Searle puts Titans before building
Shannon Willoughby, chief reporter | 06:53am March 16, 2012
GOLD Coast Titans boss Michael Searle says the club would sell its embattled Centre of Excellence "graciously" to keep its football team alive.
The head of the city's NRL team denied the club was in financial strife, but admitted it was seeking to raise capital from the Papua New Guinea Government to pay back bank loans.
Under the spotlight at a media conference yesterday, Mr Searle said he would do "whatever it takes" to keep the team solvent.
He refused to speculate on what the building -- which has been at the centre of legal battles in the past two years -- was worth or whether they had looked for a buyer.
On Wednesday, a move to try to wind up the Titans Property Trust was thrown out of the Federal Court in Brisbane.
Mr Searle said he would "keep talking" with Reed Constructions Australia, which completed the Robina centre in 2010.
The company is understood to be pursuing Mr Searle for $1.5 million.
Mr Searle said his priority was the football team and its fans.
"At the end of the day we will do whatever it takes to maintain a football team," Mr Searle said. "It is not about the building. To me the club is about the people and if it (selling the Centre of Excellence) came to that we would do it, and do it graciously," he said.
"I have no problems at all. I have no emotional attachment to the Centre of Excellence.
"We would possibly consider a sell and lease-back arrangement."
Mr Searle stressed the football team was a separate entity to the property trust and the Titans were financially stable.
He said there were discussions with the PNG Government about a "broad range of things", including capital raising and social development in indigenous communities.
"We are not talking about a sale -- let's get that clear," he said.
"What we are talking about is a broad range of options and one of them is a capital raise.
"Not to give everyone an economics lesson, but a sale is different to a capital raise.
"Everyone is trying to take the banks out but reducing debt. That capital raise is something we will look at."
He said if the opportunity to raise funds from PNG fell over, other options would be considered.