rlThe NZRL is keen to see a second NRL team based in New Zealand, saying they have enough playing talent to sustain it.rl

It's excellent that they are pushing on with this again. There's pros and cons of each city individually, . The Waikato has a good rectangular stadium in Hamilton (Wellington and Canterbury are cricket grounds), and a decent junior nursery. However, the Waikato is only a couple of hours from Auckland (130km south).

According to Kiwi poster Te Kaha on the LeagueUnlimited thread rlNZ - The Forgotten Frontier?rl, from post 63, his views were the following (I asked whether North Harbour or the Waikato would be an alternative to Wellington/Christchuch:

Te Kaha believed that North Harbour, and Auckland as a whole, is too apathetic towards sport for a second NRL franchise to survive. The Waikato was a possibility, it's easily accessible for the outlying districts, but in order for League to grow in NZ, it has to be either Wellington or Christchurch. A franchise will need the corporate support to survive, and it would need to do well straight away.

The issue of corporate support might rule out regions like the Waikato, Taranaki or Hawke's Bay. However, a major challenge for choosing Wellington is securing resource consent for staging matches at night. When the Cake Tin was built, neighbouring residents lobbied successfully for a provision that only a certain number of events be staged at night. The NZ All Blacks RU test team, Hurricanes Super Rugby franchise, Wellington Lions NPC province, and Wellington Phoenix soccer would have most slots sewn up.

OTOH a team based solely in Christchurch would find it very difficult to compete against the Crusaders and Canterbury Rugby, with all the success they've had. The Crusaders are arguably the Brisbane Broncos of Rugby.

One proposal has suggested the Southern Orcas share home games between Wellington and Christchurch. This could expand NRL to NZ's second and third most populous provincial regions. However, with the straight line distance between the two cities being 305km, and part of that being the 20km Cook Strait (of water). Drive or train is 5 hours, ferry is 3 hours, so 8 hours total. Flying is 45 minutes.

The clubs would effectively need to selling 6 game membership/ticket packages (or fractions of) in each region. Australian clubs sell 3 game mini membership packages, but for a new team, it could be a challenge.

I would like to hear Gutters opinion on this.
What do you reckon Gutters,is there enough talent in NZ to sustain a 2nd team and where would the be the best place to locate them.
I don't know about you but what about Wellington,would this be feasible.

There def is enough talent. There are currently over 80 NZ players in Australian NRL clubs 1st teams and same again in the under 20's and around 30 in ESL. That's over 110 players currently playing 1st garde in Europe or Australia that a 2nd NZ team could be formed from!

Christchurch showed for the Warriors game this year that there is an appetite for RL and they will turn out for a NZ team. I'd have the Southern Orcas playing 8 games in Wellington and 4 games in Christchurch. You could sell memberships accordingly and would doublt the corporate base to work from as well as making sure we hooked two cities into RL. They could then develop NZRL or NSW cup teams in each city similiar to Wests and Balmain etc.

There is no formal bid put together for next year though and they are probably leaving it too late to get one in so earliest would be 2018.

How's this for a team if salary cap wasn't an issue!

1. S. Perret
2. J. Webster
3. S. Matai
4. S. Kenny-Dowall
5. J. Nightingale
6. B. Marshall
7. T. Leuluai
8. A. Blair
9. I. Luke
10. J. Lima
11. SBW
12. J. Smith
13. H. Hanson

14. F. Pritchard
15. F. Moi Moi
16. J.W-Hargreaves
17. S. Manu
18. K. Inu

Read somewhere that 60% of the players in all toyota cup teams qualify for NZ. Not sure if it's true, but there is easily enough talent in NZ to cope with a 2nd Franchise........

No offence, Cats but it is hardly big news that NZ are pushing for a 2nd team.

They have been working towards it for quite a while.

have they? Since the Wellington bid failed last time around (and the muted idea of having it in SL was coshed) I haven't heard anything about a bid for a 2nd NZ team until this.

oh yes, bring it on.

20k at todays game, does Wellington have a rectangular stadium?

When the NRL decide to expand and let's hope it's soon they should in my opinion pick Perth and a team from NZ.

It will be Perth and Central Coast next time.

You are in Perth...