By Adam Pengilly and Adrian Proszenko
The best rugby league ideas come while having a night on the drink ... at least until you get pulled over for a roadside test, decide to sprint down the Corso against some lair named Harry or have a pooch named Bella thrown on your lap.
But just once, maybe once, some quick thinking while sinking a few beers has saved rugby league from a great embarrassment.
Paul Chippendale has been a ground announcer for the North Sydney Bears and an unabashed superfan of the red and black.
But more than that, he’s a hustler. “Chippa” has revved up the crowds at NRL matches, revved up the crowds at karaoke shows, revved up the crowds at political events, and unashamedly goes by the title of CEO: chief entertainment officer.
Yet now he potentially holds the key to a part of the NRL’s expansion dream in the west.
Just days after the Australian Rugby League Commission torpedoed a Perth consortium bidding to be the NRL’s 18th franchise, there’s now a problem: the proposed team, Western Bears, has its trademark tied to the same failed consortium.
From one bear to another: Hopes are high North Sydney’s NRL exile is about to end.Credit: Steven Siewert
It remains to be seen whether the consortium will stand in the way of the NRL, and the copyright, now they’ve moved on without them.
That’s where Chippendale comes in. Not only was he the first to register the Western Bears trademark (which he later relinquished for the bid team), he also snapped up the rights to the Perth Bears and every other name he could conceivably think of while several deep.
“When they were talking about it a couple of years ago [in 2022] when Origin was on in Western Australia, and there was a discussion about the Bears coming back, I’d had a few drinks that night,” Chippendale laughs.
“I thought, ‘if it’s fair dinkum, they must have registered the name’. I looked it up and thought, ‘no one has registered it, so it mustn’t be happening’.
“After having a few drinks I thought, ‘stuff it, I’ll buy it’. I bought the Western Bears, I bought the Western Australian Bears, a few of them [including the Perth Bears]. I woke up the next day and thought, ‘what have I done?’”
What he’d done might have saved the NRL – who are now negotiating exclusively with the Western Australian government to save a $450 million funding pledge and keep a Perth franchise alive – from having to start from scratch again. Chippendale can’t remember exactly how much each trademark cost, but it was about $1000. Some would say value for money.
So, will he now hand over the Perth Bears if the league comes knocking?
“I’m happy to give it to Norths or Peter V’landys,” he said. “I only got it as a fan. I just made sure they had it, and it’s locked away if they want it. I’ll save them tomorrow. We want the Bears to be protected.”
But any Bears association with Perth won’t include the consortium headed up by Cash Converters king Peter Cumins, who held out hope the NRL would come back to the table despite officially rejecting their proposal earlier this week. The chances of that are now dead.
Speaking for the first time about the issue, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said on Thursday: “The Commission has made it very clear that expansion has to have a strong business case – that goes for prospective regions and individual bidders.
“We will keep working through the process to ensure we can present the clubs with the most compelling options to expand the game before any final decisions are made by the Commission.”
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