It's high time the NRL delivered us a definitive plan regarding the introduction of a second team in the Brisbane area.

There are many things to be addressed in our game with the administration structure, revenue, finances, salary caps, rules and match scheduling, just to name a few.

In the meantime, though, it is imperative that the NRL has a third team playing out of the south-east Queensland region well before the TV and pay TV broadcasting rights are up for renegotiation in 2012.

Brisbane is the capital of rugby league these days. The way Queensland fans regularly support the big games up there puts some of their southern rivals to shame.

Look at Friday night's crowds.

A paltry crowd of 10,013 turned out to watch the third-placed Sharks play the fourth-placed Roosters. At Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on the same night, just on 40,000 people attended the match between the fifth-placed Broncos and the 13th-placed Gold Coast Titans.

Granted it was a miserable night in Sydney and much easier to stay at home and watch the game on TV; but with so much night football played in Sydney in the colder winter months, this is a problem plaguing all clubs in the metropolitan area as they try different ways to raise gate revenue.

Let me tell you, it rained all day in Brisbane too before Friday night's game, but this didn't deter fans from getting out to watch the game live.

It supports my belief that more Sydney games need to be scheduled for Sunday afternoons to help attract people through the gates. Night time is killing crowds and the cold, wet and heavy dews are also affecting the quality of football being played.

The Queensland teams have such a weather advantage when it comes to attracting fans to winter games.

Average crowd figures over the past four years also dispel the argument that more teams in south-east Queensland would harm the crowds the Broncos have previously enjoyed with their regional monopoly.

In 2005 Brisbane averaged 30,328 per game for home crowds. In 2006 this figure raised slightly to 31,208.

The Gold Coast Titans entered the competition in 2007 despite protests from the Brisbane team that their introduction would dilute support at games. The Titans averaged 21,489 at home games in 2007 and have averaged 21,700 so far in this season.

At the same time, average Broncos crowds increased to 32,873 in 2007 and 33,041 so far in 2008.

The introduction of the Titans has actually led to an increase in crowds for the Broncos. I contend that a second Brisbane team would also lead to further increases.

In the AFL, the Adelaide Crows pleaded for years that their city was not big enough for two teams and fought to maintain their monopoly.

After Port Adelaide came in, the Crows' membership base nearly doubled and you can't get a ticket to the local derby a year out.

You can feel the buzz in Brisbane about rugby league every time you walk down the street. People pull you up all the time just wanting to talk about the game. Not all of them are Bronco supporters; but they are all rugby league fans.

Look at the huge advantage the Gold Coast and Brisbane have over the clubs in Sydney regarding the ability to attract crowds and the money they make from corporate hospitality in their magnificent purpose-built stadiums. As time passes, the gap between their finances and those of the struggling Sydney teams will only grow.

Having four (or even five) Queensland teams will give that State plenty of local derbies that will attract huge crowds. These games could be scheduled at night in the warmer Queensland winter months, leaving more daylight timeslots for Sydney teams to boost their crowds.

It will also make our game more valuable to TV and pay TV which ultimately benefits all NRL teams.

The expansion of our game will also help it retain more players..

I feel sick that the likes of Brett Hodgson, Steve Menzies and Danny Buderus have seemingly been shunted from our game late in their careers simply because of restrictive salary-cap pressure.

However, the loss of superstars Mark Gasnier and Sonny Bill Williams to rugby, the rumours surrounding the possible defection of more of our great players including the likes of Greg Inglis, the fact we have almost 100 former NRL players over in the English Super League is a huge problem that just can't be swept under the carpet.

Reports that Sonny Bill is reeling because he had to pay $750,000 compensation to the Bulldogs, or that this was somehow a victory for the NRL on upholding the sanctity of the contract, or that this will deter other players from leaving rugby league for better options, is just childish window dressing aimed at deflecting blame and attention away from the real problems.

The Sonny Bill incident shows us that people can break contracts if they are so motivated. Do you think the NRL is going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fights every time a player threatens to leave our game? Not bloody likely.

It also doesn't solve the problem of players leaving our game when their contract expires.

I can see a need for salary capping when it comes to powerful clubs spending money poaching players from rival clubs. However, where a club has the financial might to retain all its current players and pay them their true value, I see no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to do so.

They should only be allowed to buy players from other clubs if they can prove their player wage bill is less than say $4.5 million. However, they should be able to spend $6 million if they so desire to retain the great talent they have developed from an early age. Anyway, I will write more on this next week.

In the meantime can we please get a time frame for another team playing out of Brisbane and get this show on the road!