Quote: JB Down Under "Seriously in many ways as an actual business we are not close. West Coast Eagles in a city 1/3rd size of Sydney has an operating budget of nearly $50mill and a profit ofover $4.5million last year. Brisbane is by far our biggest RL club and has an operating budget of around $20mill and most Sydney clus are around $12-15mill.
I know if you live in Sydney the NRL seems huge but in direct comparisons it is not compared to AFL. TV audiences are very similiar, playing numbers are similiar, AFL has more $'s at both a club and league level, AFL is expanding beyond its traditional boundaries whilst the NRL is still focused on keeping its heartland alive, the AFL control the media, the media controls the NRL and the people who actually go to watch games is triple in AFL.
I love RL and find AFL pretty boring to watch but we are falling further and further behind the AFL, blind freddy can see that!'"
I was just in Perth so I know what you are talking about re- the NRL's profile there.
But be honest, you are a long way from the action in this country.
The east coast - QLD, NSW and the ACT - have all the people (58%) and the NRL's profile there dwarfs everything else...
All of the current sports expansion in Australia is as a result of rugby league. The AFL is desperate to get into Gold Coast and western Sydney. Now union is running to catch up.
We are leading them all a merry tune in this regard...forget the spin, that is what has occurred.
