yawn, back the Western Bears
The timing could not have been more serendipitous for aspiring NRL franchise, the Western Bears. A grand final clash of two AFL heritage brands from non-heartland cities – one relocated (Swans), one merged in a new city (Lions).
It smashed TV ratings for Channel Seven and was the highest streaming game ever of AFL. The equivalent ratings bonanza for the NRL would be Storm versus the Bears and it is a near certainty according to media signalling that sometime late next week, the Western Bears, designed by Peter V’landys as a streaming revenue bonanza, will be admitted to the competition in 2027.
The new franchise simply must follow the pathway forged by the Swans and Lions. It has to – the coveted timeslot allows a variety of games to be broadcast live to eastern states and New Zealand on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
The country will be saturated with live Western Bears games in prime time, so there is a necessity for them to be competitive and liked ASAP. This critical element was a major driver for the ARLC’s ‘encouragement’ of the partnership between the Bears and WA bid consortium.
It will take a decade at least before an academy program replicating east coast AFL models produce local talent in numbers through the pipeline. Unlike AFL, the team can’t be gifted additional first-round draft picks in the early years. There will be a heavy lean on North Sydney pathway programs, including their strong NSW Cup team, through the early years.
WA ownership, and the hosting of all but one home game, were two critical components in securing bid support and acceptance of a non-WA origin brand. A splash of state yellow will be added to the traditional Bears red, black and white jersey colours for home games, to recognise the WA Government’s involvement, while providing a familiar echo to WA teams of the past.
The next hurdle is to reconnect with the Bears faithful. V’landys has championed this franchise formation and must ensure there are sufficient checks and balances to ensure his vision is fulfilled. It is critical that the board and CEO are astutely selected.
The ARLC will insist on input on board positions and CEO selection to ensure this happens – people familiar with how the Swans and Lions manage both their home and historic markets.
Two names instantly come to mind for the Western Bears – West Australian Miles Baron-Hay was CEO of the Swans under Richard Colless, who crafted a connection and narrative linking the new city to the heritage of the Swans that has seen them become the most-watched sporting brand on TV of the major codes. They achieved this via maintaining a familiar logo, jersey and rhetoric which engaged and connected with South Melbourne fans.
Through such signalling, Sydney fans became aware of and embraced the history, proud to be associated with a now-150-year-old club; all the cheers, tears and blood. If not in day-to-day roles, as consultants they would be invaluable.
An ARLC commissioner or NRL executive on the board would also be a strategic steering asset in place. Though not forced to as part of the agreement, a North Sydney Bears Board member like Tony Crawford, former CFO of the NRL, would add credibility and balance.
The NRL should also assist monetarily, if need be, to secure the best culture-creating coaching staff. The Dolphins have created a template to follow.
The AFL realised earlier than the NRL that historic brands have a gritty cache no shiny new brand can compete with. It takes generations to build rusted on support. Bears fans on average are in their 40s. They were the kids, teens, 20 somethings screaming for the likes of Greg Florimo, Billy Moore, Gary Larson, David Fairleigh and Peter Jackson in the successful ’90s era.
The North Sydney Bears membership database and the crowd demographic at the NSW Cup grand finals in 2023 and 2024 dispel the myth that Bears fans are dying out. These 40-somethings are just the next wave in a multi-generational base, as all foundation and heritage clubs in either code have.
The Bears’ key demographic is in the prime income years – ripe for family memberships, game attendance, merchandise and, of supreme importance, digital streaming services.
We live in a digital age of entertainment – rugby league, while a sport, sits wholly within the entertainment industry. Live attendance is a dwindling revenue source compared with streaming rights as the likes of Amazon loom with deep pockets.
The NRL is now surpassing AFL in this revenue component and are poised for a revenue bonanza – the game was able to survive during COVID without any fans and focused on its broadcast value over attendance. The NRL’s place in the market is so largely digital that you can support any club from anywhere in the world as much as you want without ever setting foot in a stadium, and provide over 70 per cent of the game’s revenue in doing so.
This percentage will only increase. In a few years as the free-to-air and even Foxtel models diminish, Amazon could hold all match broadcast rights and stream around the world to various markets like the US as a cheap add-on package – hence the yearly Las Vegas brand awareness creation experiment.
The Western Bears blueprint provides a local team for a non-heartland market, packaged with a familiar, revenue raising brand for prime-time – but it will only achieve the revenue targets needed to help hook an Amazon if it looks like and sounds like ‘the Bears.’ We’ll soon get a sense if they’ve hit the target.
