Agree, he can singlehandedly pull teams back into a contest if they fall behind too. So much talent in our league now that the NBL can easily handle another team without compromising the quality of the league.

Unfortunately I feel like the introduction of Brisbane could coincide with the withdrawal of Townsville.

Even though people think its a stupid idea, I still dont know why Cairns and Townsville dont merge and just share the home games between them

Cairnsville Reptiles

"Even though people think its a stupid idea, I still dont know why Cairns and Townsville dont merge and just share the home games between them"

Has anyone explained why its a stupid idea, or did you just ignore them?

Whatever 'sense' it may make to outsiders, parochial sensitivity runs v deep in the North, perhaps more so in Cairns.
No problem for both towns to identify with the Cowboys, it seems; but Townsville's basketball domination of Cairns took decades to overcome and Cairns won't back down now.
And Cairns people truly own their team.

Sydney Tigers

Townsville has dropped the Crocs in a big way. I remember their stadiums used to be jam-packed and they used to promote pretty heavily with McDonalds. What happened?

How in anyway is it like trying to merge sydney and melbourne... It makes a lot of sense, and surely if it means townsville keeps a team they would support it. Plus then Cairns would get a larger market.

Wasnt the Maccas franchisee also the Crocs owner?

"How in anyway is it like trying to merge sydney and melbourne... It makes a lot of sense, and surely if it means townsville keeps a team they would support it. Plus then Cairns would get a larger market."

Err.... Cairns and Townsville have a rivalry, dude.

If you don't like the Melbourne and Sydney comparison due to distance, how is Crows and Port for you?

Do you remember what happened when the Kings and Razorbacks merged?

It didn't united two fanbases, it temporarily murdered both.

"Plus then Cairns would get a larger market."

Why would Cairns be interested? They sell out their stadium and turn a profit. For what reason do they have to share that with someone else?

Where to the players live and train? Do you think the players would be happy to have to travel for another 7 games of the season?

They sell out their stadium

No they don't, not regularly. Actually it's pretty rare for them to have a sellout. And Cairns people are traditionally pretty fickle. They'll keep turning up while the team is winning, but when it's not, it falls away pretty quickly.

That said the whole Townsville/Cairns merger idea just won't work.

Do away with Townsville and bring back Falcons or Cannons..

My mistake, I thought they had regular sell-outs.

Depends on the game but sell-outs aren't common in terms of filling all 5300 seats. That being said, the average crowd figures are high, especially when considered in light of the population.

4500 tickets sold in a town of 140k means one in thirty are at any given game. Even in 2012 when the post GF drop off happened, the crowd average was still 4200. In the midst of financial strife and the GFC in 2008, they still averaged 3500.

This is why any merger is ridiculous. The town owns the team, not just financially, but culturally. Not too many other places where this happens. You can argue relevance but market reach and penetration like this is difficult to achieve, especially in crowded capital markets.

Townsville has been riding on the Cowboys of late and any advertising or news is about them,never about the Crocs