Will 2024 be the best NRL season ever?

[Damien]

Absolutely love this, pure gold:

 

[John bird]

18 minutes ago, Damien said:

Absolutely love this, pure gold:

 

What’s even better is that this was the storm’s biggest crowd against the knights at AAMI stadium with 20,269 in attendance.

incredible stuff.

[Anita Bath]

Talk in the media today about moving origin games to Monday evening to give players returning to their clubs two more days recuperation.

Makes sense to me but does it make sense to channel 9?
 

Certainly some of the games this weekend were underwhelming.

 

 

[Farmduck]

4 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

Talk in the media today about moving origin games to Monday evening to give players returning to their clubs two more days recuperation.

Makes sense to me but does it make sense to channel 9?
 

Certainly some of the games this weekend were underwhelming.

 

 

Monday night RL has never been a winner. I remember back in the (Oz)SL season when Fox gave Channel 9 a Monday night game free, presumably to promote SL, and it fizzled very quickly. It started as a live game but moved to a 10.30pm replay very quickly because nobody watched it. 

Things have changed in TV now but back then Monday was very important to FTA channels. Big viewers numbers were important to promote all the rest of the week's programmes and Channel 9 couldn't afford to lose primetime viewers in that slot. I never watch FTA in real time now, except for SOO and GFs, so I don't know how much has changed.

Monday Night Footy is one of those American ideas which didn't translate to the OZ market, like Starbucks.

 

[Damien]

 

 

[Anita Bath]

Stand alone game on a public holiday with no other professional sport on. 

Suggests that the olympic stadium is not the problem some consider it to be.

[unapologetic pedant]

15 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

Certainly some of the games this weekend were underwhelming.

Which were the underwhelming games?

[Sports Prophet]

5 hours ago, Damien said:

 

 

Goes to show how big the Broncos are doesn’t it.

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Goes to show how big the Broncos are doesn’t it.

Yeah massive club. I think they've been the biggest in Rugby League since their inception.

[John bird]

14 minutes ago, Damien said:

Yeah massive club. I think they've been the biggest in Rugby League since their inception.

I think with some sustained success i.e. making regular deep runs into the playoffs and making grandfinals and even winning grandfinals would see the NZ warriors become the 2nd biggest club in the NRL behind the broncos in terms of crowds.

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, John bird said:

I think with some sustained success i.e. making regular deep runs into the playoffs and making grandfinals and even winning grandfinals would see the NZ warriors become the 2nd biggest club in the NRL behind the broncos in terms of crowds.

I was inclined to agree, but I think they already are the 2nd biggest by crowds (after taking away inflated crowds for home games at Magic or Las Vegas).

[Anita Bath]

2 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Which were the underwhelming games?

Dragons v Tigers plus the three Queensland games. Three blow outs and a very ordinary broncos performance.

[John bird]

47 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

I was inclined to agree, but I think they already are the 2nd biggest by crowds (after taking away inflated crowds for home games at Magic or Las Vegas).

I should have stated that it’s only due to the limited capacity of Mt smart stadium that is holding the warriors back from breaking the 30k+ barrier.

the warriors seriously need to look at a stadium expansion of at least another 5k in the next 12-18 months.

[unapologetic pedant]

3 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

Dragons v Tigers plus the three Queensland games. Three blow outs and a very ordinary broncos performance.

Tigers were leading at half-time.

Not sure I fully trust your blowout classifications anyway. Seem to recall a thread in the Aussie section about one "blowout" which had 6 points between the teams coming up to the 70-minute mark.

Broncos were beaten by a top-two team. Their last outing at Suncorp, unaffected by Origin, was a defeat to the Titans.

Some overly-discerning observers have a habit of spotting "underwhelming" qualities in rounds affected by Origin which are no less common in rounds unaffected by Origin. Thereby paving the way for dismal remarks about rounds affected by Origin.

[Anita Bath]

The women play 70 minutes…getting blown out in the last 10 mins is still a blow out (or in the case of the Tigers, the last 40 mins….underwhelming is a compliment for the Tigers performance)

Broncos performance was very poor. Their kicking game was atrocious, just the old kick it in the air and hope for the best. In the words of Rishi Sunak…there is no plan.

Obviously they have been spoilt by Reynolds. Of course Reynolds second in command when it comes to kicking was unable to play because of a violent attack on him in origin.

Maybe you didnt find the performances of TiTans and Cowboys underwhelming but coming off the back of some good performances in previous week/s it certainly looked like they had become distracted.

[AB90]

11 hours ago, Damien said:

Yeah massive club. I think they've been the biggest in Rugby League since their inception.

Biggest club in either rugby code on the planet. By a long way 

[John bird]

2 hours ago, AB90 said:

Biggest club in either rugby code on the planet. By a long way 

Makes you wonder if they could expand suncorp stadium to a near 60k capacity and with the population of the Brisbane region rapidly expanding year on year could the broncos get even bigger?

[Farmduck]

1 hour ago, John bird said:

Makes you wonder if they could expand suncorp stadium to a near 60k capacity and with the population of the Brisbane region rapidly expanding year on year could the broncos get even bigger?

Would it make sense, in the overall context of the NRL, for the Broncos to get bigger? It might be better to add another Brisbane team hoping that eventually, you would have 2 clubs getting 35K crowds rather than 1 club getting 50K+

The 10-year crowd average for the Broncos is about 31K (I left out the Covid year)

[Anita Bath]

2 hours ago, John bird said:

Makes you wonder if they could expand suncorp stadium to a near 60k capacity and with the population of the Brisbane region rapidly expanding year on year could the broncos get even bigger?

Just announced today in Queensland budget funding for redevelopment of Suncorp as part of Olympics infrastructure plan.

[John bird]

4 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

Just announced today in Queensland budget funding for redevelopment of Suncorp as part of Olympics infrastructure plan.

That’s awesome news.

what’s the capacity expected to be after redevelopment?

[John bird]

5 hours ago, Farmduck said:

Would it make sense, in the overall context of the NRL, for the Broncos to get bigger? It might be better to add another Brisbane team hoping that eventually, you would have 2 clubs getting 35K crowds rather than 1 club getting 50K+

The 10-year crowd average for the Broncos is about 31K (I left out the Covid year)

Maybe but you can’t get in the way of progression and hold back a club like broncos that is on an upward trajectory.

best to let the dolphins figure out if they are indeed a 2nd Brisbane team or a team that represents the moreton bay and Sunshine Coast regions over the next decade before even thinking about adding another Brisbane/south east Queensland team.

Edited June 11, 2024 by John bird

[Anita Bath]

6 hours ago, John bird said:

That’s awesome news.

what’s the capacity expected to be after redevelopment?

Nothing specific just the funding…$2.7billion in 2024-25 financial year for “upgrades and refurbishment” of The QAS, the Gabba and Suncorp. Not sure this will be used to increase capacity.

[Sports Prophet]

46 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

Nothing specific just the funding…$2.7billion in 2024-25 financial year for “upgrades and refurbishment” of The QAS, the Gabba and Suncorp. Not sure this will be used to increase capacity.

I would be astonished if this included an increase in capacity. However, there is nowt wrong with improving the aged ammenities and corporate facilities.

[John bird]

How awesome was it to see 3 sellouts in yesterday and today games to offset a couple of poor crowds due to origin and awful weather.

NRL is on fire this season and long may it continue!!

[John bird]

Absolute thriller of a game played in front of 25,167 this morning to get round 16 off with a bang.

tomorrow mornings game between the titans and warriors should also be a cracker with a crowd of 20k+ expected on the Gold Coast with the warriors fans probably outnumbering the home fans.