Brisbane Bears

The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Victorian Football League (VFL) licence in 1986, it was the first privately owned club in the history of the competition and debuted in the 1987 VFL season. 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 The Gabba 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 non-Victorian 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. 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 assets and operations and as a condition of that deal, on 1 November 1996, Brisbane Bears members voted to change the club's name to the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (BBFFC or Brisbane...