Titans: First season could be played out of Suncorp

[Queenslander]

What happened to the thread that mentioned the matter had been sorted out?

It is here: http://www.titans.com.au//forum/showthread.php?t=4746 The two threads created my Jenny were merged because they stated the same thing.

[Queenslander]

Mayor slams Titans seat plan
Greg Stoltz and Paul Malone
The Courier Mail
July 27, 2006

MIFFED Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke is threatening to scuttle a peace deal with Gold Coast Titans over vital seating at Carrara stadium.

While Clarke led the charge on behalf of his favourite football code, the AFL and the Kangaroos yesterday both adopted a conciliatory public stance in dealing with the NRL and the Titans on scheduling and turf protection issues at Carrara.

After warning they would play their home games at Suncorp Stadium next season if the Gold Coast council did not allow an extra 3000 temporary seats at Carrara, the Titans thrashed out a compromise with deputy mayor David Power and other councillors on Tuesday.

Under the agreement, the Titans would pay all costs associated with removing the grandstands and resurfacing the ground in time, if required, for the AFL matches involving the Kangaroos.

Clarke said: "The playing surface has to stay sacrosanct. You can't put grandstands on playing surfaces and expect (to play) a game the next week. It will ruin the ground for the rest of the year."

AFL chief operating officer Ben Buckley said the AFL would continue to work with Gold Coast City Council to develop a solution that would allow football and rugby league to co-exist at Carrara in 2007.

Clarke, who was interstate when the meeting with Titans officials was held this week, said he was not previously told about the talks.

Councillors will discuss the situation on Tuesday, but Clarke said no decision on the temporary seating would be made for several weeks.

Council and Titans sources believe Clarke does not have the numbers to overturn the grandstand agreement.

The Kangaroos want to play the three premiership matches they are contracted to play at Carrara within the first three or four months of the season.

Chief executive Geoff Walsh said they hoped at least one NAB pre-season cup match would also be played there in late February or March.

Pre-season AFL fixtures would present more scheduling dilemmas for the NRL because its premiership started three weeks before the AFL premiership this year.

"I don't envisage us having three months away from home. I don't think anyone would be expecting us to accept that," Titans managing director Michael Searle said.

[Titanium_BD1103]

In the other thread Queenslander, Ron Clarke said on Radio this morning the Titans are first priority... but I understand him not wanting to destroy the ground by having tonnes of weight from the 3000 seat stand on the actual ground...

I reckon someone needs to give us a stadium map so we as fans can suggest where the stand should go... not that it means anything, just so we can have our say...

[Hindyscrack]

In the other thread Queenslander, Ron Clarke said on Radio this morning the Titans are first priority... but I understand him not wanting to destroy the ground by having tonnes of weight from the 3000 seat stand on the actual ground...

I reckon someone needs to give us a stadium map so we as fans can suggest where the stand should go... not that it means anything, just so we can have our say...

There is only one place the stand can go. On the Eastern side of the ground in front of the East grandstand

Notice Clarke is back peddling once again...

[Crushers]

Clarke is now the one saying his code is being threatened.

Gold Coast plan 'threatens' AFL
By Sam Lienert
July 26, 2006

GOLD Coast Mayor Ron Clarke has warned the AFL plan to stage up to 10 matches at Carrara over the next three seasons may be threatened by the Gold Coast Titans plan to erect temporary seating on the surface.



Officials from the NRL club, which will play its home games at Carrara from next season, met council members last night, and the quorum agreed that a temporary stand seating 3000 people would be placed along the eastern wing for Titans games.

But a turf war has erupted with the AFL, which believes the plan will damage the surface to an extent which would make it unsafe for its players.

The AFL has contributed $1 million towards upgrading Carrara, and it is underwriting a move by the Kangaroos to play at least three home games per season there for the next three years.

"We have been prepared to invest in Carrara as we do with all the stadiums where AFL is played, and both our AFL clubs and NRL clubs will benefit directly from our commitment," AFL chief operating officer Ben Buckley said.

"Those improvements will be enjoyed by both the Kangaroos and the Titans, but we are concerned that putting up temporary seating on the playing surface could put the surface and the safety of the players at risk."

The dispute has divided the Gold Coast council, with deputy mayor David Power backing the Titans' plan.

But the AFL has an ally in Mr Clarke, who said no binding agreement was reached at last night's meeting, which he said was deliberately held behind his back.


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"It's a ploy," Mr Clarke said.

"They waited until I was interstate and called an urgent meeting."

The temporary-seating plan might win the support of the majority of councillors, but the AFL could have to back out of its plan to play at Carrara," Mr Clarke said.

"We'd have to pay $1 million back to the AFL because they wouldn't play on it," he said.

"The AFL (would) have to forgo playing on the ground next year unless they can change the fixture so they can put the AFL fixtures first."

Mr Clarke said he was the only AFL spectator on the council, and he suggested the move was a stratagem by the Titans to try to push the AFL out of its territory.

"The NRL have played State of Origin on AFL grounds without worrying about getting spectators closer to the action," he said.

"At (Telstra Stadium) Stadium, which is an AFL ground, they play every week.

"But here on the Gold Coast, where the AFL coincidentally wants to play three games, they want to stick the seating on the AFL surface - surprise, surprise."

The stands, when full, would weigh about 5000 tonnes and would cause damage that would make it impossible to play AFL matches for several months, Mr Clarke said, adding that he expected the issue woud be decided at a council meeting next month.

Mr Power meanwhile advised the AFL to remember that the Titans represented the region, while the Kangaroos were visitors.

"I'm certain the majority of the councillors will want to make sure their home team is given priority on the field,'' he said.

"Any AFL club at this stage is a visiting team.

"We have one national football team at the moment, and that is the Titans."

Mr Power said the three Kangaroos matches would ideally be staged early in the season, before the Titans moved in with their temporary stand.

Only a small proportion of the ground would be affected, and the effects could be repaired within days, he said.

The Titans had agreed in writing to pay for the installation and removal of the temporary seating and for any necessary repair work.

The disagreement has surfaced as the Kangaroos prepare to play their last home-away-from-home match in Canberra, against Geelong on Sunday.



AAP

[Darren Lockyer]

whop cares about the afl players. they are only playing 3 games up here an y way so it will give htem time to get the ground ready.

[Titanium_BD1103]

Well according to Sports Tonight it seems that the GCCC is ready to hand back the money to the AFL with as I said this morning the vote expected to be going 15-1 on Tuesday.

On Sports Tonight they had a snippet of Ron Clarke stating on SEN Radio today that if the vote was to go ahead and as is expected, The Titans win... then there will be no choice but to delay the Kangaroos coming into Carrara till 2008.

[Queenslander]

Turf war about small strip
Paul Malone
July 28, 2006

AN 8m strip of turf is the divide between rugby league and AFL co-existing at Carrara next year, according to Titans boss Michael Searle.

AFL chief operating officer Ben Buckley said on Wednesday the AFL had concerns about player safety for its games staged by the Kangaroos at Carrara next year if the Titans were permitted to build temporary seating on the turf for their NRL home games.

"The area of turf in question is about 8m," Gold Coast Titans managing director Searle said.

"It's a very small strip of turf we would protect and the impact on the surface will be minimal.

"We don't have an issue with the way the Kangaroos have conducted themselves.

"The AFL is running a strategic plan to run interference against the Titans."

Searle questioned the sincerity of a comment by Buckley that the AFL wished the NRL and the Titans well because the Gold Coast public wanted "more sport, not less".

"It's rhetoric coming out of the AFL," Searle said last night.

"The meeting that we had with the AFL representatives down the Gold Coast was what I'd consider quite aggressive."

He said comments from Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke in a Sydney radio interview yesterday indicated there "seemed to be a shift" in Clarke's opposition to the Titans having their temporary seating.

Clarke could not be contacted last night.

"Ron Clarke said if it comes to a decision between (the Kangaroos) and the Gold Coast Titans, he will support the Titans, which is good news for us," Searle said.

He and NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said they would oppose the Titans being frozen out of Carrara, the NRL club's home venue for 2007 only.

Clarke said one solution would be for the Titans to play at Carrara only once the Kangaroos finished playing the NAB Cup match and three AFL premiership games they intend to stage at Carrara before the end of May.

"That won't happen," Searle said.

"The delegation of councillors we spoke to (on Tuesday) are on the record as saying the Titans would be given preferential treatment.

"We are committed to ensuring we get access to the stadium in March for our first game.

"The NRL supports that."

The Courier Mail

[Darren Lockyer]

8meters is all. These Afl people are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

[mb63]

8meters is all. These Afl people are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Agree,the AFL should worry about fixing up the surface at Telstra Dome not a 8m patch at Carrara.

[Darren Lockyer]

Agree,the AFL should worry about fixing up the surface at Telstra Dome not a 8m patch at Carrara.

yeah i knw. Some of the grass at these stadiums suck.

[Queenslander]

Gold Coast battle ground in bigger war
By Stuart Honeysett
July 29, 2006

THE stoush between the NRL and the AFL this week over Carrara Stadium sounded like nothing more than a petty squabble over 3000 seats. Both codes, however, knew the stakes were much higher than that.

The origins can be traced all the way back to March when Gold Coast Titans managing director Michael Searle sat down for a meeting at Carrara Stadium with AFL representatives and members from the local council.

"The AFL made their intentions clear in a meeting in March and that's what set this off really," Searle said.

"Their attitude was there's no way in the world AFL will ever co-exist with rugby league.

"Ever since then we've been diplomatically trying to resolve the issue behind the scenes.

"But it got to a situation where we ran out of time.

"We've got to launch season tickets and we've got all these things to roll out and we were being hamstrung by an organisation hellbent on running interference."

That interference, from the Titans' perspective, started shortly after May last year, when the NRL announced that Gold Coast had been invited to join the 2007 competition.

Titans representatives had been lobbying the league since 1999 - a year after the last of the Gold Coast entities disappeared following a 10-year stay in the region.

It was a decision the Titans believed made sense. The tourist strip has exploded in recent years. Nearly half a million people live there and more than 80,000 tourists visit every day.

As part of the licensing agreement for admission, the Titans had to guarantee they would be able to play out of a rectangularly configured stadium. At that stage, the club thought Carrara Stadium would be its permanent home.

Enter Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke.

The former Olympic runner and self-confessed AFL fan (his brother Jack played 263 games for Essendon) pushed hard for a new $160million stadium at Robina for the Titans to call home so Carrara could remain an oval.

The AFL soon made its move with the Kangaroos announcing they would use the Gold Coast as their home away from Arden Street. There would be 10 games staged over the next three years, including three in 2007, and a cash injection of $1 million into the local coffers to sweeten the deal.

League observers smelled a rat.

While an NRL team might not have been on the Coast since the last franchise folded in 1998, the AFL had not had a team based in the area since 1992.

"The sudden emergence of the AFL on the Coast after the arrival of the Titans makes clear that their intentions are to run interference with the Titans' first season," NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said.

Things deteriorated even more rapidly once the battle began for Carrara.

The AFL maintained that it had a moral say as to what might happen at the venue after committing $1 million. The NRL and the Titans claimed a deal was being broken if the ground wasn't squared off with 3000 temporary seats.

There were greater fears from a league perspective that the removal of 3000 seats would be just the start. The Titans were aware the AFL wanted to build grandstands at the northern and southern ends, which would further reduce capacity by another 3000.

Suddenly, what should have been a 20,000-seat stadium would be cut back to 14,000 seats, a clear breach of the commitment that had been given to the NRL.

The NRL was angry that Cllr Clarke would entertain a code that had not committed a team to the region, while the AFL wondered what was the point of committing $1 million to the ground if it had no say over it.

The issue came to a head when the NRL threatened to solve the problem by switching the Titans' home games to Brisbane. It was a drastic move and would have been a sad start to the club's first year in business.

Agreement seemed to have been reached at a council meeting on Tuesday, when deputy mayor David Powers and two other councillors agreed that the Titans had a right to play out of a rectangularly configured ground at Carrara.

Cllr Clarke appeared to do an about face on the issue after announcing the draws could be arranged to ensure the Kangaroos and the Titans could co-exist peacefully.

Searle was delighted with the dispute being settled but knows the war is far from over.

"Sydney has eight NRL teams whereas on the Gold Coast there's only one NRL team," Searle said.

"The AFL is clearly going to be here and do whatever they can to interrupt and try to minimise the impact of the NRL."

The Australian

************************************************** ******

Carrara 'triple header' flagged
By Daniel Brettig
July 28, 2006

THE Kangaroos may play their contracted fixtures at Carrara in three consecutive weeks next year, in an attempt to end the stand-off between the AFL and fledgling NRL club Gold Coast Titans, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou ssaid today.

The Carrara conundrum was reasonably close to resolution despite the Titans' commitment to building temporary seating on the oval's playing surface, Demetriou said.

"We're working pretty closely with the Gold Coast City council and the mayor, Ron Clarke, he's done a terrific job to bring both NRL and AFL to the Gold Coast,'' Demetriou said.

"We had some games there this year, we're committed to having 10 games in the next three years for the Kangaroos, and I'm sure it'll work itself out.

"I think we've got a pretty good track record of working collaboratively with other codes and sharing venues.

"I don't think it'll be an issue.

"Aa little bit of byplay here and there, but ... we'll work closely with whoever we have to work with."

The Kangaroos recently signed a deal to play three games a season at Carrara for three years in return for $1 million, and much speculation has surrounded the possible outcome if the codes cannot reach an agreement.

Reports have suggested the Kangaroos may either face a search for another venue or have to play their "home away from home" games in Melbourne until the Titans' own stadium is completed.

The Titans will play their home matches in their inaugural 2007 NRL season at Carrara before shifting to a new purpose-built stadium at Robina.

Demetriou, in Adelaide today for a lunch to raise money for families involved in the Gladstone munitions explosion, suggested the Kangaroos might play the games required by the terms of their deal with the Gold coast in succession to dovetail with the NRL schedule.

"We'll talk about the options available, and there's various options," he said.

"We haven't even finished our schedule yet.

"The schedule requires three games, and you could play them in a block and play them different parts of the year.

"There's all sorts of things we can work through, and we'll work through it."

The Gold Coast council will next discuss the issue at a meeting on Monday night, followed by a workshop the following day.

Cllr Clarke warned earlier this week that the AFL plan to play 10 matches at Carrara over the next three seasons could be scuppered if the Titans' proposal to erect temporary stands on the playing surface went ahead.

In Cllr Clarke's absence last week, the Gold Coast council agreed to the Titans proposal to erect temporary seating for 3000 spectators.

Clarke says the other 11 members of the council are all pro-rugby league.

The AFL is concerned that temporary grandstands will damage the playing surface to an extent that will make it unsafe for its players.

The AFL has contributed $1 million towards upgrading Carrara, and it is underwriting the Kangaroos' move from Canberra to the Gold Coast as it attempts to develop the code in South-East Queensland.

AAP

[Steve Dangerous]

i just read that first one in the paper. afl come off as that annoying kid at school you can't get rid of.

[Crushers]

The deal is 10 games in 3 years for the AFL. Can't they play 2 games in 07 and 4 in 08 and 09?