NRL: Christchurch City Council leading bid for second NZ-based club - reports

Christchurch City Council is not commenting on reports it is leading a bid for a second New Zealand-based NRL club.

Australian rugby league officials want to expand the competition to 20 teams by 2030.

Multiple New Zealand consortiums have made unsuccessful attempts to pitch a Christchurch-based NRL club to competition chiefs over the past few years.

Sport Nation has reported that the council wants to front-foot a bid, by merging two competing consortiums into one.

The council has declined to comment.

Councillor for Halswell Andrei Moore said he is in full support of bringing an NRL team to Christchurch, "which will come as a suprise to no one".

"I can't recall seeing anything like the vibe we had on Sunday and there's no way we should only be doing this once a year," he wrote in a post on social media.

"As a Christchurch-based season ticket holder of 7 years and club member of 15 years, I know more than most about loyalty to the Warriors and have always made the effort to show up, even in the darkest times and even worse weather conditions. I note, however, that the good of our city, the good of the game and future opportunities for kids in our city has to come before loyalties to any one single club.

"Restricting ourselves to only one team in NZ is holding the game back if most are missing out on getting tickets. I feel for all the young ones out there who have never been able to see an NRL game in their lifetimes, missed out on tickets and will have to wait another year for what will be an even madder scramble for tickets.

"It's time to let the game flourish in the South Island and welcome what would be a game changing economic injection into Christchurch and ensure we're generating a significant amount of revenue through the new stadium each year for many years to come, much of which would come from outside the CCC boundaries," Moore said.

"Massive investment went into this stadium and it's time to make the most of it."

South Island team a 'no-brainer' - former NRL star

Christchurch's brand new Te Kaha Stadium hosted its first ever NRL game on Sunday when the Warriors met the Cowboys for their round 16 match under the roof.

Speaking on news.com.au's Extended Bench, former Warrior James Maloney said making the South Island the NRL's 20th franchis is a "no-brainer".

"There are no better fans in the game than the Warriors and you keep hearing that rugby league is making inroads," he said.

"If you get a side in Christchurch, people will jump on board.

"They support [the Warriors] now because that's the only team they've got.

"But you'd see so many of them convert and go 'This is our team now'. I think it makes sense, the game is doing really well there. You'd be crazy not to (put a side there)."