would imagine it would mean probably not naming the team Wellington as well.

I know there is a lot of talk of low NRL crowds at the moment but I would imagine 7,000 per game would be a low average for the NRL. I know we budget for 13,0000 and often get around 11,000. It's been a while since I've looked at the average attendances but even the suburban grounds in seem reasonably full most of the time the last few years. I'll check RLW for the average attendances in a few weeks.

 

[DavidMcKay1974]

No one will watch it after the first season in Wellington. The Phoenix have the lowest average attendance in the A-League, haven't managed to get a season average of 9,000 in the past 6 seasons. The Hurrincanes are notoriously bad as well, can't find updated stats on them but last i heard they had the worst attendance in the Super Rugby comp.

I reckon a team based in Wellington would average 10,000 per game in the first season then around 7,000 per game after that.

I dunno about that, don't forget parts of Wellington are predominatly League territories. Like Wainuiomata, Porirua, Tawa areas.

If we (and I say we because I'm a Southerner living in Porirua) do get a League team I would go and support them. And a lot of others who are big league fans would as well. The Hurricanes aren't getting the fan base because they suck, (I'm a Highlander fan), and the Phoenix, well they're just a different kettle of fish all together. They suck as well.

It depends on how well the Wellington team goes. If they go well the first few years, then expect a big fan base. If not, then expect it like the Warriors.

It can survive.

 

[gREVUS]

The plan of moving games around the country would probably be quite smart then.
I would imagine it would mean probably not naming the team Wellington as well.

I know there is a lot of talk of low NRL crowds at the moment but I would imagine 7,000 per game would be a low average for the NRL. I know we budget for 13,0000 and often get around 11,000. It's been a while since I've looked at the average attendances but even the suburban grounds in seem reasonably full most of the time the last few years. I'll check RLW for the average attendances in a few weeks.

they were talking about this on the replay of NRL 360 i just watched. The first thing that stood out to me was that ANZ stadium actually pays teams to come and play at their venue. Now i assume all teams get a portion of the gate, but ANZ was gauranting $100k for the Rabbits and teams like them. $80K for lesser teams like the Tigers. The second thing was that by putting the game at a good venue, which Wellington has, teams game day turn up numbers have been slowly growing. Small local venues with more 'feeling' don't allow for growth. Dont know how this would work in a place like Well, but it would put paid to the idea of a new stadium in Petone surely

 

[Blain]

I would like to see a "Southern" franchise based in Wellington, who play say 3 home games a season in Chch/Dunedin. This could be done early in the season to avoid clashes with the Nix and Canes.

I think you would find the crowds would be very strong, you have to remember the A-League and Super 15 aren't very popular competitions with most sport fans. Seems like everyone is bored of S15, and Football is very hit and miss with kiwis.

It will be very interesting to see what crowd turns up for the Warriors game here, after 25k was it last year?

 

[way2sharp]

Who would your Wellington 17 be?

 

[eudebrito]

I went to the phoenix game last sunday, attendance was around 6000-7000, there was almost no atmosphere and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon in the captial.

Would expect similar turnouts with a wellington nrl team if all their home games were played at the cake tin. They would draw a decent friday night crowd there, but we know those games are reserved for one in sydney, one in brisbane or occasionally melbourne. 12 home games a year if the current schedule holds, there would be a lot of empty yellow seats on most of those days.

If the Phoenix can hoodwink the hutt city council into funding a quality 15,000 seat stadium in petone, then the NRL bid should absolutely leverage that, having a large and medium sized venue within a region would be something new for wellington, though it would risk turning the cake tin into something of a white elephant outside of rugby tests, the 7s, and the warriors-orcas derbys.

I can't see the NRL seriously considering such a bid even with a shiny new stadium and private funding, not when there are only 5 teams outside of NSW in their own country.

 

[Paleaaesina2the20]

you have to remember the A-League and Super 15 aren't very popular competitions with most sport fans.

Super Rugby's average crowd last season was about 20,500 and NRLs was just under 16,000. More people watch the NRL on TV, (which is where the money is) but Union has always had better match attendance.

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

Super Rugby's average crowd last season was about 20,500 and NRLs was just under 16,000. More people watch the NRL on TV, (which is where the money is) but Union has always had better match attendance.

That's because of all the mad yarpies eating BBQ'd black fella on the high veldt - the Hurricanes average attendance last year was 8,780 and they only played 8 home games.

 

[Paleaaesina2the20]

That's because of all the mad yarpies eating BBQ'd black fella on the high veldt - the Hurricanes average attendance last year was 8,780 and they only played 8 home games.

Which goes to my point, that noone will watch it.

 

[ramraider78]

Would a wellington based franchise have the junior base to feed there 20's team?

 

[Jordan G]

Considering the amount of kiwis dragged over to aus every year for other clubs u20's I don't think we'll have a problem finding juniors. Not necessarily Wellington juniors, but there's no reason every one of them have to be.

 

[Blain]

Wellington doesnt have a massive junior base true, but this isnt helped that the top guys are picked up by the Aussie clubs who hold camps here regularly and give these guys contracts.

If a Wellington team was introduced, the amount of union converts to league would be massive. NRL U/20s shits all over club rugby, with an outside chance of playing a bit of NPC after a couple years out of High School.

If a Wellington team was to be introduced, they would have to have around 3 years to gear up, and develop the apropriate youth structure.

 

[DavidMcKay1974]

Would a wellington based franchise have the junior base to feed there 20's team?

Yes they would have a junior base, as there a lot of Secondary School Rugby League Players playing throughout Porirua, Tawa and around that area.

 

[Paleaaesina2the20]

What is the standard like though? I watched the Canterbury Bulls put 50 on the Wellington Orcas in back to back games in 2009/2010.

 

[t-wade23]

Fat chance the NRL let another "outsider" in the comp it bad enough the warriors made it two teams would be horrific for all the "traditionalists" of the NRL..

They would rather go back to failed experiments like Perth and Adelaide or Have another Brisbane team before they let another NZ team it a pipe dream until Wellington gives them a reason not to let them in which sucks cause if there was another team in the Country it help expand the game in NZ further

 

[¿N. ig-mah¿]

What is the standard like though? I watched the Canterbury Bulls put 50 on the Wellington Orcas in back to back games in 2009/2010.

The Canterbury Bulls used to frequently beat Auckland too, from what I have heard. That is irrelevant to an NRL clubs juniors. They would build their number from throughout the country, just as the Warriors did early on. Two guys from Bluff were in Warriors Development back around year one or two (I think one might have even got a game).