The now defunct consortium that backed a Perth-based bid to enter an NRL side in 2027 was rebuffed despite making a revised offer of a $20 million licence fee to join the competition.
When ARLC chairman Peter V'landys announced the introduction of the PNG NRL side for 2028 on December 12 last year, he also said the Perth consortium, known as the Western Bears and led by former Western Reds chairman Peter Cumins, was "in the dust bin".
V'landys added that the joint Perth bid with the North Sydney Bears was now "in the hands of the Western Australian government" and he was confident a new partnership with the NRL would get the bid over the line.
Cumins said the consortium's $30 million bid had initially been rebuffed by the NRL due to the lack of a licence fee payment. The bid had been tagged "low-ball" in some quarters, but that was far from the case.
AAP can reveal that Cumins, executive deputy chair of Cash Converters, upped the ante after the initial rejection of the bid in October.
"After our bid was rejected we re-submitted a counter-bid to the NRL, which included a $20 million licence fee," Cumins told AAP.
"We were led to believe that was what the stumbling block was. We also made some other concessions about retaining a certain level of working capital and around bank guarantee-type things.”
Cumins said the consortium had lined up a CEO, potential coach and head of football, and had developed websites and foundation membership packages. He said the bid backers had put up $30 million.
The consortium had also worked with the City of Fremantle Council and the state government on a $20 million redevelopment of a local rugby league ground that the bid was going to help fund as a temporary facility for a professional club to operate from.
"We said to the NRL when we submitted our counter-bid that it was valid until December 20,” Cumins said.
"That has come and gone and we wrote to the NRL to say we were out of the race.
“The investors have looked at other opportunities. You don't have that sort of money and not have it working.
"We wrote to the NRL and said that we had done all this work, had an agreement with the North Sydney Bears, agreed on logos, club names and had registered and trademarked them.
"We said that was all available to them if they want to recompense us for the money that we have spent.
"The only advice we got back from the NRL was that they had decided to go down a completely different business model and ... were going to go with a model of an NRL-owned team supported by the government.”
AAP has spoken to other sources close to the state government who said Cumins' assessment was correct and that the NRL was forging ahead to initially own the new franchise itself with a monetary injection from the state government. The financials of that deal are still in flux.
Despite his consortium's rejection, Cumins hopes a Perth side succeeds.
"It is very disappointing for us, but if they can get a team up in Perth and there is anything I can do to help, then I will. That was my motivation for being involved," he said.
"I am a rugby league man. I would love to see a Perth team get up. If it is not privately owned and is owned by the NRL then I am not fussed. I will do anything to assist ... if asked."
