In what? That Perth won't have a NRL side for 2017 would be the shortest wait, unless you wanted to bet that Vic/SA would have one before Perth? Which could see the bet need paying from 5 years to never.

But Perth have caps and bumper stickers and everything

And, jnr development, and a fanbase, and a stadium, and corporate support, and govt support, and player support, and coaches support and.........

In fact all we are missing is the NRL review starting in Sept that a SHOULD lead to an announcement that the Pirates will be kicking off in 2017.

Let's face it PNG are in front of you.

........In fact all we are missing is a decent size TV audience.

100k and building for big games. That's more people in little old afl Perth tuning in to watch RL than the English union premiership gets from a population of 20million and more than most S15 games get in Australia lol.

If London had a qtr of the support and interest the game has got in Perth they wouldn't be the laughing stock of the professional game and about to disappear.

Are Perth up against Rugby union or London Broncos for a NRL licence?

Interest dear boy, do keep up.

Aside from CC bears, and the NRL is never putting another nsw side in the comp, the Perth bid is by far the strongest. The question isn't IF Perth will be admitted but when. The World Cup will be a great vehicle to continue to grow the game here and in other parts of Australia the game needs to grow in.

Perth won't even get a world cup game, you can repost an article from the Western Australian if you like to give yourself a bit of hope.

I hope Perth do get in but until you've had a team playing in the NSW/QLD cup for a few years I can't see it. Just be thankful Souths and Canterbury have given you a chance to see the NRL live.

Local(ish) rivalry works, Brisbane and New Zealand will profit.

Yeh why would you want 20k crowds in Perth when you can get sub 10k crowds on the east coast? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Rugby ... Cup#Venues

Yeh why would you want 20k crowds in Perth when you can get sub 10k crowds on the east coast? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Rugby ... Cup#Venues

You don't have to convince me, get in touch with Dave Smith. He's on twitter.

I hope you've bought your tickets for Canterbury v Melbourne and Souths v New Zealand, Isn't it both clubs last year of the agreement to bring a game to WA?

Yep got tickets to both and just arranged trips to melbourne and Brisbane in next few weeks to catch games.

20k crowds, NRL clubs should be falling over themselves to play in Perth!

You may be right, there's a reason one of the best games in the world continues to be played in a very few places. Hopefully smith is the leader we have been waiting two decades for and the growth of the game will be back to early 90's standard before too long.

That's great, Perth must have had a few of these over the past few years! The 90's expansion must have seen massive crowds in Perth?

The first few reds games had great crowds but then the whole thing fell apart as the SL war erupted and fans walked away from the game. The opening game at the WACA in 95 drew 26k.

We've had a 21k ell out in 2011 for souths, 2012 saw 20k turn up for a manly game and 20k last year for souths. I expect 18k for bulldogs and another 20k for souths this year.

A RLWC game would draw 20k for a decent game no problem. Hopefully the NRL will go to host city bids and the WA govt will get their hands in their pockets for a decent game!

Sorry which site are you using for your stats? The one I used to use is miles out.

2009 Souths v Melbourne 15197
2010 Souths v Melbourne 13164
2011 Souths v Brisbane 15371
2012 Souths v Brisbane 15599
2013 Souths v Warriors 20221

Even in the first season after the 26k at the WACA WR went on to have a few 8k attendances when the novelty wore off. In fact they only had 4 crowds over 15k.

WA/Perth average attendences
1995 13390
1996 8262
1997 8776

If you let me know i'll email the site admin and get them to put it right.

2011 game was a sell out before gates opened. 21,500 tickets sold. Amazing Rain storm reduced attendance.
2012 manly v warriors 20095 subiaco oval
2013 20221


Like I said the SL war started to rumble mid 1995, by 1996 news ltd had taken over the Reds boardroom and fans walked. Couple of points in the reds crowds1. They were never in the bottom two, 2. Nearly Every club had a similar or worse drop off in that period.