The Bears have welcomed ARLC chairman Peter V’landys’ revelation that they could return to the NRL, but the foundation club has four non-negotiables.
The North Sydney Bears left the NRL following the 1999 season and merged with Manly to become the Northern Eagles but the joint-venture lasted just three seasons.
The Bears now play in the NSW Cup but V’landys ramped up their potential return to the NRL on Monday when he said they were firmly in the race to be the next expansion side.
Watch WWE shows and Premium Live Events exclusively on Foxtel, Kayo and Binge, plus AEW shows on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial >
V’Landy’s reveals plans for Bears return | 01:10
The NRL’s current broadcast deal runs until the end of 2027 and it’s unlikely a new team will enter the competition before then, but Bears chairman Daniel Dickson declared they’re financially ready and primed for a return.
“It’s nice to know the Bears are in consideration for their expansion plans,” Dickson told Fox Sports News.
“Hopefully we get to speak to Peter very soon, once they know where they’re looking towards, and we’re ready for that conversation.
“It gets a little bit frustrating if we continually go around saying things in the media.”
The Bears are open to joining forces with a non-Sydney based area, like Perth, but Dickson said they do have some non-negotiables.
“Two, ideally four games to be at North Sydney Oval, the colours and the logo,” he said.
“The name, a couple of years ago we took the ‘North Sydney’ out of the North Sydney Bears and it will never leave our heritage.
“We know Peter has said it won’t be a Sydney-centric side, we get that.
“A couple of years ago we did a study and it said we had 220,000 avid Bears fans still out there in the world and there’s probably more than that to be honest with you.
“Our membership is strong for a tier two side, very strong actually and we’ve got some private investors who have been there for the whole journey.
“It would be enormously disappointing (if this was another false dawn) and that’s a nice little message to the game, just do the right thing and the Bears will come back in droves.”
Discussion about this post