Born in Melbourne in 1954, Clive Palmer remembers his dad George talking about how he had made silent movies in the 1920s and he was quite a star too.
Palmer Snr was also a good businessman and set up the first commercial radio stations in Australia; 3AK in Melbourne and 7UV in Tasmania and had the vision to see the enormous potential that radio would have in this country.
The palmer family also had the business intuition to see the great property development potential in the Gold Coast region of Queensland.
Clive Palmer grew in the Gold Coast up as a skinny kid from Surfers Paradise as a schoolboy could run like the wind. He was also an above-average scholar who was quiet and reserved, but popular among his schoolmates.
Palmer studied journalism and served as a political reporter for the University of Queensland’s newspaper, but gave up his studies and entered the world of Gold Coast real estate.
After making a small fortune on the booming growth of Gold Coast property developments, he thought he would retire at the tender age of 29.
After a stint of travelling the world he returned as the media manager for Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s all-powerful Queensland National Party and developed a strong interest in Queensland politics and how to influence people.
But Clive Palmer soon got tired of the good life and started up three companies in oil trading, minerals research and development and mining, which eventually made him Queensland’s richest man, worth a cool $6 billion.
Palmer has never lost the taste for the good life. He owns fabulous properties, private jets, dines with heavyweights such as premiers, prime ministers, Sultans, Sheiks’ and other world leaders and considers himself a friend of the Kennedys and Vladimir Putin.
Clive also likes a bit of sport and the occasional punt and has invested large chunks of his personal fortune into an extensive harness racing stable and the Gold Coast United A-League football club.
Palmer approached the Gold Coast United football venture with the same confidence he goes into negotiations with Chinese governments over iron ore prices.
He famously boasted before the new A-League franchise had even kicked a ball, that the Gold Coast would win the A-League competition undefeated in their first year. Of course that never happened.
The venture hasn’t enjoyed the best support from the local community either and attendances and TV ratings have been quite poor compared to other A-League clubs and compared to the Gold Coast Titans NRL team, who share the same Skilled Stadium in Robina.
Palmer then famously and bizarrely ordered that home crowds at Robina be restricted to below 5,000 to get around the even stranger Queensland government charges for providing police, ambulance and transport to Queensland sporting venues.
Palmer of course saw it as a business decision.
“The facts are, we pay $150,000 to $200,000 for a match, and we’ve had 5000 people turn up. Yet if we nominate 5000 people before the match, we only pay $30,000″, he said.
“That’s a hell of a difference to the club, yet we get hammered for that. That is disappointing.”
Palmer, who is used to doing things his way, has also had a falling out with Frank Lowy, the FFA and fans over decisions like that and how he runs the club.
At one stage Palmer was reported to be pulling Gold Coast United out of the A-League.
Rumours started in the Queensland media that Palmer was in talks with the FFA and Queensland Roar about dumping the Gold Coast and buying Brisbane Roar, who were looking for new owners.
Palmer eventually denied the rumours and pledged his support for Gold Coast United in the A-League for “at least another couple of years”.
Things didn’t improve and attendances still crept lower till finally Palmer agreed to let the fans in for free to try and pick up attendances and community interest.
20,000 tickets were “sold“ for free entry for the Central Coast game at Robina, but ironically the game was washed out and abandoned after just 20 minutes.
Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer then again threw open the gates of Skilled Park – this time to aid the Queensland floods appeal.
United’s home clash against the Newcastle Jets was “free” to all supporters, with supporters asked to make a gold coin donation to the Queensland flood relief appeal.
At the start of this season, Palmer once again predicted a strong year for the Gold Coast, that they had their best team ever and they would win the league – but they currently sit at the bottom of the A-League table.
Even more bizarrely, last Friday’s night’s Gold Coast United “home game” advantage against Adelaide was sold to Adelaide.
The game was supposed to be played at Robina, but was actually played at Hindmarsh Stadium and still officially a Gold Coast home game.
Once again Palmer’s brilliant business logic running a football club from outside the box, as he collected money from Adelaide without having the cost of staging the game at Robina.
Palmer’s moves have obviously not impressed a lot of people on the Gold Coast and things like restricting home crowds to 5,000, giving away free tickets and selling your home games will probably have the opposite effect in terms of raising Gold Coast community interest and attendances at Robina.
A lot of people still don’t quite understand the misunderstood billionaire’s way of thinking, and at the same time are starting to wonder how long the Gold Coast will remain a part of the A-League’s future.
Australian Rules
Guest
I won't go further into why I disagree with your points above...except to say that it's the AFL Clubs that sell their home games voluntarily...they're not ordered to by the AFL as u suggest. It's the clearest way for clubs to realise extra earnings during the season. Not ideal, but at least half a mil per game is pretty good.
Jon
Guest
Clive missed an opportunity to make himself a football legend by not supporting the NQ Fury. The Fury had the highest regional attendance in their first year and would have continued to grow had the GFC not come along and bankrupted our largest investor. Without that investor the Fury were left open to rumours in the local New LTD (rugby) newspaper. Clive has significant investments in Townsville (QLD Nickel) and he should have used those business links to secure the clubs future and in doing so helped grow the sport in one of the largest growth areas in Australia.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
The FFA only have limited resources unlike the AFL or NRL---who else can fund these teams until a proper TV deal is forth coming? I think we all know it's not the ideal situation at present, but after the next TV deal is sorted and the proper amount of funds can be distributed to the clubs, we have to rely on those private funds from the owners.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Covering up empty seats is a bit different to restricting ticket sales to 5,000 only to avoid government charges. Giving away a few free tickets or promotions is different to making the whole game free. AFL don't "sell their home games", they are told where to play by Demetriou to spread the gospel for the good of the game - or else!. Its all AFL funny money that goes to the Central Bank of AFL. The A-League is having a regional round too to spread the word of the A-League.
Australian Rules
Guest
Plenty of sports teams restrict crowd numbers if the stadium's aren't filling, though admittedly not to as low as 5,000 (but those were the appalling numbers GCU were dealing with). Port Adelaide FC blocks out large sections of seating with club emblems to cover the sparseness of the crowd...again, not a first in sport. EVERY code gives away free tickets. AFL, NRL, Super Rugby, Basketball et al - they all do it, esp for new franchise teams in order to encourage locals and families to get involved. Selling home games - in the AFL, Melbourne & Richmond sell home games to Darwin & Cairns, Bulldogs would go to Canberra and Nth Melb to everywhere. It nets the club about $1M over 2 games and the AFL love it cos it gets the game into areas that don't have regular fixtured games. It's obviously not ideal but it reaps big cash for clubs...less so in the A-League.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
ItsCalledFootball----I don't know if you have ever been to a home game at Skilled Park, but if you have you would have seen the over the top police directing traffic, staff manning automatic lifts to press the up or down buttons to the lifts---a female security officer at every step of the way---even standing out in front of toilet blocks. I mean really, it's a designed over kill for the number of patronage that is expected. This has nothing to do with Clive Palmer and after 2 seasons you would think that the Stadia Management would get the numbers of staff required right for football games at Robina. If I didn't know better one would think it is a deliberate ploy by the State Government to make Clive Palmer pay through the nose.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
jb, no doubt Palmer is a good businessman and he has reduced the losses at GCU from around $4M in their first year to about $1M a year. I do hope he persists in backing the club, but maybe a change of venue with reduced ground hire costs and other incentives will certainly help. I think Canberra, Wollongong and even Tasmania are saying to the FFA that they could have averaged more than 2,300 per game.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Unfortunately if rumours are correct, Palmer was just minutes away from dumping the Gold Coast to buy the Roar and only Lowy's intervention and appeasement to let Palmer have his own way saved GCU from folding this year. Palmer has only committed for another season ot two, so GCU may not be around come 2018. Very sad if that did happen but its a possibility now with things not improving for GCU at the moment.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Cattery, Expansion is a difficult issue for the A-League, especially when they are privately owned franchises, not centrally bank rolled operations from the centralised AFL headquarters, that can sustain any amount of losses. At the time GCU and NQF were granted A-League licenses, the A-League was expanding at about 20% a season and the FFA wrongly thought that the new teams would continue to succeed. With a shrinking market, it has exposed the weaknesses of the franchise system. But as has been said, very few football clubs around the world, if any, actually make a profit. Manchester United, the world's most successful football club, lost 330M pounds last season. I'm sure Palmer has used his losses to offset a few tax bills.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Savvas, Frank Lowy has sold his interest in SFC 3 years ago and its now owned by a Russian Billionaire, so not sure the connection. But please don't let that stop you having yet another dig at SFC, FFA and Lowy and how the NSL clubs are much better than the A-League clubs. You seem to enjoy it. You and your mates are more than welcome to go along and watch an A-League game, there aren't any "NO Wogs Allowed" signs at the games. And SFC are doing so well now and playing good attractive football that has moved them into 2nd place on the ladder, just 3 points behind the invincible Roar - enjoy!
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Agree QSAF and I would like to see GCU outstrip the AFL and NRL in the Gold Coast, but I don't think Palmer is the man to run GCU. You need a good football brain like Kimon Taliodoris or Postecoglou to build it from the ground up as a viable football club run by football people, not just businessmen and cost accountants. Get Palmer to pay these guys good money to run GCU and no doubt things would improve.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
QSAF, I totally sypathise with your point of view and want a football club from the Gold Coast in the A-League. However I don't agree with some of the things that Palmer is doing and as I say in my piece, its actually working against his aims to engage with the community.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Exactly Ian, at those Qld Government charges for Robina, he would have to average 20K a home game to break even. He should have looked into the cost structure and the ground hire expenses a bit more thoroughly and not been ripped off by Robina. He is talking about building his own stadium, but there are other grounds he could have developed with the help of the existing Gold Coast football clubs and the premier Bligh. Trouble is she is a Labor Premier and he wants nothing to do with her.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Australian Rules, I think its highly unusual and not accepted practice in any sport in the world to restrict home crowds to 5,000, give away free tickets and sell your home games. I felt a little embarassed myself and had trouble explaining it to non-football fans who give me a constant ribbing about it. Certainly Palmer has reduced the Gold Coast losses from $4M to $1M a season, but I think he has turned away a lot of potential supporters, so its a double edged sword that he's fighting with. I know that Lowy and the FFA were not too impressed, but they tolerate him because of his huge wealth and political power in Queensland.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
Gaz, don't quite understand the comment, please elaborate specifically on what is crap and what is propaganda.
j binnie
Guest
Evan (and others)- Palmer is not to blame for the "capping" of crowds.Early in this article Palmer pointed out the costings in putting a game on at Skilled Park, Palmer cited between $150,000 to $200,000 being the monies paid indirectly to the State Government for the employment of stewards,gate money takers,security,etc,etc,etc.If the crowd is below 5000 this amount of staff is not deemed necessary so the cost reduces to $30,000.Now to the facts,last year the GCU pulled 1 gate out of 14 larger than 5000 that being the 6394 to the season's opener against Roar in their "derby. After that in 13 matches they "pulled" between 3624 down to 1658.for a total of 30,330 or an average of 2333. Look at the dollar differential, no "cap" costs 13 x $175000 = $2,275.000------ "cap" in place costs 13x$30,000=$390,000. That's a differential of $1,885,000. Now Clive Palmer may be many things but he is certainly not stupid and faced with continuing losses like that on his investment he had NO choice but to cut the costs to a manageable amount bearing in mind the numbers turning up week after week. The reasons for the league's expansion will be a debate for years to come but to date this season the figures are not throwing up any great changes.After 30 games the HAL match average stands at 12,389. If one takes out the home gates of the 2 "expansion " clubs 6 home games ie 32,264 (helped by the controversial GCU home game in Adelaide) the 24 match average for the original 8 teams rises to 14142. This differential is too large to continue unchallenged,something has to give sooner or later. jb
Evan Askew
Guest
I don't agree with everything that Clive Palmer has done or his politics. But I do respect the level of success he has had in business and admire him for the fact that he is the one who is putting his money into a venture that can benefit his community. And while I don't like the capping of the crowds and selling a home game to Adelaide United, I can also acknowledge the fact that Mr Palmer would have more knowledge on the pros and cons of such decisions. And I can only say shame on those fans who persisted in their decision to not support their team in the second season. I remember in the NSL when Strikers were playing at Lang Park and the crowds were restricted to one side of the ground and our attendences were not abnormally affected. Having made their position clear after their initial protests it should have being time to pull together and support the club.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Actually, I saw an artist's impression of the Commonwealth games site, around the current Carrara oval, and there appeared to be space for a training track, and other green fields, perhaps for hockey, rugby 7s, etc - anyway, the point being that it would not be too difficult to get organise these various fields so that the A-League take one of them over after the Commonwealth games, afterall, in organising facilities for a one off event, you actually want to know that someting that can pay its way will continue using the facility afterwards - this is precisely how the AFL works in partnership with state governments - it offers them plenty in return.
Cpaaa
Guest
Mid the new stadium Clive hinted at is now going to be one of interest considering the GC is now the 2018 Commonwealth games City. Clive could actually build the stadium out of his own pocket for the GC community and then lease it back out to the state. Clive Palmer is a valuable person for the A-League and the community of gold Coast. The only thing money cant buy Clive is Love. Though i do see the GCU as the " Cleveland Indians" of the A-League, Bring on Charlie Sheens character " Ricky Vaughn" to the GC. Hang in there Clive, you just have to find that Ricky Vaughn player or two and then all hell will brake loose. Most importantly look after the hardcores that are there every time the GC are at home.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Qnatas, Im not saying it was a *good* theory.