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Grimmace
05-08-06, 09:12 AM
NRL newcomers the Titans will be rich in community support,
writes Roy Masters.

THE idea that the Gold Coast is a God's waiting room full of re-settled Victorians enrages new NRL club the Titans and its supporters. "It's a load of crap," says Gold Coast deputy mayor David Power, the councillor who made the deal for the Titans to play at Carrara next year contrary to the wishes of the AFL-loving mayor, Ron Clarke.

After spouting statistics - like Victorian retirees now moving to the Sunshine Coast; the average age of Gold Coast residents being 39 (a drop of three years in 36 months) and the region having the highest concentration of 12- to 19-year-olds in Australia - he tells a story to demonstrate the loyalties of the population.

"My kid goes to a high school, one of four within two kilometres of each other, and the school concert was scheduled the night of last year's second State of Origin match," he said. "The parents and the kids cracked up about it, so it was decided to finish the concert early. As everyone was leaving, the principal yelled out, 'Go Queenslander'. Three-quarters of the audience booed. They were going for NSW. The majority of Gold Coast residents are former NSW people. Very few people living on the Gold Coast were born in Queensland."

There is a huge irony in this fact, considering the principal reason the Titans won an NRL licence was to give Queensland a third team from which to draw talent to keep the code's most valuable property - State of Origin football - competitive.

But when the Titans run their first team on the field in 2007, they will have the support of many of the 450,000 residents of the fastest growing region in Australia, while also satisfying the aspirations of talented local juniors who once signed with Sydney clubs and became NSW players.

Still, the knock on a Gold Coast team has always been whether there was sufficient corporate support for a team. Previous incarnations of the club - the Giants, Seagulls and Chargers - failed because the sponsorship was not available from a community weak in secondary industry.

Power rattles off well-known Australian companies which are based on the Gold Coast, such as Billabong, Riviera and Austar. The Titans' sponsorship staff confirm this, with 91 Palladium club memberships sold at $25,000 each.

"We've also done our sleeve sponsorship with a local business, our car deal with a local business and our shorts sponsorship with a local business," Titans general manager (commercial) Cameron Murray said.

"The commitment we've got from local business demonstrates they are prepared to back their city and their team."
Asked how close the Titans were to securing the $1 million principal sponsorship for naming rights on jumpers, Murray said: "We haven't signed one, but we've got options with local business and national companies."

The eight years the Gold Coast has been out of the NRL has allowed chairman Paul Broughton and chief executive Michael Searle to proceed patiently.

Broughton, a former Sydney first-grade coach and NSWRL staffer, was asked by John Quayle to go to the Gold Coast in 1996 for three months and take control of the Chargers. "I stayed 10 years," Broughton said.

Searle, a former forward with the Giants/Seagulls and now a successful accountant, joined Broughton to resurrect the team.

The investment money they gathered for the bid and subsequent establishment of the team has led to a $125m stadium being built at Robina, to be ready for the first game of the 2008 season.

In 2007, the Titans will share Carrara with AFL team the Kangaroos, who will play three games there. Carrara has hosted crowds never less than 14,000 over the last three years it has staged NRL games. Robina's capacity is 27,000, with Broughton saying: "We'll probably fill it for half our games."

Robina is located equidistant between the Gold Coast highway and the M1 Pacific Highway, meaning it's not like Shark Park and Aussie Stadium when it comes to clearing traffic.

Furthermore, the rail line from Brisbane airport stops outside the stadium and the link south to Reedy Creek will mean 90 per cent of the Gold Coast's population will be able to reach Robina by train or bus. "By 2012, with the rail link reaching Coolangatta, we'll have airport-to-airport rail service," Power says.

When Searle played for the Giants in 1988, he was the reserve-grade hooker under the new franchise's inaugural first-grade captain, Billy Johnstone.

Johnstone, who became a trainer for the Bulldogs, Cowboys, Queensland and Australia, will move back to the Gold Coast as their trainer next season.

According to the Titans football manager Scott Sattler, Johnstone was a major factor in recruitment. "When we announced Billy as our trainer, a lot of the players who were not 100 per cent focused on coming here whittled away," Sattler said.

"Because he has a reputation for mental toughness and discipline, the players who continued negotiations with us were the ones we wanted."

Coach John Cartwright, a former Penrith premiership player and Kangaroo, has signed 24 players, leaving only one space. But, significantly, the Titans are not only looking for St George Illawarra's Luke Bailey, Wests Tigers' Scott Prince and Penrith's Preston Campbell to provide immediate experience, they have their sights on the future.

Cartwright has signed three Australian schoolboys, considered to be the best of the current team. Two - Will Matthews, a front-rower and Shannon Walker, a fullback - are from Palm Beach Currumbin High School.

Searle says: "According to Palm Beach Currumbin coach Rod Pattison, Walker is a better player than Karmichael Hunt and Benji Marshall, who also went to the school."

Insofar as this school is one of the established football factories in NSW and Queensland, it could be argued Matthews and Walker are merely holders of athletic scholarships, in the same way Peter Sterling went from Wagga Wagga to Patrician Brothers, Fairfield, nearly 30 years ago.

But both are from Kyogle, a small dairy town on NSW's Far North Coast, part of the player catchment area of the Gold Coast.

Broughton and his wife, Beverley, invested significant savings in the Titans but don't anticipate their money being repaid. They insist their reward will be the emotional one of seeing the Gold Coast showcase a team in national competition.

Searle is not as starry-eyed: "I run a model where, if we don't win a game, we will still break even," he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/gold-coast-a-goldmine-for-franchise/2006/08/04/1154198330916.html?page=2

Eel 33
06-08-06, 09:29 AM
Kick off is getting closer, well done to Michael and Paul AGAIN. Your efforts will never be forgotten.

Darren Lockyer
06-08-06, 10:49 AM
Kick off is getting closer, well done to Michael and Paul AGAIN. Your efforts will never be forgotten.
Here here

Steve Dangerous
06-08-06, 12:42 PM
3/4 nsw supporters? wtf, that's gotta be wrong.

Dakink
09-08-06, 01:05 PM
Hell no!! 3\4 sounds conservative!!! LOL


Searle is not as starry-eyed: "I run a model where, if we don't win a game, we will still break even," he said.


Thats the part I like - it shows that the Titans arent as result dependant as some other clubs. We are planning for the long term not year to year here!

Hindyscrack
09-08-06, 03:51 PM
3/4 nsw supporters? wtf, that's gotta be wrong.

A crew of a dozen from the Coast went down to Melb for Origin 3. There were 4 QLD Fans and 8 NSW... That was about 2/3'rds

The strange thing was of the QLDers one was born in Orange (NSW) and another Melbourne...

The majority of expats are from NSW.. not VIC like Ron would like to think.