So do the bears have to repay their debts before they overtake the Titans?
www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au
"THE North Sydney Bears are preparing for a takeover of the Gold Coast Titans, with their profitable leagues club registering a business in the Gold Coast Bears name.
The club already operates the Seagulls Club on the Tweed and has been steadily increasing its brand’s presence in that club over the past 12 months.
North Sydney have made no secret of their desire to own the Gold Coast team and replace the Titans with their own brand — logo, colours and all — but the local board maintains they’re not going anywhere.
North of the Coast, another shark is circling in the form of a strong campaign from Rockhampton which is understood to have been one of three serious contenders to take the club on 12 months ago.
Others included a consortium from the South Island of New Zealand and the owner of UK-based Super League Club, Salford.
The company name Gold Coast Titans Pty Ltd will cease to exist in coming weeks, now replaced by the wholly NRL-owned entity, Titans Rugby League Pty Ltd.
Exasperated Titans bosses continued to dismiss talk of any sale of the club as the NRL celebrated its official season launch yesterday.
CEO Graham Annesley said there was no significance in the NRL’s removal of the city’s name from the company which operates the Titans.
“The NRL have made it absolutely clear on any number of occasions that the game will continue on the Gold Coast,” he said.
“They had to very quickly register a company name and because there had been so many different (Gold Coast Titans) entities, they chose one that was different.”
IP Australia had no trademark registered for Gold Coast Bears yesterday, however web domain names for goldcoastbears.com and goldcoastbears.com.au had both been registered.
The .au domain had been registered by a Sydney digital marketing manager and the other was reserved on Wednesday by someone who has hidden their identity.
CQ NRL bid chairman Geoff Murphy said the NRL had made it clear when they were negotiating last year that the league would hold on to the Titans for “three years at least”.
“We were in discussions — in serious discussions,” he said.
“I would like to think that an approach would be made to us if what we’re reading in the papers is correct and they were ready to sell.
“We would certainly be interested.
“I was in no uncertain terms that no matter what happened it was going to take at least three years.”
Titans chairwoman Rebecca Frizelle said the NRL, which has said all along it did not want long-term ownership of the club, would look to offload the club once it was completely stable, which she said was “not far off”.
“They wanted to make sure it was solid and had a strong foundation and structure before it was sold,” she said.
“I would expect that they would want to resolve it by the end of the year.
“We want the club to remain a Gold Coast club — in Gold Coast hands.”
Mr Murphy, who once played for the North Sydney Bears, said his bid, which has more than 40,000 members and strong corporate support, would hang on as long as it took.
“It means that we just have to hang in there for longer and keep going,” he said.
“The bid is still very strong and will remain strong — there’s still a real desire for a club here.”