The Bears were pretty disgracefully treated by the NRL, I always thought. How was Manly able to merge with them, then ditch them and the Central Coast? Seems like it should never have been allowed to happen.
(Analytical work)
PART 1
http://www.mightybears.com/viewtopic.php?t=2587
http://www.mightybears.com/viewtopic.php?t=2764&start=30
Those links above (from the Mighty Bears website) are external references that should answer some of your questions (along with the response I'm about to give you).
This is the 'long story' part that I was referring to in a previous post. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this (I also know info from ppl (at the time) that witnessed what was happening behind the scenes), but unfortunately, it was very hard to keep my emotions on this topic to myself and your question just happened to give me the courage and motivation to write all this out. This is the response to your question James, which I will answer in chronological order and sequence (important to remember, for those that don‘t know, Gallop was a lawyer for News Limited both pre and post-SL war, before he became CEO of the NRL) and for privacy reasons, a lot of peoples names in this article will be censored:
As you know, a part of the peace agreement from the Super League war was that there was going to be only 14 teams by 2000. At the end of 1998, the comp had reduced from 20 teams to 17. In 1999, with Western Suburbs and Balmain merging, and Souths being targeted as an obvious side to be kicked out of the comp (poor crowd attendances and financial problems working very well in News Limited‘s favour), that left one more team to face the dreaded axe.
Now, before the whole ‘peace agreement’ scenario arose in ‘98, North Sydney were a very prosperous team and with their strong levels of support, as well as their strong financial position, put them as one of the most strongest teams in the competition. Their Leagues Club use to own the Gold Coast Seagulls leagues club, so when the Seagulls went bust at the end of 1995 and relocated from Tweed Heads to the Gold Coast (and became rebranded under the name “Chargers”), NSLC also acquired all of the Seagulls current assets. One of the criteria of the ‘peace agreement’ was that all rugby league stadiums had to be suitable to play league at. The Bears were randomly told that North Sydney Oval was no longer suitable to play league at (90 yrs of tradition and playing there didn’t matter, according to News Ltd). So, they decided to relocate to the Central Coast (However, this turned to be a complete contradiction and oxymoron, as Souths later on in 2004, were going to play a game at NSO, and Gallop said, “Oh, how wonderful it is to see League back on the North Shore”. RORT!!!!!). This was the beginning of the end for the North Sydney Bears.
With the large junior base of the Bears (spanning from the top of the Central Coast in Warnervale to the Lower North Shore (just before the Harbour Bridge), large amount of passionate league supporters in the Central Coast, abundant financial backing for the Bears from businesses, strong Leagues Club support in both North Sydney and Gosford and a fully owned stadium at Gosford, this posed to be a huge threat for all the Sydney teams, as they knew that once the ball got rolling, the Bears would dwarf all the Sydney teams and become a major financial powerhouse in the NRL (rivalling with the Brisbane Broncos). They would’ve been by far, the best financially positioned club in NSW. In what is a long tedious process to describe (and ties in with the point I make about the ‘external administrator’), the stadium rights and corporate box lease at the ground were cut from the Football Club and dissociation of finances between the Leagues Club and Football Club occurred. This process occurred just months before the administrator was appointed, hence another goal in the plan to eliminate Norths from the comp achieved.
To cut the long story short (in regards to the process from this point, up to when the merger with Manly occurred at the end of 1999), weather then also played a major role. 1998 and 1999 were very wet and rainy years, and this severely hampered the progress of construction work at the new Gosford stadium at Grahame Park. However, to add a bit of conspiracy theory to the pot, I remember seeing a photo of the Grahame Park site, and fair dinkum, I kid you not, I didn’t even see one construction worker or tractor or crane in sight! (and the pic was taken on a beautiful sunny day). I remember saying to myself, ’How on earth will this stadium be ready in time for 1999? Whether or not there was something going on behind the scenes (in regards to the construction workers), I’ll let you be the judge.
So, all that time, the Bears were footing a multi-million dollar bill for a stadium they weren’t even using (and they weren’t able to recoup these losses through games played there, which would’ve led to the ticket sales revenue from games, which would’ve covered the loan/debt). That led to them playing home games at Homebush Stadium and even Lang Park! (which only got like 3,000 ppl at that game vs Cowboys). By then, a knife had been protruded very deeply into the back of the Bears. Although the worst was yet to come, the signs started to look very ominous. Not being able to play in Gosford (which the stadium should’ve been built in time for the 1999 season), the Bears had no where to run and no where to hide.
The culmination of these events plunged the once prosperous North Sydney Bears leagues club (NSLC) into a lot of debt, to the point where the debt wasn’t going to be recoverable. As a result of this, a so-called ‘external (neutral) administrator’ was appointed to oversee the financial situation of the Bears. This ‘external administrator’ (whose name I won’t reveal, but you will find in one of those two links above at the Mighty Bears website). Now, if you know anything about corporate finance and management, when a company goes deep into receivership, high positioned board members, who are strongly affiliated with the organisation, lose the power to make the important decisions. It is the administrator that predominantly runs the show. The adminstrator, without any hesitation at all, all of a sudden recommended the merger with Manly. This was kept hush from the Football Club members (I mentioned earlier, that the Leagues Club had dissociated themselves from the Football Club, which suited the News Limited‘s plan perfectly), as they knew they would strongly and abhorrently disapprove of this decision, to form a collaboration with their arch-rival (the Norths/Manly rivals were the most fiercest and passionate rivalries in league). If it was a vote with the FC members, it’d be 100% in favour of Norths remaining as a single entity. However, the adminstrator had other plans of his own (which then also raises the question of whether he was supposedly ‘neutral’).
Across the other side of the Northern part of Sydney (the Northern Beaches), Manly weren’t doing too well either. After the ARL/SL war was over and a salary cap was reintroduced, Manly lost a lot of personel and top players; personel that had been grossly paid into the hundreds and thousands of dollars (eg Scott Fulton, who was virtually on the same amount as players like Andrew Johns were on, yet was only a reserve grade player), as well as top players (e.g. Terry Hill, Mark Carroll, David Gillespie, Jim Sedaris and the list goes on). Their crowd attendances started to wane and as a result, they started to lose a lot of money. However, years earlier, a deal was made with a former CEO (who was also a former Manly player) and News Ltd, that if he exited the game as CEO, Manly would not be shafted when it came to the process of culling teams. So, by this info, it is safe to assume that this person had foreknowledge of the possible events that were going to unfold.
With Manly teethering on the brink of trying to stay above the water, and only weeks away from being in a worse position than Norths……….BINGO!!!!! The offer for the Joint-Venture from Norths emerged. Manly took it, and also, in the process, obtained the NRL license during the Northern Eagles reign (meaning that if the Joint Venture busted, the Sea Eagles got the license and Norths would be left out in the cold). They obtained the license because the NRL told Norths that they didn’t have the resources to bid for the license. However, as you know, Manly weren’t that far from really being in the red. Also interesting to note, Joint Ventures didn’t have to meet the ’peace agreement’ criteria. To the majority at the time who claimed that Manly were the more superior side (in terms of position), if Manly were so superior, then why did they form a Joint Venture with a financially struggling side? Answer: Go figure! Join all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, it all adds up to one common denominator.
