TerryRandall link said:
Sorry, I actually think it is the other way around. Where were all these mega-buck sponsors when the bears went bankrupt? The only reason they want to get on board now is because of the attraction of the Central Coast market.
I disagree.
The home loan market is very small on the central coast compared to sydney and a company like Mortgage House would get much more business in sydney than the CC. Â
The owner of MH Ken Sayer is now a north supporter and has a long history of sponsoring sporting teams particularly NRL clubs.
2009 - NOW: Central Coast Bears (NRL)
Â
2006 - 08: Melbourne Storm (NRL)
2006 - 07: Sydney Roosters (NRL)
2004: Brisbane Broncos (NRL)
2002 - 04: St Kilda Saints (AFL)
2000 - 02: Parramatta Eels (NRL)
1999 - 05: Sydney Kings (NBL)
By Nick Walshaw From: The Daily Telegraph November 27, 2010 12:00AM
North Sydney tragic...businessman Ken Sayers, whose company Mortgage House will be one of the main financial backers of the Central Coast Bears' bid. Picture: Dan Himbrechts Source: The Daily Telegraph
FOR the past year, the question has started almost every conversation Dave Fairleigh encounters.
At the shops. In the surf off Avoca beach. Even the contractor painting his house yesterday wanted to know why the bloody hell a Central Coast footy team has to be called the Bears?
"And having grown up on the Coast myself, I get it," says Fairleigh, the retired Kangaroo now headlining the NRL expansion bid.
"It's a fair question and, when it comes to our proposal, easily the one I've been asked to answer most."
OK, Dave, so why the Bad News Bears? Why should Coasties align themselves with an image representing bankruptcy, mediocrity and - let's be brutally honest here - the absolute tragedy that is celebrating your most recent premiership some 20 years before World War II?
It's an important one to get right because the clock is ticking. The competition fierce. NRL boss David Gallop even spending part of this week with the Central Queensland bid team in Rockhampton.
So why the Bears?
"Because when David Gallop considers our bid, the most important criteria will be sustainability," Fairleigh continues. "Proving we can pay the bills.
"We need to come up with $18 million a year and, put simply, we can't do that on the Central Coast alone. We need to tap into a larger market. So should we have a bid called the Central Coast Trojans that won't get approved, or do we use a Bear in our logo - opening ourselves up to an area that runs from Kirribilli to Lake Munmorah?"
Indeed, it's the Bears logo that has already seen Fairleigh's team snare North Sydney tragic Ken Sayer - the Mortgage House managing director who is offering to underwrite the Central Coast club for an astonishing $10 million.
"And if it's not the Bears, we don't have Ken," Fairleigh says simply.
"There are a lot of people in Sydney's north who lost interest in rugby league when North Sydney disappeared. We want to bring them back.
"But that's only one part.
"The other is the people of the Central Coast who will finally get to have a team that lives, plays, trains on the Central Coast. A team that will be sustainable and playing rugby league for the next 100 years.
"It doesn't matter what colour your jersey is, a footy club is judged on its actions.
"You have to remember too that a lot of the school kids I meet, particularly the younger ones, have no idea about the North Sydney Bears anyway.
"We welcome the old Bears fans. But there are also thousands of people on the Central Coast who have been waiting a long time for their own footy team. We're extremely confident we can give them one."