ARLC start clean slate with Gold Coast Titans
Peter Badel
The Courier-Mail
October 12, 2012 4:49PM
Paul Kent and Paul Crawley take a look at the Gold Coast's year of 2012 and discuss what 2013 holds for them.
MORE than $5 million worth of Titans playing contracts are set to be transferred to a new entity under the ARL Commission's plan to start with a clean slate on the Gold Coast.
Titans will operate under a new company name and structure next season as the club's new investment consortium moves to sever ties with the complex web of companies that amassed $25 million in debt under former managing director Michael Searle.
Lawyers from the NRL and the Titans have been in negotiations over the proposed restructure. The NRL licence is expected to be formally transferred from the existing Titans club to the new company by November 1.
While the Titans brand will be retained, it is understood the ARL Commission will have strict conditions in place and wants the new entity to be a more streamlined and transparent operation than the convoluted set-up under Searle which almost sent the Titans broke.
Under the restructure, every Titans employee - including star quintet Scott Prince, Nate Myles, Luke Bailey, Ashley Harrison and Souths import Dave Taylor - will have their contracts novated.
Titans players have been informed of the development. There is no risk of the new entity failing to honour contracts, with the ARL Commission making it clear all existing conditions must be met for the licence transfer to be formalised.
Interim ARL Commission chief executive Shane Mattiske today confirmed the move to transfer the Titans licence, and all existing employee contracts, to a new organisation.
"We have certainly talked with the Titans about issuing the license to a new business entity but on the basis of a number of conditions including the need to meet all existing obligations," Mattiske said.
"There are still a number of steps to complete that process.
"While player contracts would transfer to another entity there has been no suggestions of re-negotiations and that would be contrary to the conditions."
Businessman Graeme Connor, one of the club's new investment triumvirate with Darryl Kelly and Anshuman Magazine, broke his silence today to assure Titans players their current contracts would not be voided.
"We will honour all existing contracts, of course," he said.
"My understanding is that the contracts will be signed over to the new entity in their existing format as required by the ARL Commission.
"The Commission wanted this set-up to ensure the old debts are cleared up and that the players and sponsorship agreements are transferred to the new entity controlled by the new investors.
"It will be a new entity acquiring the assets of the Titans club."
Asked about the existing debts at the Titans football arm, which had amounted to about $5 million, Connor said: "A lot of them have been paid out, there is still a few to go, but most of them have been done.
"There has been no financial help from the (ARL) Commission, none whatsoever."
It is understood the three new investors have been asked to provide $2m each to make the Titans debt-free.
Now free of Searle's administrative autocracy, Connor said the new entity would ensure the Titans can start afresh, bolstered by beefed-up governance, next season.
"I'm very confident about the future of the club," he said.
"There is a lot of work to be done, no question, but I'm very excited about the Titans moving forward."
