Brisbane Bears
The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Victorian Football League licence in 1986, it was the first privately owned club in the history of the competition and debuted in the 1987 VFL season.
The club initially played home matches at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast. After many years of negotiation, in 1991 the AFL and the Bears convinced the Queensland Government to redevelop the Brisbane Cricket Ground facilitating a permanent move to the venue for the 1993 season after which the club experienced a period of success.
During its history, the club enjoyed only a modest amount of success, being the first non-Victorian side to win an AFL reserves premiership in 1991. Despite the success in its later years, the club struggled to shake the derisive tags which included "Carrara Koalas" and "Bad News Bears" which drew comparisons of its management similar to the hit 1970s movie.
The club came close to folding prior to its move to Brisbane and the AFL began preparing a contingency for its demise in the event that the move was to fail. While the Bears improved on the field, the club continued to struggle financially. At the end of the 1996 season, the AFL helped negotiate a deal with the Fitzroy Football Club administrator whereby the Bears took over Fitzroy's AFL assets and operations and as a condition of that deal, on 1 November 1996, Brisbane Bears members voted to change the club's name to the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club, who participate in the AFL today. The Bears played in 220 VFL/AFL matches over ten seasons, with 70 wins, 148 losses and 2 draws.
History
1980s: Race for a Brisbane licence
From the mid-1980s, several competing parties had proposed a Brisbane licence for the VFL.The idea of a Brisbane-based VFL club had begun in 1984, with former actor and businessman Paul Cronin planning on purchasing a licence from the VFL believing that the VFL could not survive successfully without a national competition, however there were some in the VFL management that did not agree, most notably Alan Schwab. Cronin believed that Queensland was uniquely positioned in that it had an existing base in the Queensland Australian Football League. Migration from the southern states saw the QAFL go through a period of expansion into the Gold and Sunshine Coasts in the 1970s and despite being less popular than the Queensland Rugby League and Queensland Rugby Union had grown to include a number of well established, wealthy and well supported clubs. The early 1980s had also seen in Queensland and QAFL recruited players making an impact in the VFL, including Frank Dunell, Warren Jones, Gary Shaw, Zane Taylor and young stars like Scott McIvor and Jason Dunstall. Cronin approached premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen in November 1985 to garner government support for the idea.
In 1985, the QAFL had decided that pushing for a Melbourne-based club to relocate to Brisbane was the most viable option. The idea was helped in 1986 when incoming chair Ross Oakley's interest in mergers and relocations to help the VFL expand into a national competition.
In June 1985, Brisbane sports promoter John Brown announced he would bid for a Brisbane licence along with entertainment promoter Michael Edgely.
On 22 May 1986, at the Brisbane Parkroyal Hotel, the QAFL president John Collins and Ken Murphy announced plans to lobby for a Brisbane-based VFL team the QAFL still pursuing the relocation of an existing team.
The VFL's Jack Hamilton flew to Brisbane in July 1986 to explore the options including club relocations, stating to the media that a Brisbane team would be possible in 1987 if a vacancy was available. He later stated that Brisbane was the preferred city for VFL expansion and that the VFL had hoped that it could retain all of its existing clubs during the expansion phase.
A third bidder a consortium headed by Perth millionaire Alastair Norwood was announced shortly after Brown's bid.
The QAFL joined as a fourth bidder for the new licence, but stated that it was open to forming a consortium with any of the other three bids. Ken Murphy decided that Cronin's motives for the licence were genuine and aligned with the QAFL. Brown initiated discussions with North Melbourne Football Club in an attempt to lure it to Brisbane, however the Kangaroos rejected the proposal. In response to the moves by the other bids, on 19 August 1986, the QAFL and Cronin joined forces.
Struggling Fitzroy Football Club, in conjunction with the VFL, began investigating a relocation to Brisbane in 1987. However the club under Leon Wiegard voted to remain in Melbourne. Struggling Richmond Football Club under Alan Bond proposed to play half its games in Brisbane in 1987. The move was seen as a threat of relocation and met strong opposition, led by Kevin Bartlett who rallied to stop the proposal, though the club came very close to folding the following year. Despite the setback, the VFL decided to push forward with the plans for expansion into Brisbane.
At the end of 1986, the VFL Commission announced plans to set up privately owned clubs based in Perth and Brisbane, ignoring a strong bid from ACTAFL for a team in Canberra, motivated by the need to sell multimillion-dollar licences to save a number of Victorian clubs which were struggling financially. The VFL at the time set a price of $4 million AUD for a licence to enter the league with the proceeds to be split among the existing clubs.
On 1 October 1986, the VFL board was announced that teams from Brisbane and Perth would compete in the Victorian Football League from 1987 and that no $2.8 million AUD rescue package would be offered for struggling Fitzroy. The VFL Commission initially chose to grant John Brown's consortium Browns International Sport Limited the licence.
Cronin, Skase licence and private ownership
Cronin refused to accept the VFL's decision and increased its bid to $4.8 million, or up to $6 million if Fitzroy relocated to Brisbane and became the Brisbane Lions.Unable to secure access to a stadium, Cronin's QAFL consortium drew up plans for a $7 million new stadium on vacant land at Boondall. Brisbane's main outdoor venues, the Brisbane Cricket Ground and Brisbane Showgrounds' Main Oval, were unavailable due to long-term contracts and the Brisbane Cricket Ground was home to the greyhound racing club and was encircled by a dog racing track. The QAFL believed that the club should be based in Brisbane and supported the redevelopment of the Brisbane Cricket Ground , or secondary options of a new stadium at Boondall or Chandler.
With the higher price offered VFL withdrew its support for Browns and extended the selection process. The consortia found a financial backer in millionaire entrepreneur and Qintex owner Christopher Skase. In response Norwood's syndicate withdrew from the bidding. Cronin lobbied every VFL club president individually to gain their support for the bid. The VFL Commission voted unanimously to award the Cronin-Skase-QAFL bid the licence. The club was given very little time to establish itself, and was without a home ground.
Coach and player signings
Recently retired Hawthorn footballer Peter Knights on 27 October was announced coach just weeks later getting the nod over candidates John Todd, Ron Barassi and Alex Jesaulenko.Millionaire and Qintex owner Christopher Skase was appointed deputy chairman. Qintex General Manager Ian Curtis was also appointed to the club's board.
In December 1986, the branding and Brisbane Bears name was leaked to the public. The new marketing department intended for the bear mascot to resemble Dreamworld's mascot Kenny to appeal to children and tourists. They created two variations of the bear, a smiling bear for the VFL logo and an "angry bear" for games that would appear roaring for matches and many of the marketing and promotional materials for the club.
The club unveiled a playing strip consisting of a gold with a maroon yoke and a triangular "BB" logo intended to represent a stylised map of the club's home state, Queensland, with the outline of a koala head appearing inside of the larger B. Maroon was chosen as the state colour of Queensland and gold as symbolic of the Queensland sunshine.
Collingwood's Mark Williams was the new club's first player signing. Other marquee signings were Geoff Raines and Jim Edmond, however most of the other players were from the SANFL and the WAFL. Most notably there were few local Queenslanders in the side. Queenslanders were approached, however there were very few playing in the VFL level at the time. In search of a marquee Queenslander, the Bears approached up and coming Hawthorn Football Club full-forward Jason Dunstall with a $2 million 10-year deal to spearhead the club, however he declined. The Bears were exposed for their lack of local talent but among the local names in the inaugural squad were Gary Shaw, Frank Dunell, Tony Beckett, Darren Carlson, Allan Giffard and Stuart Glascott. However few of the Queenslanders in the side made an impact.
Upon its admission, the Bears did not have a large reserve of local players from which to compile a VFL-standard playing list. To assist with its inaugural playing list, the VFL arranged for every other club to provide at least two players; understandably, other clubs were averse to providing top-line players and few of the players provided were of a high quality. The Bears pursued a number of stars aggressively and did manage a few key signings, including Collingwood's captain Mark Williams, and 1985 Brownlow Medallist Brad Hardie. A significant proportion of the player list was recruited from the South Australian National Football League and West Australian Football League. Mark Mickan, a ruckman recruited from West Adelaide, was appointed captain of the Bears in its inaugural season.