Expansion Hunter Valley / Central Coast

[DERIBERATE]

Newcastle and Central Coast are 2 separate regions and they don't really identify with each other. Rugby League is the main squeeze for Central coast people and it can't sustain an NRL club despite a private operator building a stadium for a relocated Sydney team. It has strong player numbers for football but the Mariners A-League team only averages around 8k per game. Newcastle is rugby league and football heartland. The NRL team saturates the market, and the Newcastle Jets a-league team cycles between unsustainable and breakeven, with crowds ranging from 7 to 13k averages.

Nobody even plays aussie rules in these places. And neither have an oval stadium. How anyone could think it's an expansion market for the AFL is just baffling. I'm not even sure if these regions fall under the capital cities TV ratings areas so even the fanciful television money idea might not fly.

 

[Garlic muncher]

The most popular sports in the Hunter are football (soccer) with 15,600 juniors and netball with 9600 participants.

Next in is rugby league at 7170 players, then hockey at 2000 and basketball at 1870 (not including its after-school program).

Rugby union has 1630 Hunter registrations, followed by the fast-growing AFL at 970 players.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2...-over-the-high-cost-of-childrens-sports-poll/

9/4/2014