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Roosters supremo Nick Politis has outlined his vision for rugby league for the next decade, imploring the NRL to split the competition into two conferences, involving an 18th team in Perth and not Papua New Guinea.
Politis, speaking to this masthead inside the swanky Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Sunday ahead of his team’s match in Las Vegas this weekend, proposed what he believes is the ideal model the NRL should adopt and wants the game’s powerbrokers to ignore the government’s push for a team in PNG in the immediate future.
The Roosters chairman, who took his players and staff out for dinner at the popular Greek establishment Avra in Los Angeles on Saturday night, wants the competition split into two conferences - a Sydney conference and a national conference - as soon as the 18th team is introduced and not wait for 20 teams.
Politis wants the nine Sydney clubs in one conference and playing against each other twice. The remaining nine teams would form a national conference and also play against each other twice. The teams would then play against the rival conference teams once, creating a 25-game regular season. He says the structure of the finals series requires a lot more planning.
“We need to do it when we go to 18 teams, not wait for 20,” Politis told this masthead.
“Eighteen is perfect. We’ve got to do that. I think it makes sense. It’ll be great for the gate. Playing all the Sydney teams twice is better for us than playing the Titans or Dolphins at home. Revenue will go through the roof. You’ll get better crowds. It’s fair.
Nick Politis has a vision for the future of rugby league.Credit: Tim Bauer
“They should fast-track it. Bring in the Bears in Perth. We can’t ignore Perth when you have the Premier [WA Premier Roger Cook] wanting to come into the competition. I met the Premier myself who said they have a lot of big businessmen ready to back them. I told [ARLC chairman Peter] V’landys and [NRL CEO Andrew] Abdo. Now they’re looking at PNG.”
The Australian government is in conversations with the NRL to bring in a PNG-linked team into the NRL. The financial benefits will be enormous for rugby league but it poses a logistical nightmare.