Perth team to be competitive from day one: V'landys
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ARLC Chairman Peter V’landys believes the new Perth-based team entering the NRL in 2027 will be competitive from the outset and further entrench rugby league as the No.1 sport in Australia and the Pacific.
V’landys and NRL CEO Andrew Abdo joined Western Australia Premier Roger Cook for a press conference in Perth on Thursday to officially launch the Bears and they are confident a strong team can be formed within 18 months.
"I'm very confident the Bears will be competitive in the very first year,” V’landys said. “We're going to make sure of that.
"We're going to have the right infrastructure in place, and they've got a head start because they've got a combination with the Bears.
A Roar is coming!
“The Bears are an established club, with 200,000 members and they've got an infrastructure there of football managers and juniors and pathways, so you'll be surprised at how good they'll be, even in 2027.”
Abdo said the introduction of the Bears in Perth was another step in the NRL’s global strategy, which includes teams in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, as well as annual fixtures in Las Vegas.
“In terms of the time zone here, it is great for us because we can play games in the afternoon and that will still go prime time in the evening back on the east coast," Abdo said.
The fact that we now have games in Perth all the way through to Papua New Guinea, in 2028, is pretty exciting.
"Obviously the time zone here is great for the game and the globalisation of the game into other key markets internationally."
The long-term goal is for the team to develop players and officials are expecting an explosion in participation numbers after the WA Government's commitment to help double the number of schools who play the game.
While the team will initially be recruited from established NRL talent, Abdo said the aim was for players to rise through pathways that will now be created and for the Bears to eventually comprise of WA talent.
“We've got 5,000 registered tackle participants and we've got 17,000 touch participants already and that number is just going to skyrocket,” Abdo said.
“Obviously any initial franchise is going to require a certain amount of relocation, but the investment that the government is going to provide us in the next few years is going to mean that we can accelerate pathways in schools and clubs.
"Bears are a foundation club"
“The development of talent both on and off the field means that this will be a team made up of predominantly Perth or Western Australian players in a very short period.”
V’landys said the inaugural Bears chair would be from Perth and there would be a further two Perth-based directors, while an announcement would be made soon on a CEO, who was also likely to come from Perth.
The new club would be established by the NRL before being handed over to members after five years.
“We will set up the organisation and once we set up that organisation, it'll be autonomous like every other club," he said.
"The NRL will have an oversight of it to make sure that it's doing everything in the agreement we've reached with the Western Australian government, that's very important to us.
“The club will be run independently. It will have an independent board, it will have an independent CEO and it will be treated like every other club in the NRL.
“The Premier made it very clear that that the chairman had to come from Perth, as does two other directors, so naturally we're going to look at the best talent available in Perth to run the club.”
While Cook hasn’t committed to an upgrade of HCF Park, which will host home games in Perth, V’landys was confident that would occur once the WA Government realises the support for the Bears and rugby league.
“It's the most watched sport in Australia and the Pacific, we’ve got more viewers than any other sport, so it’s good that the WA Government has got on board with the No.1 sport in Australia,” he said.
“This is an investment by the West Australian Government, and it's got to be seen that way.
“Roger was very clear, what's our return on capital? The return on capital is those 200,000 Bears fans who will certainly be making the trip over to Perth.
“The Bears were one of our foundation clubs. They've been there since 1908. It's proven in other sports that if you have one of those traditional clubs behind the new club, it helps.
“They'll have a great partnership with the Perth Bears, but it's important that you have an established fan base, and we wanted to guarantee the visitation.
“I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised by the number of visitors that will come to Perth from the eastern states and, in particular, the Sydney fans.”
