Bears launch bid to return

[Timmah]

Adelaide on the other hand will struggle to bring in 7k - and QLD will be shown up for the farce it is crowd-wise if given another 1-2 teams.

Perth and Central Coast should be next.

 

[adamkungl]

Adelaide on the other hand will struggle to bring in 7k - and QLD will be shown up for the farce it is crowd-wise if given another 1-2 teams.

Perth and Central Coast should be next.

I agree with that. Adelaide would be a complete waste of time and money which the NRL don't have at the moment. And I don't believe another team in QLD deserves to be ahead of Perth or CC.

 

[Bluebags1908]

Whilst I don't disagree that culturally and socially the Central Coast is very different to North Sydney, the fact remains that if the Central Coast is to ever get a team it will end up being a relocated Sydney team, so why not make it the Bears?. All these years there has been talk of a Sydney team relocating, so the same issues will arise no matter which team relocates there. Do you think if the Bulldogs or the Sharks relocated there you wouldn't have the same issues?

The simple facts in the Bears' favour that you seem to ignore are:

a) Balmain and Campbelltown don't have much in common but look at them now! Same goes for St. George and Illawarra. This is despite the fact that Wests Tigers have the Bulldogs sandwiched in between their geographical locations and St.George Illawarra have Cronulla in-between.

b) Unlike the above mergers, the North Sydney district geographically borders the Central Coast district and so their territory would be continuous from Milsons Point to Lake Macquarie. This should be viewed as a plus.

c) The Bears put their had up to relocate to the Central Coast in 1999 before they were kicked out of the comp AND they contributed their own money in building that stadium in Gosford. This must be viewed as a plus for their re-admission.

c) Unlike Wests Tigers and St. George Illawarra, the Central Coast Bears will play the vast majority of their home games in Gosford with one or two token games at North Sydney Oval.

d) The actual name of the team will be “Central Coast” (funny that!)

e) The Northern Eagles was NEVER going to work. My pet dog could have told you that. Why didn’t it work? It didn’t work because of Manly’s involvement and the need to play half their home games at Brookvale Oval it was viewed as a Sydney-based team that had to play some games in Gosford (which it was). It was a marriage of inconvenience. The team was a half-hearted exercise of the Central Coast. Also the generic name “Northern Eagles” hardly embraced the people of the Central Coast (or Manly for that matter). All these issues don’t apply to the Central Coast Bears.

 

[gottabegood]

Central Coast isn't Newcastle's greater region. Newcastle's a good 1h 30 from the area and the Knights don't really benefit from any support they do get in the area. I'm still wondering what a blimp is but I can tell you now the CC is a giant league nursery which is currently being sucked away at by Victoria.

And it's nothing about "you shouldn't" go on the details - you simply don't have any. Your argument is flawed through practicality. The Coast has thousands of junior league players that can be brought up through the ranks, and areas like SA have very few.

I agree bring Perth in, but if you need a second team concurrently to round the number to 18 - then it must be the Central Coast - the region is screaming for it and you aren't really showing why they shouldn't.

Firstly, nothing wrong with a bit of passion, good stuff.

Don't know why you mentioned Newcastle, I was simply saying that there are plenty of NSW teams.

I would love to see the CC in, and they are a RL heartland no doubt. It would be much more beneficial for them to come in with the bears for reasons stated earlier and as per comments posted by others on this topic.

You make a relevant point that the CC has tons of juniors, but this obviously hasn't convinced anyone at this stage, and yet Melbourne with no juniors were admitted. Maybe you should have a look at asking yourself why this is so....

 

[Perth Red]

All the article is, is an emotional and biased rant by a News Ltd cronie. Grain of salt.

Why would News Ltd be anti the Bears moving to CC? I know they clearly want an existing Sydney team to move, hence the $8mill incentive but would they really be anti bears and for what reason? Or is it more likely it is just the opinion of one journo rather than a whole organisation???

 

[Rockin Ronny]

Why would News Ltd be anti the Bears moving to CC? I know they clearly want an existing Sydney team to move, hence the $8mill incentive but would they really be anti bears and for what reason? Or is it more likely it is just the opinion of one journo rather than a whole organisation???

Well, look at the facts:
NRL were well aware that the Bears were not broke - because $12 million went into the Bears after the JV was formed. But, they did nothing.

Gallop and the NRL saw the CC Bid was far superior - but they not only gave the Tits 12 months to get their act together- Gallop actually represented the Tits to the Qld Govt.

the NRL owes the Bears. It's time.

 

[Perth Red]

Maybe the NRl just don't see the value of a CC team full stop? Is it anti bears or anti CC?

 

[Timmah]

If the NRL thinks there's no value in CC then they really need to look at their direction.

 

[skeepe]

The Central Coast had a team. They failed to support them. They've had their chance, and it's time for the NRL to look at other options. Perth, Brisbane, Wellington, Adelaide and maybe central Queensland (Sunshine Coast or somewhere like that) are all so far ahead of the Central Coast in priority it's not funny.

 

[Timmah]

The Central Coast did not have a team and shame on you for thinking it's that simple. The initial article is correct in what it said about the Northern Eagles - they were like a loan team that trained at Manly, Hornsby and played a handful of games here. We seem to get about 5-6 general games a year here now anyway but a fulltime 11-12 match club would be a real winner here.

Why are all of those "so far ahead" of the Coast a priority? The entire East Coast of Queensland from Brisbane up to Townsville (not including BNE & TVS obviously) lacks an NRL quality stadium - Gosford has 20,000 quality seats ready to be warmed, more than some stadiums in Sydney can even hold. Hindmarsh Stadium reportedly holds 15-20k - but hardly reaches NRL standard IMO.

 

[Rockin Ronny]

The Central Coast had a team. They failed to support them. They've had their chance, and it's time for the NRL to look at other options. Perth, Brisbane, Wellington, Adelaide and maybe central Queensland (Sunshine Coast or somewhere like that) are all so far ahead of the Central Coast in priority it's not funny.

This rubish typifies why the Bears have had such a tough run.

Ignorant, baseless crap from morons. But, what do you expect from supeleaguers?

 

[Timmah]

Ronny, by definition I'm a "Superleaguer" - and I'm on the CC/Bears side.

 

[Loudstrat]

it will be an utterly silly idea to introduce another club into NSW.
We need to look at perth or adelaide.
I am sorry but bringing back an old team to a new place wont work...
The bears are dead and buried. Time to move on.

Central coast is 1 hour from Sydney (who have 8 clubs) and just a one hour from newie who has a team. Why do we need yet another club? Considering all NSW clubs are struggling...

All NSW clubs?

And since when is distance from a spot on the map more imnportant than things like population. Fair dinkum, people like you would think that putting a team in Broome would be a good idea.

I agree with the article, I hear all the time people that don't even live on the coast going on and on about the bears and the central coast and the presence they already have here, and I think to myself what presence?

If Rugby League is to succeed on the central coast the team needs to be a Central Coast team, not a former NRL team brought back on the coast. We would want to make our own history and not live of past glorys and history attained by the side when they were recognized as the North Sydney Bears.

Then dismantle the stadium and hand it back to the Baars. I never heard one whinge from you lot when Norths built it.

 

[LESStar58]

Glad the Bears are so keen and I know the Bears were shafted in 99 and I for one want them on the Coast but it's not gonna happen as long as Gallop is running the comp.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Adelaide on the other hand will struggle to bring in 7k - and QLD will be shown up for the farce it is crowd-wise if given another 1-2 teams.

Perth and Central Coast should be next.

What makes you think that? They averaged more than that even in their final year in 1998. To put that into perspective, only three clubs that year averaged over 12,000 (Brisbane + Newcastle both had over 20K and Melb was just over 12K).

 

[Lockyer4President!]

central Queensland (Sunshine Coast or somewhere like that)

Sunshine Coast is part of South East QLD, not Central QLD.

 

[Rockin Ronny]

Glad the Bears are so keen and I know the Bears were shafted in 99 and I for one want them on the Coast but it's not gonna happen as long as Gallop is running the comp.

That is, by far, the biggest concern.

 

[Rockin Ronny]

Ronny, by definition I'm a "Superleaguer" - and I'm on the CC/Bears side.

I mean - the super league "attitude" - the persistent lines from idiots who never acknowledge the damage done to the game and how reinstating the Bears goes a long way to redressing this.

 

[BIKER_DRAGON]

Yep bring back the Bears playing out of North Sydney and At the same time bring back the Newtown Jets Then bring in the Central Coast Batlers along with the Coffs Harbour Clowns

 

[sharko]

I think the St George Clowns would be the most appropriate moniker..Saints have had buckets of money, 2 huge league regions to choose players from, 2 stadiums and yet they continue to play like geniuss and underachievers...red and white clowns ahas a ring to it.