Before we get into the nitty gritty let me just put one thing on the record – I am not nor have I ever been a North Sydney Bears supporter. What I am first and foremost is a rugby league fan. When the Super League fiasco died down I was one of the lucky ones whose team was guaranteed a future. But some fans weren’t so fortunate.
Well before the days of mergers and expulsions, the NSWRL/ARL were already on the path to transforming a state competition into an Australian league. The Bears management at the time realised not every Sydney club would make the transition in their existing form – it was a case of adapt or die.
To this aim the Bears looked at the fringes of their heartland to the Central Coast, an area which had even been touted as an expansion prospect way back when Illawarra and Canberra first came into being.
It made logical sense – keep their existing North Sydney support base and grow the club on the adjacent overlooked coast. And so the club went about its business.
A war, a merger and an expulsion later, the Bears are in the wilderness and both North Sydney and Central Coast remain unrepresented. At the moment the new commission faces an interesting question – if the competition does expand, will the Central Coast make the cut?
What I would suggest to the commissioners is this – if the Central Coast is no longer a viable expansion location then the NRL should seek to set the Bears brand up elsewhere. Sure – you can have all the Orcas and Pirates you want – but why throw out a good club with a 104 year old history and a legion of fans in North Sydney and the Central Coast?
If Gosford isn’t going to happen within the next twenty years then the ARLC should work towards re-establishing the Bears brand in Perth, Brisbane or New Zealand as one of the next two expansion clubs – similar to the Lions and Swans in the AFL. Imagine seeing the red and black playing again and finally healing one of the game’s wounds.
The benefit is obvious – the Bears club would still have to travel to Sydney for games. The NRL could schedule games against clubs like the Eels, Tigers, Roosters & Sea Eagles etc – all clubs that border the traditional North Sydney territory.
So now you have an expansion club but one with the ability to bring a large group of away supporters to other clubs home games.
Plus it’s a brand that already has existing rivalries – the Bears could even play one home game at North Sydney Oval against the Sea Eagles, a game that would no doubt sell out year in, year out. That kind of revitalisation of interest on the north side of the harbour would do wonders for the game.
But the NRL also needs to make a final decision on the Central Coast. If it’s truly not going to be a full time team location then perhaps also the 4-5 neutral games should continue to be played there but they could feature the Bears as the away team. There is a Bears fan base that has been forged on the coast – don’t let it go to waste.
Matt Smith
Guest
We'll never really know the answer to that as they were never really on a level playing field in the financial sense. BRL clubs weren't allowed to have the gambling income like the NSWRL clubs. When you consider that the major reason for players going south was financial, it makes you wonder where the BRL would have been nowadays, had they been allowed to run mini-casino/pokies operations, reaping the rewards as part of their income. Seeing as the population has grown and there is always potential regional expansion, one wonders if a viable State-wide league including the BRL clubs may have eventuated. I always thought this was a real shame in rugby league, a sport which is already small enough as it is internationally, (when you consider its lack of expansion out of the north of England into the Scottish Borders, Wales or the south of England) that we've managed to lose one of the top competitions in the world, the BRL. Even worse, that we didn't learn our lesson when the wonderful French league went to the dogs and we let the Queensland premiership slip away not even 10-15 years later. Now we have 2 major competitions, NRL and Super League. We could have had 4: France, England and Wales, Queensland, New South Wales. That would have been one hell of a 4-way World Club Championship Tournament!
81paling
Roar Rookie
We are so lucky that the game of Rugby League is such an entertaining and marketable game to watch cause if it was not it would be dead long ago as consistently those running it never fail to disappoint. From the Super League wars to the NRL saying no to the Singo $50m offer on the table to get the Bears back in it really is amazing how the custodians of the game can concomitantly make so many bad calls that defy common sense. The reality is they will do it again but, at least we still get to watch the bears play on at North Sydney oval from the hill rather than have to travel to stadium Australia sit in areas so that TV cameras can see us as if we were part of a studio audience for the all important viewer at home and then pay 10 times as much for the privilege. So no matter the outcome at least we can at the moment enjoy the games on our terms.
central qld
Guest
I think they can handle going up to 20 teams within the next 7-10 years. Central Coast & Brisbane aren't like GWS & GC for the AFL - they're existing Rugby League territories so they won't struggle like the AFL clubs making the transition easier. I think they could've even kept the Super League teams & ARL teams as two conferences of 10 each after the war. The game would've been all the better for it, it's just that News Ltd weren't prepared to dip into their pockets any further to prop up a few clubs for a 5 year rebuilding period. But that's all in the past. As for Central Queensland, the NRL needs a strategy for there but when you consider the other contenders - Perth, Brisbane, NZ2 and Central Coast, then I would list Central Queensland's population further down as a priority. Ultimately when they are brought in then they will be the smallest market in the NRL. I think the NRL still needs to look at either partially relocating one of the smaller 4 Sydney clubs interstate or merging 2 of the smaller Sydney clubs together. That would open up the space needed for Central Queensland and at the point the NRL could transition from the 5 division of 4 teams to 4 divisions of 5 clubs each (as there would be 5 Qld clubs & 5 Interstate/NZ clubs & 10 NSW clubs) (Division1: Queensland Clubs, Division2: Western Sydney clubs, Division3: rest of Sydney & NSW clubs and Division4: Interstate Clubs). Otherwise Central Queensland would need to wait until the game expands to a 22 team comp which would be at least another 15 years after the 20th team is added. I would suggest that Central Queensland resurrect the Crushers branding as either Central Queensland Crushers or Capricorn Crushers. There's a strong synergy between the Crusher's rail identity and the QR sponsorship.
Bring Back the Bears
Guest
Word is that the Central Queensland bid is making some good headway as well. With so many viable options to expand, the NRL would be insane to let it go to waste. NRL need to make a decision on the max amount of teams it would ever go to and then target the most ideal markets first, with the pretence that new market must adopt a traditional franchise. Once the NRL reaches its capacity in terms of number of teams, expansion should still be feasible however should only exist by consortiums trying to attract and lure existing franchises to new markets (similar to the US system).
Bring Back the Bears
Guest
I agree code 13. The name options are up on their wikipedia page and they are all terrible. Makes you think that if they hadn't already decided what the name was, they would surround the name bombers with horrible options so people would pick it. Other doozies were Barracudas, Cyclones, Spartans and Heat.
Jean-Pierre Leguerre
Guest
Was wearing the new Warrington away jersey over here in europe this summer, (narrow red and black hoops). The number of people (all of whom know Rugby League, admittedly) said... 'wow... very Norths Bears...' was really surprising. they clearly have an image that is linked to the boom time of NRL (or Winfield Cup, NSWRL etc) of the early-mid 1990s. If fans are still around, then yes - let's not ditch the brand, but work on growing/developing it elsewhere.
code 13
Roar Guru
Agreed. The area is going to waste and there's been no decisive strategy from the NRL about it. Likewise they are letting the Bears fanbase go to waste. If they wait 20 years to resurrect the Bears then that would also be a big mistake. Resurrect them now - it's only been 10 years since the Northern Eagles and 13 since the Bears left. They're still in the hearts of plenty of people.
code 13
Roar Guru
If the NRL doesn't expand to the Central Coast then that's one thing. But if they also kill off the Bears brand entirely, then they will be committing one of the stupidest mistakes in the long sad history of stupid mistakes.
code 13
Roar Guru
In an ideal scenario I'd still like to see the Bears brought back in on the Central Coast with Perth, Brisbane and a 2nd New Zealand side playing out of Wellington & Christchurch making up a 20 team comp. Rather than conferences there'd be 5 divisions (Qld teams, NSW regional teams, Western Sydney teams, Eastern Sydney teams and Southern/Interstate teams). But it's up to the NRL show some vision on this front. Regardless, if Central Coast isn't going to figure in the NRL's future expansion plans - and they should be knowing whether it does or not - then at the very least the Bears identity should be included in any future expansion plans.
code 13
Roar Guru
I can understand how you can argue the point but I would suggest that there are fans of the QRL who never supported the Broncos and still don't because of what they represent that would actually support a club that was in effect trying to resurrect the traditional Queenslander history. Like I said - the corporate Broncos machine monster vs the resurrected QRL club that was crushed by the machine. Now that's has got epic rivalry written all over it. Selling David vs Goliath is so much easier than selling Goliath vs Some-kingsford-smith-corporate-Bombers-plastic-crap
code 13
Roar Guru
Living up in Newcastle I agree with your comments on the coast. The Central Coast is not Sydney and it's not Newcastle. It's its own unique area and the Bears have been working hard - even in expulsion - at making it their own and they do have community support. The NRL is letting it go to waste.
code 13
Roar Guru
Like I said above, in the 1990s the Bears home game average was around 11,700 per game. If even a portion of that was converted into away support then they'd have the biggest away support in Sydney of any non-Sydney team. As for the points about sponsorship, there's only one team on the north side of the harbour - Manly - and frankly they've done very little to recoup lost ground outside of the peninsula since the Northern Eagles fiasco. Ask yourself - if there are too many clubs in Sydney, then why was Gosford shafted when the merger ceased? It makes no sense and the answer is because there was no coordination from the NRL. The Central Coast alone is big enough to support the Bears. But by tapping into North Sydney - an area no one else is really pursuing - they're going to increase interest in the game in Sydney by default and that's going to benefit clubs like Manly in the long run. But if the NRL is suggesting that the Central Coast isn't as big a priority as Perth, Brisbane and New Zealand are, then they have a choice - either set up in those locations with a brand new brand or use the Bears brand to create an expansion club with an existing fanbase.
code 13
Roar Guru
Definitely think we're all on the same page here. Whenever the NRL decides to expand they need to give serious consideration to resurrecting some of these traditional club identities in some shape or form. It's a shame that the QRL & NSWRL never merged (say as conferences) in the 1970s when both were relatively strong before the pokie machine influence really kicked in. I guess nobody had that kind of foresight at the time. That said though these issue - fans of clubs steam rolled by Super League and the downgrading of NSWRL & QRL could all be addressed if the NRL had the vision to pursue it.
code 13
Roar Guru
Again, all that is fuel for a healthy rivalry if the second Brisbane side were to pick up that mantle.
code 13
Roar Guru
The Brisbane expansion bid did run a public suggestion website where you could nominate the club's name and colours - however - I'm positive that it was merely a marketing gimmick to get people talking about the bid. No doubt that the shortlist of names and colours was already determined long before by management and a marketing group and I suspected they were always going with Brisbane Bombers before that website was even made public. That's a simple enough example of what their attitude towards community engagement is like. I'm nonplussed about the Jagera location name for the Ipswich bid. I get the relevance of it but most people would just be scratching their heads. If you want to capture the biggest market share possible then go with the broadest identifiers - either Brisbane or South Queensland. South Queensland Diehards could've have been a nod to both the Crushers and the QRL. But again this is the nature of leaving it to bids to brand and market these clubs, rather than receiving coordinated feedback from the NRL.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
As an outsider, one acknowledges the Nth Sydney area has a pop of many hundreds of thousands and the CC (300,000). IOW over 1million residents,involved commercially,sportingwise and socially within that region ,and to ignore these masses amounts to nothing less than sporting administration incompetence. We saw the effect of a readmitted Souths to the competition,dissenfranchised fans came back on en masse with the associated increase in merchandise sales,memberships,attendances and sponsorship. I remember the Bears at one stage being just about everyone's second favourite team. I further believe their readmittance may well have just as big impact as Souths,bearing in mind the time factor of exclusion and the sentimentality aspect. I am not particularly concerned as to when they should be readmitted,but they should be ,as should Perth and B2. Once the code has solved the salary cap and grant distribution with the clubs,they should go on the expansion offensive,regardless of the fact it may not bring in more dollars to the TV mob.Show some mettle ,be proud of your "product".
Bring Back the Bears
Guest
I agree with Phil - the Central Coast Bears (a team that doesn't exist, and never has as a CC entity) has as many financial members as some lower end NRL teams. Not to mention 25,000 fans on facebook. That hardly sounds like a team that has run it's course, especially one that was ousted from the top comp 12 years ago. Also The Dribbler, the Bears were successful on and off the field in the 90s. Due to the NRL looking to expand at the time, the Bears were the first team to embrace this strategy and even funded the building of Bluetongue Stadium themselves. Not only is it ridiculous that on the back of this they were one of the first teams ousted but what kind of message does it send to existing Sydney teams about the possibility of relocation? The Magpies and Bears are two NRL teams who relocated to ensure their survival, and the message from this is clear, relocate and die. Great work NRL.
Phil
Guest
The Bears story has not run its course - there's an organisation with 8,000 financial members who are out in the Central Coast/North Sydney community every weekend. It's an embarrassment to the NRL that they haven't dealt with the Bears issue.
Bring Back the Bears
Guest
I agree with you Sheek about the Wanderers. Just goes to show that if you treat the fans with respect they will embrace you and respect you back. Despite not yet winning or scoring a goal, fans in Sydneys west (traditionally divided in football by culture) seem to have embraced the Wanderers. Fans can tell when franchises are just the brainchild of a marketing department, however the CEOs of these dud bids can't see past their egos. So instead of servicing rugby league, their priorities are with developing their own IPs. Brisbane do deserve another NRL team, however the ARLC, like the FFA, should make sure it's done properly. QLD, like NSW, has a rich history in RL that shouldne't be ignored.
Valleys Diehard of Brunswick st
Guest
@sheek so very well stated. I'm repulsed by the arrogance of the Broncos organisation. It's a long time since 88 and the Broncos inception, maybe too long for people to care however it must be acknowledged that its absurd Brisbane residents have only the one local team in a national comp. The Broncos are only a brand or franchise, for SE QLD to have only the 2 teams is a result of poor business only! QLDers are passionate league fans, in the right construct a second Brisbane team is a commercial certainty and discussion otherwise is simply redundant. The franchise calling themselves the Bombers, you will probably make the grade on financials alone... ditch the pathetic and unloved Bombers moniker and adopt tradition!