Berkeley_Eagle
Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
DEFIANT Central Coast chief executive Greg Florimo yesterday revealed why he wants the NRL to reject glamour expansion bids from Western Australia and Queensland and re-admit the Bears to top-flight football.
And Florimo has a strong message for his expansion rivals: We will fight until the death. Florimo yesterday outlined exactly why Central Coast should be included if the NRL expands its competition to 18 teams for the 2015 season.
The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday that Perth and Ipswich were now front-runners with Central Coast slipping back to third.
Billionaire Perth business tycoon Tony Sage was in Sydney this week for top-level talks with NRL chief executive David Gallop.
Well-placed sources also revealed Ipswich in south-east Queensland is ready for admission. But Florimo stressed his Bears were ready for a return to the big league - 13 years after foundation club North Sydney were excluded from the NRL.
"There is the proud history of the Bears, who have been around for 104 years, and we have a new market here on the Central Coast," Florimo said.
"I don't know much about the Perth bid but we have had close communication with David Gallop for the past five years. We are very, very confident of what we can present when they call for bids. It's not just the Central Coast but we also engage Sydney's north shore as well.
"There is one million people from Mosman to Munmorah. We have the third largest nursery of juniors behind Newcastle and Penrith. Central Coast is rugby league heartland and we also want to re-engage a foundation club in the Bears.
"There are half a million people on the north shore without a team to follow. We have close to 8000 members and substantial corporate support. We have office space, infrastructure and a boutique stadium (Bluetongue).
"We got nearly 14,000 fans for a trial last weekend (Tigers v Parramatta) on a ground designed specifically for rugby league. David (Gallop) has been to our offices to check out our finances."
It is a rich rugby league area but the Bears have had some issues with funding for the bid.
Asked if he was upset when told Central Coast was now ranked third, Florimo said: "There is always someone you bump into saying how fantastic it would be to have a Central Coast team.
"The Bears should be there so historically we can right some wrongs."
Gallop yesterday spoke highly of the Bears' bid team.
"The fact remains that Central Coast people love their rugby league and it would be great to have a team there with the possibility of providing a link back down the north shore through North Sydney," he said.
Asked if the Central Coast were now behind Perth and Ipswich, he said: "All the bid teams have pluses and minuses. I regularly meet with Barry Glasgow (Norths chairman) and Greg Florimo and their enthusiasm to see their dream realised cannot be knocked."
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/central-coast-chief-executive-greg-florimo-says-the-bears-are-ready-to-return-to-the-big-league/story-e6frexnr-1226272136959
THE gloves have come off in the battle for NRL expansion with the man behind the Central Coast bid casting doubt over the viability of a team out of Perth.
Former North Sydney great Greg Florimo, who has led the push for a team out of Gosford, claims rugby league needed to look after its own backyard before attempting to conquer new frontiers.
The Central Coast Bears were considered early favourites for a new licence when talk of expansion was first mooted a few years back, but they now appear to be losing ground to bids out of Perth and a second team in Brisbane.
The West Australian bid - which offers great potential to the code in terms of television timezones and financial growth - has found a powerful ally in mining multi-millionaire Tony Sage.
Sage along with former Balmain legend Ben Elias met with NRL boss David Gallop earlier this week to discuss their bid, but Florimo questioned the merits of heading to Perth, which has already witnessed the shortlived Western Reds venture.
"I'm yet to be convinced that a team out of Perth will be a viable option ... the game needs to consolidate the heartland, the eastern seaboard of Australia is where it's at,'' Florimo said.
"It seems to me the game needs to consolidate that heartland before it looks to expand to the outer reaches of the nation.''
Asked if he had been given any indication as to where the Bears stood in the pecking order or bid consortiums, which also include expressions of interest from Port Moresby, Central Queensland, and Wellington as well as Brisbane and Perth, Florimo said: "I don't think there's any rankings at all, I know that we've got a great case.
"Obviously I think we're No.1. We each bring different strengths to the table and it depends on how the commission is thinking.
"The Central Coast is rugby league heartland and the opportunity to provide a team that will be very well supported as well as re-engaging the north shore is pretty powerful.''
With the new ARL Commission having finally taken over control of the game, expansion has once again become a hot topic.
Florimo said no movement could be made on the expansion front until the new broadcast rights deal was in place, but warned any prospective franchise needed to know within the next "three to six months'' if they were to be able to get a team up and running in time for the 2015 season.
"We need to get the best players, most players are now tied up for 2013/14 and a lot are renegotiating '15 now or in the very near future,'' Florimo said.
"If we got the nod in the next 3-6 months we would be competitive in year one.
"If it took any longer than that then a lot fo teh best players would be taken up.''
Thoughts on which teams should be addedIpswich's NRL bid gains ground
Joel Gould | 16th February 2012
THE WESTERN Corridor NRL bid has firmed as a frontrunner to win one of a possible two new NRL franchises should the game expand in 2015.
The formation of rugby league's new independent commission has put expansion back on the table with the Perth and Ipswich bids the favourites.
Channel Nine is keen to screen at least one game out of Suncorp Stadium each weekend while Fox Sports wants a team in Perth to increase its Pay TV subscriptions.
The broadcasters will have a major say in expansion if they are to hand over the hoped for $1 billion plus that the game is seeking from the next TV rights deal.
The QT understands that the Western Corridor bid team has supporters in both the commission and Channel Nine.
That has it well in the hunt to win one of the licences along with Perth.
"That is what was going to happen ever since expansion was first mooted, because of the strength of the rugby league viewing audience in south-east Queensland and the need for Perth to be back involved in the national game," Western Corridor bid team chairman Steve Johnson said.
"Expansion and TV rights go hand-in-hand. Channel Nine have always wanted two sides to play out of Suncorp Stadium to have the weekly game in Brisbane and Fox wants to expand their pay-to-view base. Western Australia is attractive to them because it has a solid rugby league competition and background."
Due to the fact that Brisbane is a one-team NRL town, the Western Corridor bid also has a plethora of potential sponsors waiting to knock down the door to get involved.
"Our main sponsorship won't come from western corridor business. It will come from national businesses," Johnson said.
"Any competitor to someone on the Broncos jumper has had no avenue of being involved...but now they will."
That would open up the opportunity for Suncorp to be a Western Corridor jumper sponsor - which it can't do at the Broncos due to NRMA's sponsorship.
