To labour your metaphor you also dont plant them too close together because it means you cant grow a strong tree as it needs to fight for nutrients, and water, and sunlight and instead of a big strong tree able to last for hundreds of years you get small trees which struggle and wither at the first tough winter.

The lone boabab can last for a thousand years in the desert,

You don't come on RLFans expecting gardening advice.

Yet if you plant them in fertile land many can prosper in close proximity to each other. Irrigated land is better than desert.

Are there too many clubs in Sydney?

yes, far too many, most people in Sydney would agree.

In fact the next expansion of the NRL is as likely to come from a Sydney franchise moving as an expansion of the league

Totally loving the knowledge on here, you really can learn something new every day

The salary cap would even the comp up more if every team could afford to spend up to it.

Hmmmm... There are some fairly large and ancient forests around the world that don't do too bad.

The largest trees in the world grow in groves and live for several thousand years.

err no it isn't! Not a cat in hells chance of that happening.

Agreed but as 75% of clubs are allegedly spending the same you would expect a more even competition, no?

Doesn't mean there aren't too many teams in Sydney or the surrounding areas though?

5 first grade games in Sydney's premier competition at the weekend including 2 games involving contests between "local" sides and the average gate was 14,600....that points for fan fatigue.

No argument from me but it isn't going to change anytime soon.

which is a shame....8k rattling around a 45k stadium is never a good look....which might be an issue for the TV execs/IC next month.

Not when that same game rated higher in the tv ratings than any other sport. Tv execs care about bums on couches not crowd attendances.

Hmmm...we'll see.

I will be sad to see Salford go, despite being a Wire. Who wouldn't be sad to see a grand old member of the sport go, and to see a club's fans have their club taken away? I wouldn't be too pleased if the boot were on the other foot.

But, dispassionately- much of this is of the club's making (not the fans, the club, I hasten to add). Salford's problem for a generation has been that they've been anonymous in their own heartland. I grew up on the other side of the canal, literally, from the new stadium, and not an awful long way from the Willows. But when I was at primary school, they made no effort to get the kids on board, whereas United and City did. And that was in the early 90s, when City were brassic and United weren't yet rolling in cash.

At secondary, I went off to Fallowfield and my brother went to school in Urmston. At my place, rugby league didn't exist, even though a lad the year above me had a brief stint playing at Salford, and I had one mate who used to go to the Willows. In Urmston, my brother's only contact with Salford came in the form of his mates who used to go.

By the time that I'd got watching League (which was only because my brother and I were bored and jumped on a train to Warrington because we heard there was a game on that night, and I fell in love with the sport), in my early twenties, I had had zero contact with Salford RLFC, despite living in its exact catchment area. My parents to this day have never received any form of marketing from the club but could drive there in 5 minutes.

Salford represent a massive marketing failure, so fair play to this Chris Bird lad for trying to do it himself. I hope it's not too late to turn it all around.