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HomeInterviewExclusive Comments: NRL To Introduce Second Brisbane Team By 2023

Exclusive Comments: NRL To Introduce Second Brisbane Team By 2023

Exclusive Comments: NRL To Introduce Second Brisbane Team By 2023

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ustralian Rugby League Commission chairman, Peter V’landys has claimed the NRL will have a second team based in Brisbane by 2023, with the decision to be made in June.

V’landys told the Sydney Morning Herald: “It’s very realistic to say that we’ll have a second team in Brisbane in 2023.”

“From what I’ve seen and the presentations that have been given to me, they are well advanced.

“If I said 2022, they’d be ready.

“They’ve been doing work for years.

“There’s no reason why we can’t be up and running in 2023.

“The one thing that I am impressed with is how advanced these bids are.

“They are not mucking around.

“They are serious.

“If we came to a decision in June this year, that would give them a year and a half.

“It’s plenty of time.

“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen mid this year.

“I’m not going to do it if it’s going to hurt the game.

“It’s got to benefit the game.

“To benefit the game it can’t cannibalise the Titans and Broncos, and I don’t think it will, just how Parramatta doesn’t cannibalise Penrith.

One of the good things is that we still haven’t signed our free-to-air deal.

“We ensured ourselves with our pay TV deal.

“The cream is going to be the free-to-air deal.

“For 2023, we need to have all our strategies in place for our free-to-air deal,” he said.

If the NRL decided to add a 17th team for the 2023 season, in time for the first year of the next players Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the choice would be made between the Brisbane Bombers, Brisbane Firehawks (Easts Tigers), Ipswich Jets, and Redcliffe Dolphins.

Speaking to Ministry of Sport, Redcliffe Dolphins chairman, Bob Jones, said the club has done everything they can at this stage to prepare for the NRL.

“Infrastructure wise, training facilities and all of that, even somewhere to house an NRL football department, we have all that stuff in place, we’re all ready to go,” Jones told Ministry of Sport.

“The things we need to do now are to wait for the announcement regarding the process and when the likely outcome will be and if you’re successful, we need to build a playing roster, and increase our commercial division.

“We’ve made some preliminary steps, but there’s lots of little things.

“In terms of the major things, we are really ready to go and have been for a long time,” he said.

When asked if he is confident in the chance of the Redcliffe club, which was founded in 1947, is a feeder club for the New Zealand Warriors, and have played in the second-tier Queensland Cup since 1996 and won six premierships, being named the second Brisbane-based NRL club in June, Jones said: “I’m not sure how anyone can be too confident about it other than just being ready in case you are, which is what we’ve done and have been doing for quite some time.

“I don’t know if anyone can have a lot of confidence that it is actually going to happen yet other than Peter (V’landys) saying that he wants it to happen and he seems to be pretty good at making things happen so that gives me a bit of confidence.

“In terms of us being more confident than any of the other clubs, I’m not sure anyone is entitled to do that, we just have to go about our business and be confident that we will leave no stone unturned.

“I am confident we will give it our best shot and be quite comfortable that if we’re not successful, it won’t be from a lack of putting everything we can into it and building all the infrastructure.

“If that’s not good enough, then so be it,” he said.

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