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Rumours that the Norths Group is willing to partner stakeholders and rescue the Gold Coast Titans solve many headaches for the NRL.
Since the failed Northern Eagles forced merger, the Bears have been trying to re-enter the competition as a Central Coast entity.
However, the parlous financial state of most NRL clubs appears likely to forestall any expansion within the NRL for the short-medium term, despite broadcaster desire for more games.
The Bears bid addresses many key concerns for the NRL as it tries to limit the advances of AFL and football into traditional markets.
1. Expansion into South East Queensland, so desired by broadcasters, will not take place while a crippled entity exists in the form of the Gold Coast Titans.
2. The NRL would love to provide grassroots communities in the Central Coast with more NRL games, without having to expand into the region with a new team.
3. The reintroduction of the iconic Bears brand will reconnect with tens of thousands of fans in not just the North Sydney and Central Coast region, but throughout South East Queensland and even New Zealand, instantly expanding the game’s supporter base and viewership.
The Bears provide the NRL with a golden opportunity to disentangle itself from the Titans and grow the game.
Financial stability and football club managerial experience
With 108 years’ experience in running professional rugby league teams, multi-generational support, major sponsors committed and enormous marketing potential leveraging off the decade’s best news story, the NRL can relinquish the current $3 million leakage per year the Titans cost the game that could otherwise be directed to junior and country development.
Expansion and TV rights
A financially stabilised Gold Coast with a nationally recognised brand allows the NRL to proceed with confidence in expanding into Brisbane with a second NRL team. It would be logical to include an 18th team for an extra game to satiate broadcaster demand; hence Perth could be added sooner than currently envisaged.
Heartland reconnection
The loss of the Bears cost the game 40,000 spectators according to David Gallop. With most supporters residing on the north shore of Sydney and expanding naturally onto the Central Coast, the efforts of the North Sydney Bears and then Central Coast Bears to provide a team for both regions means their brand offers the most natural vehicle to increase NRL presence in the region. It would provide two more games a year, in the stadium the Bears helped create (similar to St George-Illawarra synergies).
Increased away game attendances
Teams play half their games away from home. A Gold Coast Bears team could rightly claim that away crowds will be larger than a Titan’s one for away games at all NSW and ACT venues, Auckland (player connections in the 1970s and ’80s) and even Brisbane (player connections in the ’80s and ’90s).
Increased gate receipts alleviate financial pressures for existing clubs. Self-interest should ensure their support for a Bears brand, meaning the NRL can reduce subsiding these clubs also.
A Bears brand on the Coast helps the marketing effort of the aptly named Burleigh Bears, whose logo remarkably resembles the North Sydney Bear’s one… how visionary!
One-hundred-and-eight years of working in partnership with local junior clubs will result in a strengthening of all clubs in the local Gold Coast competition, to everyone’s benefit.
Polls nationwide consistently over 10 years indicate that fans want the Bears brand returned to the NRL. They were one of the most watched teams of the ’90s and would again become many fans’ second team.
If ever there was a proposal that is a win for all parties, it’s this one. The Bears’ brand and its loyal fans return and the Gold Coast finally have a financially secure and experienced ownership structure. The NRL can reduce subsidies to the Gold Coast and existing NRL teams, the game can expand and broadcasters get an extra game sooner (thus ensuring an increased TV rights deal), and the Central Coast gets two extra NRL games.
The Titans have been irrevocably damaged over the past four years. The brand is tarnished and would soon be as forgotten as previous iterations – Giants, Seagulls, Giants.
Yet the NRL desperately wants a team to thrive on the Gold Coast. The Titans understandably want a local owner and the NRL want long-term stability. Who better than the Seagulls Club, one of the richest in the Gold Coast area and part of the profitable Norths Group, whose primary team the Bears has 108 years of experience running a professional rugby league team?
They have never received a cent from the governing body in 108 years and have never gone broke in 108 years. How many existing NRL club, or potential other bidding franchises, can make those claims?
The Bears have been unflinching in their desire and efforts to return to the top flight. If the NRL want a committed partner in for the long haul, they should look no further.
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