iSelect Gold Coast Titans granted new license

[gronkathon]

Here is what people are missing and it is a simple issue.

The GC Titans as a football club are PROFITABLE!!! No one is disputing this. They started an arm (property) that has clearly overstretched their capacity.

Now, can you please state the name of your team if it is profitable in a year to year basis from its football operations.

In Sydney to my knowledge we have ONE team.
Brisbane is, NQ Cowboys normally are. That is presently about it (in general outside of a side making the GF)

I would like some straight answers if the Titans football operations are actually profitable or whether they are palming debts off to the property company? Do they pay the property comapny rent? etc etc

 

[Sugar]

March 22, 2012




Searle admitted he had approached the NRL late last year for funding support but said that was primarily to combat the AFL's insurgency on the Gold Coast. Searle claimed that request was the reason ARLC auditors were in town.


http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/rug...do-with-struggling-titans-20120321-1vkcq.html

And what would happen with the $$
Development ?
Juniors ?
Or Pay debts ?

 

[Perth Red]

And what would happen with the $$
Development ?
Juniors ?
Or Pay debts ?

maybe ticket subsidies to encourage more people to attend games or to be able to offer better membership deals?

 

[BunniesMan]

I don't trust Searle. So his quotes don't hold much weight for me.

f**k the Titans and start a new GC team from scratch. Do it properly this time. Don't give one farkwit accountant dictatorial control.

 

[Perth Red]

I would like some straight answers if the Titans football operations are actually profitable or whether they are palming debts off to the property company? Do they pay the property comapny rent? etc etc

Well unless anyone on here is the Titans accountant I doubt your going to get them!

Searle reckons the Football operations are subsidising the property arm to the tune of $1.5mill a year (probably debt servicing I would imagine). Some of that may well be paying rental space in the cofe but that cost would need to be there anyway, it is the debt servicing that seems to be the anchor around their feet and what they are trying to get rid of. Now as long as that debt is being generated by their building and not by their football operations there is not too much to worry about. If the football operations are the cause it is a problem but probably no worse than most clubs. Didn't Manly stand to lose $2mill in a premiership winning year?

 

[Perth Red]

I don't trust Searle. So his quotes don't hold much weight for me.

f**k the Titans and start a new GC team from scratch. Do it properly this time. Don't give one farkwit accountant dictatorial control.

just about the worse outcome you can have would be to destroy 5 years of brand development and what little credibility NRL sides have on the GC after previous failures. Better outcome would be an investment by the ARLC under the proviso that a strong governance system and new board be implemented. The Titans have a strong fanbase and corporate support, why would you throw that away to start again?

 

[Joker's Wild]

f**k the Titans and start a new GC team from scratch. Do it properly this time. Don't give one farkwit accountant dictatorial control.

Searle should not be running the show but pissing off the Titans and in turn all of their current fans would do more harm than good to the current situation.

 

[gronkathon]

The removal of Searle as 80% stake holder is key to all of this.

It is worth the ARLC buying it out, voiding their current deal with Stadiums Queensland and re-negotiating.

Searle can stay on as CEO but be performaced based.

Turn the Centre of Excellence into a high performance academy for SE Queensland

If the Titans want to use it they pay rent

 

[Perth Red]

would be a good solution. GC is a front line battle ground with AFL, ARLC has to step in and start backing clubs. Good early test of their resolve.

Good idea for the ARLC to start investing in RL related property as a kind of investment future fund as well. A West Sydney stadium would be nice and a RL training centre in WA!

 

[VictoryFC]

The titans brand has to stay. Monumental waste of time if they scrapped it. But in the current context, arlc will support the titans throug this. They wont let them wither.

 

[DC_fan]

just about the worse outcome you can have would be to destroy 5 years of brand development and what little credibility NRL sides have on the GC after previous failures. Better outcome would be an investment by the ARLC under the proviso that a strong governance system and new board be implemented. The Titans have a strong fanbase and corporate support, why would you throw that away to start again?

Brand development as in Rugby League or as in the Gold Coast Titans?

To be honest I don't see the game suffering on the Gold Coast if we dumped the Titans.

If you are talking about the Titans, then I get the impression that not too many people care about the Titans.

I am not sure sport and the Gold Coast work well together. Rugby League is now in its second attempt to make a team there work. As to is the AFL. Soccer has tried it and while the Gold Coast United FC still exists, it just does so.

It will be interesting in 5 or so years from now to see if the AFL's Suns are still playing out of the Gold Coast.

A forum member here suggested moving the Titans to Brisbane. That just not might be a bad idea.

 

[Kirky]

I am not sure sport and the Gold Coast work well together.

This is an interesting thought. On paper the GC is a fantstic place for sporting teams; 600,000 people, great weather, corporate support, strong grassroots participation, etc. Something along the way doesn't seem to click. It's not just the various League teams that have collapsed, but the AFL Bears, United A-league, and now I think the Blaze NBL team are in strife.

It would make for fascinating reading if someone conducted a research project up there.

I think much of the problem lies in the difficulty (impossibility?) of generating a sport-attending culture where none previously exists. People in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, etc have been attending sport for generations. That cultural element simply hasn't existed on the GC in the past. It's one thing to get people to come along to 'event' type matches (such as the two big Suns games last year) and matches when a team is winning (Titans 2010), but another entirely to have them come along consistantly when the going gets tough (I suspect the Suns will discover this if not this year then next year when the novelty has well and truly worn off).

I also had a quick question for those in the know: It's often mentioned that the Titans are too important to our Broadcast deal to lose. Out of curiosity, what kind of numbers do the Titans get ratings wise on the Gold Coast? Or do their ratings get counted under Brisbane's metro numbers?

 

[Red Bear]

If this club was to fail there is no f**king way there should be another GC team invovled. This is their 4th/5th bite at the cherry already, if the plastic soulless area that is the Gold Coast cant get behind this team then f**k em, they've had endless chances.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The Titans get better crowds than a lot of Sydney clubs. Support isn't the problem.

 

[El Diablo]

it has nothing to with the GC

it was wasting money on the COE

 

[beads6]

it has nothing to with the GC

it was wasting money on the COE

Exactly. That is where all the debt is. They built a big fancy facility after being in the competition 1 year. They didn't have the money in the bank and they bit of more then they can chew.

 

[Perth Red]

Brand development as in Rugby League or as in the Gold Coast Titans?

To be honest I don't see the game suffering on the Gold Coast if we dumped the Titans.

If you are talking about the Titans, then I get the impression that not too many people care about the Titans.

I am not sure sport and the Gold Coast work well together. Rugby League is now in its second attempt to make a team there work. As to is the AFL. Soccer has tried it and while the Gold Coast United FC still exists, it just does so.

It will be interesting in 5 or so years from now to see if the AFL's Suns are still playing out of the Gold Coast.

A forum member here suggested moving the Titans to Brisbane. That just not might be a bad idea.

Again I point you to the facts!

GC Titans are one of the best supported teams in the NRL, they have seemingly decent corporate sponsors, they play in one of the best RL stadiums in the comp. Take out the cofe fiasco and they would be ticking most boxes as a succesful expansion club I would have thought. As for not many caring, again their crowds would suggest otherwise and don't tell the members of The Legion that!

 

[Goddo]

If you were a Reds, Bears or Bombers/Jets fan or supporter I would be worried.

TV companies are seeing the financial struggle the NRL is in and could be used as leveraged in the TV rights.

Plus if the Titans fall there goes a game each week, and if they are replaced, there goes a chunk of viewers and value of at least 1 game a week.

The ARLC will see how diabolical this situation haas become in "rugby league heartland" and the Reds will seem all too hard.

Perception is everything, and it is not looking good right now.

Thats why I've been increasingly thinking the ARLC will go with Gosford and Western Corridor for expansion. Brisy is a lock, but Perth will lose out to the Bears if it seems too hard.

 

[jc155776]

So? like I said, 1000 either side of the mark is nothing

Have you ever been there to a game? I went to two games last year. Both times stadium was lucky to be 1/4 full if that. Each time they claimed a crowd of about 13000 and peoria started laughing and chanting bullshit.

 

[Brutus]

Michael Searle is effeminate.

I used to think he was a man.