It's not just attracting fans and sponsors from new markets, it's giving existing sponsors more value aswell.

Nines is fast and furious and the success in NZ is a testament to that. Dave Smith has explicitly said it's the perfect tool to promote the sport in new areas and it's hard to disagree with him.

If the game continues to look inward then it'll just end up shrinking. Imagine if Baskerville, etc had had so little faith in the game that it never reached Australia or New Zealand?

Maybe a Nines comp should be held in Los Angeles or Hawaii then where there is at least a chance of bolstering a local comp rather than playing in front of "expats" in a city on the edge of a Desert where I cannot imagine it being much more than a novelty event.

What will sponsors like Steggles and NRMA and many others get from the exposure?

You have the Crusaders managed so badly that they were almost buggered before they got going.
London allowed to wither on the Vine for years and years.
Bradford a basketcase for years and now pretty well shot.
Half of the bottom teams are hanging on on a wing and a prayer financially.
But hey lets not worry about the foundations of the game lets play a game in a Bent Arab country and see if that gets the game moving forward.

Makes no sense when the core business is going backwards.

Yes, the NRL accepted the proposal and threw their support behind it too grow the game in NZ, if there had been no Council prize money on offer it may well have never got off the ground.
Many of the NRL Clubs were far below full strength for the Nines and it will be interesting to see how they support it in its second year.


Do you think the NRL Clubs will or should support a second nines tournament in Dubai?

Lol, you just don't get it do you? A world club nines would be about money, plain and simple. Not fans, not growing the game, just money. Clubs get an appearance fee, sponsors get new exposure market and the game gets exposure to potential new sponsors. It also challenges the pit village flat cap image the game continues to suffer from. Nines has huge potential for growing RL and it's exposure to new audiences.

Personally I'd like to see a SL nines like the NRL NZ one pre season or in place of magic weekend and then a world international nines in October every other year.

The NRL clubs have no option but to support it, it is in the contract that x amount of top players have to play. Would they support a dubai nines? If the NRL tells them they have to then yes they would. Should they? If the $$$'s are right then yes they should.

Plenty of big names did not attend the Auckland nines.
The Clubs were only obliged to provide less than half of their top players to the tournament.

If the players union say its too many games in a season in will be an issue.

Give the Auckland tournament a chance to get some solid foundations before trying a pie in the sky Dubai competing nines.

What message does it send to the backers of the Auckland nines if another nines starts up on the back of their success.
Its no wonder this game struggles to get investment and sponsors at times.

The Dubai concept is just mouthy Marwan wanting headlines and tapping into English fans need to be relevant in the game.
Without the southern hemisphere clubs and Test teams it appears England cannot get anything happening that sells or gets interest.

England should concentrate on building France up from the abyss they have fallen into in the last 20 years.

Show me the money.

The money that is being offered in prize money and the money to cover all of the teams costs.

p.s I get it better than you appear to do looking at your timeline on when the "Pirates" will be in the NRL, I don't reckon we will see them next year.

Of course it's a novelty event. That's exactly what it should be to start with.
I really don't think playing a 9's tournament in a place that has no RL team in the US competition would boost that competition at all.

More chance of getting the Yanks interested in a sport like League than the Arabs.