Simultaneously across both coasts of Australia on Friday afternoon, the final branding mystery surrounding the Perth Bears was revealed.
Australian sport's first bi-coastal sporting brand, the Perth Bears – who will play their first game in the National Rugby League next year – officially unveiled their inaugural home jersey in front of key stakeholders and sponsors at a packed Wally Edwards room at the WACA.
A direct link-up of the ceremony was also beamed live into a sold-out Norths Leagues Club, located in the Sydney suburb of Cammeray.
On hand to facilitate the jersey reveal were WA premier Roger Cook, ARLC chair Peter V’landys and Perth Bears trio Mal Meninga (head coach), Ben Morton (chair) and Anthony De Ceglie (chief executive).
The design
The first glimpse for onlookers at the function came when the front and back design of the jersey were slowly unfurled from the top of two light towers at the Hay Street side of the ground.
Unsurprisingly, and in line with public hints over the past year, the jersey has heavily leaned into the club’s North Sydney heritage – with the red and black hoops prominently standing out.
For Western/Perth Reds diehards, there is a dash of gold as part of the Cash Converters branding on the front of the jersey – the same sponsor which featured during the Reds’ 1995 ARL campaign.
During the post-unveil press conference, Bears chief executive Anthony De Ceglie said the club would be looking at releasing a series of additional jerseys prior to the 2027 season, including Indigenous and WA-themed ones.
It was somewhat fitting that the WA unveiling function was held at the WACA, which was the Reds’ home ground during their 1995-97 existence in both ARL and Super League.
In another ironic twist, Mr Meninga was in charge of the Canberra Raiders in 1997 and the last person to coach against the Reds at the WACA during their final season.
De Ceglie optimistic about 35k membership target
Mr De Ceglie provided another update regarding membership and said he was optimistic the club could reach a memorable target.
“When we launched our foundation memberships earlier this year, we had budgeted to hit 10,000 by the end of this NRL season,” he said.
“Instead, we did that in 24 hours.
“In a few short weeks, we had to cut it off at 20,000 because we’d already reached the tipping point that we’d sell out every home game in 2027.
“By the time we get to Round 1 next year, and we’ve offered our full suite of membership options, I’m very confident we’ll have 35,000 members and be amongst the top five clubs in the NRL.”
After praising both WA premier Roger Cook and ARLC chair Peter V’landys, Mr De Ceglie said it was imperative that the Bears do all they can to ensure success on and off the field.
“We promise to make the absolute most of this opportunity,” he said.
Additional jerseys on the way
When asked by Business News if the club had plans to reveal additional jersey designs – including away and heritage – Mr De Ceglie said the club would develop an array of options to follow the home strip.
“You get five jerseys each year,” he said.
“This is the home jersey. We’ll announce an away jersey soon, there’ll be an Indigenous jersey and we are looking at a special Western Australian-themed jersey – that’ll be part of our makeup and I’m sure it’ll fly off the shelves like the inaugural jersey.”
Following the press conference at the WA function, an inaugural Perth Bears jersey signed by Mr Meninga was auctioned off by MC Oliver Peterson, with the successful bidder paying $50,000 for it.
Images on social media also began to filter through of lonq queues forming outside of gate one at HBF Park, as eager fans lined up to buy a jersey.
V’landys confident Bears will be successful
ARLC chair Peter V’landys briefly spoke during the press conference and also took questions from the media, where he discussed the Bears and a series of additional new player attraction measures implemented to help the club be successful.
“Look, I always use my focus group, being the Uber and taxi drivers,” he said.
“And one of the things they said was “if they are successful, we’ll follow them”, so we need success pretty quickly and people will become tribal and follow Perth.
“It’s a one-team state and I think you’ll be surprised how many people will become tribal and follow the Perth Bears.”
Mr V’landys proceeded to elaborate further on what these measures were.
“The first one basically is to get a marquee player,” he said.
“So they’ll (Bears) be given 20 per cent dispensation for one player above $1 million. So, if the player is above $1.5 million, they can pay another 20 per cent from a sponsor and that won’t be counted in the salary cap.
“Which isn’t allowed at the moment, because it would be included in the salary cap. If it was any other club in the competition, they don’t get that benefit.
“The other one, which is actually an idea from the remaining clubs, is that if there is a player contracted currently that wants to leave that club – as long as the club and the player agree – that player will be first offered to the Perth Bears.”
