Titan4Life
20-02-15, 06:37 PM
Gold Coast Titans in crisis: Salary cap rort, fans walking away, no major sponsor and alleged drug charges; is this the end of the road?
PHIL ROTHFIELD THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
FEBRUARY 20, 2015 6:23PM
The Gold Coast has long been a sporting graveyard for national competition franchises.
One by one, code by code, just about everything has failed, flopped and eventually folded.
The only exception being the Suns, propped up by $20 million-a-year in cash from the AFL and the presence of superstar Gary Ablett.
Now another club is on life support and the question has to be asked …
How long can the NRL keep propping up the Titans and will they become the next fallen franchise? Certainly they are on death row right now.
The salary cap rort, the player misbehaviour, no major sponsor, falling crowds and the stench over Michael Searle’s previous management.
Plus the multi-million dollar loans from the NRL just to stay afloat while every Sydney based club is left to struggle to make ends meet.
It was hoped the appointment of former NSW minister for sport and NRL second-in-charge Graham Annesley 18 months ago would save the club.
If anyone could turnaround the club it was Annesley. He hasn’t.
Nor has Rebecca Frizelle, the highly successful businesswoman, who last year became chairman of the club on a restructured board.
In fact this club has gone from bad to worse to woeful.
The revelations of players being allegedly involved in a cocaine scandal should be the final straw for a club that has lost the support of the local community.
Crowds last year slumped to an average of below 13,000, almost a 70 per cent decline on their early years in the competition.
A relocation to Brisbane or Ipswich is the obvious answer.
Not that you can predict the NRL’s next move or try to guess how the hapless integrity unit will handle it.
Do they stand the players down immediately because of the seriousness of the charges?
Do they wait to give them their day in court like they waited with Kirisome Auva’a last year after he’d pleaded guilty to serious domestic violence charges?
Whatever happens, the Titans image has been battered beyond repair.
Young hooker Paul Carter was sacked after twice being caught drink driving.
Then Greg Bird was caught urinating on a police car in Byron Bay the day after his wedding.
One by one franchises have come and gone on the Coast.
Rugby league had the Chargers, the Seagulls and the Giants who all eventually folded in a volatile economic climate.
Even big Clive Palmer and his billion-dollar bank account couldn’t sustain a soccer team in the A League.
Basketball tried and failed with the Cougars, the Rollers and then the Blaze.
Even the once world renowned Indy car race fell over.
Sadly the Titans appear to be heading for the scrapheap as well.
PHIL ROTHFIELD THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
FEBRUARY 20, 2015 6:23PM
The Gold Coast has long been a sporting graveyard for national competition franchises.
One by one, code by code, just about everything has failed, flopped and eventually folded.
The only exception being the Suns, propped up by $20 million-a-year in cash from the AFL and the presence of superstar Gary Ablett.
Now another club is on life support and the question has to be asked …
How long can the NRL keep propping up the Titans and will they become the next fallen franchise? Certainly they are on death row right now.
The salary cap rort, the player misbehaviour, no major sponsor, falling crowds and the stench over Michael Searle’s previous management.
Plus the multi-million dollar loans from the NRL just to stay afloat while every Sydney based club is left to struggle to make ends meet.
It was hoped the appointment of former NSW minister for sport and NRL second-in-charge Graham Annesley 18 months ago would save the club.
If anyone could turnaround the club it was Annesley. He hasn’t.
Nor has Rebecca Frizelle, the highly successful businesswoman, who last year became chairman of the club on a restructured board.
In fact this club has gone from bad to worse to woeful.
The revelations of players being allegedly involved in a cocaine scandal should be the final straw for a club that has lost the support of the local community.
Crowds last year slumped to an average of below 13,000, almost a 70 per cent decline on their early years in the competition.
A relocation to Brisbane or Ipswich is the obvious answer.
Not that you can predict the NRL’s next move or try to guess how the hapless integrity unit will handle it.
Do they stand the players down immediately because of the seriousness of the charges?
Do they wait to give them their day in court like they waited with Kirisome Auva’a last year after he’d pleaded guilty to serious domestic violence charges?
Whatever happens, the Titans image has been battered beyond repair.
Young hooker Paul Carter was sacked after twice being caught drink driving.
Then Greg Bird was caught urinating on a police car in Byron Bay the day after his wedding.
One by one franchises have come and gone on the Coast.
Rugby league had the Chargers, the Seagulls and the Giants who all eventually folded in a volatile economic climate.
Even big Clive Palmer and his billion-dollar bank account couldn’t sustain a soccer team in the A League.
Basketball tried and failed with the Cougars, the Rollers and then the Blaze.
Even the once world renowned Indy car race fell over.
Sadly the Titans appear to be heading for the scrapheap as well.