NRL and QRL to announce new offices for rugby league in Brisbane

THE NRL and QRL will this week announce new offices for rugby league in Brisbane in a multi-million dollar investment in the organisation of the game in Queensland.

The office space will be in Milton, near to the QRL’s current offices at Suncorp Stadium.

The QRL last year presented a case to the ARL Commission that the game needed funding to move to a larger office space more capable of efficiently housing its increasing number of staff.

NRL chief executive David Smith and other leading figures in the game will be in Brisbane for Friday’s preliminary final between the Broncos and Roosters.

The scale of the investment, which has been approved by the ARLC, reflects the desire of the NRL to move some of their staff to Brisbane.

Rugby League Central in the Sydney suburb of Moore Park uses every square metre of its existing office space.

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QRL managing director Rob Moore told The Courier-Mail in July that he hoped staff would leave their existing offices in time for the 2016 season, with the aim to house “as many rugby league people together as possible” in the one location.

The new Queensland “rugby league house’’ will also be the base for the southeast division of the QRL and development officers employed of the NRL and the QRL.

It will permit better integration between QRL and NRL staff on important projects to forge rugby league’s growth in Queensland.

The new premises will also enable the QRL to make better use of technology, with its digital arm having been better funded in the past 12 months.

The Men of League organisation, which isnow based at the QRL’s Castlemaine St offices, will move along with the QRL.

The QRL reported in 2014 there were 61,783 registered players in Queensland, 47,983 of which were juniors.

Its financial statement said revenue in 2014 was $20.4 million, up from $16.2 million over the previous 12 months.

The QRL has spoken to Stadiums Queensland about whether existing office space at Suncorp Stadium could be used to house a permanent Queensland league museum.

Early ambitions of QRL insiders to move to premises at a football ground, with Davies Park prominently mentioned, were discarded.

Playing fields for the training of representative teams were considered a backburner issue when compared with the importance of primary business aims.

Originally published as New HQ for rugby league in Queensland