Four-way Coast battle of the codes

[DIEHARD]

Four-way Coast battle of the codes

THE Gold Coast woke up this week to a reviving shiver: it wasn't the slap of cold, winter air but the realisation that the tourist capital is now back as a major sporting player in Australia.

We have the big four -- national rugby league, Australian rules football, soccer and basketball teams.

With the official launch of the Gold Coast Suns AFL identity last Thursday night, the city now has four brands to boast to the rest of the country.

The Titans, the Suns, the Blaze and United are all so fresh, young and vibrant in their competitions.

Gold Coast sporting fans should today feel more than satisfied.

They should feel genuinely proud that a city which less than a decade ago was considered a sporting wasteland should now equal Melbourne and Sydney in hosting the big four.

It is a time for back-slapping and eager anticipation in what the Coast can now achieve as a sporting entity.

It is a time for fans to actually realise that soon either Carrara, Skilled Park or the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre will offer a national fixture almost every weekend of the year -- league and rules in winter and basketball and soccer in summer.

Four Gold Coasters in particular would now be pondering a different kind of business landscape before them.

The CEOs of our big four now know that it is really game on.

However, for Michael Searle (Titans), Travis Auld (Suns), Clive Mensink (United) and Dave Claxton (Blaze), the reality of being one of four is not a cause for celebration.

Theirs is the reality of funding this sporting smorgasbord, one that is already proving a difficult burden.

Publicly all four men will chorus an all-for-one approach, but behind closed doors there is a vastly different tune.

By November this year, all four codes will be alive on the Gold Coast. The Blaze and United will be into their fourth and second seasons respectively and the Titans and Suns will have started pre-season training for 2011.

But the real sporting war on the Gold Coast has begun and is being waged on two fronts -- well away from the city's three main sporting arenas.

There is the desperate race for the sponsorship dollar and the battle for the city's sporting fans.

Already concerns have arisen that a cash-strapped Gold Coast just can't afford to field four national teams and that the fans, already branded fickle, just will not supply the bums on seats to make all brands viable.

The signs aren't good.

The three teams that have already launched into the market -- the Titans, Blaze and United -- have all suffered hits financially and in crowd numbers.

No club will open their books, but certainly the Blaze and United losses run into the millions. The Titans have also admitted that money is tight but report that they are in the black.

The NRL club remains one of the game's benchmarks as far as crowds go. This year they are so far averaging 17,202 at home games. But that is still down from the 21,618 they averaged in their first year at Skilled Park in 2008.

United started well on the pitch, finishing third in their debut season but the score in the stands was woeful -- an average of just 5392 fans turned up for each home game.

The Blaze fared better with a strong end-of-season run that finished in a finals berth but still their crowd average would have been down in the mid-3000s in a 5000-plus seat stadium.

The Suns will do well crowd-wise in their opening season of 2011.

There is the new-car smell about the brand and the stadium. There is the attraction of the new roster which is likely to boast the pulling power of AFL maestro Gary Ablett Jr and the added sideshow attraction of rugby league convert Karmichael Hunt.

There is no doubt there is a strong AFL following on the Coast ready to call the Suns their team. But of all codes, the Gold Coast Football Club carries the biggest ace, a parent body (the AFL) that has the deepest pockets.

Although league CEO Andrew Demetriou is mouthing that the fledgling club will have to stand alone financially, there is no way the AFL will allow this expansion flagship to carry one hint of neglect.

Make no mistake, the Suns have been built on solid ground and have a cornerstone in the Southport Sharks club with the expert stewardship of Sharks boss and local rules patriarch Dr Alan Mackenzie.

The AFL also had the nous to lure inaugural GCFC chairman John Witheriff, who is unrivalled in passion for the city and ability to rally the glitter strip's corporate heavyweights.

However, as Michael Searle can tell Travis Auld, take nothing for granted.

The Titans can rightly boast to have set an international standard in presenting a start-up franchise. On the field they have been very successful for a new entity but it is off the field where they have truly impressed with an unrivalled community model.

Still, this year they were embroiled in a costly court battle over their state-of-the-art centre of excellence and have seen memberships, crowds and corporate sponsorship decline.

So, if a club that has done almost everything right is feeling the pinch, what hope for the new boys and two others that are already struggling to dig out of debt?

The answer is simple -- you, the fans.

As any elite player will tell you, a stadium full of fans who have your back is worth points on the board.

The Titans, Suns, Blaze and United will live or die by the will of the fans.

If they are supported, they will flourish on and off the field. The corporate world will take notice and write cheques if the fans are seen and heard.

The Gold Coast has been in this position before; in the early '90s we had national AFL, rugby league, basketball and baseball teams. Not enough fans showed up and we lost them all.

The quandary for Mr and Mrs Gold Coast and their two kids is whether they want to spend the time and money to go to the game or take the cheaper option and go to the beach.

Searle, Auld, Mensink and Claxton are right in saying they have products worth turning up to see. They will also tell you the beach will always be here.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au

[titansrawesome]

afl is our biggest threat, even though you are stupid to go to a GC17 game over a titans game

[squirrell]

It is a big worry..again today i heard titans have money worries on sea fm, loan from the nrl or something.
another code just dilutes the spending power of gold coasters and even if people are interested in attending the odd afl or united game as well as titans, the money wont be rolling in from merchandise sales as much if the kids want a soccer shirt or afl ball to go with their titans stuff.
i dunno what the answer is to this though..its like a tornado cloud approaching and were standing still not knowing whether to take shelter or run.....or is that analogy too intense and dramatic!!!!