Quote: JB Down Under "Only if a NSW team relocates there. Even then I doubt very much the NRL has much interest in SA at the moment. Not sure what has happened to the Wellington bid team? The were all gung ho before and even muted joining the SL they were so desperate. There has been no noise at all from them about 2013. The NZ TV deal is actually quite lucrative for the NRL so if a 2nd NZ team increased that then I would suggest they would be all for it.'"
Agree that a relocation would be best.
Gotta remember that things can change very quickly. It was only a few years ago when the NRL had 15 teams and knocked back the GC, CC and Wellington. Now they're talking about going to 18 teams in 2013...
With the likelihood that by 2013 the only city in Australia over 150,000 people without an NRL team is Adelaide would probably kick-start some local interest, especially if the comp is televised there. The Rams had very good support until they it was obvious they were going to be kicked out.
Couple of other points:
- Very little local competition in SA. The only other winter teams are the two AFL franchises. In summer there's the cricket and soccer teams.
- They already have a decent rectangular stadium which needs no upgrades.
- 1,000,000+ Australians are worth more than 400,000 Kiwi's. Especially with sponsorships and media rights negotiated by Australian companies.
As for Wellington, they've probably just given up. IIRC they had a single rich backer and he's probably lost interest, especially since the NRL has ruled out expanding outside Australia until after 2013. Assuming the next tv deal is for six years then the earliest that they would be able to join the comp would be in 2019/2020.
