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Gary Ablett signs autographs for fans during the opening of Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast.
This wasn’t the season for the Gold Coast Titans to plummet from preliminary-finalists to wooden spoon favourites; not with the Gold Coast Suns, pumped up with the AFL’s millions, moving into their beachside playground.
The Titans’ dip in performance has contributed to the Suns currently beating their more established neighbours in home crowd averages.
The Suns too hover around the bottom of the ladder – expectedly, given their heavy investment in youth in their first season – but there’s more to it than relative on-field performances.
The numbers read: Gold Coast Suns average home crowd at Metricon Stadium currently sitting at 18,309, the Gold Coast Titans at 16,109.
When the pair went head-to-head in direct competition on the night of July 23, the Suns attracted a near sell-out crowd of 23,302 against Collingwood, while 15,741 saw the Titans take on Queensland rivals, North Queensland Cowboys.
From their debut in 2007, the Titans’ crowd average has fallen by around a quarter. Even in their run to the finals in 2010, they recorded their lowest crowd average of 17,877 – close to 4000 less than their first season.
The Titans don’t have a Leagues Club to support themselves. They are privately owned – and, like all privately owned clubs, their fortunes lie with their owners’ corporations. Unlike the Suns, the level of support the Titans receive from the code is said to be minimal.
The NRL heavily subsidises other more needy clubs. And once its expansion plans roll out, the chances of the Titans receiving support will diminish. If the NRL expands in Queensland, be it Brisbane, Ipswich or Central Queensland, then the Queensland rugby league market contracts for the three current clubs.
The Suns, meanwhile, are heavily bankrolled by the AFL with draft concessions, subsidized tickets, a refurbished ground built to adequate specifications for the club’s fan base size, and millions put into spreading the code’s gospel with heavy advertising campaigns inside the Gold Coast, not to mention outside Queensland.
The campaign offering travel packages for away supporters to see their team play at the Suns while taking in a few days in Surfers Paradise, for example, is one way the code is activating its Gold Coast intrusion.
And the proof is in the pudding: the large contingent of Collingwood supporters in attendance on July 23, bumping up the crowd figure to 23,302 – 7561 more than were in attendance to watch two Queensland rugby league clubs battle it out.
The Suns can even afford to follow Collingwood’s example and send their players to Arizona for a two-week camp in November.
It’s a far cry from the AFL’s first expansive venture north in the days of the Brisbane Bears, who flirted with financial ruin in their early years.
The relative fortunes of the Suns and Titans make for a fascinating contrast.
In the summer, the focus turns to the much-maligned Gold Coast United.
While owner Clive Palmer went someway to addressing the future of his club in this recent interview (not very convincing, in my opinion), huge question marks remain given their lack of activity in the marketplace and failure to adequately replace the spine of their team.
United may have saved “about $2 million on player contracts” with one-year deals for the players signed, keeping them on their toes to perform, according to Palmer. However, the real question is around the traction gained off the field.
The most consistent performing club of the last two seasons – finals bound on both occasions and one game away from the grand final last season – with a team stocked with quality players, could only manage crowd averages of 5392 and 3434.
So without Shane Smeltz, Jason Culina, Bruce Djite, Zenon Caravella, Dino Djulbic, Bas van den Brink and Steve Pantelidis, how will a team expected to struggle this season appeal to the ambivalent Gold Coast?
How can the club possibly salvage the downward spiral without the drawcards it had?
Throw into the mix the arrival of the Suns, sapping the Gold Coast of corporate sponsors, market space, media attention and potential members who have committed to the Suns cause and only have enough disposable income for one club, and it’s difficult to see United reviving itself in its third season, despite Palmer’s reassurances.
Palmer’s recent claim of looking into the possibility of building his own brand new stadium to escape the costs associated with the club’s current deal at Skilled Park raises more questions.
Is that really the most pressing concern when the club’s crowds are so paltry? Wouldn’t the money spent on the new stadium be better served into growing the fan base and community engagement?
After all, the poor crowd averages only exacerbate the high rental costs, hence the unpopular crowd cap of 5000.
United’s poor crowds and rugby league’s struggle to get an NRL franchise going, perpetuate the belief that the Gold Coast is a mirage for sporting codes and clubs – tempting them with the idyllic setting and promise yet disappointing with barren crowds and little interest.
As documented in previous columns, there are good reasons why the Gold Coast market is a tough nut to crack – greater competition from the entertainment sector, a transient population and poor transportation options for a population spread out on the long stretch of beachfront, in an area lacking the cultural roots of Australia’s more established cities.
The fastest growing region in our country it may be, but it remains to be seen whether it can sustain AFL, NRL, A-League and NBL clubs. But the Gold Coast highlights the following traits:
– The financial might of the AFL, as witnessed by the spend and support of their expansion clubs.
– The NRL’s inability to match that spend/investment.
– The A-League trying to carve out its own niche, reliant on the dollars of private owners who, compared to AFL clubs, are left to their own devices with no guarantee of getting it right.
– The fact that there’s possibly not enough support and corporate dollars to go around in the face of growing competition from other entertainment sectors.
With this in mind, rather than just being an evil seductress, perhaps the Gold Coast (and Queensland at large) best typifies the trends in the sporting landscape, without the unique characteristics and allegiances of the sports-mad Melbourne, fickle Sydney and the lands rugby league forgot – Adelaide and Perth.
Follow Adrian on twitter @AdrianMusolino