While this upcoming A-League season promises to be the best yet, and crowds look likely to be given a huge boost, one club looks set to struggle in terms of attendences once again: Gold Coast United.
The expansion club has been a part of the A-League for the past two seasons, and despite finishing in the top four both times, and possessing a squad that contained Socceroos Jason Culina and Bruce Djite, the club attracted abysmal crowds – in their first season, they averaged 5000; last year they attracted just 3000 a game.
Clearly there is a problem. Gold Coast United needs revenue from tickets, but also needs to limit poor crowds for the sake of the league as a whole.
One very viable solution is to move Gold Coast home matches to other cities. GCU’s small band of fans will not be very happy with this, but the fact is, this move would benefit the league and the club in the long term.
The club has already started doing this. They ‘sold off’ their round six home match against Adelaide United, and so the fixture will now be played at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, with a cut of the ticket sales going to GCU.
Played in Adelaide, this match should draw upwards of 14,000 people – a much better outcome than an empty stadium in Gold Coast.
The other home match that will be played away from the Gold Coast is the club’s Round 17 match against Melbourne Victory (as part of the league-wide ‘Regional Round’), which will instead be played in Launceston, Tasmania.
These fixture changes are both positive ones, however more could and shoul be done.
The fixture against Melbourne in Launceston is a very good move because it should attract a large crowd- Harry Kewell will be playing, Melbourne is Tasmania’s ‘local’ A-League club and the region has never hosted a competitive professional football game – ever.
Despite the match being played midweek, it should draw upwards of 15,000 people, and could potentially hit the 20,000 capacity.
Gold Coast United will make good money from this match, will boost their crowd average and will promote the league at the same time.
It will also give an indication of the viability of having a Tasmanian club in the A-League into the future. So why not repeat this fixture?
In Round 21, Gold Coast host Melbourne Victory once again. Rather than play this match in front of 5000 people on the Gold Coast, I believe this game should be moved to Tasmania’s other major city, Hobart.
The Kewell factor, the novelty of an A-League match and the perfect Saturday evening timeslot would almost guarentee a sold-out, 16,000 person crowd at Bellerive Oval. For the same reasons as the match in Launceston, it makes perfect sense to relocate this game to Tasmania.
There are two other Gold Coast home matches that I think should also be moved.
Both are against close rival Brisbane Roar, one in Round 12 and the other in Round 25.
Brisbane, reigning A-League champions, should see high attendances throughout the season, certainly a good deal higher than Gold Coast.
I would advocate that both these matches be moved to Bribane’s Suncorp Stadium, or Ballymore Stadium (also in Brisbane) if Brisbane Roar don’t allow GCU to use their home ground.
Gold Coast fans would only have to endure an hour long car trip to get to the game. Again, this move would have financial benefits and would improve the league’s image in terms of attendances.
Yes, Gold Coast will only have nine real home matches. But the benefits of relocating the aforementioned games are numerable. The club will earn much more money in ticket sales than they would playing at home.
The crowd average will be greatly boosted, and the league’s image – as well as the club’s – will improve. The game will also be promoted in regions where there could well be an A-League club within the next decade. Sorry Gold Coast fans, but it is for the good of the game.
Peter the Pilot
Guest
Spot on. Get rid of the Gold Coast. Look at Woollongong or Canberra where the Marinersoften attract 5000 and it isn't even a local team! GCU attendances are an embarrassment to the League because no-one has marketed the game properly in that area.
seanmaguire
Guest
Palmer's hilarious decision to limit attendences to 5000 really killed any hope for them, all because he didn't want to pay a public transport levy.
marvinlous
Guest
agreed.. can`t happen quickly enough.. the crappy crowds at GC are a blight on the rapidly improving image of the A league
gregscavator
Guest
Yeah great idea, have all the gold coast games somewhere else, thats a great way to build a following. Make sure that any games that may inspire local interest (Melbourne Victory with Harry Kewell, Brisbane Roar derby) are played somewhere else, that should get the local fans rally to the cause. Either this article was written tongue in cheek or it is the stupidest post I've seen on the Roar. GCU are here and hopefully they will build support as time goes on,if they fail then Clive may close them or move the licence somewhere else, but I have seen the guy at every game (including pre-season ) that I have been to and he looks pretty committed. The gold Coast is a fickle market , just ask the NRL, but I have seen crowds of 10,000 for the roar and Fulham also 14,000 for the rained out freebie against CCM. Enthusiasm was watered down with the crowd cap which budding fans saw as an insult and gave the wrong idea to the masses that they weren't wanted and the matchday atmosphere suffered badly ,new ticketing arrangements with good PR and advertising should over time repair the damage done in previous seasons and hopefully make GCU a viable concern.
johnnoo
Roar Pro
Both clive palmer and nathan tinkler to me ar enot men you want owning clubs rathe rit is better they sponsor clubs. The model of franchise owners in Australia has not been a success. People coming in with no sports administration or playing experience. SOme who are ego mainacs who know nothing about soccer or rug league start trying ot be the owner and the head ocahc of the team. Adam macdougall said it was laughable how rusty crowe coz he owned souths was starting to give coaching advice. And now with tinklier sacking branch culling in quite outrages circumstances. I fear what will happen is gold coast and newcastle especially , Tinkler will just start employing yes men and start believing he knows more about soccer than the experts, and will constantly change coaches and players it will become a circus at Newcastle. And then when the team suffers, or other bossiness commitments come up outside soccer , or health problems that can happen then what. Back to square one. Best model of ownership is a comment model like barcelona F.C for example. Gold coast are on shaky ground clive says he is committed for a fe wore seasons, but that can not be 100% guaranteed. and then what happens to gold coast if in 2 years he pulls out. Does the FFA simply take over running the gold coast, or does it become another fury. FFA should of put a team in western sydney before gold coast and townsville. IN actual soccer heartland that tis western sydney. Millions wasted on gold coast and townsville that could of been spent on western sydney soccer team. Far bigger population in western sydney than gold coast newcastle and townsville combined.
Football United
Guest
from what i've heard gcu does bugger all in grassroots support and attracting fansl in tweed and the rest of nnsw even though it's just down the road. you'd think they'd be trying to expand their footprint all the way down and through byron bay to coffs harbour.
Kasey
Guest
No football at ballymore! Only those that 'know' brisbane via google Maps think its a good idea. Ballymore has no Public Transport and sod all parking. If Roar are averaging avout 10k/game his season, I reckon you'd be lucky to see 4k at any game played at Ballymore. There is a very good reason why the QRU moved all of its games to Lang Pk. Even though I benefit personally from an extra ome game at Hindmarsh, I'm not too crash hot on the idea. I don't want to see our competition follow in the path of the AFL who hopelessly whore out home games and rig the draw to maximise attendances at the very real cost of competition integrity. Once at Home, Once Away is how a football league should work - unless there is an un expected event like a SuperX event on your home pitch thanks to a money hungry and football insensitive stadium partner. .
Cass
Guest
Whats that?
Chuq
Roar Pro
"and the region has never hosted a competitive professional football game – ever." - correction: They hosted a Perth Glory v Melbourne Knights NSL game in the earlier 2000s.
TomC
Guest
'10-15 seater stadium' A Freudian slip, perhaps?
Cass
Guest
Thats an offensive article mate! That is basically just saying that Gold Coast United will only be hanging around untill WS comes in. Lets give it a few years of solid promotion and continued good work the club has done in the community .(Then decide). Truth is, there MUST be a QLD derby for the good of the game, and if Clive builds a litlle 10-15 seater stadium then the only way is up. If we took up all the ideas you talked about it would effectively kill the club
TomC
Guest
I'd have thought the logical way for GC to try and expand their support would be to play some games in Northern NSW. Surely there's some potential fans in Tweed, or even Ballina and Lismore?
The Cattery
Roar Guru
the gold coast is keeping the seat warm for the eventual West sydney franchise
Al
Guest
Gold Coast is not interested in football, there are better cities in this country for an A-League team, such as Wollongong which has a rich association football heritage. Let the AFL have the cheap and tacky gold coast and their fairweather fans, get this team to a proper city which will provide proper supporters.
M1tch
Roar Guru
I havent seen one tv ad for the GC United and the a-league kicks off in 2 days.