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The Western Bears was a proposed rugby league football club to be based in Perth, Western Australia. The bid was intended as a partnership between the Western Australian Rugby League and the North Sydney Bears for a team from Perth to rejoin an expanded National Rugby League in 2027. It would have played out of Perth Rectangular Stadium.
| Western Bears | |
|---|---|
| Names | |
| Full name | Western Bears Rugby League Football Club |
| Club details | |
| Colours | Primary Red Black Secondary White Gold |
| Competition | National Rugby League |
| Ground(s) | Perth Rectangular Stadium (capacity: 20,500) |
The bid was rejected by the NRL in October 2024. However, the NRL are now directly negotiating with the WA Government to admit the Bears into the competition as a possible Perth Bears expansion team.[1]
The team's primary colours are to be the traditional red and black of North Sydney, with the Bears' secondary colour of white joining a secondary gold colour.
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There has been no elite rugby league team in Perth since the Western Reds folded in 1997.[2] Since the Reds were not included in the NRL’s inaugural season, Perth is the largest Australian city without a team in the competition. Advocates for a Perth-based team have argued it is necessary for the NRL to consider itself a ‘truly national’ competition. The Reds name was revived in 2006 as the WA Reds, competing in the under-18s S. G. Ball Cup with the intention of eventually fielding an NRL side. The team rebranded as the West Coast Pirates in 2012[3] and continued competing in the S.G. Ball Cup until the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from being able to compete from 2020 onwards.[4]
Western Australia had indicated they were always prepared to go it alone and resurrect the previous Reds moniker in an effort to get a team back in the top-tier competition.[5] This was conditional if they were unable to finalise a partnership with North Sydney, as they wanted to ensure the team was under the control and ownership of WA.[5] They wanted the team to be a true Western Australian one.[5]
Western Australia were also interested in aligning with Newtown Jets, however the NRL had made it clear that their preference was to resurrect North Sydney instead of the Jets.[5]
In August 2024, the North Sydney Bears and a Western Australian consortium headed by Cash Converters founders the Cumins family, signed off on an agreement to lodge an application for the Western Bears to enter a team in the 2027 NRL season.[6][7]
In October 2024, the Australian Rugby League Commission rejected the Western Bears consortium proposal stating the $20 million bid fell short of its expectations.[8][9]
In November 2024, the NRL announced it could soon officially declare the Perth Bears as the competition’s 18th team following urgent talks between ARLC chairman Peter V’landys and the WA government. Despite the NRL knocking back a Perth-based consortium’s proposal the previous month for falling short of the financial requirements, the NRL held constructive talks with the West Australian government about an expansion team in Perth[10]
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The team's primary colours intend to be the traditional red and black of North Sydney, with white being the club's secondary colour since the 1992 NSWRL season. Gold is added as a tertiary colour, although it is disputed whether this was supposed to be a nod to the history of the Western Reds, the state colour of Western Australia, or both.
The Bears logo is expected to be redesigned for the new side.[11] This would be done through an adaptation of the Bears logo to suit NRL competition requirements and full integration of the red and black colours that are synonymous with the Bears.[12]
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The majority of Bears home games are to be played out of Perth Rectangular Stadium. The proposal is for the stadium to be used not only for league purposes as a home base, but shared with soccer’s Perth Glory and rugby union’s Western Force.
With the support of the Government of Western Australia being firm backers of the Bears, a grant of $300 million was pledged to upgrade the venue even further, if a licence was granted to a Perth team.[13]
The club is committed to playing one NRL home game each year at either North Sydney Oval, Central Coast Stadium or the Sydney Football Stadium in recognition of the club's Sydney supporter base. The match was proposed to be against arch-rivals the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.[14] Further, one pre-season game would have been also be played at North Sydney Oval each year.[14]
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The Bears and Western Australia are widely supported for re-admission into the NRL by players and fans alike.[15] Although the first bid was rejected, Perth-born players in particular remain supportive of Western Australia competing in the NRL once again.[16]
The WA Government have strongly and financially backed this team and could have had the potential to have a support base of over 200,000 fans both in Western Australia and across the North Shore of Sydney and surrounds.[17]
The demographics of Perth also suggest a team will have a strong chance of survival. Perth has large expat English and South African populations that can be expected to find rugby league more appealing than Australian rules football. Western Australia is the second fastest growing state in terms of population and is flush with mining industry cash.[18]
The Bears are working with other NRL clubs and venues to allocate sections for Bears fans at East Coast away games where the majority of games would have be played. If the licence had been successful, Western Bears Foundation member packages would have been available, and proposed Bears packages would have allowed Sydney fans to attend Sydney-based regular season and trial season home games and multiple away games. Exclusive content and events would have also be made available to foundation Western Bears fans.[12]
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The North Sydney Bears would remain in the NSW Cup and act as a feeder team to the Western Bears if the bid was successful[18][12]
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