The director of the Brisbane Jets bid has lifted the lid on the details behind the expansion of the NRL in South West Queensland as well as the potential merger between the Jets and Firehawks, saying that the ball is in the Firehawks’ court after a 50/50 partnership proposal.
The director of the Jets’ expansion bid Nicholas Livermore, joined SEN Afternoons to provide an update of the extension in South Queensland.
“We presented to the ARL commission last week,” Livermore said.
“We believe the Brisbane Jets is the best direction for the game here in Southeast Queensland.
“Focusing West of Brisbane through the huge growth market of Ipswich and Toowoomba.
“It’s been well publicised that the Commission is concerned about finances and making sure that if a new team does come in that they don’t have to bail them out in five years.
“We had put forward a case which met the minimum guarantee of $10 million, but the Commission were concerned that we were the least financially backed out of all the three bids.”
Livermore also discussed the progress of the proposed 50/50 partnership with the Firehawks and explained how it’s for the sake of rugby league in South West Queensland.
“Following that presentation, the Firehawks reached out to us and we had some discussions,” he said.
“We put forward a proposal for a 50/50 partnership that we think is in the best interest for the game.
“The ball now sits within the Firehawks now to work out whether or not they want a merger or they believe that what they’ve got for the growth of the game is better on their own.
“Whatever the outcome is, we’re really focused that the Commission will make the right decision for the benefit of the game here in South East Queensland.”
Livermore believes in order to combat the growth of AFL in South West Queensland, the NRL have to expand out West.
“There’s only one growth direction for the game for young boys and girls, which represents the population boom west of Brisbane into Ipswich,” Livermore said.
“We presented to the Commission, this is where you need to go.
“If you want to combat AFL, If you want to see more boys and girls involved and people coming to games, there’s only one direction we believe they can go.
“The problem for the Commission is making sure they don’t have to back out a team financially.
“And that’s what we’ve articulated, this is what we have, we believe it’s enough, if you don’t believe it’s enough, tell us what you need us to do.
“And part of that is the competency of the two bids is to say, we’ve been pushing competitively, if it works better for us together for the growth of the game, let’s do that.
“This is about competing for hearts and minds of boys and girls over the next 20, 30, 50 years.
“We are the Brisbane Jets, we’ve partnered with Ipswich, we’ve committed to bringing Toowoomba back into the Queensland Intrust Super Cup and central Queensland.
“What i said to the commission last week was, 'What would rugby league look like in New South Wales if you didn’t add Parramatta in ‘47 and the Panthers in ‘67?'.
“This is the opportunity for rugby league to add a team in West Brisbane for the next 50 years, let’s not miss it.”
You can listen to the full chat with Nicholas Livermore here: