'Gigantic strides for the Titans'

[Steve Dangerous]

I don't think this has been posted, but there was a good article on the Titans in The Australian newspaper today.

Gigantic strides for the Titans
The Titans are building a football club for the new Gold Coast. Andrew Fraser reports on a team with a clear vision
September 09, 2006

MICHAEL SEARLE remembers with a shudder the loudspeakers blaring "Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum", which the hierarchy of the old Gold Coast Giants would play whenever the home side was on attack.

"It was awesome when you were on the field, but no, we're not going to be doing anything like that," said Searle, the chief executive of the latest version of a rugby league team on the Gold Coast, the Titans.

Such crass stunts will be a thing of the past when the Titans take to the field next year.

The Titans will be the fifth Gold Coast incarnation of the past 20 years to play in the national rugby league competition, but this is a radically different outfit to its predecessors.

Put simply, this is a more professional administration and one which has broad community support. As well as Searle, a respected local accountant and former player, the management team includes former Queensland Channel Nine manager Cameron Murray, as general manager, while the chairman is rugby league veteran Paul Broughton, a former Balmain and St George player from the 1950s and '60s who brings serious credibility.

"We realised we had to get the community behind us, even though we're privately owned," Broughton said. "That's what we had to demonstrate to the NRL, and we've had Scott Sattler running clinics and coaching for a while. The Gold Coast has always been a bit of a nursery, but we had to demonstrate how the culture has changed from the coast being a transit centre to a more permanent place."

The Gold Coast's previous efforts to have a team in the NRL reflected the culture of the time, where a maverick individual with long pockets wanted to own a sporting team. This didn't only happen in rugby league - Christopher Skase owned the Bears which played in the AFL, while Eddie Kornhauser did likewise in basketball and Dave Nilsson in baseball.

The most infamous of these in rugby league was Jeff Muller, who bought the Gold Coast Gladiators, as they were briefly known, in 1995, and ran it like his own personal fiefdom.

The Gladiators became known as the "Mullets", and in one memorable incident signed a player because Muller's wife liked the look of him in a trial. Muller eventually was bankrupted in Australia and then had the US regulatory authorities after him in connection with his business, Save the World Technologies.

Muller's antics were the sort of personal indulgence associated with the Gold Coast circa 1995 and which the Titans are going out of their way to avoid.

Significantly, the Mullet who led the players' revolt against Muller was Searle, then playing in the front row for the Chargers.

Searle is the personification of the changes in the Gold Coast over the past decade. He comes from the Tweed area on the bottom of the coast and played football for Canterbury and the Gold Coast in its various guises.

But while playing he also got an accountancy degree from Charles Sturt University which set him up for a successful career as a chartered accountant. In this position, he has seen the change in the Gold Coast business community over the past decade.

"We have a broad base of business people now whereas before it was quite a steep chain, with a couple of really, really rich people but not a lot in the middle," he said.

While Searle would like local companies to have the subsidiary sponsorships, he wants a company with a national or international profile as the main sponsor.

On the Gold Coast itself, the Titans are aiming to position rugby league in upmarket territory it rarely is anywhere else in Australia. Searle said it's simple demographics - 52 per cent of the 500,000 people who live on the Gold Coast are under 35, and he's pitching squarely at well-heeled young people.

"We want to position a brand which is attractive to that youth market and build that up," Searle said.

This week they announced another sponsorship deal with James Frizelle's Audi Centre Gold Coast, a local business which employs 280 people with a turnover of $200million a year.

The multi-million dollar sponsorship will provide 15 top-of-the-range Audis to star players such as Preston Campbell and Luke Bailey as well as management and senior coaching staff.

They will be replaced every six months over the life of the deal, and next year they will get Audi's new Q7 sports utility vehicle. By contrast, the nearby Brisbane Broncos are sponsored by Holden and the players drive Commodores.

The Titans have also purchased what was the Pink Elephant Bar at Surfers Paradise and are refurbishing it to reopen next month as the Titanium Bar, which they claim will be "a unique and plush venue".

The upmarket push is also evidenced in the Palladium Club, a super-supporters club, where 100 people have paid $25,000 each to become a member.

"The Palladium Club is a real litmus test of where the business is on the Gold Coast," Searle said. "Nowhere else in Australia would there be a club which could get 100 business people paying $25,000 to join the club."

Searle has done his demographic research on another level as well. While south-east Queensland is the fastest-growing part of Australia, much of the future growth is projected to occur west of Brisbane, and so the Titans are targeting the Ipswich area. It's not as unusual a fit as it may first seem - Ipswich boys made up the bulk of the lifesavers at several surf clubs on the Gold Coast. The coach of the Ipswich Jets in the Queensland Cup, Trevor Gillmeister, will be assistant coach of the Titans next year.

The other geographic area they are targeting is the Northern Rivers of NSW, which has traditionally been another rugby league stronghold. The Titans' first trial game next year will be held in Coffs Harbour.

The Titans will play next year at Carrara Stadium, the Gold Coast's main sporting venue, but from 2008 will play at a purpose-built $160million stadium at Robina which will have a capacity of 25,000.

Again, Searle has done his demographics. Robina is not on the beachfront but about 10km from the coast, the centre of where the Gold Coast will be in the future.

It is also right beside the Robina railway station and the train line which runs to Brisbane one way but will eventually run the other end to the Gold Coast airport, making for easy access in and out of the stadium.

As always, the real test of a team is how well it will perform on the field, but Searle is adopting the sort of logical management strategies which saw the Brisbane Broncos become such a success. He sees room for both the Broncos and the Titans in what is the fastest-growing area in Australia.

"The Broncos are the Anthony Mundine of rugby league - people either love them or hate them," Searle said. "But if you're a Broncos fan over the age of 12 you'll stay a Broncos fan. It's the people who follow AFL or those who haven't been to the game in the past who we feel we can attract to the Titans.

"Projects such as the Palladium Club, the Titanium Bar, training facilities which will be the best in the rugby league - that package will allow us to shrug off all of the demons of the past."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...003340,00.html

[novacastrian_panther]

Jeff Muller has the same last name and nickname as me!!

[Darren Lockyer]

he has done very well

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

A top article.

[DeeGan]

Thanks for posting Steve - it was a great read on the team

[DIEHARD]

Yea I really enjoy reading those all encompassing Titans articles.

Sounds great.