Established
in 2006, the Western Force have been unable to achieve any real success during
their 11 seasons in the Super Rugby competition. While they were able to
attract reasonable numbers of around 15,000-plus to games against fellow
Australian sides in their early years, crowd figures and support has begun to
wane.
On average
attendances, their crowds have been respectable until recent times. In 2013,
the Force achieved an average crowd of 12,631 and it remained steady at 12,751
in 2014, before beginning to fall.
This season
across their two games so far, they have only achieved a measly average of
7,741. While their decline is a discussion for another article, their tumble out
of the Super Rugby competition is the door swinging wide-open for the NRL to
re-enter Western Australia.
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| The West Coast Pirates logo. |
In 2012, the
West Coast Pirates established themselves as a genuine franchise prospect
seeking to enter the National Rugby League. At the time, the group said they
would only need two years to be ready-to-go as a first-grade professional rugby
league side and set about strengthening their junior base.
They
currently have an under 18s side playing in the New South Wales Rugby League SG
Ball competition, and while they are presently sitting on the bottom of the
table and without a win this season, the fact they have a side that has been
playing in the competition for over ten years (formerly WA Reds) is a sign of
the commitment of West Australian rugby league.
Various
polls conducted by both the Courier Mail and
The Daily Telegraph over the last
five years have shown the broader rugby league fans’ interest in having a
Western Australian side as the next expansion club, with Perth always polling
highly along with a second Brisbane team.
While commercially
it appears to make sense from a television timeslot and ratings point of view,
the logistical aspects of travel and enticing current players to the other side
of the country could prove challenging.
Former
Western Reds’ player Mark Geyer regularly expresses his opinion that a side based
in Perth could function in the NRL again. His views appear to be backed up by the
crowd figures drawn to recent NRL games at the rectangular-shaped NIB Stadium. Games
featuring the New Zealand Warriors in Perth have attracted over 20,000+ crowds
on the last three occasions, while games between other NRL sides have been
anywhere from the 13-15K mark.
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| NIB Stadium has hosted at least one NRL match every season for the last five years. |
The NRL has
obviously ear-marked Perth as a potential market to grow the game, as they are
locked-in to take a State of Origin game to the city in 2019. In what will be a
first for the game’s most commercially-portable product, the yet-to-be-completed
Perth Stadium will likely host around 65,000 fans for the landmark match.
With Sydney’s
ANZ Stadium set to be out of full-functioning capacity for up to four years while
it undergoes a rebuild, the new Perth Stadium could prove to be a potential
site for an NRL Grand Final should the NRL decide to press into the West Coast.
A strategic
and aggressive move into Perth with an Origin match in 2019, NRL Grand Final in
2020, and a team to begin playing from 2021 could help set-up a franchise with
every possible chance of establishing firm foundations in the West. Perhaps the
team could be ready to go in 2020, leaving a tantalising prospect of making a
home Grand-Final in their first year.
While these
are simply dreamed scenarios’, it is the type of vision that Rugby League as a
sport and the NRL as an organisation lacks. For too long the League has rested
on its laurels and failed to make any real progression outside its heartlands. Take
last season’s blowing of the record-breaking TV money and the clubs’ debts running
up to phenomenal amounts.
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| The new Perth Stadium in Rugby layout. |
The Perth
Wildcats NBL club has achieved regular success in the small but unique
Australia domestic basketball competition, and most notably, they have one of
the most consistent crowd figures in the league. Attendances of over 10,000 habitually
pack into the 14,000-capacity Perth Arena, creating an atmosphere some NRL
clubs would only dream of.
The Fremantle
Dockers and West Coast Eagles operate out of the West in the AFL and have
achieved success throughout their histories. The Dockers have come on in leaps
and bounds in recent years, but both clubs enjoy a huge base of junior and
lower-level competitions to strengthen their bases.
That is the
main hurdle the NRL will have to overcome, but drawing inspiration from the
Wildcats and learning the lessons from the Gold Coast Titans expansion will put
them on a good path.
The Wildcats
success proves the Perth public’s thirst for sport is there and ready. The
Force’s expulsion might have just made it a little drier.
The NRL
should wet their palate and make the move.
The time is
right, the time is now.