NRL expansion plans could feature second Brisbane team
The ARL Commission is ready to consider an NRL premiership format in which a second Brisbane team would enter an expanded 17-team competition.
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The ARL Commission would consider a premiership format in which a second Brisbane team would enter an expanded 17-team competition.
Commission chairman Peter Beattie told The Courier-Mail in March that the NRL did not have the income to pay an annual grant of $13 million a year to two expansion clubs, which would avoid the need for a bye.
A second Brisbane team, which would play out of Suncorp Stadium or a more left-field option such as Redcliffe, is unlikely to happen before the next NRL broadcast agreement starts in 2023.
The ARLC has charged NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg to study all aspects of premiership composition and report back with recommendations and options late this year.
“We are at a consultative stage. We will look at all the options … 16, 17 (teams) and see with the broadcasters where it fits,’’ Beattie said on Wednesday.
“There are benefits and minuses with every model. But there is also a concern about increasing the number of teams. It’s very tricky. We will have more to say towards the end of the year.’’
Beattie said the new 25,000-seat Townsville stadium will host Test matches involving Australia, but he would not guarantee one in 2020, its first year of operation.
Beattie said there was no chance of the 2020 and 2021 grand finals being played in Brisbane because the League believed the NSW Government was honouring the spirit of its guarantees on Sydney stadium construction.
Free-to-air telecaster, the Nine Network, believes a 16-team competition is the best number, but would also like extra Queensland content.
A 17-team league would entail a bye for one team each round, which would be unpopular but also address player workload concerns.
The same number of home-and-away games, 24, could be played in a 17-team competition as in the 16-team format, with clubs playing each of the 16 opponents at least once, and half of them twice.
Sydney clubs will fight relocation unless they have no choice financially and the NRL’s annual grant helps the weaker clubs remain a competitive force.
NRL club chief executives will debate at a two-day conference starting on Thursday whether the finals should be open to 10 teams next year, with the adoption of a wildcard weekend of matches between teams finishing between seventh and 10th.
The NRL said it would present no recommendation to the conference and was seeking feedback from clubs over whether to adopt a format by which only six teams would be eliminated from finals football after the home-and-away rounds.
Beattie said international content would be coming Townsville’s way, with a decision also pending on the future of the World Nines, which will be played at Sydney’s Bankwest Stadium in October.
A State of Origin match in Townsville would not happen unless the State Government paid a multimillion-dollar match fee because of the stadium’s capacity when compared to interstate alternatives for the NRL.
“It will be a stadium like Bankwest Stadium, which is a game changer,’’ Beattie said.
“There will be international matches in Townsville — what they are and when they are is being negotiated. I reckon you will get Kangaroos games and also a whole lot of things.’’
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