A consortium involving the Wellington Rugby League is ready to submit a proposal for an NRL team and Fairfax Media reported on Sunday that a second group, based in Australia with Kiwi investors, is considering lobbying for a licence to play out of Westpac Stadium.

"The New Zealand Warriors have a long way to go and a lot of opportunity, we haven't won an NRL yet," said Watson, who has an equal stake in the club with Owen Glenn. "This will be our 20th year and maybe in fact in our 20th year we're going to win the NRL and that will be a great way to finish the second decade. I'd look at another team maybe when we've won a couple of NRLs, let's get that under our belt first. We've got to prove that we're capable of winning at the highest possible level, we will, but we're yet to do it, so maybe after that."

When Watson rescued the Warriors from collapse in 2000, the only other private backer was News Ltd and he described the NRL and the clubs as being "dysfunctional". The Kiwi businessman said the governance of the game had improved significantly to make it attractive for individuals to purchase a stake in clubs, which has been the case at South Sydney, Manly, Melbourne and Newcastle.

With the NRL's growth as a business, chief executive Dave Smith and his management team are in a position to experiment with new concepts such as the Nines, and Watson said that in turn attracted new investors to the game.

"The ultimate income to the NRL is spread evenly more or less throughout the clubs so the more valuable the NRL, the more valuable the various parts of the NRL, which are in fact the clubs," Watson said. "The exciting thing is that the NRL has matured so much. When I first got involved the CEOs didn't like each other, the coaches didn't like each other and that extended to how we operated as an organisation. Now it's matured to the point where the CEOs are all on the same team, they have a brand, a sport that competes with others. They're getting their act together and the result is this brand new content. It's a brand new sport, business and opportunity."

Asked if he could envisage all 16 NRL clubs being privately owned, Watson said: "I think it is very possible".

Watson hosted NRL and club bosses for a dinner at his Auckland residence last Thursday night and said they had discussed ways the game could capitalise on the Nines. "There are people, for example, talking to me about running a paralell investment conference where we could bring in very large high value funds out of New York, Hong Kong and Australia and run it alongside the Nines," he said.

"You could have a small investment conference of people who also have sports interests, who can be guests here, attend the Nines, speak to businesses in this country, look at investment opportunities and perhaps the Prime Minister comes along or the Finance Minister."

While the Nines is believed to have generated more than $10 million in revenue for the NRL and the tournament's promoters, the legacy for the game in New Zealand is much greater. All 2000 Warriors Nines jerseys sold out in two hours on Saturday and there was no official tournament merchandise left by mid-Sunday afternoon.

Watson said he was "highly impressed" by Smith and desribed him as "a top-class CEO". "He is very commercial, very business-like and a good communicator," Watson said. "The NRL is run as well as I have every seen it in my 13 year involvement."