Frizelle's Car Yard Coup

[K2G]

Titans chair Rebecca Frizelle reveals how she helped bring Daly Cherry-Evans to the Gold Coast and her vision for the club’s future
PHIL ROTHFIELDSPORTS EDITOR-AT-LARGE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MARCH 20, 2015 11:00P




ONE of the biggest signings in NRL history was done out of a prestige Southport car yard.

The boardroom of the Gold Coast Audi centre is the last place you’d expect to find one of the NRL’s biggest names on a Monday afternoon in mid-February.

It’s where the Titans convinced superstar half-back Daly Cherry-Evans to walk out on Manly to become the face of the troubled NRL club on a multi-million dollar contract.

This is also where Titans chair Rebecca Frizelle runs one of Queensland’s most successful businesses.

Frizelle and chief executive Graham Annesley chose the venue for the Cherry-Evans negotiations to keep the media off the trail.

“He wasn’t paraded around … there were no journalists, cameras or a media circus,” Frizelle explains.

“The biggest thing was to keep it quiet to respect his and his partner’s privacy.

“We didn’t put pressure on him. There was no deadline. We just said make your decision when you’re ready.”

THE DEAL

Manly are playing Parramatta in the opening round game at Parramatta Stadium on a Friday night. The Titans were hopeful but had no idea he was over the line.

“When the idea first came up to sign Cherry-Evans we all laughed,” Frizelle explains.

“How would we get a player of his stature? The most sought-after signature in the game.”

Frizelle reaches for her mobile phone.

“Here it is … I got the text message at 8.59 that night saying the deal was done,” she says.

“It was from his manager Chris Orr. I was at home and just replied ‘wooooohooooo’.

“My kids could hear me screaming from the lounge room.

“We had been dealing with the drug scandal and here was something so positive for the club and the Gold Coast.”

It’s the day the fightback began in earnest to save the embattled club.

THE CHAIR

The job of rebuilding the Titans under its new ownership model is in the hands of a woman who concedes she knows little about rugby league.

In fact it’s been said she wouldn’t know a football from a watermelon.

Rest assured, she knows how to run and grow a business.

Frizelle started in the motoring industry in 1990 at a time when the family company employed just 15 staff and sold 30 vehicles a month from two car yards.

Now 25 years later the business has grown to become one of Queensland’s largest privately owned companies, employing more than 600 staff and delivering more than 14,000 vehicles across 13 franchises last year.

“Success is not about luck,” she says, “it is truly about hard work, passion, team work and commitment.”

She insists her lack of rugby league knowledge is not a problem.

“It’s like the car business … we’ve got service managers and sales managers,” she explains.

“I don’t try to fix the cars because I trust the service manager to do his job.

“The same with the Titans staff. Graham’s the football expert. Neil Henry picks the team.

“I am absolutely passionate about the Gold Coast and just as passionate about the success of our Titans and importantly I am up for the challenges that will arise from time to time.

“I am committed and I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure that our Club continues to grow and prosper.”

THE GOALS

We’re doing this interview in the same boardroom at Audi where the Cherry-Evans deal was done a month earlier. I ask Frizelle to take a futuristic view of where this club will be in 10 years. She talks it up big time.

“By 2025 the Gold Coast Titans will have won at least one premiership and will be a regular contender in the top eight,” she declares.

“This strong, consistent on field performance will have a dramatic effect on our membership, sponsorship and home crowds.

“If we can achieve the 10 per cent growth per annum that we have targeted, we would expect average home crowds of 23,000 plus by 2023, membership to be at least 20,000 and our sponsorship assets significantly contributing to the overall profitability of the club.”

I find Frizelle a pleasant change from some of the administrators I’ve dealt with over 40 years.

Innovative, passionate, modern and obsessed about goals, targets and achievements

THE DRUG SCANDAL


The five players on charges ranging from possession to supplying cocaine have been recalled for tomorrow’s clash with the Newcastle Knights on the Gold Coast.

For a club that was already without a major sponsor, it makes the job of finding one all that more difficult.

“There is absolutely no doubt that the drugs issue has damaged the Titans brand,” she says.

“It has cost us genuine sponsorship opportunities, significant relocation costs and the reputational damage within the wider community has been considerable.”

Chief executive Graham Annesley, the former referee, NRL 2IC and NSW minister for sport has been left to handle the commercial backlash.

Still there have been some positives to emerge from it.

“Yes we lost a couple of sponsors,” Annesley said, “but our membership went through the roof leading up to our first game. We sold 2500 members in one week.

“Last year our target was 10,000 members and we didn’t get there. This year we’ve already smashed 10,000.”

The major sponsors will eventually come.

“The board took a courageous position in that we weren’t going to have a fire sale,” Annesley said, “We could have had a naming rights sponsor by now but we would have had to undersell the value of the jersey and other properties.

“You’re then stuck with it for the term of the contract. We’re going to hang out and eventually get the right sponsor involved.”

The Titans temporarily have the great charity Ronald McDonald house on the front of their jersey.

“When the drug scandal broke we hadn’t announced our association yet with Ronald McDonald House,” Frizelle explains.

“We called them and said you’re absolutely within your rights to walk away or put this on hold because it’s all about kids and charities.

“They said absolutely not. They said they’d work through it with us.

“The community has actually galvanised behind the club.”

THE SURVIVAL

The Gold Coast has long been a graveyard for national sporting franchises. Think the Chargers, Seagulls and Giants. And Clive Palmer’s soccer team.

Frizelle admits the club could not have survived another month without NRL intervention and Annesley’s experience at the helm.

The Titans averaged nearly 22,000 fans at their home games in their initial years.

It dropped to just 13,000 last year. The supporter store at Robina has closed down.

There was a stench over the previous management of the club.

“We are competing for the entertainment dollar with Movieworld, Dreamworld, SeaWorld, all the theme parks and the beach,” Frizelle said.

Interesting she doesn’t mention the Suns AFL franchise or their superstar Gary Ablett.

“The AFL have long recognised that the Gold Coast is rugby league heartland,” Frizelle says when I prompt her.

“Hence the significant war chest that has been allocated to the Suns to try and capture a portion of the market.”

Annesley chimes in: “This is a rugby league town. Eighty per cent of the people come from NSW or Queensland. In my time at the NRL the main thing that effected crowds was winning and losing.

“If your team is winning, crowds go north. If they are losing they go south.

“We have to demonstrate to the people of the Gold Coast we have stability and integrity. And we will do that.”

[shamus]

A good read, but Rothfield still had to add his bit though....."The supporter store at Robina has closed down"

The rent at the Robina Town Centre at the time was astronomical...So they did the only thing sensible and packed up and moved to Pac Fair....so I think 'Relocated' would be the better term.

[Titanic]

Begs the question why our jerseys haven't got Audi across the front as the major sponsor … I know Frizzelles do sponsor to some extent and don't cry conflict of interest because that has never mattered in rugby league … worried about their profile?

[lonegull]

I agree titanic I also wonder why Audi has never been major sponsor

[Titanic]

Salespeople never do something for nothing … some of the team drive Audi's and I'll bet they're not for free … not critical either, just saying.

[Toads]

Thank **** I re-read both posts from lonegull 'n Titanic again. Because the first couple of times I read Audi, as Aldi.

[DIEHARD]

Thank **** I re-read both posts from lonegull 'n Titanic again. Because the first couple of times I read Audi, as Aldi.

lol!

Good real. When I first read the word COUP I think the club had been taken over again!

Frizelle is very passionate for the Titans.