Rebuffed Perth NRL Bid Made New $20 Million Licence Fee Offer

Latrell Mitchell leaps for the ball during a South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL training session at Redfern Oval in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 27, 2023. Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

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 Dec. 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.”