Gold Coast United are an embarrassment to the A-League
Roar Pro
By Con Stamocostas, 24 Oct 2009 Con Stamocostas is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, Clive Palmer, football, Gold Coast United
Gold Coast players react after Jason Culina scored in the 59th minute to put the Coast 2-0 up during the 1st round A-League football match between Brisbane Roar and Gold Coast United at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Gold Coast United are an embarrassment one moment and the headline act in the theatre of the absurd the next. None more so than the antics of the ubiquitous owner Clive Palmer.
Before season five began, I wrote a pre-season preview on each A League club. With players to look out for and a light hearted prediction. Let’s rewind the tape.
“I predict Miron Bleiberg to be sacked after four games because of the poor form shown by the side in only scoring two goals per game not three. I expect to see Professor Palmer in pure Roman Abramovich-style, giving half time speeches while a bemused Paul Okon looks on.”
Last week that happened.
During the half time break, the Fox Sports camera’s showed Clive Palmer at half time in the Gold Coast dressing room.
A case of life imitating absurdity.
What’s more bemusing is that Clive Palmer has tried to cap the crowds at 5,000 so the Gold Coast don’t have to pay transport costs if more than 5,000 attend a home match.
No wonder the White Shoe Brigade don’t go to any games. In a first for football anywhere in the world, the owner doesn’t want the crowd to support his team.
Recently, I spoke with well-known surfing journalist and magazine editor of http://worldprosurfers.com, Jimmy O’Keefe, who was actually born and raised in the area. Jimmy offered some fascinating insights into the Gold Coast market.
Me: What are your thoughts on having an A League team on the Gold Coast?
Jimmy O’Keefe: “Tops. I think there’s potential for it to really blossom”.
Me: Why do you reckon the crowds are so low?
JOK: “It’s because Gold Coast is full of Visigoth-type bogans with bad tatts, and the only sports that seem to flourish in this cultural vacuum are burnouts in low-rider utes and rugby league”.
Me: Does the Gold Coast have the potential to be a football town?
JOK: “Certainly, it’s one of the biggest cities in the country. I think the place has had trouble as far as fan bases go because over the last two decades AFL and Rugby League consortiums have come and gone about five times. There’s also a huge transient population there, no affiliations to any teams”.
Me: What needs to be done to get bigger crowds? How would you engage the community so fans can watch the game on TV or attend?
JOK: “When it comes to families, let them know that it’s an alternative to whatever else is going on. That it’s a day out, people would jump at it. They just need to know that when it comes to singles, I think push it as a great place for women to go (unlike league) and a great afternoon to catch up with friends for a drink. Kind of like a Sunday session.
“I think marketing wise, it’s kind of strange place in that it’s a radio town, and people do a lot of driving or listen to the radio at work. And they seriously get into all the ‘Morning Crew’ and ‘Black Thunder’ sort of stuff. Sadly, they are indeed an effective way to mobilise Gold Coasters”. (The Gold Coast Titans signed Mat Rogers and gave his girlfriend a job on local radio.)
So there you have some free market research.
I am embarrassed to watch some of the Gold Coast matches. I think the FFA should have chosen a team in Canberra or Wollongong.
Those towns have football history and easily would have had greater crowds.
I also think the club would have used the word “Community”, rather than words like “three Jets”; “second richest”; and “undefeated”, in the way it sold the club to the local folks.
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- Explore:
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tifosi said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:04am | Report comment
The FFA must accept the blame for this.
They passed over the Galaxy bid for the guy that had the money and now they look like a laughing stock, how can the best team in the comp get 5000 per game?
Mark said | October 31st 2009 @ 8:22pm | Report comment
Mate, you seem deluded if you think they are the best team in the league, like all things Gold Coast it shimmers therefore it must be gold, well, rubbish, they’re just fools gold!
Jeff Baxter said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:15am | Report comment
Is this a satire? Should i be laughing?
Con Stamocostas said | October 24th 2009 @ 8:02am | Report comment
yes.
Jeff Baxter said | October 24th 2009 @ 8:16pm | Report comment
Oh well. Maybe next time
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 6:52am | Report comment
What a waste of time Con. Does it matter what some surfer thinks about football? I find it hard to think of something more irrelevant, there is very very little connection between the two.
Robbos said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:13am | Report comment
So if you surf, you don’t like football????? Huh!!!!
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 8:20am | Report comment
No, that’s not necessarily the case but when your answer to the question, “why are crowds so low is” – “It’s because Gold Coast is full of Visigoth-type bogans with bad tatts, and the only sports that seem to flourish in this cultural vacuum are burnouts in low-rider utes and rugby league” well then you’ve got no idea.
Jimmy O’Keefe is probably the only person whose name Con could drop that MIGHT ring some bells here, that’s the only reason for him posting this rubbish, he wants to look like he’s hob-nobbing but obviously doesn’t have any real famous friends so he used a pseudo one from a totally different sport and even though the answer were absolutely crap he still felt it prudent to post it here.
Dom said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:08am | Report comment
i have surfed since i was 4 and played football since i was five, nothing wrong with combining those two sport as i have done for last 20 years
Robbos said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:19am | Report comment
Con, they are top of the table, they do have the best marquee player, they do have the top goal scorer, they do have in Okon, the next potential Aussie socceroo coach, they do have one of the best link man in Joel Porter, they do have a colourful coach, they do bring excitment & hatred when they travel & fans in Sydney, Melbourne are keen to attend games & want badly to beat them.
Yes, they have been very poor in the community side of things & Mr Palmer as a billionare has too much to say.
macavity said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:22am | Report comment
that Jimmy guy is an absolute tosspot with NFI about land-based sport.
hope a shark gets him. greg bird will do nicely.
Pippinu said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:33am | Report comment
Con
Good article.
Why are people getting stuck into the views of a local sporting journo??
To deliberately attempt to cap a crowd is idiotic – but this concept of paying what amounts to a massive fine if you get over 5,000 people sounds quite idiotic.
Billionaire businessmen are quite predictable in their motivations – if they can avoid paying 2 cents of tax – they will move heaven and earth to make it so.
Con Stamocostas said | October 24th 2009 @ 8:06am | Report comment
Jimmy is the editor of this surfing website:
http://www.worldprosurfers.com/
I thought a local would give an insight into the market. As finding a local on the Gold Coast talking about football is a rare thing.
Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 9:33am | Report comment
Well you might just as well of asked your newsagent or the owner of a chinese restaurant, the answers would have been about as qualified.
AndyRoo said | October 24th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment
It’s such a huge cost to get over 5k people I understand his motivation….but wtf get into that deal in the first place?
Clive may as well as bought a piece of land (he is an ex developer afterall) or done a deal with Palm Beach and built his own 5k ground.
I can onl guess they stuffed up royally with their market research on what locals would be prepared to pay (their prices are the highest in the league) and hopefully they come up with a better plan for season 2
The Answer said | October 24th 2009 @ 8:32am | Report comment
Jimmy has clearly been to one too many schoolies weeks.
cosmos forever said | October 24th 2009 @ 9:13am | Report comment
I’m over the FFA and Canberra – we get the numbers they require to second string games and they still give licences to everyone else. Raiders and Brumbies will own this town now and football will have to put up with ‘Gold Coast’ type crowds of 5,000 when two unrelated teams (Western Sydney – please) come to town.
Midfielder said | October 24th 2009 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Cosmos
Word on the street is you won’t have you long to wait before you get your A-League lience… your start date is more the isssue somewhere between 2012 & 2014.
But back to the article… the GC have been a terrible disappointment … I remember they came and looked at the Mariners model .. indicated they would use it and to date have used none of it… I am told the GC are not much into connecting with the football community like the Mariners … then the Sydney Bling squared is difficult to sell I think … finally ticket prices almost twice the amount of many existing clubs…Through in Clive Palmer who like Con (differnt Con to the writer) at the Jets just has a way of making ordinary folk not like him… i.e. buys his 18 daughter a 5 million boat …
Right place … good money … but maybe he should let his managers run the place and a bit more humble pie and connect with te football family up there.
goldcoastclint said | October 24th 2009 @ 10:08am | Report comment
Unfortunately the club is in a hard position thanks to the stadium deal that they signed. The QLD Government is making a lot of money out of GCU while the team bleeds a fortune, its simply not sustainable long-term. To add salt into the wound the QLD Government is unwilling to spend any money fix up the paddock playing surface.
If GCU do what we all want and drop ticket prices they are halving their revenue while the QLD Government laughs all the way to the bank. by capping the crowd the QLD Government is missing out on $140,000 per week + all the extra food and drink sales, so hopefully it will make sense for them to come up with more mutually beneficial terms.
Its all a bit disappointing because we want a succesful team up here but there really is bigger forces at play eg the Labor Anna Bligh (who Clive is suing for deffamation) vs the Liberal National Party Clive Palmer.