cannavo
Something's Coming...
In an alternate timeline, this happened....
Our Timeline: Brisbane Bears begin planning to enter the VFL in 1986
Altered Timeline: Around the same time, Gold Coast take over Brisbane's plans and they become the first Queensland team to enter the VFL
Poll will run for 3 days
The winner picks the next team from the list below or
can use their one-time self-imposed idea where they put forward an idea not listed below
Winner has 48 hours to choose or one will be chosen at random
"When given the choice between a VFL team for the 1987 season based in Carrara or a NSWRL team for the 1988 season based in Tweed Heads, the good people on the Gold Coast decide on a VFL team because the NSWRL has stipulated a Rugby League team must be based over the border in NSW because the Brisbane Broncos are to be the only team based in south-east Queensland. Rugby League's short lived "Gold Coast Chargers" are born 9 years earlier, in the form of the "Gold Coast Bears Football Club"."
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Entry 2 cannavo
"It's 1986 and Brisbane want a team in the national comp. In the months that followed, a newly formed board in the Gold Coast had great interest in securing a spot too and noticed the Brisbane Bears plans were struggling with their conception. They saw it as an opportunity to establish a foothold in putting Queensland on the footy map. The inevitability of both parties clashing came through as both boards were at war in getting first dibs on Queensland's first footy team. The façade of Brisbane's plans were prominent and ultimately surrendered the plans to the Gold Coast who got to planning straight away. A few major flaws on Brisbanes part were that they would have no home stadium within reasonable distance from the city, the fact that they would play their games out of Carrara which better suits the Gold Coast and that the Koala is not actually a bear! As season 1987 was closing in, the GC board unveiled Queenslands first national comp team, The Gold Coast Seasiders. Sporting a guernsey consisting of Red for the blistering sun, yellow for the sand and light blue for the ocean that borders their city, and the scheme fit well with their lifesaver roots."
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Entry 3 Mac Ropod
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Entry 4 Fizzler
"Backstory: As the VFL looked to expand further interstate for the 1987 season, two states had the best chance at taking the two spots on offer. Despite SANFL clubs and the ACTAFL attempting to earn a place, the VFL’s preference of charging multi-million dollar licence fees to private owners meant Western Australia and Queensland went on to earn the two licenses.
Four prominent bids came in for the Queensland team, the first being former actor and athlete Paul Cronin’s bid as he felt the VFL needed to expand into Queensland to survive. The second bid came from Brisbane sports promoter John Brown who likely stood to gain a lot from a team in Brisbane. The third bid was a consortium lead by Jeanswest founder Alister Norwood, and the final bid was from the traditionally Brisbane based QAFL who favoured the team being based in Brisbane and were willing to join forces with any of the other bids. The VFL chose John Brown’s bid but Paul Cronin protested and upped his offer to $4.8 million. This in turn extended the bidding process and resulted in a Cronin-QAFL-Christopher Skase consortium winning the license in the end.
The first point in which this timeline changes is the VFL’s selection of which Queensland bid would win the license. Rather than initially choosing Brown’s bid, the league would instead select Cronin’s solo bid, in turn leading to more openness to permanently basing the team outside of Brisbane.
The team struggled to find a suitable arena in the Brisbane area due to long term contracts preventing the Gabba and the Brisbane Showgrounds from being used. Looking to the rapidly developing Gold Coast, Carrara Stadium was in need of a serious upgrade but had the potential to be serviceable.
This leads to the second point where the timeline changes. While negotiating the usage of Carrara Stadium, the Albert Shire Council who owned the ground offered to gradually sell ownership the site to the club, provided the team would brand itself as being Gold Coast’s team and play no more than 2 home games per season at any other venue for the next 30 years. The club was initially reluctant, but the opportunity to become the biggest team in an area that would become the most populated non-capital city in the country was a tough one to turn down.
In late 1986 the club was unveiled to the footy world as the Gold Coast Suns, drawing its colours from surf lifesaver uniforms and its nickname from the weather Queensland is known for. The team wears its bright yellow jumper with red shorts at home, while switching to an almost straight inverse red jumper with white shorts in most away games. Debuting in 1987 alongside the West Coast Eagles, the club still competes today and have been credited with growing football on the Gold Coast, while they share a rivalry with their local counterpart, the QAFL-owned Brisbane Bears who joined the league in the mid 90s.
Designer Note: It might seem lazy of me to choose the same nickname as the actual Gold Coast team in the AFL, but I figured Bears was almost certainly chosen for the alliteration it has with Brisbane and I figured in this timeline the Bears name would be saved for Brisbane’s actual team (provided it wasn’t a relocation). The Suns is a good name for a team in the Gold Coast area, and given it was chosen as an AFL team name in real life, I think that remnant of our timeline should follow over to this one. For the sake of this team’s story panning out as a best-case scenario, I would say Fitzroy probably relocate to Tasmania in the mid 90s, but there’s also the possibility of them, moving to Canberra, merging with North, or outright folding completely."
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Entry 5 BigChippa52
"It was the year 1986, and the seeds for a new Queensland-based AFL side were growing, to begin with, the VFL wanted the team based in Brisbane, but after research, it was told that it would be hard to find a suitable venue based in Brisbane, gold coast was suggested but needed upgrades so the VFL put that aside developing the team's identity, which would be the bears initially wearing maroon and yellow, later on, the idea of Carrera was bought up again, the VFL agreed, during this a few investors came to the VFL saying that they would help fund the team and the stadium upgrades if the team was based in gold coast and a gold coast club after considering the VFL agreed, but changed the colors to gold and red for the lifeguards of the beaches, thus the bears were borns, the VFL now AFL would not be without a Brisbane team with Fitzroy making the move there in 1996 becoming the Brisbane lions in maroon gold and blue"
Alternate timeline categories
Bold - Completed with poll results
Mergers
- Melbourne and St Kilda merged - 1995
- Tasmania - Fitzroy Merger
- Sydney - Fitzroy Merger
- Gold Coast Suns seek merger with Sharks to stay alive
- Fitzroy merge with Brisbane to become the Fitzroy Bears
- Tasmania agree to merger with North Melbourne
- Saints relocate to NZ
- Essendon relocates to NT to become Alice Springs
- Hawthorn relocates to Canberra
- Fitzroy relocates to Canberra
- Fitzroy move to Brisbane in the 80s (Prior to the Bears existing)
- South Melbourne relocate to Tasmania
- South Melbourne relocate to Canberra
- Fitzroy complete move to North Sydney - 1980
- Footscray relocate to Queensland - 1981
- West Coast Eagles enter the SANFL
- Brisbane Bears enter the SANFL
- Fitzroy to the SANFL - 1981
- Footscray to the SANFL - 1981
- Adelaide Uni to the SANFL - 1991 (cannot use only black and white)
- Collingwood to the SANFL - 1997
- East Perth to the VFL - 1980
- Norwood accepted as the 2nd SA team in the AFL
- Launceston apply for the AFL
- Essendon apply for the WAFL
- Port Adelaide crows join the AFL - 1991
- Papua New Guinea enter the AFL
- Mount Gambier join the SANFL
- Limestone Coast join the SANFL
- Sydney enter as a separate team (Bloods stay in Vic)
- Darwin join the AFL - 1991
- Public Service Football Club join the VFL
- Gold Coast fold, new North Queensland team take their place - 2030
- NZ enter 90's State of Origin
- Broome become the 2nd WA AFL team
- Gold Coast hijack Brisbane Bears VFL entry - 1986
- West Coast Eagles VFL kits altered due to Williamstown sharing the same colours
- GWS keep their 'Team GWS' colours
- Port Adelaide retain their Magenta
- Adelaide's hurried concept
(Adelaide board hastily attain clothes from local sport store and use the 5 colours to design their new AFL team)
- Hawthorn release Ochre jumper - 2000
- Skittle's sponsor Essendon and release special guernsey
- Heidelberg Warriors align with Collingwood for 1 season - 1996
- Melbourne remain as The Fuchsias
- Melbourne remain as The Invincible Whites
- Collingwood remain as Britannia
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