a NZ team in the Super League??

[shiznit]

Orcas in shock plan to join Super League
By STEVE KILGALLON - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 8 April 2007

It's the most audacious bid for a sporting franchise in history. The Sunday Star-Times has revealed a Wellington rugby league team are to apply for a place in the English-based Super League competition.

The backers of the Southern Orcas - who two years ago failed in a bid to join the NRL - have been engaged in secret negotiations for more than a year with senior officials of the English Rugby Football League to join their elite 12-team league, if as expected, it expands to 14 sides in 2009.

The Star-Times has a copy of a "positioning document" sent by the Orcas to the English, which lists All Blacks Daniel Carter, Ma'a Nonu, Jerry Collins and Piri Weepu and Kiwi league internationals Sonny Bill Williams and Benji Marshall as key targets for the franchise should they be accepted.

The positioning document admits it is "an idea from left-field. An idea that's just crazy enough to make the fans go wild. This could be the next step in creating a series to foot it with union's Super 14."

Never before has a single club side in any sport played its regular-season fixtures in an entirely different hemisphere.

The Super League has 10 sides from northern England, one in London, and one in southern France. If they were successful, the Orcas would turn the Super League into the first genuinely world-wide club competition in sport, and fly 24 hours straight to play their away games.

The Orcas' frontman, the New Zealand Rugby League acting chairman Andrew Chalmers, says the bid is serious, and he believes it stands a strong chance of being successful because it would create a huge increase in TV and sponsorship revenues for Super League.

The Orcas have an agreement to base themselves and play eight home matches at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, and would take others to the South Island and around Australia. They are also prepared to bring league to Asia and the Middle East for the first time, with a key target being Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Chalmers says he expects to file a formal business plan within months. He says the NZRL are merely facilitating the application, and the team would be privately-owned, with the majority backer being the same Belgian-based, English-born billionaire investor who was lined up to support their NRL bid.

The backer wants to retain his anonymity, but is genuine in his intentions, says Chalmers. The NRL bid was expected to cost around $10 million in start-up capital, and while Chalmers said the Super League franchise would need launch funds of between $15m and $20m, he said raising that sum would not be an issue for the billionaire. "If you start thinking in pounds, it is not a lot of pounds in the scheme of things," he said.

Chalmers said English officials were "open-minded" on the prospect and he is convinced that he can sell the Orcas as a money-generating prospect, opening new markets worldwide and boosting TV income for Super League in the southern hemisphere.

"It's fair to say they are looking to make sure the cost of bringing in a new side is exceeded in terms of tangible dollars generated," he said. "This type of expansion would increase the value of sponsorship and TV rights and actually grow the market."

Chalmers said the move would benefit the Warriors. "Can you imagine: the most popular game of the year would probably be the pre-season game," he said.

"The Warriors vs the Orcas: how big would that be?"

He admitted many people would laugh at the idea, but Chalmers said research had been done and there was no element of fantasy to the proposal.

"It is a commercial decision for all the parties - a commercial decision for Super League, a commercial decision for the people backing the Orcas. This has to come down to a very strong business case to be able to withstand a robust due diligence process."

The Orcas' own pitch concludes: "It's an audacious move. Any way you look at it, this is a move ahead for the game."

[/b]

surely a joke... what do you guys think??

 

[melon]

It sounds absolutely wonderful. However, I don't think it will happen any time soon. Think about it. If there is going to be a 24hr flight involved as it said, that means it takes a day to get there, a day to readjust and train, a day to play and fly home afterwards. The whole cycle would be 4 days! They would have to stay in England for extended periods of time if there was to be away matches in row. They will have to do what many of the super14 teams do, only it'll be harder for the Orca's. Good luck to them though, it sounds exciting!

 

[shiznit]

you gotta feel for the pommy sides in the lower leagues though...
even the sides that were relegated... i would think the ESL would have to look after them and the rest of europe before looking down under.

having said that though... its good to see people thinking outside the square for once.

if this were to become sucsessfull it could potentially change world sport.

we could see a European team in the NBA or perhaps an American football side in a European football league.

the potential here is really mind boggling....

edit... by football i mean soccer

 

[Ripper]

"All Blacks Daniel Carter, Ma'a Nonu, Jerry Collins and Piri Weepu"

Oh God that is Gold... you sure that you just didn't change the 1 to an 8 up the top Shiznit?

 

[shiznit]

nope mate....
i thought the same thing..
it must be remembered though...
this is a sunday paper giving these details. i remember i couple of years back how the sunday rags were litted with talk about the warriors entering a Pasifika team in the then Super12.
this is probably just pie in the sky like the Pasifika concept.

 

[O'Rothlain]

If they bring back the concord...anything is possible.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

Pipedream.

Totally unfeasible idea.

 

[getofmeland]

Does seem a bit extreme, and very unlikely to happen unless Scramjet is closer to be completed than what I thought

 

[St Helens RLFC]

The only way that would work is if they played all their home games first and then all their away games after that. Just not going to happen it would mess up Super League.

 

[fcukernaut]

Well, firstly, they need to change their name before you could even consider this. Secondly, it does have a slim chance of working. You just have any English team coming down to have a bye afterwards and maybe have a game earlier in the previous week, say a thursday night. What would seem more likely would be to have a full Australasian division or at least 3 or 4 franchises to make it easier.

 

[shiznit]

the talk around the forums is that it would only be temporary untill 2012. and then wellington and perth will be admitted to the NRL and toulouse and a Celtic side will be added to SL.

apparently the Celtic and Toulouse consortiums are not ready to enter the ESL so it might actually give them some breathing space while they get systems in place to make them competitve and profitible.

its all still pie in the sky... and they should realy name this Billionare benifactor and maybe we will get some credibility.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

There's also talk of a Russian team being admitted to Super League.

 

[melon]

There's also talk of a Russian team being admitted to Super League. [/b]

Well in that case, the Russian team should be their national side.

 

[esoj]

nope mate....
i thought the same thing..
it must be remembered though...
this is a sunday paper giving these details. i remember i couple of years back how the sunday rags were litted with talk about the warriors entering a Pasifika team in the then Super12.
this is probably just pie in the sky like the Pasifika concept.
[/b]

pasifika was actually a very keen idea of mick watson and something that was pursed heavily. all of the sceret meeting etc came out after mick watson left the warriors.

I am not sure if this would work due to the travel times. one way I can see it happening is if the orcas home games are played on a sunday in the aftenoon sometime and then the opposition fly out the same night or early monday morning nz time and have their next game on sunday in the uk. that would be around 6 days between games which would be ok I think. the orcas could also maybe play a few away games in a row like the sa teams do in the super 14. bold attempt and if it comes off would do wonders for nz league.

I think thought that a team from russia or maybe a celtic team would be looked into before a new zealand team was looked at.

 

[Ripper]

There's also talk of a Russian team being admitted to Super League.
[/b]

We spend 50 years trying to keep Ivan out of the West and you just turn around and give them a League team?

 

[melon]

<div class='quotemain'>
There's also talk of a Russian team being admitted to Super League.
[/b]

We spend 50 years trying to keep Ivan out of the West and you just turn around and give them a League team? [/b][/quote]
If it promotes growth to the Rugby League world and makes the Super Dooper league more exciting, then so be it.

 

[esoj]

some young russian kid is training with the west tiger for a few months and if he does well might even play in the nrl some day.

 

[wigan_rlfc]

That idea is crazy.

 

[goranski]

the kiwi idea is insane - russia might be feasible though one day - depends on how the RL scene in Russia develops, if they can get a big sponsor who can pump money and resources into the game who knows - they've had teams in the CC after all - if SL wants to expand they should concentrate on Europe - start by getting another French team in one day - maybe Toulouse or get an Irish side or concentrate on Celtic Crusaders climbing their way up the RL ladder

 

[ak47]

there will be a team from another planet in the ESL before this comes to fruition

Marshen Mars Bars would be a good start

To think they can make this profitable with those marquee players in BS.

To think they can successfully transit to UK n back and UK teams to NZ and back is BS, unless they fly the virgin rocket thingy.

The Tri Nations in RL is hard enuff to transit to and from for the home-away fixtures.

The S14 struggles enuff getting the Aussie/NZ teams to SA, and vice versa for the Saffas.

I vote for a Mars team........or even Uranus.......Hoppa will be captain coach and CEO.