Central Coast Bears
The Central Coast Bears were a proposed professional rugby league club based on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. They were trying to be included in an expanded National Rugby League competition. The proposed team would have played 11 games in Gosford and one game against Manly at North Sydney Oval, in the annual Heritage Round. Prominent rugby league personalities who have publicly backed the club include Phil Gould, Andrew Johns and Peter Sterling while support has also come from as high up as former M.H.R. for North Sydney, Joe Hockey. History In 2006, the Central Coast were one of three bidders for the next team to be handed a NRL licence. The Gold Coast were ultimately successful in their bid, beating both the Central Coast and the Wellington Orcas. In 2012, the NRL announced it was opening up talks about expansion again but ultimately decided to close negotiations until the end of 2014. In 2018, Rugby League Commission chairman Peter Beattie declared that expansion was back on the NRL's agenda with Central Coast one of the teams mentioned. On 11 November 2018, new North Sydney CEO, David Perry, said he was aiming at seeing a North Sydney/Central Coast bid come to fruition when the current television deal ends at the end of 2022. Perry suggested that the NRL should look at creating a promotion/relegation system similar to other sports around the world. Perry went on to say: "You need 12 and 12, so 24 key markets, and stricter criteria about those clubs around their funding model which means all of the 24 may not fit the top tier criteria, it may only be 16-18 franchises that make the cut, their catchment areas, their population, and their commercial growth, because currently I believe a lot of clubs haven’t been accountable as much as they should have. They’ve been too reliant on funding from the NRL and haven’t been measurable enough". On 9 August 2019, rugby league "Immortal", Andrew Johns, said that having a team on the Central Coast would be a "no-brainer". Johns went on to say "I think it’s a must, We keep talking about Perth, but it’s so far away I imagine the costs would be astronomical getting everyone over there and back. At the Central Coast they have a stadium up there and they have a huge junior base. There are so many players play up there, so you can get the best kids aspiring to play for the Central Coast". On 25 September 2019, Australian entrepreneur John Singleton spoke to former NRL player Matthew Johns about a team being placed on the Central Coast. Singleton said "We had the players and the lifestyle on the Central Coast once you get people up there they go: 'wow, how good’s this'. I can live on the beach". Singleton then spoke about the Gold Coast Titans and how their bid beat Singleton's initial bid for a Central Coast team in 2006 saying "They had no money and