Gold Coast’s Joel Porter. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Back by unpopular demand, Gold Coast United has reinstated its controversial 5,000 crowd cap at Skilled Park. In a desperate attempt to save money, the cap is an admission that the club is out of reach of its 8,000 target – the point where they would break even – raising the inevitable question, yet again, about its sustainability.
CEO Clive Mensink told The World Game: “This is one way of sustaining the club and taking it forward. We are hoping it will be a temporary measure.
“If the demand for tickets grows then we will open the ground up fully again.
“But ticket sales for the Melbourne game haven’t been good and we felt this was the only way we had of reining in the costs of putting on home games.”
Financially the cap helps, saving approximately $60,000 per home match. For a club that lost in the region of $5 million in its first season, that sort of saving is imperative.
But the worry for the club is twofold; firstly the damage the crowd cap does to the club’s brand and the response of its fans and secondly why the club continually falls below its 8,000 target.
On the first point, there will inevitably be another backlash from the club’s loyal supporters and the decision will only cast the club in a negative light amongst the Gold Coast population.
With only the Western stand opened during the cap, the club’s main supporter group, The Beach, will be once again sent packing from its home behind the goals.
Last October, when the club tried initiating the crowd cap for the first time, the club suffered a mighty backlash; a crowd of just 2,616 made their way to Skilled Park when they hosted North Queensland Fury.
The game is best remembered for the protests in the stands and the small group of fans who broke ranks to take up their favoured spot behind the goals.
The club is currently bracing itself for a similar backlash, despite a renewed effort to explain the financial considerations to the fans.
A poll on the Gold Coast Bulletin website shows 78 per cent of fans are against the cap, and it will be very difficult for the club to sell it to them, particularly when the club is owned by the wealthiest man in Queensland with a reported worth of over $3 billion.
On the second point, the fundamental question we must ask is why the club is so short of its crowd target.
Mistakes were made in their debut season; ticket prices were too high, the club failed to build a community base and its brash approach may have put some off.
Certainly the ever-present figure of Palmer helped portray Gold Coast United as his club, rather than belonging to the whole region. The club, from day one, lacked a communal feel.
This season, a renewed effort was made to work within the community, with an expanded and impressive community diary, yet they only managed to attract 6,394 to the season opener, of which a significant percentage were travelling Brisbane Roar supporters, and are struggling to sell tickets for the Melbourne Victory match.
The club has a recognised Socceroo who has featured prominently in the last two World Cups (starting all seven of those matches), the league’s leading goal scorer from the past two seasons (and second on the all-time goals list), an opinionated coach always good for a quotable quote, a genuine rivalry with the Brisbane Roar, a team that plays an exciting brand of football, and had a relatively successful debut season, yet it cannot make any headway.
Last season’s crowd average of 5,392 was well short of the 8,000 target, and if the cap precedent from last season is anything to go by, it’s difficult to see the club even matching that figure.
The question must surely be asked again: is an A-League club on the Gold Coast sustainable?
In a region where the Gold Coast Titans do well with an average attendance hovering around the 20,000 mark and with the Gold Coast Suns on the horizon (pardon the pun), already boasting over 7,000 members six months out from its AFL debut, is there room for United?
Or have their mistakes condemned the club for good and isolated it for the Gold Coast community? You sense the crowd cap want help in this regard.
Sporting franchises have typically struggled on the Gold Coast, in a region synonymous with other entertainment options and with a transient population, and perhaps the game simply doesn’t have the supporter base to sustain a club.
If one of Australia’s richest men is no longer willing to cover the losses, then what hope is there?
As callous as it sounds, if Gold Coast United cannot “sellout” its home matches under the cap by season’s end, then it’s time for the FFA to consider pulling the plug on the club.
Daniel
Guest
All your Brisbane Fans. Gold Coast is a work in progress. But whilst you roar fans are here, help me out with something. How full in that trophy cabinet of yours? You have won nothing.
Ivan
Guest
Why blame GC? All the anti-palmer, tall poppy haters are kidding themselves. Think of the quality all the a league watchers get from GC? The blame falls squarely on the FFA, who have no plan for marketing, no coordinated stadium deals, no free to air marketing, no engagement in the community as a whole. All the clubs are on their own, no wonder Roar, AU, Fury are all on life support. It's easy to trash Palmer, but where's Ben?
BrisbaneBhoy
Guest
A couple of things (sorry if some/all have been mentioned, I haven't gone through all the comments yet). 1) First off (as a Brisbane fan) I would hate to see the demise of GCU. I honestly believe for the long term good of Brisbane (along with SE Qld and the league itself) we need a strong God Coast outfit. 2) Expanding too quick. I disagree. Yes we have 3 teams in Qld, but 1 is 1600km away from it's closest team (in what is unofficially a separate state - Nth Qld). As for the Gold Coast, it is Australia's 5th or 5th largest city, the largest outside of a Capital. There is the population base to build on. 3) Sporting teams don't survive on the Gold Coast. Yes this was the case from the early/mid 90's and back, but so much the case anymore. The population has charged a lot. It use to be just for retirement and tourism, now it is more family based. The Gold Coast is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia (much like the rest of SEQ). 4) Build it and they will come. - This has been nearly every A-League clubs problems. Brisbane were the same up until this off-season. The mind-set of, give the population a team and they will follow, regardless that it was set-up from the team most locals hate, regardless of next to no advertising, regardless of the stupid f****** name, regardless of the colours, ans so on. Until the owners, clubs and the league itself realise the need for community work, the need for advertisement the need for time, then things won't improve. They will either stay as is, or decline. I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it just now.
macavity
Guest
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Glen but the northern suburbs are filling with young families to the point I think your statement is already untrue and going to be less so as those kids grow up. Both major stadiums are a bit of distance from this area though. If football got it’s own 5k or so ground (with room for expansion) around Helensvale it could be the best placed of all codes to take advantage of future demographics.
macavity
Guest
There seems to be a big misunderstanding about RL on the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast team (and it was the continuation of the same team) took a lot of lumps from their founding in 1988, but by 1997 they WERE certainly viable. They were sacrificed to the Broncos as part of the SL peace deal - that is the ONLY reason they disappeared.
Redb
Roar Guru
This is true. Both the NRL and AFL benefit from interstate migration (expats) supporting the games they grew up with. In relative terms in Sydney or Melbourne, the A League still only attracts a niche compared to the NRL and AFL fan bases in those cities, the GC therefore inherits those percentages but given its the blue rinse set who migrate the proportion is even less.
macavity
Guest
macavity
Guest
To be fair, the Gold Coast RL team never had a chance in the late 80s / early 90s with a horrible ground, very poor and unstable management, and the Broncos doing everything in their power to kill them. Add to that they spent much of their existence as the Seagulls - that would be like if the Broncos had never existed and the Redcliffe Dolphins had been promoted to the NSWRL - you turn off most of the fans who support other QRL clubs.
Mega
Guest
Think that's what's meant by the transient comment.
Glen
Guest
Have any of you people ever been to the GC? The VAST majority of Gold Coasters are not from the Gold Coast. Most are itinerates, retirees, gold-diggers, failed Sydney real estate agents, or students. They all bring with them their previous home-town team allegiances and stick to the doggedly. I remember in the eighties when Rughby League in Brisbane [ie: the QRL], boasted the very best players in the world. Guys like Wally Lewis, Gene Miles, Mal Meninga, Colin Scott etc etc etc ... and yet not one pub on the entire coast had a QRL tipping comp or showed any of the games on telly. Every, and I mean EVERY, pub and club had a NSWRL tipping comp and live feeds. It's just the nature of the beast... nobody "comes"from the coast so there will never be an allegiance to any local team. Just deal with it and move on.
NUFCMVFC
Guest
Not convinced all of this is correct The World Cup hasn't exactly done wonders for the K league crowds in Korea. For me this needs a case of building it from the groun up, plenty of interest in football regardless of where the World Cup is or whether Australia is in it, as 2002 WC viewing figures + participation shows. So for the A League things need to be built from the ground up, and building from the ground up requires focus on putting a viable domestic competition in place, which they haven't done. Looking at the WC bid book, like Olympics ironically seems to benefit AFL stadia quite a lot, then there's this notion of "compensation". If you want to talk about Govt handouts you can talk about the large amounts the AFL seems to glean from State and Federal Govts, ie QLD Govt chaning their deal to firstly allow a Gold Coast team and then redevelop Carrarra for a sport no one particularly cares for, in the region of $30 million and people complain about $40 million for a WC bid. Then there is a similar amount for reeeveloping a stadium in Sydney Olympic Park precinct and Blacktown. We can have this kind of silly conversation for all sports really. Reality tough at the end of the day is football is wating for next TV rights deal, the only impact the Govt has is the degree to which football relates to the anti siphoning list FFA has been pushed into expansion because of AFC Pro League requirements regarding ACL spots. May have done this too soon and sometimes I wonder whether organically A League can only sustain about 10 teams at this time. It willperhaps be able to sustain more from 2013. The way Gold Coast United may have had its flaws, but ultimately even if it goes under like some of the old NRL and AFL teams, something will be put back in place over time...
NY
Guest
The people propping up the clubs are football people (with the exception of Clive Palmer). They are all in it for the love of the game, and will be around regardless of the World Cup decision. I don't think there will that much of a huge correlation between Australia winning the bid and the success of the a-league. I believe the league will be pretty much the same either way. It is the sport which will probabaly take off. The a-league will always be a comp for the hardcore football nuts in Australia, with the usual suspects deriding the standard. But that is just my point of view.
Mister Football
Guest
And I am saying something similar.
Tom
Guest
I want the game to survive more than most supporters. I hope the support for the game continues through the ups and the downs. It is very easy to say the game will go on but I have little faith in the so called power propping up certain clubs. I'm under the belief they are only in it for the possible decision coming in December.
MagicMoments
Guest
what a load of self serving codswallop!
Art Sapphire
Guest
Why should you of all people be given any respect on these boards. How about informing Roar community about the hundreds of post where you took the p*ss out of football and football players at bigfooty. Playing court jester to an AFL crowd. Now you want to come back here and be Mr. Reasonable again. You reap what you sow, Pip. You have no crediblity. It doesn't matter what you call yourself.
NY
Guest
I've never heard so may exaggerations about the a-league relying on the World Cup bid to survive. Take a deep breath people. The competition will go on, and football supporters around Australia will keep watching their favourite sport. If anything it could have the opposite effect and make clubs and supporters in this country more determined than ever to succeed.
Tom
Guest
The a-league is screwed with out the world cup. All 3 queensland clubs will fold or have to move to smaller affordable grounds. Sydney will stay afloat due to corporate and 3rd party support. Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne victory to survive. The heart , newcastle , central coast and the western Sydney franchise will be on the brink of closure unless huge financial restructures are made. I would say a 8 team league would be realistic.
Mister Football
Guest
Art there is a perfectly legitimate discussion happening here, and I am contributing an opinion, I'm contributing it amicably, one which happens to correlate closely with something Patrick Smith wrote recently. But I detect that you are steering towards the modus operandi preferred by fussball (see below), and I'm not sure how that approach does anyone any credit. Also, I'm saddened to note that people are pretending to quote parts of what I write back to me, only problem is, it doesn't seem to align at all witih what I wrote in the first place! What do you think is happening there?