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WA BEARS

Perth Red

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69,542
Interesting bit was when he admitted that V’Landys pushed WA on to the Bears. Negative was that he was talking up ‘Bear Park’. There can’t be any games at NSO - like Leichhardt it’s just not good enough for top flight competition. Also it’s an oval - fine for Cricket but not for RL
but but but tribalism lol
 

Perth Red

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69,542
North Sydney absolutely can not get a single home game. If a team wants to take their home game against them there for some cash go for it but there’s absolutely no timeline where people in WA are going to cop a split custody arrangement of any form with the East Coast.

Home game splits in this comp should be made extinct not more prominent. Small time garbage.
Ideally I agree. The biggest threat to this working is if WA fans see it as North Sydney playing games in Perth, it has to be overtly clear this is a WA club that is choosing to use the Bears brand and partner with them as a feeder club.
However I can see the Central Coast potentially putting some money on the table to get one or two home games of other clubs against the WA Bears played there like they are currently doing. Maybe Souths and Roosters? If Manly has any sense they would move their home game against the WA Bears to the SFS on the proviso it is scheduled for a Sunday afternoon.
 

Perth Red

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69,542
Maybe they should just be called 'The' Bears. If its good enough for the 'The' Dolphins to be playing across three different locations lol
 
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I never said we would compete with them, just an example of what other sports are doing here with scouts, and what we could do in the FAR FUTURE.
Those countries you mentioned are the near future, and they are already being scouted by the NRL.
Europe would be next after that.
And one day you could see B4 and NZ3 in the comp!
Now please, back to Perth Bears.
It would be good if we got rugby league played in the collegiate system and targeted gridiron players who miss out on the NFL. and CFL.

Canada is probably a better recruiting ground in the near future. If we get RL Nines into the Commonwealth Games it would be another carrot we can use to get Canadians to play our game.
No mention of NRL/Stadiums or sport in general in the WA budget announced 5 days ago.


I'd love to see some sort of confirmation that the WA Govt is proposing to underwrite an NRL team.

I'd also love to see what value the Bears bring to this besides "brand recognition" for boomers.
Norths Leagues isn't rich, so it offers little money. North Shore doesn't have any juniors if we're to believe the rhetoric from Bears fans who've been whinging for 20 years. Apparently they're all playing fumbleball and queuing up at the SCG to see the Swans.

Well it’s still never.

24 team comp is the goal buddy !
Where would the money come from to fund an extra seven teams?

If the salary cap and annual grant remain the same then we will need another $91million per annum to fund all of the teams, which is $455million over five years.

Foxtel and Ch9 don't have that money. Broadcasting 12 games per round would force the NRL to stop playing matches in separate time slots, which would reduce the amount Foxtel pay. The only I can see Foxtel and Ch9 agreeing to it is if the three FTA time slots have two games played at the same time, with one targeted at Queenslanders and the other at New South Welshmen. That would theoretically improve ratings for both companies, but it would require Brisbane 3.
 
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Wb1234

Immortal
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33,630
It would be good if we got rugby league played in the collegiate system and targeted gridiron players who miss out on the NFL. and CFL.

Canada is probably a better recruiting ground in the near future. If we get RL Nines into the Commonwealth Games it would be another carrot we can use to get Canadians to play our game.

Norths Leagues isn't rich, so it offers little money. North Shore doesn't have any juniors if we're to believe the rhetoric from Bears fans who've been whinging for 20 years. Apparently they're all playing fumbleball and queuing up at the SCG to see the Swans.
You know they can play junior rugby league then go and watch the swans or Waratahs as paying fans. They aren’t mutually exclusive

someone else posted that norths have grown their juniors a lot last year. And norths leagues is funding a junior base which Perth can access rather than another Sydney club

on top of the wa govt providing funding for junior development in that state
 

Perth Red

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Norths Leagues isn't rich, so it offers little money. North Shore doesn't have any juniors if we're to believe the rhetoric from Bears fans who've been whinging for 20 years. Apparently they're all playing fumbleball and queuing up at the SCG to see the Swans.
Not sure what you call rich? They have over $100mill in assets and pre covid were able to spend around $4mill on sports programs and donations and still made a $750k surplus.
Their jnr sides haven't done very well in recent years but not sure if thats lack of players or lack of opportunity. Its hard to keep the best kids when there isnt a direct NRL pathway as we have found out in the West, especially when your surrounded by NRL clubs.
 

The Penguin #6.

Juniors
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1,161
The biggest challenge at this end I could see is the perception that it is just a relocated failed Sydney club that would be looking to move back and take the license with them at the first opportunity.
WA is incredibly parochial, think Queensland then double it! We get behind our sports teams regardless of the sport. For this to work it will have to overcome that perception. Ownership make up will be critical. Maybe a 20% Bears, 20% NRLWA (though that is now complicated since the NRL took over the WARL and in effect would mean NRL owning a share in a club which could be seen as a conflict) and 60% local business consortium would be the way to go?

I'd hope we would have at the least a WA based SG Ball and NSW cup team in alongside a Bears Sydney based Hm, SG ball and NSW cup sides. Bears LC to fund the Sydney pathway set up as it does now and WA Bears NRL club to fund the NRLWA and Perth based pathway. In effect that would be putting $4mill plus into Jnr development pathways for the new club, pretty impressive and another tick in Vlandys box.

Then time to get WA Govt to put their money where their mouth is.
New WA Bears and NRLWA Centre of Excellence and HQ at Perry Lakes or Curtin Uni. - $25mill
New west stand and roof on South stand at HBF park - $120mill
Low rent for first ten years at HBF park - $1mill a year saving
Increased funding for NRLWA for participation increase - $1mill a year increase
Healthways sponsorship for WA Bears - $1mill a year
So what return would the WA Gov`t get on their ~ $150m investment.

* $15m annual NRL grant spent in WA every year. That`s a bloody good annual ROI just for starters, the multiplier effect would also mean that`s the equivalent of a $40m+ annual economic injection;

* All the associated employment associated with a ~$30m professional sporting organisation;

* More likely to be able to hold Indigenous, Magic, SOO and other high profile matches on a more regular basis, this would be another big injection into the local economy;

* more TV exposure for WA through television i.e tourism.

Sounds to me like a winner.
Do you honestly think WA would get behind a League team enough to make it sustainable ? Is the `Bears` name a problem ? what relevance does a grizzly bear have to a WA sporting team ?
Having said that success could paper over a lot of these problems.
 

Perth Red

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So what return would the WA Gov`t get on their ~ $150m investment.

* $15m annual NRL grant spent in WA every year. That`s a bloody good annual ROI just for starters, the multiplier effect would also mean that`s the equivalent of a $40m+ annual economic injection;

* All the associated employment associated with a ~$30m professional sporting organisation;

* More likely to be able to hold Indigenous, Magic, SOO and other high profile matches on a more regular basis, this would be another big injection into the local economy;

* more TV exposure for WA through television i.e tourism.

Sounds to me like a winner.
Do you honestly think WA would get behind a League team enough to make it sustainable ? Is the `Bears` name a problem ? what relevance does a grizzly bear have to a WA sporting team ?
Having said that success could paper over a lot of these problems.
Yeh Govt can see the benefit of a NRL team here. Doesnt hurt the premier is a Rl man!

Interestingly on a poll on the Pirates Supporters group facebook page about 85% of fans so far have said they'd become fully ticketed members with only about 10% not willing to support a WC Bears. As I said the key to success will be for it to be a WA club thats adopted the Bears brand. Not a North Sydney club playing some games in Perth.
 

MugaB

Coach
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15,041
I agree but its the NRL, we play games in Bush towns.
So what? That just means, we aint above small towns, its important to showcase in local areas, especially if it means junior pathways grow, you cant expect to build junior participation in a place like bega or bathurst, if you don't take a game there every so often, i get that the clubs like to get paid for it, but it works both ways, the local town, gets an influx of tourism... some times its just about pathways, in the case with panthers and bathurst every season
 

Canard

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35,609
The Juniors thing seems like pure nonsense.

Do we genuinely that a Perth team would benefit from juniors in North Sydney?
 

The Penguin #6.

Juniors
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1,161
Probably as much as a Titan or Bronco has to those Queensland teams
Not really, a Bronco is a wild horse and although Australian wild-horses are usually called Brumbies there is a link. Associating yourself with a big, glamorous NFL team doesn`t hurt either.
Being called Titans is something completely different, it is more associating yourself with something based in mythology that is easily recognized by most people.
 

Canard

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If the bears don’t get any games at nso they won’t agree to it. They have to get something out of this proposal. One or two games a year is what they should get as a fair compromise

Manly vs the bears at nso is a must
Then maybe south’s as they would get a sell out too

origin this year is being played at an oval
They have no bargaining power in this scenario. They are the proverbial beggars
 

mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,808
Not really, a Bronco is a wild horse and although Australian wild-horses are usually called Brumbies there is a link. Associating yourself with a big, glamorous NFL team doesn`t hurt either.
Being called Titans is something completely different, it is more associating yourself with something based in mythology that is easily recognized by most people.
You also got Cowboy which is a stockman which QLD is famous for, though more central QLD than North...

I guess you could draw a link between Titan and a skyscraper, which the Gold Coast has many of....
 

The Penguin #6.

Juniors
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1,161
You also got Cowboy which is a stockman which QLD is famous for, though more central QLD than North...

I guess you could draw a link between Titan and a skyscraper, which the Gold Coast has many of....
Cowboys is a good one. Queenslanders really like to think of themselves as the Australia`s own version of Texas; frontiersman, guns, religion and all that guff. So copying NFL teams names doesn`t surprise me. Poor deluded fools that they are.
 

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