Central Coast or Gold Coast?

[SaintTPP]

I voted the Gold Coast......The Gold Coast Sharkies sounds alright to me.

 

[bartman]

Gold Coast needs more than a major sponsor and a 14,000 crowd to be a competitive 16th team. They need a decent ground and facilities. And they need a club infrastructure that will emphasise building a competitive team instead of just signing name players who are more attracted by the partying prospects than by hard work of building a club basically from scratch. It's been tried and failed there, and for many the issue seems to be why not try it somewhere else this time?

Central Coast bid seems to have the above necessities, and the only reason they didn't get crowds for the few Beagles games was because of resentment over the political machinations of that merger and the fact it was half a team on the Central Coast instead of the full relocation they had been promised under the Bears. Saying the Central Coast is too close to Sydney or Newcatle doesn't wash, as the Gold Coast is just as close to Brisbane, and it has just as seperate an identity and league history.

It's not the number of NSW sides that matters, it's about the number of viable sides and clubs that won't struggle (eg Storm, Perth, Adelaide). I agree there'll probably be two Sydney clubs that will/should drop out in the next five years, and that's fine by me. So that makes room for three new teams to maintain the comp size at 16. But you shouldn't just get offered a space to fill, if you aren't able to prove you have what it takes for modern day permanency imo.

 

[Macca]

Fair points. I agree that the Central Coast also has alot to offer the NRL, and as I said, I think a team should relocate there. The Gold Coast has to come in though as it provides Sth East Queensland with it's second team. That is vital IMO. It provides us with how much of our fan base? Alot, and we divide it between one team. The Bronco's have had it too good for too long.

 

[Parra_Eels]

1 gold coast
2 central coast
3 2nd new zealand
4 adelaide
5 perth

i put adelaide ahead of perth because you have to slowly start moving west

 

[ash the bash]

This i just got off the rleague website

;-)

Editorial: Why the Central Coast should be the 16th team
Sun Feb 22, 7:47pm (NSW)
Written by: David Murray
With persistent rumours that there is to be a sixteenth franchise in the NRL. A debate has emerged at which area should gain a new franchise. The two obvious front-runners are the Central Coast of New South Wales and the Gold Coast of Queensland. Over the past few months the media has virtually "blacked-out" any possibility of the CC recieving its well-deserved franchise.

The Gold Coast has been given the title of front-runner for inexplicable reasons. Economically the Gold Coast has two main social groups, an extremely wealthy class and a class of retirees. The large crowds for pre-season fixtures from some accounts is largely due to the presence of tourists from Sydney and Brisbane. In the past the Gold Coast has rejected many sporting teams including 3 different NSWRL/NRL framchises, with a distinct lack of interest at all three instances, not to mention forgetable playing performances. On top of that the Gold Coast has rejected a basketball team ("The Rollers"), an ABL team (Daikyo Dolphins) and the Brisbane Bears (which went on to win three premierships under its new name the Brisbane Lions). Rugby League is under threat from other codes such as AFL and Rugby Union, and the Professional Soccer association is an unknown entity which may threaten in future, having a team with a high potential for failure will not help the NRL in any way.

The Central Coast however has a large number of players and has had a presence of Rugby League for over 90 years. A Central Coast side won the Sydney local competition and the Wyong side played credibly in the Newcastle competition. In the year 2000 and 2001 when the Northern Eagles were at its height, the crowd figures for Northpower Stadium were some of the highest in the NRL. Recent Rugby World cup matches held in Gosford show that if the NRL is not careful a whole region could be lost to Rugby Union.

In terms of support for Rugby Legaue, the Central Coast is probably the third best areas (after Brisbane and Newcastle) to hold an NRL franchise. Northpower stadium is state of the art and it would be a waste not to have a team there.

The best proposal is the franchise put together by John Singleton. He proposes a team on the Central Coast named the Central Coast Bears. This will give thousands of disenfranchised Bears fans a team to follow, with the flow on effect for other teams in ticket sales, merchandise and so on. Only two years ago the NRL recieved a bonanza from the return of the traditional Souths Club. It is almost guaruntied that a similar bonanza would follow a return of the Bears. It should also be noted that John Singleton is underwriting the team to meet its salary cap obligations, not many potential or existing clubs can guaruntee that.

The NRL needs to learn from the mistakes of super-league and the NRL of recent years, which built expansion teams at the expense of the loyal fans in the heartlands of the game. The Adelaide Rams, Perth Reds, Hunter Mariners, South Queensland Crushers and three Gold Coast sides failed because of this mistaken policy.

Despite the lack of attention from the media, the Central Coast remains the best option for the next NRL side.



i feel that is preety acurate sum up of the situation ;-)

 

[ash the bash]

Although i will admit that the crowd of about 10,000 was a tad
dissapointing, i would have expected more :roll:

 

[iggy plop]

Hmmmm G.Coast have tried and failed and South Queensland failed
A new team that represents the Central Coast (not some relocated team), should be the 16th team IMHO

And don't you think the super league rubbish had something to do with that??

The Gold Coast were never in debt and were seen as an easy way to reduce the numbers of the comp. The Crushers were doing fine support-wise until they had to play in a NSW-based comp with no home derbies against the Broncos - a comp that didn't give a toss about them.

Remember too the gold coast started as a Tweed heads club playing out of that terrible seagulls area. They were really in effect a NSW team when they started.

This could be a whole new start for them.

Vote 1 GOLD COAST!!! for the new team!!!

 

[Penelope Pittstop]

Ash the crowd was 14, 500 on the hottest day in history. I think that the Dogs vs St George trial next weekend will attract about the same.

What a shame Mr. Murray didn't actually do some research before embarrassing himself publically.

The games up here on the Gold Coast were always well attended, although they weren't world beaters, we all understand that it takes years to produce a team that can even get into the finals. Have a look at the Cowboys they improve each year. I guess it has gone unnoticed that the Gold Coast team was actually kicked out of the comp.


As for saying that the crowds are largely made up of tourists, well apart from not having a skeric of fact to back that statement up, the Gold Coast is one of Australia's busiest tourist destinations. It would afford those RL fans visiting an opportunity to go to a game while they are on holidays. Gold Coast population is round a half a million and only being 45 minutes from Brisbane [pop. 1.6 m]. The Bronco's do a great job of getting supporters to games ie. free public transport and i'm sure that they will shunt there supporters to Gold Coast games, as well as any Gold Coast team adopting the same strategy to get Brisbane supporters to the Gold Coast.

Economically the Gold Coast has two main social groups, an extremely wealthy class and a class of retirees.

:lol: Too busy laughing at that one to even bother a retort.

 

[Up the mighty Phins]

"Economically the Gold Coast has two main social groups, an extremely wealthy class and a class of retirees."

Yeah, right. :roll:

This point clearly doesn't take in account places like Nerang, Helensvale, Beenleigh (yes, they are a part of the Gold Coast) & the several more inland suburbs of the shire who are home to ordinary families.

 

[Macca]

Who is David Murray?

 

[Mr Angry]

Article writer from ash the bash's article.

 

[ash the bash]

Well so much for that
:roll: i don't know who the guy is however it would be nice to ask him a few questions on his reasearch material,
i suppose he forgot one class which is the young surfer class :lol: :lol:

 

[Macca]

I don't think I'll take any notice of that article then.

 

[eagleangel]

an article from rleague i found quite valid...

Gold Coast the only choice for the 16th NRL side
Mon Feb 23, 10:46am (QLD)
Written by: Cameron Smith
With the NRL looking set to expand the premiership to 16 teams it appears that it has become a two horse race between the NSW Central Coast and the Gold Coast.

Both teams are no strangers to NRL action with the Gold Coast being the home of Seagulls and Chargers in the eighties and nineties and the Central Coast playing host to the ill fated Northern Eagle joint venture between Manly Warringah and North Sydney.

It's apparent that when the NRL premiership committee meet there is only one decision they can make, invite the Gold Coast to be the 16th National Rugby League side.

Many people pushing the Central Coast Bears barrow would have you believe the Gold Coast has already had their chance and blew it badly. We'll that's incorrect the Gold Coast team was wound down by its owners the ARL (Australian Rugby League) in a deal with News Limited who wound down their expansion side the Adelaide Rams in an effort to get the premiership down to a 14 team competition by the year 2000.

The fact many of these people neglect is the Gold Coast side still had money left in the bank in 2002, 4 years after being shut down, in fact the Gold Coast Chargers had more money in the bank than some NRL clubs, a that fact was made very clear when the Chargers loaned 2001 NRL Premiers Newcastle $500,000 in 2001.

Unlike the people of the Gold Coast who had no say in losing their NRL side the people of the Central Coast had the opportunity to have their own side in 2002 when a struggling Manly playing under the Northern Eagles banner declared they would continue to play at Central Coast Stadium and would consider moving there fulltime if the attracted big crowds.

However the League fans of the Central Coast let greed to get the better of them and were hoodwinked into believing that by boycotting Eagles games a financially fragile Manly would go belly up and they would be left with a NRL license and a John Singleton backed Central Coast Bears outfit. History proves that strategy was foolish to say the least and if anything helped Manly make the decision to head back to Brookvale fulltime and sure up their financial future.

While we have heard a plethora of rhetoric from Central Coast and Bears supporters to why they should have an NRL side at the end of the day they have failed miserably in the one department that counts, backsides on seats.

The Gold Coast on the other hand have let their actions do the talking forming a bid team made up of Accountant and former NRL player Michael Searle, former ARL official Paul Broughton and several successful local business men and council representatives.

Since January 2001 the Gold Coast has hosted six NRL trial games averaging over 13,000 for those games, while the Central Coast fail to get ten thousand people for trials and selected South Sydney home games at their beautiful stadium that is fast becoming a white elephant.

Another myth Central Coast supporters will have you believe is that the Gold Coast, this country's 6th largest city does not have the economy to sustain an NRL team. If that is the case can someone please explain to me how the Central Coast a city similar in size to Newcastle is going to do any better when even Newcastle for all their success have struggled financially at times. Unbeknown to these people the Gold Coast bid team have work tirelessly getting sponsors and already have corporate heavyweights Ozemail and Heineken ready to sign on as major a sponsors as soon as the Gold Coast NRL team gets the go ahead.

One thing that is sure to be a sticking point with the NRL's Premiership committee is the flexibility of the Gold Coast bid team compared to the apparent lack of flexabllity from the Central Coast when it comes to the relocation of a current NRL side to their region.

The Gold Coast bid team even to today has left the door open for any club in Sydney to relocate to the Gold Coast and retain its colours and mascot. While the Central Coast has remained defiant the only team they want is a Central Coast side called the Bears named after the dead foundation side North Sydney.

When hearing about the merits of the Central Coast we often hear how strong their junior league is and how It is a breeding ground for elite players and that is correct however the Gold Coast too is a rich nursery for league players with several Origin, Kangaroo and Premierships players coming from the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast is also the home of three of the strongest Rugby League schools in Queensland with Palm Beach Currumbin, Keebra Park and Coombabah High all making National Schoolboys semi finals over the last 15 years.

Two of the Queensland Cups 2003 semi-finalists in Burleigh Heads Bears and Tweed Heads Seagulls both hail from the Gold Coast region. This fact cannot go unnoticed as the standard of play in Queensland Cup is the equivalent of the NSWRL Premier League a competition the Bears have failed miserably in over the last two seasons.

The only perceived weakness for the Gold Coast team is Gold Coast Stadium at Carrara, while it is an Australian Rules ground in configuration and the ground doesn't meet the high standards of Central Coast Stadium the Gold Coast bid team are more than aware of its deficiencies and with the support of the Gold Coast City Council and the State Government have plans in place to renovate Carrara to be a stadium that provides undercover seating to 35,000 people and to be configured for Rugby League.

When David Gallop and the NRL premiership committee sit down later on this year to decide on who will be team 16 in the NRL the choice will be clear.

Do they pick a region that has done the hard work over the last three years or the region that has provided nothing but lip service?

Do they choose the region with the infrastructure and sponsors in place or do they choose the region that are pinning their chances on the back of John Singleton's cheque book?

Do they choose the region that is in a state that only has two NRL sides or the region that comes from a state that already has ten NRL clubs competing for the same players and corporate dollars?

There is only one choice they can make - Gold Coast.

 

[DIEHARD]

I want a Gold Coast jersey now! Imagine the inter-city derbies! Imagine the fullhouse of bloodthirsty Gold Coast and Broncos fans. Yes... rugby league in Queensland is going to get a taste of what makes RL great, tribalism and rivalry! I can't wait! And it's going to get even more bloodthirsty when we eventually get a 2nd Brissie team.

The stagnation of Rugby League in Queensland is about to end!

 

[ash the bash]

although i doubt they can renevate carraca
oval into a 35,000 plus league stadium with the right configerations, if there is going to be a GC team
means a new stadium

 

[IKnowIt]

1 gold coast
2 central coast
3 2nd new zealand
4 adelaide
5 perth

i put adelaide ahead of perth because you have to slowly start moving west

Despite the fact that WA is Australia’s 3rd largest Rugby League State (outside the NRL) in playing numbers and crowds?

The infrastructure in WA for Rugby League is a lot better than SA. It’s going to take a lot of work and time to get SA into a position to support an NRL team. I would have WA before SA as the infrastructure is there and just needs to be added to, there are also supporters of the Reds still wanting a Perth based side.

The Reds had a greater impact in WA then the Rams did in SA.

 

[Freak]

I don't think I know GC will be the next team into the NRL, and hopefully with the assistance that Melbourne, Warriors and joint venture teams were given when introduced.$$$

 

[Big-Steve]

an article from rleague i found quite valid...

Gold Coast the only choice for the 16th NRL side
Mon Feb 23, 10:46am (QLD)
Written by: Cameron Smith
With the NRL looking set to expand the premiership to 16 teams it appears that it has become a two horse race between the NSW Central Coast and the Gold Coast.

Both teams are no strangers to NRL action with the Gold Coast being the home of Seagulls and Chargers in the eighties and nineties and the Central Coast playing host to the ill fated Northern Eagle joint venture between Manly Warringah and North Sydney.

It's apparent that when the NRL premiership committee meet there is only one decision they can make, invite the Gold Coast to be the 16th National Rugby League side.

Many people pushing the Central Coast Bears barrow would have you believe the Gold Coast has already had their chance and blew it badly. We'll that's incorrect the Gold Coast team was wound down by its owners the ARL (Australian Rugby League) in a deal with News Limited who wound down their expansion side the Adelaide Rams in an effort to get the premiership down to a 14 team competition by the year 2000.

The fact many of these people neglect is the Gold Coast side still had money left in the bank in 2002, 4 years after being shut down, in fact the Gold Coast Chargers had more money in the bank than some NRL clubs, a that fact was made very clear when the Chargers loaned 2001 NRL Premiers Newcastle $500,000 in 2001.

Unlike the people of the Gold Coast who had no say in losing their NRL side the people of the Central Coast had the opportunity to have their own side in 2002 when a struggling Manly playing under the Northern Eagles banner declared they would continue to play at Central Coast Stadium and would consider moving there fulltime if the attracted big crowds.

However the League fans of the Central Coast let greed to get the better of them and were hoodwinked into believing that by boycotting Eagles games a financially fragile Manly would go belly up and they would be left with a NRL license and a John Singleton backed Central Coast Bears outfit. History proves that strategy was foolish to say the least and if anything helped Manly make the decision to head back to Brookvale fulltime and sure up their financial future.

While we have heard a plethora of rhetoric from Central Coast and Bears supporters to why they should have an NRL side at the end of the day they have failed miserably in the one department that counts, backsides on seats.

The Gold Coast on the other hand have let their actions do the talking forming a bid team made up of Accountant and former NRL player Michael Searle, former ARL official Paul Broughton and several successful local business men and council representatives.

Since January 2001 the Gold Coast has hosted six NRL trial games averaging over 13,000 for those games, while the Central Coast fail to get ten thousand people for trials and selected South Sydney home games at their beautiful stadium that is fast becoming a white elephant.

Another myth Central Coast supporters will have you believe is that the Gold Coast, this country's 6th largest city does not have the economy to sustain an NRL team. If that is the case can someone please explain to me how the Central Coast a city similar in size to Newcastle is going to do any better when even Newcastle for all their success have struggled financially at times. Unbeknown to these people the Gold Coast bid team have work tirelessly getting sponsors and already have corporate heavyweights Ozemail and Heineken ready to sign on as major a sponsors as soon as the Gold Coast NRL team gets the go ahead.

One thing that is sure to be a sticking point with the NRL's Premiership committee is the flexibility of the Gold Coast bid team compared to the apparent lack of flexabllity from the Central Coast when it comes to the relocation of a current NRL side to their region.

The Gold Coast bid team even to today has left the door open for any club in Sydney to relocate to the Gold Coast and retain its colours and mascot. While the Central Coast has remained defiant the only team they want is a Central Coast side called the Bears named after the dead foundation side North Sydney.

When hearing about the merits of the Central Coast we often hear how strong their junior league is and how It is a breeding ground for elite players and that is correct however the Gold Coast too is a rich nursery for league players with several Origin, Kangaroo and Premierships players coming from the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast is also the home of three of the strongest Rugby League schools in Queensland with Palm Beach Currumbin, Keebra Park and Coombabah High all making National Schoolboys semi finals over the last 15 years.

Two of the Queensland Cups 2003 semi-finalists in Burleigh Heads Bears and Tweed Heads Seagulls both hail from the Gold Coast region. This fact cannot go unnoticed as the standard of play in Queensland Cup is the equivalent of the NSWRL Premier League a competition the Bears have failed miserably in over the last two seasons.

The only perceived weakness for the Gold Coast team is Gold Coast Stadium at Carrara, while it is an Australian Rules ground in configuration and the ground doesn't meet the high standards of Central Coast Stadium the Gold Coast bid team are more than aware of its deficiencies and with the support of the Gold Coast City Council and the State Government have plans in place to renovate Carrara to be a stadium that provides undercover seating to 35,000 people and to be configured for Rugby League.

When David Gallop and the NRL premiership committee sit down later on this year to decide on who will be team 16 in the NRL the choice will be clear.

Do they pick a region that has done the hard work over the last three years or the region that has provided nothing but lip service?

Do they choose the region with the infrastructure and sponsors in place or do they choose the region that are pinning their chances on the back of John Singleton's cheque book?

Do they choose the region that is in a state that only has two NRL sides or the region that comes from a state that already has ten NRL clubs competing for the same players and corporate dollars?

There is only one choice they can make - Gold Coast.

Anybody that says something like "named after the dead foundation side North Sydney" has no credibility as far as I'm concerned. I know you guys like to use the put down language but you are anonymous posters this guy is meant to be a professional journalist. What the hell does "dead" mean in terms of a football club anyway? The fact that he is using such a word to describe a football club means there is an emotional attachment to the organisation and Bears fans who still attend games should be spared such looser comments.

Also comparing the Sydney Premier League comp to the Queensland Cup is unreasonable. It’s not a similar standard most Premier league teams include Current NRL first graders! And none of the Queensland teams are under direct pressure from 10 odd NRL sides buying up their players on a regular basis like North Sydney and Newtown are.

 

[wittyfan]

Norths are dead as an NRL entity.