Its funny to look back at the Warriors bid. Cooked up around the kitchen table by a bunch of blokes from Mt Albert RL club.
Most thought an Auckland side would struggle to attract and maintain crowds because it had never been done before.
A lot of folk predicted Mt Smart would be empty after the novelty wore off.
And the Warriors did their best to prove that prediction with their worst years, which have been many. Yet the five thousand still turned up.
The Warriors make the NRL more money in merchandising sales than any other club and the SKY deal is profitable for them. The Kea merchandise will sell like gang busters, because there are so many X pats that like to wear their homelands colors in the streets.
There were critics of an Auckland expansion team that claimed the Warriors would never attract elite Australian players, and while we have it harder than other clubs, we have managed.
The thing about the South Island is that they breed winners mate. Tougher people in sports ethic than lazy old Auckland in any sport you care to name.
And they have just started to show up looking to compete in the School boys NZ comp and one of the down south schools won without being really pressed.
I suspect that a well run South Island Franchise will be better than the Warriors at identifying and developing local talent and that they will also be competitive in the signing market of Australian players to a level where they succeed.
I suspect the Salary cap will be loosened for new Franchises to help them get established, and this is because of the PNG franchise needing early results to keep the Australian Govt happy.
It has been done before, the Melbourne Storm had a loosened Salary cap to start with in the interest of competing with the AFL. They of course were the most successful new franchise ever, they were undefeated in their first season till they ran into the Warriors.
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