Brisbane Bears
Former Australian rules football club / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Brisbane Bears Football Club was the name for the professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions.[1] The club entered the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL) in 1987 as the first of two non-Victorian expansion teams. It was the first privately owned club in the league's history.[2] Its mascot was a koala, which is a marsupial and not a bear, and its main colours were maroon (official colour of the state of Queensland) and gold (of the Queensland sunshine). In 1996, the club's name was changed to Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (BBFFC or Brisbane Lions) after absorbing Fitzroy Football Club's AFL operations on 6 August 1996 in accordance with a Deed of Arrangement between Fitzroy and Brisbane Bears.[3][4][5][6][7]
| Brisbane Bears | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Names | |||
| Full name | Brisbane Bears Football Club | ||
| Club details | |||
| Founded | 7 October 1986 | ||
| Colours | |||
| Competition | Australian Football League | ||
| Premierships | AFL reserves (1) | ||
| Ground(s) | Carrara Stadium (1987–1992) Brisbane Cricket Ground (1991, 1993–1996) | ||
| Uniforms | |||
| |||
The club initially played home matches at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast (this stadium was redeveloped many years after the relocation of the Bears to facilitate home matches for expansion club the Gold Coast Suns). 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 interstate 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" (in reference to the Gold Coast home and the somewhat tame marsupial) and "Bad News Bears" which drew comparisons of its management similar to the hit 1970s movie.[8][9]
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 operations and as a condition of that deal, on November 1, 1996, Brisbane Bears members voted to change the club's name to the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (BBFFC or Brisbane Lions), who participate in the AFL today.[10][11] The Bears played in 220 VFL/AFL matches over ten seasons, with 70 wins, 148 losses and 2 draws.[12]