No NRL Expansion as NRL sign new TV deal

Bomberboyokay

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Not sure the EPL news has changed much. Fox Sports realistically are still the only subscription service who are both going to pay what the NRL want - near $1billion I think? - and produce the matches. Optus paid just $50million for the EPL and gets it ready made from Premier League Productions.
 
Apr 7, 2012
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the NRL can't possibly get anywhere near a billion for the remaining rights so it's a moot point.
as for the foxtel's the only choice thats nonsense the ABL has there own channel on youtube with proper commentators streaming in HD live and this is because they hire a company to do it just as the FTA and subscription channels do. the ABL even turns a profit on its coverage and they get * all views.

the only thing foxtel offer is money. which the NRL won't get, hence other subscribers like optus become a very real option.
if other companies demonstrate they are willing to pay reasonable money to enter the market it breaks fox's monopoly and so fox will pay more, they still won't get anywhere near a billion. but it does shift the balance away from fox and force them to pay more than they otherwise would.
 
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It's been interesting reading the different views of supporters of each side.

Losing Rugby league on Fox, no matter if it is only 4 games, maybe 5 if we chuck in two more teams, which is still on IMO, would simply drive away too many subscribers in two of their biggest markets.
 

nobbyiscool

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It's been interesting reading the different views of supporters of each side.

Losing Rugby league on Fox, no matter if it is only 4 games, maybe 5 if we chuck in two more teams, which is still on IMO, would simply drive away too many subscribers in two of their biggest markets.

Which is why I think every knows a deal will get done - they just have to wait for Murdoch and Fox Sports to stop crying about their bruised egos from being shut out of the initial negotiations (this doesn't change the fact that it was stunningly bad business from the NRL to shut them out).

I hope the EPL does end up with smart-tv/Apple TV apps by Optus... I just don't see it though. The problem is that producing those things in-house is really the only way they can make money. I don't think you can pay $60m a year and expect to make it back in mobile phone churns and smart-tv apps. We're going to end up with either a BeIN sports-type channel, the rights being onsold to Foxtel anyway, or an expansion of Fetch.
 
Nov 20, 2011
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It's been interesting reading the different views of supporters of each side.

Losing Rugby league on Fox, no matter if it is only 4 games, maybe 5 if we chuck in two more teams, which is still on IMO, would simply drive away too many subscribers in two of their biggest markets.

Fox would definitely know this and would want to keep League. Surely.
 
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Nov 20, 2011
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Huge rumours going around at the moment, apparently if the Bears can't get a gig on the Central Coast they will instead pursue a takeover of the Gold Coast with the Titans to be renamed by 2017/2018.
 
Nov 20, 2011
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So long as a stipulation is made to play no more than 1 or 2 games away from the GC, then great.

Bears are still adament about the CC and the NRL apparently want more games there anyway, so go figure. Gold Coast doesn't need a team anyway.
 
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Bears are still adament about the CC and the NRL apparently want more games there anyway, so go figure. Gold Coast doesn't need a team anyway.

The game doesn't need more teams in NSW. Send any one of the low drawing teams there 3 or 4 times a year. Gold Coast to stay right where they are.
 
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Apr 7, 2012
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The game doesn't need more teams in NSW. Send any one of the low drawing teams there 3 or 4 times a year. Gold Coast to stay right where they are.

that doesn't solve any of the problems, the solution to the gold coasts problems is not bring in another NSW team nor is it to leave to the titans playing on the gold coast.

you relocate them or replace them with another Qld league. ipswich is begging for a team brisbane wants a second team, the sunshine coast wants a team.
 
Nov 20, 2011
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How does it not need a team?
Because the Gold Coast isn't the bees knees. Never has been.

2 or 3 failed basketball teams.
AFL club has hardly been a success (they have support however)
3 or 4 failed NRL clubs
Failed A-League club

If the Bears can't get a gig on the Central Coast, then they should takeover the Titans. But the Gold Coast isn't the (pardon the pun) gold mine of sports everyone thinks it is.
 
Nov 20, 2011
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Basketball is a joke in this country.

Gold Coast is the 6th biggest city in Australia. NRL (and AFL) will never let their team go now.

Because BA and the NBL can't get their s**t right or sorted or both. My grandfather will tell you stories about that.

GC maybe the 6th biggest city in Australia but it's sporting prospects, unless they win premierships or make finals consistently, will always be poor. It's the LA of Australia without all the casinos.
 
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you relocate them or replace them with another Qld league. ipswich is begging for a team brisbane wants a second team, the sunshine coast wants a team.

As does Perth and Wellington. One of those should be the first priority ahead of only a 2nd Brisbane team. Leave them where they are. Negotiate a cheaper deal for games at the venue first and foremost. If we relocate, then send someone else to wherever it might be.

At the end of the day I don't believe the NRL walk away from the GC anytime soon.
 
Sep 7, 2008
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The game doesn't need more teams in NSW. Send any one of the low drawing teams there 3 or 4 times a year. Gold Coast to stay right where they are.
Agree with this. I just don't understand how the CC is a viable option. Different sports but just look at the A League. The market is nowhere near big enough for a Central Coast and a Newcastle side.

Would love to see the Bears back. They were my first love before Newcastle.
 
Mar 21, 2008
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Because BA and the NBL can't get their s**t right or sorted or both. My grandfather will tell you stories about that.

GC maybe the 6th biggest city in Australia but it's sporting prospects, unless they win premierships or make finals consistently, will always be poor. It's the LA of Australia without all the casinos.
No it won't. I lived there during the Chargers years, when the population was less than a quarter of a million. In that entire four year span, I met two people in total who were GC born and raised. Everyone else was a southerner or a Kiwi, plus a few from Brisbane. The place was incredibly transient, but the population boom was just starting. In 1996, out exploring, I stopped and looked over the hill at Robina, which was just a vast desert of cleared subdivided blocks, before going to the shopping centre, which was a newly built ghost town ("build it and they will come")...

These days, Robina and a few other spots on the coast are huge, and the GC has more than doubled in size. The real clincher for sport is that while twenty years ago noone gave a rat's arse about GC teams because they moved there and still barracked for their own, these people have now bought houses in places like Robina and plenty of other suburbs, and they're raising kids who see themselves as Gold Coasters. This generational change is the one thing lacking for big sports on the GC, and if it hasn't arrived now it won't be far away. It won't be as parochially RL as Brisbane for a fair while yet, because of the southern influence, but that too will change because they're all still Queenslanders...

The Titans have been well supported but abysmally run. This flaw has nothing to do with the general population, just the people in charge. They aren't going anywhere..
 
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