WA rugby league eyes new life

THE bid for a Perth-based NRL team is building momentum, with the Western Australian Rugby League set to reveal a new identity and logo within the next two months.

Western Australian Rugby League chairman David Hobbs said the new identity was designed to drum up parochial support among Western Australians, particularly those between 19 and 39, and to also attract the eye of corporates seeking to align themselves with the organisation.

He said market research by the bid team had indicated Western Australians wrongly thought of the Western Reds, which was squeezed out of the NRL after the Super League war in 1997, as a failed franchise.

“What we have to do, is we have to be something for the whole of the state,” Mr Hobbs told WA Business News.

“We want our team to be like our state of origin team. This will be our team that goes to battle each and every week against the eastern states.

“We are looking for the business community to come out with a show of hands now, because this will be integral in the success of our bid, to show that we have corporate support.”

The Australian Rugby League Commission is expected to make its expansion ambitions known in July, with most expecting the announcement of two new teams to enter the competition. 

The WA bid is up against competition from NSW’s Central Coast, Central Queensland, Ipswich, Brisbane, Papua New Guinea and Wellington. 

Mr Hobbs said the NRL’s negotiations to secure a billion-dollar-plus television rights deal would be most benefited by new teams in Brisbane and Perth, making the NRL a truly national competition.

He said there was ample evidence a Perth franchise would become one of the league’s most well-attended, saying rugby league was the “sleeping giant” of WA sport.

A recent trial match at nib Stadium between St George-Illawarra and North Queensland drew more than 9,500 people, while a match for premiership points between South Sydney and Brisbane, played on one of the wettest nights in Perth last year, drew more than 16,000 attendees after initially selling out. 

“WA has the third-largest number of participants in rugby league in Australia, behind Sydney and Queensland,” Mr Hobbs said.

“When the Western Reds folded, we had 16,000 members then.

 “That is more than what most clubs have got on the east coast now.

 “What we want to do is educate the WA public about the code and its community support.

“It’s a fast code, it’s an exciting code and we want WA to be part of it.”