JB, do you think Western Reds are ready for an NRL licence in 2013?

I think the WA Reds will be!

The definates:

Decent stadium with a current 20K capacity. $80million of works to be completed by 2013 taking capacity to 26K. A further $180million total refurb of rest of the stadium being discussed.

Strong supporter base. In the last two years we've averaged around 12k for trial games and crowds of 15k and 13k for proper games. I am confident we will avg around the 15-16K mark for season 1.

Decent management team: Some good business men now running the WARL and the WA Reds GM knows his stuff.

Corporate support: Currently have around 10 businesses backing the WARL including some decent sized ones in Harvery Norman, Bartercard and Cash Convertors.

Strong grass roots focus. With the club being owned and run by the WARL we will have a continued focus on developing all levels of the game. We are currently producing NRL 1st graders with little RL prominence so I am confident we will soon have WA born and trained players playing in a WA team. It certainly won't take as long as Melbourne has!

The to be confirmed:

Big money backers. We need to nail a $1mill+ sponsor I feel to really clinch the deal. I'm confident we will with plenty of East coast businesses wanting to promote their company into one of the richest cities in the world, and plenty of West coast companies wanting to advertise into the Eastern States, something the AFL can't give them.

Memberships: We have stated we are aiming for 10k members by season kick off. Ambitious but we had nearly 2000 for the Jim Beam cup! WA is far more used to membership models so I think we will do well in this dept.

Value to TV: Ultimatley with RL generally on the bones of its ar5e this will be the deciding factor I reckon. WA offers a Live TV time slot that no one else can and also opens the game up to a brand new audience of close to 2 million people. If TV companies see it that way only they know.

We've been putting this together for 4 years now, by 2013 it will be over 6 years of work behind it!

Will we be ready? Yep you'd better believe it!

if you read the article gallop backed away from saying we were expanding or even who were the strongest candidates.

gallop wouldnt be going to PNG if it were a pipedream

new stadium will be the start, then get corporate backers and they get a team

Sincerely hope it works.

"never say never" sums up all you need to read

why is he going then? "Oh, because it is not only about whether they are ready to be admitted to the NRL. It is just to get a view of their development program. Obviously you've got the Kumuls playing in the Four Nations at the end of this year and we're interested in the game's development in PNG generally as well as their ultimate goal of having a team."

In order to make up for the shortfall in ticket value and merchandise sales they would need an extra approx $5-6million in corporate support on top of the $4-5million that clubs already have to bring in. Do you honestly believe in a 3rd world country there are companies willing to throw $10million a year at a PNG team?

As i said if the NRL was flush with cash and had the ability to part fund the team like AFL are doing with its expansion teams then it would be brilliant and would be massive for the game. But they aren;t and even if they were they have shown zero leadership in even deciding where they want teams let alone being willing to fund that development.

the reds have enough holes in their bid without you worrying about PNGs

the most we can hope for in perth is crowds of 15,000 - 20,000 and juniors of 10,000 max.

in PNG it would be 20,000 - 30,000 and juniors of hundreds of thousands.

if i were making the choice i would pick png

yeh cause 20-30k paying $1-2 a ticket is going to pay the bills! Geez you are stupid at times, strike that, most of the time!

so PNG mining companies in Port Moresby pay wages of $1 a week huh?

the problem people like you have is using average income stats.

in a nation like PNG there are more than 20,000 people who could pay $20 a ticket a week.

we call these people "rich"

PNG > Perth

Perth>Jets>Wellington>Bears>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PNG

bears are a long way ahead of anyone else.