Gold Coast Titans (Property) Pty Ltd crisis

[Toads]

Mr Searle stressed the football team was a separate entity to the property trust and the Titans were financially stable.

It'd be interesting to learn how the team is structured to be independant to the company known as 'Gold Coast Titans Pty Ltd'. More clarity would be beneficial to Team players and Fans concerned, Mr Searle.

I tend to think the majority of us have been loyal to the club long enough, to have it given to us straight. Otherwise, while nothing is being said, the rumour mill will step up a cog and breed more discontentment. Which in turn results in numbers (Fans) dwindling futher over time.

[karnage]

It'd be interesting to learn how the team is structured to be independant to the company known as 'Gold Coast Titans Pty Ltd'. More clarity would be beneficial to Team players and Fans concerned, Mr Searle.

I tend to think the majority of us have been loyal to the club long enough, to have it given to us straight. Otherwise, while nothing is being said, the rumour mill will step up a cog and breed more discontentment. Which in turn results in numbers (Fans) dwindling futher over time.

Well said.

There is absolutely no reason for anybody to have any faith in Michael Searle at all. Jack Gibson, while before my time, has regularly been quoted for saying that if the front office can't do its job then the players can't do their job out on the pitch.

Worrying times indeed. If the Titans were lost to us, I would be lost to Rugby League.

[karnage]

Even Russel Crowe answers to a board of directors.

Searle is a law unto himself who should read Animal Farm. Absolute power and all that...

[DIEHARD]

Titans blame media for 'scare-mongering'

THE Gold Coast Titans have adopted a siege mentality heading into today's NRL clash against Melbourne after coach John Cartwright labelled this week's coverage of the club's financial position as `scare-mongering'.

Cartwright admitted constant speculation about off-field issues had been distracting for the players ahead of today's game.

"It is disappointing (it's been so public) because we're a football team and this stuff is a distraction," he said.

"But I know it sells papers and people want to see disaster and tragedy. They don't want to see good stories and that's just the way of the world.

"The only thing we can do is get on the field and play football."

Chief executive Michael Searle addressed the group earlier in the week after Gold Coast Titans (Property) Pty Ltd faced liquidation proceedings in the Federal Court on Wednesday.

The Australian Tax Office dropping its application and Searle is understood to have reassured players of the safety of the football club, a separate entity to the club's property arm.

"There's people out there trying to scare," he said.

"There's scare-mongering and scare tactics and agendas."

It was an odd move heading into a game against one of the superstar clubs in the competition and one for which the Titans are desperate to generate a good crowd.

The club allowed Titans debutant Beau Champion to be interviewed on Tuesday when the team was announced and put milestone men Mark Minichiello, Greg Bird and Cameron White up on Wednesday.

But requests for a player to speak to were refused on Monday and the Titans were resolute yesterday that no one other than Cartwright would talk.

Plenty of people would have been interested to hear from captain Scott Prince who today goes head-to-head with form Storm halfback Cooper Cronk.

Or Bodene Thompson, who makes his season debut in the centres after Jamal Idris was ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Idris himself must have been shattered to have to withdraw from today's game.

But the public won't know, with the Titans' refusal to allow players to speak only adding to the spotlight on issues off the field.

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

[Smakked]

What a stupid article, **** i hate the media! What have the players got to say on the issue anyway it is nothing to do witht hem and out of there control so why would they want to ask them?

[DIEHARD]

Well maybe the media thinks they could be a weak link with new information in these types of issues.

Also a few quotes from a player, even if they dont mean anything, can help generate more articles like this.

The Titans obviously dont want to pollute the media cycles and want to focus on football. If we let this sort of stuff over shadow football, we are in big trouble.

[DIEHARD]

Wally Lewis says the NRL must help prop up the Gold Coast Titans

GOLD Coast league pioneer Wally Lewis says the NRL must dole out extra funding to the ailing Titans so the AFL does not have free reign on a vulnerable tourist strip.

And NRL chief executive David Gallop has not ruled out providing the Titans loans to cover the club financially.

The Titans' money woes were brutally exposed this week.

It was revealed two corporations, Reed Constructions and Clipstar Plasterers, were set to launch legal action on the club's property arm to the tune of $1.3 million for work they did on the club's Centre of Excellence.

The five-storey facility was supposed to be a $30 million beacon of success that proved the Titans were vastly different from the Coast's previous league incarnations the Giants, Seagulls and Chargers.

Instead it has become a ball and chain and Titans boss Michael Searle is now considering off-loading the building.

Searle is also considering selling shares in the Titans to the Papua New Guinea Government in order to pay off debts.

Lewis said he was saddened at the news of the Titans' struggles.

You could hear the disappointment in his voice - the league royal who spent three tough seasons at the Seagulls could not believe a club on the Coast was in danger again.

As captain and then coach of the Seagulls in the early 90s, Lewis took home three consecutive wooden spoons.

Lewis said the Coast region was so important to rugby league the Titans must be kept in the NRL no matter what.

"The NRL must help fund the Titans if they do get into further trouble," he said.

"It's incredible to me that the AFL pour money into their Gold Coast team but the NRL makes the Titans fight off their own bat.

"The AFL don't care about how much it costs them, they're just determined to make the Suns work.

"The success of the Titans is critical to the continued success and integrity of rugby league.

"No one wants to see the Gold Coast become AFL territory."

Asked if funding outside of the annual club grant was an option for the Titans, Gallop said there were no set rules in regards to what help the NRL could provide.

"We have been open about the fact we are monitoring the Titans," Gallop said.

"We certainly look to help clubs where we can but there are no hard and fast rules about these things, they have to be looked at in the light of the unique circumstances of each case."

Searle was adamant this week the Titans football department was performing well and any financial issues related solely to their property arm.

"The football club has been a sustainable business for the last five years and will continue to be sustainable," Searle said.

What is not sustainable is the Titans' free-falling crowds.

In 2007, the Titans averaged 21,489 fans but last year they averaged just 15,428.

The second worst crowd in their history, 11,378, attended last week in their loss to Canberra Raiders.

It was 4000 people down on the crowd in league outpost Melbourne, for a game between the Storm and South Sydney Rabbitohs on a Sunday night.

"There's nothing more demoralising for a player than running out to empty stands," Searle said.

"We know families are doing it tough. The fans need to do their best to get to games.

"We've got to try and coerce people out of their loungerooms and back to games."

The Titans play the Storm tonight and expect a crowd near 20,000 on the back of a promotion that guarantees all fans who attend a free ticket to the next home game if the Titans lose.

For the sake of rugby league, hopefully the Titans win and fans are prepared to shell out their hard earned to watch a team filled with talented players.

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

[Smakked]

Wally says it all and its true , the afl will spend as much as they have to to make it work while the nrl seem to sit back and do sweet fa.

[Titanic]

Searle is a lawyer not an economist and his defence of the situation smacked of desperation ... this is extremely worrying.

[eelectrica]

It's all well and good to say 'We'll just sell it' As if that's going to happen overnight. Who's going to buy it?
Especially considering they can't even lease out existing office space.

[eaglerock]

The NRL have been pouring money into the Storm
every year to keep them viable, how about splashing
some cash on the coast, and send Shubert up here with his calculator
and put Searle's financial management under the microscope.

[eaglerock]

Searle is a lawyer not an economist and his defence of the situation smacked of desperation ... this is extremely worrying.

He is actually an accountant. Which is even more worrying.

[Titanic]

He is actually an accountant. Which is even more worrying.

my biggie ... thanks

[DIEHARD]

In the past the Titans were always prompt to release a statement about these sorts of allegations. I haven't seen one yet.

[DavidBouveng]

I just wanted to start a thread so we can try flesh out what we believe to be happening financially within the Titans and discuss how the future might unfold.

These are just my views and thoughts from what we have heard / read so far, and others with better knowledge of footy clubs / finance / and anything related should chip in to try help people understand what we are facing.

First point i guess is the legal action we are facing very soon from Reed construction regarding $1.1M approx in unpaid work, as well as the rumour that Commonwealth Bank is close to chasing us as well.

This is obviously not good, but also not the end of the world, as most people would have found out this week, the Centre of Excellence and Titanium Bar are under the titans property arm, and not directly related to the team.

what this means to me, is that worst case scenario, we lose the 2 properties, and we are screwed short term for a training facility/headquarters.

I cant see it causing the demise of the titans as a team and a franchise though, for a few reasons.

Firstly, Searle is an accountant. Accountants structure their clients finance and businesses very cleverly to minimise any fallout when things hit the fan. I would assume he has structured the property arm in a way so that the team is in no way effected should anything happen to the property arm.

also,and i say this with no disrespect to REED construction, who by all accounts have waited and waited and waited and have only come to this as last resort, but its not a huge amount of money in the scheme of professional sport. they are entitled to chase it of course, and we should pay if we owe it, but if it ruled that we should, i believe we could come up with the cash, either by handout from NRL or some other benefactor ( Hello Mr Palmer). Not to mention other things like selling equity or leasing the building to someone else to free up some money.

The commonwealth bank one is trickier if true, and that would likely require the sale of the CoE, but we know less about Commbank, and shouldnt worry until it is officially a concern.

Something that has been annoying me, especially with the Sydney media, is there correlation between us struggling with the builder, to buying and paying players like Dave Taylor.

As far as i can tell, they are unrelated, and if we are given the grant yearly to spend on the Salary cap, we should spend it on the salary cap. using that money to pay the bills will not help if it results in the team struggling even more than it already is. An analogy might be that if you were behind in mortgage repayments, selling your car to catch up. Great that your caught up in the house, but now you cant get to work to earn money to keep the house anyway.

the best thing Searle can do, is try as hard as humanly possible to get the property stuff up to date, whilst keeping the team side of things operating as strong as possible and eventually that could help the property aspect of the titans.

I could go on, but as i said, i dont profess or pretend to be an expert in any of these areas, im just trying to put something down to start a discussion. i would love nothing more than people who are smarter than me to come in and correct my clumsy attempt with better info for us all.

I will make a couple more points about profitibility in Aussie sport tho.

*Out of the 34 teams in the NRL and AFL, only a handful make a profit. The rest live each year scrambling for sponsors and survival.

*the last 2 NRL premiers are both in severe strife as well. they each won half a mill, and are struggling to survive within 15 months of the windfall of sponsors and money that came with winning the comp.

discuss / flame / contribute