North Sydney president Mike Gibbons and a group of businessmen will try to gain control of the leagues club in a last-ditch bid to save the Bears from extinction and re-ignite their campaign to rejoin the NRL.
With the Bears facing a significantly reduced grant of $350,000 this season, Gibbons and co have obtained the 100 signatures required to force an extraordinary meeting of North Sydney Leagues Club members.
A ticket headed by Gibbons will challenge the existing directors for election to the board of the leagues club, which is understood to be attempting to sell its 20 per cent stake in the
John Singleton-controlled Central Coast Stadium.
According to Gibbons, funding of the football club has been reduced to such an extent in the six years since Norths were kicked out of the NRL that its continued existence is under threat.
‘This is a response to widespread community concerns and underpinning that is the future of the North Sydney Football Club, which will be 100 years old in three years’ time,” Gibbons said. “The leagues club was founded 50 years ago by the football club to propagate and promote rugby league in the area but unless something is done quickly the Bears are on the verge of extinction.” Despite acknowledgement that Norths’ proposed move to Gosford would be a huge success, the club was declared “likely to be insolvent” and not assessed under the NRL’s contentious criteria for entry to the reduced 14-team competition in 2000.
Having contributed millions to the construction of Central Coast Stadium, the Bears were forced into a shotgun wedding with Manly that dissolved three years ago after a lack of public support for the Northern Eagles.
With the NRL licence reverting to Manly, Norths have been in limbo since and are struggling to finance teams in premier league and junior competitions.
Singleton is understood to still be supportive of the Central Coast Bears concept but after the NRL board last year rejected his offer to underwrite the team, the millionaire businessman is open to the possibility of another club moving to Gosford.
The NRL is offering $8 million to encourage relocation and, with South Sydney’s impending move to North Sydney Oval, a ground whose below-NRL conditions instigated Norths’ initial move to Gosford, the Bears could be locked out of the Central Coast and the North Shore.