Central Coast Bears NRL Bid.

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Have you actually been to NSO?

NRL won't ever go back there.

Nostslgia is lovely, but please.

When teams are allowed to play in Liechhardt or Brooky, literally anything goes.....

 

[The Great Dane]

Why would Souths need to move? I'm not saying we should be exempt from the discussion but the clubs in a pretty good place financially and I don't see that hanging any time soon.

Frankly if I was in power I never would have allowed Souths back into the competition after 03, however in this case I never said that Souths would have to move, only that one of either Souths or Easts will have to move eventually and as things stand at the moment Easts are probably the more logical of the two.

In saying that though I don't have access to all the information necessary to make an informed decision on rationalisation, none of the public does, we can still make educated guesses though.

 

[The Great Dane]

Hahah, i apologise to all Canberrans present for my mental lasp

how about *11 clubs insider the boarders on NSW*?

Nope we have our own boarders.

I'd accept 10 clubs in NSW and 1 landlocked by NSW though, or we could just not lump us in with NSW at all, the later would be preferable to me, but we (actual Canberrans) have been trying to get the rest of Australia not to lump Canberra in with Parliament and not to lump the ACT in with NSW for about 50 years (give or take a decade), so there's probably fat chance of that ever happening.

 

[Pommy]

Frankly if I was in power I never would have allowed Souths back into the competition after 03, however in this case I never said that Souths would have to move, only that one of either Souths or Easts will have to move eventually and as things stand at the moment Easts are probably the more logical of the two.

In saying that though I don't have access to all the information necessary to make an informed decision on rationalisation, none of the public does, we can still make educated guesses though.

Why would Souths or easts have to move? Your answer seems to be because.

 

[The Great Dane]

Why would Souths or easts have to move? Your answer seems to be because.

Geographically they are both from the exact same area of Sydney, they are both in direct competition with each other for sponsorship from the same local businesses, they both feed from what is effectively the same juniors area, and a juniors area that can be easily sustained by one club.

Having two clubs in an area of Sydney where only one is necessary is placing more pressure on an already stretched market for corporate, sponsorship, and government dollars in Sydney, which is adding unnecessary pressure on the other clubs in the competition (particularly in other parts of Sydney were you may want clubs for strategic reasons) for effectively nothing in return.

There're to few spaces in the competition to wast one on an area that already has a club in a city that (once one of the two is removed) would also have seven others while cities like Perth and Adelaide have no representation and cites like Brisbane and Melbourne only have one club.

The only reasons that we persist with both of them instead of just one is because of tradition and nostalgia, and a fear of angering their fans, all of which are emotional reasons, and running a business on emotions for an extended period of time is a very bad idea and whether we like it or not RL and sport in general is a business these days.

Need I go on?

Souths and Easts aren't the only example, Saints and Cronulla are effectively in the same boat, the way that Northern Sydney is represented needs to change, and the spread of clubs in the West of Sydney needs to be rearranged also, and in doing so it'd also allow for more space for the game to expand it's representation of the rest of the country and maybe NZ as well.

 

[Perth Red]

Nobodies explained where norths would find the money to buy and run them? The leagues club isn't making much.

 

[Diesel]

An article from Feb 2016 but interesting with the names registered.

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...s/news-story/73dbec4993aa975c8b5d726dca76471c

North Sydney’s strong leagues club has registered several business names including Gold Coast Bears, Coastal Bears, North Coast Bears and Northern Bears, showing talk it is willing to buy the Titans

Does strong leagues club mean $ wise or just name?

 

[Marlins]

If NSB could come up with a deal with Burleigh Bears it would give them a much stronger chance of moving to the Coast. They would then have an established brand on th Coast And the Titans fans might not see see it as a kick in the guts if the name was to change.

 

[Pommy]

Assuming Souths don't move any games, their fans have 21 opportunities to watch their team play without having to travel to another city.
Gold Coast fans have 12, at a stretch 13 if you include their game in Brisbane, so even when Souths move 2 games they're still getting more footy then the GC fans (or any non Sydney fans are getting for that matter).

Now lets take into account how much NRL is being played in Sydney, to simplify things lets ignore the handful of games that clubs like Souths and Parra take on the road, there're 189 opportunities in an NRL season for Sydney fans to watch live games, in South East Queensland there're 24, and everywhere else there is just 12 opportunities to watch live NRL.

In other words, Sydney can afford to lose a few games, the GC and all the other regions really cannot, especially areas like the GC that're in direct competition with other sports for the public's attention.

I have no problem with the Bears buying the Titans, unless they plan to use the titans to further saturate an already over saturated market at the expense of one that is struggling.

The thing is Souths and Easts aren't being propped up by the NRL. The Titans are if the Gold Coast can survive with a bears take over and the trade off is to have two home games in Sydney its a lot better than no NRL on the gold coast which should be on the cards if its not a profitable business.

 

[flippikat]

Geographically they are both from the exact same area of Sydney, they are both in direct competition with each other for sponsorship from the same local businesses, they both feed from what is effectively the same juniors area, and a juniors area that can be easily sustained by one club.

That's exactly the point. Well said.

The streamlining of the unified NRL post-Superleague war was rushed, ill-considered, and rife with self-interest.

On the News Limited side we had slashing and burning frontier clubs like Adelaide & Perth as a cost-cutting exercise, and the Broncos finally gaining a monopoly in South-East Queensland with the Chargers and Crushers gone.

On the ARL side we had acceptance that Sydney had to have some rationalization (it was part of the peace deal after all), but right down the line it was bungled, and a lack of geographical oversight gave us a merger that made little geographical sense, with home games spread around the city, and the creation of an enclave (Cronulla) surrounded by a super-regional merger. And that's without even going into Souths exclusion, or the horrible fate of the one Sydney club that tried to be proactive and move before they were pushed.

The thing is, what each side brought to the table was welcomed by the other.

The ARL (and especially Sydney it's Sydney clubs) didn't mind seeing interstate teams cut. Hey, less travel, less competition for players, less cost.. and News Limited was happy to see some of the weaker Sydney clubs cut or merged (that was their goal in the first place). It mattered not to news HOW it happened, or whether the mergers made any logical/geographical sense.

They enabled each other to make the worst decisions for the game.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Frankly if I was in power I never would have allowed Souths back into the competition after 03, however in this case I never said that Souths would have to move, only that one of either Souths or Easts will have to move eventually and as things stand at the moment Easts are probably the more logical of the two.

In saying that though I don't have access to all the information necessary to make an informed decision on rationalisation, none of the public does, we can still make educated guesses though.

With Souths out at homebush, id argue they are in more direct competition with Bulldogs, Parra and the Tigs...

I do agree that Roosters should head up to Gosford, but id expect something more in line with StGeorge's relationship to Wollongong.

I'd accept 10 clubs in NSW and 1 landlocked by NSW though

Eh, ill take that...

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

An article from Feb 2016 but interesting with the names registered.

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...s/news-story/73dbec4993aa975c8b5d726dca76471c

North Sydney’s strong leagues club has registered several business names including Gold Coast Bears, Coastal Bears, North Coast Bears and Northern Bears, showing talk it is willing to buy the Titans

Does strong leagues club mean $ wise or just name?

Im not against a GC Bears team, but they would need to give up on North Sydney/Central Coast entirely and commit to a reborn Bears being a GC team.

(Id expect the ARLC to write in a clause to the sale saying all games must be played in QLD)

And im not sure ANOTHER name change is what the GC really needs.....

 

[Diesel]

I remember about 2005/6 when the GC were accepted and they had a pole where fans could select what would become the name of the team. The top 5 or 6 were all mariner names, sea animals or something to do with the beach and then they selected Titans as this was the most popular choice which didn't sit too well with the public going by comments left in the articles published online such as the Courier Mail

 

[The Great Dane]

The thing is Souths and Easts aren't being propped up by the NRL. The Titans are if the Gold Coast can survive with a bears take over and the trade off is to have two home games in Sydney its a lot better than no NRL on the gold coast which should be on the cards if its not a profitable business.

Though I accept that larger crowds and ticket sales would have helped the Titans immensely, their lack of attendance isn't even close to being the main reason that they haven't been a profitable business.
The reason the Titans are up sh!t creek is because of extremely poor management, namely their ill fated center of excellence, their terrible rent deal with Robina Stadium, their bad history with sponsorship deals, and most importantly their poor attitude to potential fans.

Thankfully most of those things seem to have changed/are changing, but moving any games away from the GC would probably be a step back to rebuilding that relationship with the people of the GC (and south east Queensland in general) in my opinion, and besides two extra games in Sydney on top of the other nine that they would already have in Sydney is not the difference between a profitable business and an unsuccessful one.

I also remind you that neither the Roosters or the Rabbits are profitable businesses, that both have been in similar situations to the one that the Titans find themselves in and could both find themselves right back in that position if their owners left or died and they failed to find new sugar daddies quickly.

With Souths out at homebush, id argue they are in more direct competition with Bulldogs, Parra and the Tigs...

Not really.

They may play their games at Homebush but in every other regard they are still based in Redfern, and the Roosters are their main competition in that part of Sydney.

I do agree that Roosters should head up to Gosford, but id expect something more in line with StGeorge's relationship to Wollongong.

That sort of arrangement is simply not good enough anymore because it still places pressure on the Sydney market.

 

[axl rose]

I remember about 2005/6 when the GC were accepted and they had a pole where fans could select what would become the name of the team.

Well they selected Dolphins, but Redcliffe threatened to sue. Would rather Bears name than the Titans, lousy choice/terrible logo.

 

[BuffaloRules]

Was in the Central Coast this weekend...

Given the weather I spent a lot of time in pubs and clubs....

I found the interest in the NRL Round 1 very underwhelming.... Couple of pubs had the game on in a TV in the corner with no sound and only 3-4 people watching...

 

[Perth Red]

Looking at her weekenda crowds that could be said for the whole of Sydney buffalo. Never seen such a damp squid start to a season, and I'm not talking about the Weather!

How much do the nrl want for the Titans? They are obviously looking to get back the loans over the last three years, how much does it equate to?

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

I remember about 2005/6 when the GC were accepted and they had a pole where fans could select what would become the name of the team. The top 5 or 6 were all mariner names, sea animals or something to do with the beach and then they selected Titans as this was the most popular choice which didn't sit too well with the public going by comments left in the articles published online such as the Courier Mail

The Titan is such a ridiculous logo for them to have. It screams "1990s American" gimmick, and prevents them from developing any real image beyond that. They really should have gone with something more distinctly local...

(Personally, i think Searle should have called them the "Patriots" or something, and used the 7-point star off the Aussie Flag. Basically what Searle ended up doing with the All Stars. But since the gold coast have had 5 names so far, i think a name change is the last thing they need)

Id like to see them drop the Gladiator cartoon and use a battleship instead (I dont think its too much of a stretch to nickname a ship "titan"). This would allow the team to use aquatic imagery in their branding and justify their logo in the context of the Gold Coast.

Better than some shitty americanised cartoon at least...

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Not really.

They may play their games at Homebush but in every other regard they are still based in Redfern, and the Roosters are their main competition in that part of Sydney.

In terms of fan engagment, id argue the home stadium is more important than club HQ or training ground.

And if youre referring to sponsorship deals, moving a club out of east sydney doesnt stop them driving back their for a meeting.

That sort of arrangement is simply not good enough anymore because it still places pressure on the Sydney market.

Easts probably need some kind of Sydney presence just for the sponsorship deals and just to maintain a piece of their history...

But realistically, even if you did what them fully moving to the CC, the best way for that to happen would be a piece at a time; begin with 4 games there and let the market pressures dictate the rest (more fans turning up on the CC? lets move more games there).

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Titans should be aquatic - blue-ringed octopus. Don't even need to change the colours.

Gold Coast Blues...
Gold Coast Stingers...