There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills!
Just to prove I’m over the RWC (did you see that the ref WAS told it was a forward pass!!!???), here’s a little gem.
The North Melbourne Kangaroos are being pressured to relocate to the Gold Coast to boost the presence of AFL in Queensland.
Queensland already has a relocated team – the Brisbane Lions – who won a couple of flags in a row.
Quite frankly the little I know about AFL is too much already.
However, there is some relevance to sports that do interest me.
There has already been some talk of “relocating” a Pacific Island team either in Auckland or on the East Coast of Oz – Brisbane has been suggested as one suitable local. It solves the travel and facilities problem and gets the Islanders into the comp.
The NRL is another comp that could look at relocation to spread the word. No team has yet relocated although a couple of teams did merge – the Tigers with Wests and the Steelers & Dragons.
The Bulldogs did try and develop a relationship with Wellington and likewise the Eels with Hamilton.
The relative success of the Phoenix – in terms of crowds – makes you wonder what would happen if Wellington got its own NRL team.
Given that there’s three teams outside of Queensland and NSW and a further 3 teams in Queensland, it leaves 10 teams in NSW with most of those in Sydney.
Logic would suggest that the teams in Sydney are competing for the similar amounts of sponsorship money as the one team in NZ.
I wouldn’t be the first to wonder how big a crowd you’d get to a Warriors v Wellington NRL game.
