Easts Tigers Enter Expansion Race

[flippikat]

View attachment 48550 View attachment 48551

I like that it faces the opposite direction to the Broncos head too. They can look each other in the eyes.

 

[Pippen94]

One of the serious bidders are the Brisbane Firehawks, who are competing for the NRL’s 17th licence along with the Redcliffe Dolphins and Brisbane Jets.
The Firehawks are being funded by the Brisbane Tigers, better known as Easts Tigers, who have been around since 1934.
It’s an old club with a booming Leagues Club, plenty of juniors and resources, but it’s taking a wildly unique approach in order to convince the wise souls on the ARL Commission it should be given the green light.
In doing so, the bid handed the reins to Rich Digital, the sports consultancy firm of former South Sydney boss Shane Richardson and his son, Brent, who has been working for Google in New York shaping marketing and data strategy for brands such as The New York Times, Netflix and IBM.
At its core, the Firehawks’ bid is about being everything the Broncos are not. They don’t want to take on the Broncos, Titans and Cowboys, something the ARLC is conscious about as it weighs up the three bids.
“We’re hunters not cannibals,” Shane said. “We are hunting new business and new people. Everyone can sign Wayne Bennett. Everyone can sign Cameron Munster. The hard part of the business is attracting new members and corporate sponsors who aren’t involved in rugby league. There are sponsors out there who haven’t been involved before because they want to be involved in a modern platform that’s appealing to an age group that isn’t already rusted on. We’re trying to attract new fans from the age of 15 to 35 and you can only do that by building a digital base that you can sell to the market.”
The Richardsons were reluctant to hand over too much detail about the bid before the Firehawks’ official launch in Brisbane next Tuesday.
Interestingly, before Magic Round the NRL warned all bidders about creating too much dialogue in the media. Unsurprisingly, several senior reporters have been wined and dined in BrisVegas over the past few days as the battle for the licence cranks up.
What the Richardsons will tell you is they are modelling themselves on one of the biggest sporting franchises in the world.
“The main guys we’ve looked at closely are the LA Lakers, the way they’ve commercialised their brand worldwide,” Brent said. “We’ve also looked at entertainment platforms like Spotify and how it builds loyalty among its users. And then brands like Red Bull and the way it markets itself. We’ve been lucky that we’ve been given this clean slate in building this franchise.”
“We want to be the outlaws,” Shane said. “It will be totally different to what the Jets and Redcliffe are doing.”

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/th...ation-from-the-la-lakers-20210513-p57rn4.html

That article is just hot air. Lakers?! Yeah, yeah. What is their point of difference don't say?!

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

I like that it faces the opposite direction to the Broncos head too. They can look each other in the eyes.

Yeah I thought it would be good to have the Broncos and Firehawks/Raptors logo staring at each other when put side by side.

 

[The Great Dane]

Firehawks just screams ‘marketing department trying to be creative’ to me

This means absolutely nothing, but if I lived in Brisbane and didn’t go for the broncos, I couldn’t see myself getting behind them.

If you have to explain what a mascot is, then it’s not a good mascot in my opinion

It doesn't matter what name you come up with there will always be a percentage of the audience who doesn't like it for whatever reason.

I can remember back in the day when people were saying that the Raiders, Broncos, Knights, etc, had "plastic" brands, then people got used to them and these days people would say you were crazy if you tried to change them. The same would happen with the Firehawks brand if given a chance.

They are probably going to be forced to change it anyway, then everybody can bag that brand.

 

[MugaB]

Yeah I thought it would be good to have the Broncos and Firehawks/Raptors logo staring at each other when put side by side.

I'd be looking at not going with firehawks, i get that the bid roll out is today, but people are already confused, at the natures arsonist, even if they just kept it simple like "brisbane hawks"
My idea has bit of everything involved,
Easts are the "eastern suburbs tigers"
They are bid runners, generally the 2 most popular of the rival codes in Brisbane are lion related, the Brisbane Lions, and the A-Leagues Roar.
If shane is serious he should be pushing a mascot that is both lion and traditionally "easts" tiger, not a flame bird. I've been thinking "Brisbane City Sabre" is the mascot easts should be pushing, as a sabretooth is more a prehistoric than either a lion or tiger, and looks way different, has the black/brown stripes on a beige/orange jersey. Just seems to marry better as a brisbane team and yet still be linked to easts tigers

 

[The Great Dane]

Don’t get me wrong, I love smilodon, and in my opinion the Nashville Predators have one of the coolest brands in the world.

But a smilodon brand makes no sense whatsoever in an Australia context, and it would be so easy to put an Aussie spin on the brand by replacing the sabertooth with a thylacoleo (marsupial lion).

That way it would be unique and Australian, and you wouldn’t risk the NHL getting suing your arse off.

 

[MugaB]

Don’t get me wrong, I love smilodon, and in my opinion the Nashville Predators have one of the coolest brands in the world.

But a smilodon brand makes no sense whatsoever in an Australia context, and it would be so easy to put an Aussie spin on the brand by replacing the sabertooth with a thylacoleo (marsupial lion).

That way it would be unique and Australian, and you wouldn’t risk the NHL getting suing your arse off.

NHL wouldn't be able to contest since their branding is a predator, and well that could be anything.
Wasn't trying to push for the Aussie mascot, moreso looking at keeping their east tigers brand, without it versing wests tigers, i thought a sabretooth tiger is far more menacing and can look completely different, they can look more like an over grown jaguar, with their spots, which are cool, not so sure it would be cool on a jersey, but merch would thrive off it, a mainly gold/orange and black team is lacking in NRL and a really strong mascot would go well against the broncos.

 

[Perth Red]

The Brisbane Firehawks have launched their bid to become the NRL’s 17th franchise and the fourth Queensland team from 2023.

The Firehawks, who are backed by Brisbane club Easts Tigers, unveiled the club name and colours at a press conference in Brisbane fronted by chairman Stephen Bullow, CEO Brian Torpy and bid consultants Shane and Brent Richardson.

"Like the Firehawk, we are a unique Australian brand," Torpy said. "A raptor that changes the environment for the better, to sustain it. In what it does, it is representative of an outlaw.

"Our bold colours of black and orange pay homage to the history of Easts, whilst the blue and gold pay homage to our home city of Brisbane. Like the legendary Firehawk, a bird of prey, we are hunters not cannibals."

The Brisbane Firehawks are one of three bid teams vying for the 17th NRL licence if the ARLC agrees to expand the competition in 2023, with a decision expected to be made in coming months.

Shane Richardson, who began his long administrative career at Easts Tigers before stints at Cronulla, Penrith and most recently South Sydney, said the club boasted 105 years of history in the Brisbane competition but had adopted a modern approach.

"This is a club with 105 years of financial history, participation history and performance history," Richardson said.

"I’ve learned that history can hold you back, as well, so you have to be a modern sporting club to compete in the NRL and against the AFL or anybody else.

"If you haven’t got a modern approach and a digitally-based approach to try to attract new fans to your club you are going to fail because the last thing you need to do is cannibalise the ones that are there. New sponsors and new people are what the club wants to chase."

The club has a strong balance sheet with $80m in assets and will operate from a new $7.5 million community centre of excellence, which will commence construction in October 2021.

The Firehawks will focus on developing Queensland players, coaches and administrators and have vowed to take the fight to rival codes in South East and Central Queensland by increasing participation with the establishment of new grassroots clubs and junior academies.
Torpy said the Firehawks would focus on attracting a new, younger audience, with over 4.4 million casual sports fans between the ages of 18-34 who don’t currently support the Broncos or Titans.

"We would like to think that we are going to be a national brand based in Brisbane, so we want to appeal to all Australians," he said.

NRL 2021, Brisbane Firehawks, bid launched to become NRL's 17th team - NRL

 

[MugaB]

Video of the bid conference, richo says a fair bit of smart stuff near the end, but the other 3 guys next to him are a bit flustered and smug about the whole presentation, kinda hope all the bids don't look like this, it looked fairly low budget

 

[Perth Red]

Orange and blue are strong brand colours, hope they dont stuff it up by using black and gold too much as well if they get in. Yeh wasnt exactly marketing slick was it lol. I expect the Jets one will blow it out the water

 

[cumbrian Mackem]

Why not call the team the “East Brisbane firehawks”?

Or are the colours enough to incorporate the tigers side of things?

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

I suggested to Des Morris a decade ago that the team change its name to Quolls or Tiger Quolls, as spotted-tailed quolls are also known as tiger quolls. He said the club had no intention of changing its name.

 

[The Great Dane]

NHL wouldn't be able to contest since their branding is a predator, and well that could be anything.

They could still challenge the imagery despite the teams not sharing a name, and it’d be pretty easy to argue that the brands are similar enough to confuse the consumer.

It still makes no sense to have a smilodon brand in Australia anyway. There’s simply no rational connection you can make between smilodon and an Australian sports team’s brand.

This is like that time you wanted to change the Bombers to Barons with a Red Baron theme while maintaining Charles Kingsford Smith on the logo lol.

 

[The Great Dane]

Why not call the team the “East Brisbane firehawks”?

Or are the colours enough to incorporate the tigers side of things?

Because in this context East Brisbane only represents a relatively tiny area.

 

[The Great Dane]

I suggested to Des Morris a decade ago that the team change its name to Quolls or Tiger Quolls, as spotted-tailed quolls are also known as tiger quolls. He said the club had no intention of changing its name.

Not a bad idea, still prefer tiger snakes though.

 

[myrrh ken]

Brisbane Firehawks - nice idea, just doesn't work as a catchy name.

Drop the hawks part. Brisbane Fire - nice.

 

[Diesel]

Why not merge a hawk/eagle and tiger/large cat and have a Gryphon

 

[Shaun_Timmins]

At the press conference it looked like they’ve dropped the “Brisbane” from the logo. They are trying to make it a national brand, based in Brisbane. Don’t know how that will go for them with their bid. Firehawks though. That won’t be changed unless they have to.

 

[cumbrian Mackem]

At the press conference it looked like they’ve dropped the “Brisbane” from the logo. They are trying to make it a national brand, based in Brisbane. Don’t know how that will go for them with their bid. Firehawks though. That won’t be changed unless they have to.

That would be sh#t. Surely the whole point of Brisbane2 is to be a Brisbane city based and named side.

 

[MugaB]

That would be sh#t. Surely the whole point of Brisbane2 is to be a Brisbane city based and named side.

Brisbane City Sabre's solves all their issues, keeps the tigers colors of orange and black, and brisbane city trim colors of blue and gold