Pumped-up Titans confident
By David Lewis
February 17, 2007 12:00



A NEW colossus has risen up amid the surfboards, beauty parlours and nightclubs of Australia's capital of hedonism - and it aims to etch a permanent niche on a landscape knee-deep in the bodies of failed sporting franchises.
The Gold Coast Titans - who play their first trial match tonight against Melbourne Storm in Coffs Harbour - are open for business and confident they will flourish where others have floundered in a market which has consumed and regurgitated a litany of hopefuls during the past 20 years.

Three rugby league entities, three baseball incarnations, two basketball outfits and an AFL team have suffered the curse of the Coast, victims of local attention spans briefer than the bikinis which cling to the the bodies of the playground's native population of beach babes.

Mention the f-word - failure - to Michael Searle, the former NRL player turned accountant turned visionary who created the Titans, and he looks aghast.

The man whose magnificent obsession began after the ARL axed the Gold Coast Chargers in 1998 sits on a leather couch in his opulent office four floors above Southport's wealthy walkways.

He has bay views, crystal drinks decanters, a massive oak desk and two surfboards to remind you just where you are.

The fantasies of the 38-year-old Titans managing director - a hooker for the long-buried Gold Coast Giants in the late '80s - will crystallise when the Titans play their first NRL match against St George on March 18 ... in Brisbane.

"This was the club that demanded entry into the competition,'' insists Searle. "The community has banged loudly on the door of the NRL. The Gold Coast wasn't ready in the past - it is now.

"Before, it was all about administrators saying, 'Oh, wouldn't it be good to have a team up on the Gold Coast'. Now it's the people who are saying it.''

Demand for tickets at the 17,000 capacity Carrara Stadium - the club's modest temporary home - is so high the fixture was switched to Suncorp Stadium to accommodate another 10,000 Titans fans.

Despite some significant birth pangs - rejection by signings Steve Turner, Frank Puletua and Brian Carney - Searle is positive the franchise's courtship of an expanding demographic will bloom into a full-blown love story.

With a target audience of 20 to 34-year-olds in a population base swollen by more than 200,000 in the past nine years to close to 600,000 from Coolangatta in the south to Beenleigh in the north, this appears to be no sandcastle at the whims of the turning of the sporting tide.

There is proof positive of the ardour for the Titans with 100 locals trumping up $25,000 each to acquire life memberships which include seats for all eternity at the club's state government-financed, purpose-built 25,000-capacity all-seater stadium at Robina, which will open its doors in 2008.

The club is capitalised to the tune of $15million, in line with NRL regulations, and has a $5million sponsorship war chest with high-fliers such as Jetstar, Fourex and Audi on board.

"We've exceeded all our expectations so far,'' adds Searle, born and bred a drop kick away from Coolangatta beach.

"We have a superb front office with the likes of a former managing director of Channel 9 in Queensland, the man who ran Telstra Stadium and a ticketing manager who worked with the ARU.

"We don't think we've left too much to chance.

"We have 14,000 kids in our catchment area. They now won't have to go to Sydney to find a club.

"We'll be cutting edge - this is a young sexy city and we can be more creative than the older clubs.''

There's also the glitzy, ritzy Titanium Bar in Surfers Paradise - the Titans' wholly owned answer to the gaudy, soul-less emporiums which fill the coffers of the established NRL clubs.

Opened last week, it has fine dining and snazzy architecture to go with the gaming rooms.
Searle says lessons have been heeded from the skeletons of franchises past.

"The message is that you need more than glitz and glamour,'' he declares. "We had 18 months notice to build this and it's about engaging the community. We already have a Titans community foundation which is our charity arm and we'll be donating $1million to the grassroots game over the next four years.

"We also have a junior development and welfare program which will hopefully allow us to Titanise the kids of the region.''

Back at the Titans' interim training base - a multi-purpose modern complex at nearby Runaway Bay - high-profile recruits Matt Rogers, Preston Campbell, Scott Prince and Luke Bailey are being subjected to a torturous set of drills by former Gold Coast Giant-turned-fitness conditioner from hell, Billy Johnston.

After catching his breath, Campbell, who won a premiership with Penrith but has found his way home after being a part of the Chargers side nine years ago, sees no parallels between past and present.

"It was all about survival then, hoping but not expecting to win games and the senior players didn't really take the youngsters under their wing,'' he recalls. "We had a lot of fun, perhaps some of the boys had too much fun.''

With a strict code of conduct in place and Johnston on the prowl, Searle is confident there will be no reprising the days when players partook too readily of the temptations of the town.

"He'll know if anybody has been on a bender,'' says Searle. "He's got the players jumping through hoops.''

Coach John Cartwright, a Panthers refugee whose current home is a tiny portable office at Runaway Bay, says: "Past failures up here have left a sour taste but I think you will see things steamroll ahead. This is the fastest-growing area in the country and we have some fine talent on our books.

"There's the instinctive creativity of Prince, Campbell and Rogers. The power of Jake Webster and Brett Maloney and the experience of forwards like Bailey, Michael Hodgson, Kris Kahler and Brad Myers, But I'm setting no targets on how high we'll finish - let's just wait and see.''

Source..Telegraph