{"id":837768,"date":"2026-08-01T12:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837768\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:41:11","slug":"ken-sutcliffe-urges-nrl-regional-expansion-with-permanent-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837768\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Sutcliffe urges NRL regional expansion with permanent matches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Channel 9 legend Ken Sutcliffe says the NRL should encourage clubs to adopt country towns after local councils heavily invest in sporting facilities.<\/p>\n<p>LISTEN TO THE FULL CHAT HERE!<\/p>\n<p>Sutliffe joined the Continuous Call Team LIVE from Mudgee\u2019s sold-out Glen Willow Oval. He highlighted the massive financial and community benefits that rugby league brings to regional Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Sutcliffe also praised local leaders for building state-of-the-art facilities, pointing to Mudgee\u2019s training complex and stadium as proof that country towns are ready to host elite footy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we invest that sort of money, I would hope the NRL would acknowledge that and encourage a team to either adopt a town, but at least go there once a year for an NRL match,\u201d Sutcliffe said.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that bringing major games to the bush delivers a significant boost to the local economy and tourism while giving regional fans direct access to their sporting heroes.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by Mark Evans\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Channel 9 legend Ken Sutcliffe says the NRL should encourage clubs to adopt country towns after local councils&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-837768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}