A new AFL team could inject $34 million a year into the Gold Coast economy if it takes up residency there, according to new research.
With the AFL’s official nod of approval the only thing standing between the Gold Coast and its first ever top-tier football team, an independent economic report today shed some light on how it would impact the region.
According to the report, accommodation and tourism operators will be the biggest winners, with the Gold Coast expected to benefit by $33.9 million each year from its first full year of operation.
Retail, hospitality and taxi companies are expected to benefit from day-trip visitors.
By 2016, the report suggests, the creation of a new AFL team would generate an additional 121,000 visitor nights and attract 221,175 people to Gold Coast games per season, 45 per cent of whom would be from outside the region.
The report is based on the assumption that by 2016 a new stadium on the Gold Coast would be operating and hosting 11 games a season.
GC17 chairman John Witheriff, who heads the Gold Coast bid to receive the AFL’s 17th licence, welcomed the report and said it showed how the community would be rewarded.
The report’s author Chris Hunn said the football club would help reinforce the Gold Coast as a sporting destination, more so than other codes.
“Anecdotal evidence suggests that the extent of place-marketing generated by GC17 is expected to be significant and will exceed that of other football codes,” Dr Hunn said in a statement.
He said a Gold Coast team would also lead to increased local sporting infrastructure and participation.
GC17, if granted a licence, will enter the TAC Cup next season, the VFL in 2010 before entering the AFL in 2011.
The AFL is expected to make a decision before the end of the year.
© AAP 2012Recommend this story.
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November 7th 2008 @ 2:51pm
Michael C said | November 7th 2008 @ 2:51pm | Report comment
Pippinu -
based on recent examples – - is the Gold Coast Blaze going to be very, very nervous in the manner of the Kingz and the Bullets??
btw – Gold Coast in summer is of far lesser value to Victorians than it is in winter,……i.e. we have warm weather and beaches here………not quite the same manner of theme parks though.
November 7th 2008 @ 3:42pm
Koala Bear said | November 7th 2008 @ 3:42pm | Report comment
“an independent economic report today shed some light on how it would impact the region.”
Where there has been an independent economic report with no creditably economical reporter’s named attached; is a sign of no independent economic report was ever done … Gold Coast taxpayers face a $60m bill to receive $34m back with only 11 weeks of Grooky played on the Gold Coast out of 52 weeks of the year … Yes indeed I smell a rat…
At least the FFA + Rudd government did their ER with the well respected firm “Price Waterhouse Accountants” for the 2018 FIFA world cup in Australia to effectively project a $5b+ into the Australian economy …
~~~~~~~~~
KB
November 19th 2008 @ 5:15pm
meg said | November 19th 2008 @ 5:15pm | Report comment
you can not called irish hand rubbish football.the so called afl,nfl and rugby are not football games.they have been falsely called football.please do not mention them at all because they are not worty of mentioning.
November 19th 2008 @ 8:04pm
Koala Bear said | November 19th 2008 @ 8:04pm | Report comment
Meg,
you are absolutely correct..
~~~~~~~
KB
November 19th 2008 @ 8:30pm
Pippinu said | November 19th 2008 @ 8:30pm | Report comment
“you can not called irish hand rubbish football”
Meg
not sure if that makes any sense, but anyway, I assume you are referring to Australian Football? (that’s its official name)
Did you know that Australian Football is older than soccer?
Are you a proud Australian, or something else?
Relax man, it’s ok for you to be a proud Australian AND follow soccer – it’s fine!
November 19th 2008 @ 8:51pm
Michael C said | November 19th 2008 @ 8:51pm | Report comment
oh my god – - – KB – - – you wanna make a song and dance about AFL talk infiltrating soccer blogs – - – what are you doing ‘supporting’ (even in jest – as I know you are) this meg and his/her childish rant.
meg – -
search history and you’ll discover that some of the original London FA rules of 1863 can now only be found in the game that started 4 years earlier in Melbourne. i.e. the fair catch, and a goal without a x-bar. Fancy that, the ‘real’ football started rules were written 4 years later than Melbourne.
The Irish had no idea what they were doing yet – and of the original players and lawmakers of the Australian game there was stuff all link to Ireland. You see, the more well to do cricketers of the MCC were far less likely to be Irish than that they were folk schooled at Cambridge, Rugby school, etc. Were there to be a reasonable Irish influence…..we’d see the odd jumper with orange or green colours – - we don’t. The Irish were largely incidental………however, there’s reasonable grounds to suggest that the rules for Gaelic football written about 20 years on from the Melb rules were infact influenced by the Melb rules (or, at least, a desire to ‘distinguish’ the Gaelic rules from the Melb rules)
And if soccer is the true football……how come they use their hands too (throw ins and the 2 goalies), why do they use their heads…..in fact….it’s not so much ‘football’ as ‘handlessball’……..because…….the clincher is you don’t even need to KICK a goal……………only one code of football has the stipulation.
So – smoke on that you person of dubious intellect and potentially questionable parentage. And go smoke it on a dedicated soccer blog…..because, it’s one thing to troll…..it’s another thing to at least attempt to ‘add’ to a discussion.
November 20th 2008 @ 6:54am
Koala Bear said | November 20th 2008 @ 6:54am | Report comment
Meg,
Stick to your guns girl you are absolutely correct…. 
don’t worry about these two fuddy duddies they just can’t grasp the “fact” that after all is said and done football is the round ball code only and oldest dating back in to Harrow England 14th century .. It is really about the percentages of the foot controlling the ball against the hands controlling the ball … i.e. more foot on ball; simple really isn’t Meg.?.. Just to add the two fuddy duddies are the two best troll exponents on a Football thread trolling when they need to stay with the AFL tab .. You won’t see us doing such despicable acts unless you live on the Gold Coast with this mob wanting to waste our tax paid dollars on a white elephant…
~~~~~~~~
KB
November 20th 2008 @ 8:27am
Pippinu said | November 20th 2008 @ 8:27am | Report comment
KB
have you got stats on how often the ball is “kicked” in soccer compared to how often it is “kicked” in Australian Football?
November 20th 2008 @ 8:43am
Koala Bear said | November 20th 2008 @ 8:43am | Report comment
Pippi,
just think back to your playing days to which of the codes you touched more with your feet and to which code you touched more with your hands.. ?? Deary meeeee; I can’t believe you would ask for proof … 
are you serious .?..
Meg, if you are reading this can you see the stupidity of such claims made by our so called AFL learned friends…
~~~~~~~~
KB
November 20th 2008 @ 9:02am
Michael C said | November 20th 2008 @ 9:02am | Report comment
KB -
there’s a far, far, far (I feel like doing a Talking Heads song now) higher ratio of goals scored in soccer other than by foot as compared to Australian football – - where in you CAN only score a goal by kicking it yourself.
At the end of the day, if soccer folk try to discount the number of headers, and the goalie using his hands, and side line throw ins and effectively that the game doesn’t dictate the ‘ball must be kicked’, rather, the game dictates in general play that the hands must not be used (deliberately).
Where as, in AFL, the rules do stipulate the requirement to kick the ball to A. take a mark, and B. score a goal.
(do the rules of Association actually specify that a penalty shoot MUST be a kick, or, do you have the option of attempting a header? no doubt it’d look silly, but, in reality, headers do look pretty silly – - in the realms of sillyness shared by cricket umpires leg byes signals, and the AFL goal umpire whacking he/her self on the chest.)
At any rate – - if you want a relative proportion of kicking vs other part of the body in general play………you miss the point that the game is all about it’s ‘GOAL’, i.e. the purpose of the game is to score goals to win. Everything else is the loopholes that coaches seek to exploit in achieving the goal of winning the game (or at least not losing). Rugby League is defined by it’s ‘primary score’ – it’s goal – which is to dive bodily over an end line………it is no longer a game about kicking goals other than as a consolation effectively. Perhaps meg is so myopic that she hasn’t yet discerned between the Rugby and Grid Iron games and Australian Football.
SO – - – on goal difference, Aust Footy wins, easily, by a mile!!!!
case closed.