Quote: JB Down Under "Being dissapointed by SOME aspects of our great game is not disloyal. It shows ambition and a belief that we can and HAVE TO get better in alot of areas and for alot of teams. After reading all the hype pre season and reading all the excuses put forward by fans as to why our crowds remain stagnant this was a perfect example of the problems the game is facing.
As I said on the field brilliant, off it we have miles to go. Just because I don;t live with my head in the sand doesn;t mean anything. What the frick does the Reds being admitted in '95 and kicked out in '97 have to do with the way I feel about the game in 2010? You talk about loyalty, where was the loyalty to all the WA people who had worked their backsides off to get the Reds up and runing or the Perth fans that bought into the club and spent their hard earned supporting it for 3 years. Just to get shafted because News wanted Melbourne and ARL wanted a pound of flesh. Please don't talk to me about loyalty.
ps I am not the one bigging NRL up and running AFL down, that is the real joke. When the NRL has ONE club anywher near the size and strength of our little cities AFL clubs then we can start taking the pish!'"
I understand that, but your problem is, you expect it all straight away, it takes time to change things.
Look at the memberships, 2 years ago we had 10k all up, now we have 100,000+ 2 years later.
1 year ago we were no where near having a IC, this year the code has moved forward that much it's going to be done with by the end of the year.
1 year ago, all we heard was trouble with off field issues, this year it's been all about the footy on field.
Last year there was talk about the NRL getting the same or smaller amount of $$$ for the TV rights with no hope of any other TV station bidding, this year we have more TV stations taking the fight to ch9 and saying they are going to go after the game and some in the media saying we could get more than the AFL.
The game has grown in all areas from juniors, memberships, TV ratings, crowds and money from sponsors and merchandise.
I know you want a team bad, but we won't be seeing anything until at least 2013.
We have Perth, PNG, Central Coast, Central QLD, Logan and maybe another NZ team all wanting to get in, you don't see this with any other sport in Australia.
The almighty AFL are forcing teams on people who don't want them because they know if they don't get in, their code is going to really suffer down the line, but putting teams in where they are not wanted is the worse thing they could do.
The S14 Union mob can't get 3 decent teams going in Australia, they have 4 now and they are struggling, what do they do? Bring in a 5th, yeah great thinking.
The Soccer mob have murdered their comp by expanding to fast, and they are bringing in 2 more sides in the next 2 seasons, silly isn't it?
RL is sitting back and waiting to strike at the right time, let these other codes blow their money.
You'll get your team, but we have to make sure we can afford it first because we don't want to be like the AFL having to prop up teams for decades that the people DON'T want, we don't want to be like the Soccer who are bleeding millions and expand for expansions sake, and we are not that desperate like the ARU to get anything we possibly can at any expense getting tonked at all levels just to have the look of a national comp.
Patience is needed.
