Wellington-based NRL franchise launches bid
Former NZRL chairman resuscitates Wellington-based Southern Orcas bid after NRL indicates its wants a second Kiwi team in 2026. Steve Kilgallon reports.
A second NRL franchise in New Zealand would split its time between Wellington and Christchurch, run a network of elite academies and target an All Black as its marquee player.
Former NZRL chairman Andrew Chalmers has officially flagged his interest in bidding for the 18th spot in the competition after the NRL indicated it is interested in a second Kiwi team for 2026.
Chalmers’ letter to the NRL this week represents his third attempt to secure a spot in the competition, after bids with the Hutt Valley Dolphins in 1991 and the Wellington Orcas in 2004. He even floated the idea of a Wellington team in the English Super League in 2005.
But he believes things could be different for his revived Orcas this time around, because the NRL has finally shown ambition to expand its Kiwi footprint beyond the Warriors.
In recent weeks, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo and commissioner Peter V’Landys have both declared they would like to add a second Brisbane team in 2023 and a New Zealand team in 2026, but until now have had no suitors.
Chalmers has the experience to front a bid, having been an NZRL director from 2003-08, including a controversial stint as chairman in 2007-08.
He was then a director of British Super League club Salford before owning second-tier club Bradford Bulls, then returning to New Zealand two years ago with renewed ambitions in professional sport here.
Chalmers said the key was convincing the NRL and the existing 15 clubs – including the Warriors – that another team here would grow the financial pie for everyone.
He said a second team would definitely grow TV revenue from New Zealand, and would benefit, not damage the Warriors, who would benefit from increased profile and two blockbuster derby games each year.
‘‘It would require the political will of the NRL to see through expansion,’’ said Chalmers. ‘‘They would need to be reassured of the strategic and economic value to all stakeholders . . . We would make the bid so compelling, they could not leave us out.’’
Chalmers said in 2004 he had realised expansion was ‘‘a very long way off’’ but he could see the NRL now had a more ambitious outlook. He said the other thing that had changed was the rapid growth in Kiwi and Island players in the competition. ‘‘They know the players are there, I don’t think they need convincing of that — in 2004 they needed convincing, but not in 2021.’’
Chalmers said to even prepare a bid would cost as much as $500,000, as he would commission a professional economic impact study and use management consultants to advise on the bid itself. He would also want to engage a wide group of stakeholders, including Wellington’s four city and regional councils, the NZRL, Wellington and Canterbury Rugby Leagues, and Sky Television. Chalmers said the bid would need three years from the green light to kicking off.
He said the bid would also need $30m in the bank before a ball was kicked, but believed raising those funds would be straightforward.
He would want the club to have women’s, wheelchair, physical disability and under-18 teams from the outset.
Initially, reserve players would sit in a series of regional academies, before a reserve grade side was developed from its graduates.
Chalmers believes the regions can provide a flow of quality players if a series of academies were set up at tertiary institutions.
He was involved in the nowdefunct but highly successful Orcas Academy programme run at Weltec in Wellington by coach Paul Bergman in the early 2000s, which produced future NRL stars Simon Mannering, Ben Matulino, Mose Masoe, Issac Luke and John Te Reo.
‘‘The pointy end of rugby league in New Zealand cannot all be about the Warriors and Auckland,’’ he claimed.
Chalmers still owns a dormant company called the Orcas Rugby League Ltd, dating back to his last bid, and has this week registered various Orcas-related domain names.
He kicked off his work with calls to Wellington league identity
‘‘It would require the political will of the NRL to see through expansion . . . We would make the bid so compelling, they could not leave us out.’’ Andrew Chalmers
Ken Laban, Sky Stadium boss Shane Harmon and Malcolm Gillies, who is heading up the new $30m NZ Campus of Innovation and Sport in Upper Hutt, which could be a potential training base.
Chalmers’ initial idea is that the team would play between six and eight home games at Sky Stadium in Wellington, two or three in Christchurch, and rotate their remaining home game around regional centres such as Dunedin and Napier.
Harmon said he would be meeting Chalmers this month.
‘‘I know his group is serious, it is not a tyre-kicking exercise,’’ he said, ‘‘and while Wellington has been down this path before, I feel it is more significant this time around as the NRL have talked up publicly the idea of a second team.’’
Harmon was comfortable with the idea of taking some games on the road, but said Wellington would be the ‘‘obvious market’’ for a second franchise, having had the five biggest crowds for NRL matches played in New Zealand outside Auckland, while the advent of the NZCIS facility provided a perfect world-class training base.
On the field, he said he would aim to secure the best possible coach – namechecking the most obvious candidates in Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett, although Bennett would be aged 76 in 2026. And he said it would be logical to look for a prominent All Black – for example, if he was recruiting right now, like halfback Aaron Smith – as a marquee signing.
Previous bids for an NRL team in the capital have all faltered, starting with Chalmers and Ken Laban’s 1991 Dolphins – who lost out to the Warriors.