League Express editor MARTYN SADLER considers the options facing the NRL as it plans for expansion beyond its current 17 clubs.
Oh to be Down Under!
The NRL is in a truly fortunate position.
It has 17 clubs, one more than in 2022, and the accession of the Dolphins this season has so far been an outstanding success, much greater than many pundits predicted. There is no reason to think that will change as the season unfolds.
On the financial front, the income coming into the game appears sufficient to have made most NRL clubs profitable, in contrast to the losses being suffered by rugby union clubs all over the world.
It’s perhaps not surprising that the NRL is considering further expansion, perhaps to as many as 20 clubs in the fullness of time.
And the great thing about expansion for the NRL is that it is faced with a dizzying array of options, so the course it takes will tell us a lot about its future strategy.
The NRL claims to be a national competition, but it isn’t represented in Perth and Adelaide, the fourth and fifth largest urban areas in Australia. Those two cities did have clubs in the 1990s – the Western Reds in Perth (from 1995 to 1997) and the Adelaide Rams (1997 to 1998) – but they were excluded from the competition when the ARL and Super League competitions came back together in 1999.
So one obvious strategy would be to bring back NRL clubs in those two cities to make the game truly national.
But that is by no means the only strategy the NRL might wish to follow.
This year’s accession of the Dolphins to the competition, and its remarkable success, with the Brisbane derby already having sold out the Suncorp Stadium, perhaps lays down an alternative template. As Wayne Bennett put it, why not fish where the fishes are!
The Dolphins are based at Redcliffe, which is a town approximately 17 miles north of the Brisbane central business district (CBD). Perhaps the town’s main claim to fame, apart from Rugby League, is that it was the home of the Gibb family, whose three sons formed the Bee Gees and never looked back. The club will play most of its home games at Suncorp Stadium, but some of its games at its home base, which these days is known as Kayo Stadium.
Some people are now suggesting that a second new club should be established in Ipswich, a significant city of 232,000 people some 25 miles west of the Brisbane CBD. The advantage of such a club would be that it would immediately tap in to the groundswell of support for Rugby League in southeast Queensland and it would give more local derbies for the Broncos, Dolphins and Gold Coast Titans. It would also counter the presence of the AFL, especially given that the Brisbane Lions have recently set up their HQ in Ipswich.
The Ipswich Jets currently play in the Queensland Cup. Their home base is the North Ipswich Reserve, which currently has a capacity of 5,500, but with plans in place for major redevelopment that would increase the capacity to more than 20,000. They lost out to the Dolphins last time, but they would surely be able to present a convincing case a second time, particularly after the success of the Dolphins.
Then of course there is the option of a second club in New Zealand, which I would like to see established in Christchurch and which would represent the South Island, with the Warriors effectively becoming a North Island club. That would help the NRL capitalise on the upsurge of interest in the NRL south of the Tasman Sea and it would be helped by the construction of an impressive new stadium in Christchurch that is expected to open in April 2026.
The outline of Christchurch’s $683 million Te Kaha Stadium is starting to take shape as construction continues on the project. It would be a perfect location for a new NRL club, which could also play some home matches at other South Island locations such as Dunedin and Nelson.
Another proposal that is being pushed strongly, in particular by the Australian government, is for a Pasifika side, which would have links to Papua New Guinea and the other South Pacific nations, but which would probably play most of its home games in Cairns in North Queensland. The Aussie government is keen on this idea to secure stronger cultural and sporting links with nations in the South Pacific to counter the growing influence of China. For that reason, I have strong reservations about it. The government would provide plenty of initial funding, but would it continue? The NRL would be taking quite a risk to base its expansion policy on non-sporting criteria.
If I were devising a strategy for the NRL, I would look towards adding a club every four years – 2027, 2031, 2035 and so on. I would want to bring back Perth and Adelaide but I certainly wouldn’t close my eyes to new clubs in highly populated parts of the country that already have demonstrated strong support for Rugby League, which would include the Central Coast in New South Wales.
In order to get it right I would appoint someone at a high level within the NRL to do the groundwork for getting clubs into the competition, effectively creating a template – securing the right backers initially, getting a commitment to improved stadia from state and local governments, creating a strong brand and community identity, building anticipation by taking NRL games there, increasing participation locally and so on.
On that basis there would be almost no limits to the NRL’s expansion possibilities.
This modified and expanded article is based on Martyn Sadler’s ‘Final Whistle’ column in the May edition of Rugby League World magazine. Rugby League World is only available, either in print or digitally, by taking out a subscription. If you would like to subscribe, go to https://www.totalrl.com/rugby-league-world/
