Where to now for Gold Coast fans?

Respect him? Frank Lowy almost cost Newcastle a genuine football owner and supporter of Australian Football. NO! Had FL resigned after that debacle and a new Football Commission came on board Tinkler would have rushed back in on his own accord.. I am staggered that the Football community is giving him all the plaudits for his incompetence and what was outright dishonesty in the first place..

Q Do you respect the recent management of FL .... from my reading every previous critic are now applauding his recent actions...

The "White Knights" mentioned never forsake Clive Palmer. They wanted him to still have some involvement with the club. That was a big mistake! The drive for a Supporters Trust type of set up was another mistake and no other commercial models were entertained. It was a preset idea researched by an academic writing a PHD dissertation who didn't live in the real world. With no more than 2000 supporters ,a lot of them working calss blokes you never had a base for a Supporters Trust. The FFA can't bankroll a club which don't prove themselves through the turnstiles. Tom Tate was focussed on being elected Mayor and the GCU wasn't a great concern to him except for possible votes gained. I think Western Sydney has a potential to become one of the best supported clubs attendence wise so no wonder the FFA would prefer them to us.Could we have been successful without Palmer? Well we weren't successful with him so there was no downside but with a lack of interest when Palmer was stripped there was very little choice the FFA had.It still pisses me off that despite the efforts of activists no response came from the Gold Coast public.Crikey, the last 2 homes games were tailor made for a crowd revival yet it came to zilch. I knew that unless we got at least a 5000 turnount we were doomed.And so it came to that. No amount of hand wringing and pointing fingers at the FFA will change the facts about empty stadiums. It's time to get on with our lives instead of blaming the FFA. When Clive Palmer was on SBS and rubbished everyone without accepting any blame I knew it was curtains. To add to this debacle SBS gave him free rein to spruick. Craig Foster didn't have the guts to ask some hard questions, the first of which should have been about lack of contracts. 'Nuff said!

Tom---I didn't care about the empty seats from where I sat.. That suggestion was for those who did.. You and I will never know what Clive Palmer was really on about---for a man who wanted out he is doing his darndest to want back in.. I think Clive is one of those guys who likes to push the envelope to the max to get a win over anything he thinks is the opposition---Lowy became that opposition.. I couldn't care less what his real motives were, tax dodge, whatever. But one thing for sure, what I do know is this, it wouldn't have happened at all without him, and as I suspect now no-one will ever want to take a chance in developing football on the Gold Coast. We once had club football under Clive (not perfect perhaps) but have lost the chance for ever.. Never will we see elite football on the Gold Coast ever again. If you think that it was all Clive's fault, I disagree, I put the blame squarely on Lowy's style of FFA management. There were a lot of things the FFA failed to do to support him building a professional football club culture in a virgin region neglected by the FFA. Look now how they are approaching the West Sydney franchise with so much commitment and not an ounce of assistance for the Gold Coast---not one FFA fixture in the whole of our history. Nothing to help foster football on the Gold Coast from the FFA.

I'm sorry QsAF but this argument is now bordering on the ridiculous. By arguing that changing the cameras will make a difference you're actually admitting that we would have needed smoke and mirrors to fool the TV audience. Furthermore why would the FFA bankroll GCU when Palmer wanted out? Palmer manipulated the situation to be stripped of the licence because if he surrenderred it he would have been legally responsible for 2 years of what was left.One other thing;Palmer destroyed what was a successful squad and assembled journeymen to tie him over for the third year while he went about his Machevillian agenda. You were so desperate for a team on the Gold Coast that you forgot all his sins in order to satiate your needs. You probably would have been happy to sit by and watch a debacle with our team just because it gave you 13 home games in an empty stadium. I know you're a good guy as I've met you and you love the game but you've got to face facts and realities. Even when we had 2000+ for the second last home game some of those were freebies and little kids playing at half time. Even the Beach were sparse , maybe a couple of hundred at a stretch. Palmer was the wrong guy and he fooled Lowy and the FFA. You can blame them for that but not for the mismanagement of the franchise.

Sure, three years and you wanted it to be the new Melb Victory.. FFA should have just persevered with the region's franchise for the full term---then make a call.. Tell me how 3k average in the K-League is OK, but not in the A-League.. Why 10 team comp and not a 12 team comp?

Tweak this tweak that, blah blah whatever. you're just treating the symptom instead of focusing on the root cause problem. GCU did not have enough fans to make them a viable and vibrant part of the HAL. For that simple and undeniable fact is what ultimately doomed your team. Not the angle of the sun or the time in the afternoon that Lowy takes his tea, but the simple Earth-shatteringly simple sad fact that there just weren't enough people on the Gold Coast interested enough in HAL football to turn up.

That's a furphy Alexv---most of the games at Skilled Park were very late afternoon when the sun was just beginning to set. In any case a 7:30 pm kickoff could have easily been arranged for United games. Let's not forget its was in Tasmania we saw FOX televised a game on the side looking right into the most supported stand. If you can tweak a telecast to suit the viewers there, there would have been a greater responsibility to tweak all of GCU televised matches to make it a more viewer friendly telecast.

QSAF, the Camera's must film from the shade looking into the sun, not the other way around. The main TV Camera's are always on the west stand

Gee whiz if the empty eastern stand at Skilled Park was offending Frank and you. Why didn't you lobby FOX to telecast GCU's home games from the opposite side if that was all that was bugging you ..? Most K-League clubs only average 3k, they don't have a problem with it..

Something wrong with your comprehension... Fozzie's article completely backs up all I have been saying since the demise of GCU.. Frank Lowy back down, Tinkler returns because of it, and a Football Commission is on its way...

Well Kasey I'm gobsmacked. The AFL channel with Eddie 'Everywhere' decides to run a Sokah story!!! I think this is at least the second because there was a Harry story some time ago. Honestly, has Melbourne gone mad? But on the comment “Tinkler needs Newcastle and Newcastle needs Tinkler so I took a different approach for him" I would add: “Tinkler needs Newcastle and Newcastle needs Tinkler AND THE HAL NEEDS TINKLER'S MONEY so I took a different approach for him." The difference was that Clive didn't need the Gold Coast people no felt any embarrassment so there was no leverage with him.

There was the small matter of The Great War of course, but I understand your sentiment. Starting up a new league is not an easy proposition. in more modern times we've sen the mighty NFL struggle with WAFL and the NFL Europe - shutting both down in abject failure), the United Sates again this time with football (MLS) and our Asian friends in Japan with the J.League. Each of the surviving entities do so after rocky patches and One can hope with a reasonable degree of optimism these days that HAL football in Australia has survived its gestation phase and can now focus on putting down roots and eventually growing stronger and lasting 100 years.

There is plenty of good news for the A-League, so fans can now look forward to the future with some confidence. It's inevitable that a brand new competition will have casualties in its formative years. It's worthwhile recalling that the VFL's very first attempt at expansion, over 100 years ago, ended with University surviving only seven seasons, from 1908 to 1914, so one can see that these sorts of things can happen to the very best competitions. If the FFA can work towards a century of stability, the future looks bright.

I wonder how Rene Higuita would have went at AFL or Chilavert from Paraguay? Problem is, and I'm not intending this as an insult, they would have no knowledge of it.

Do you go to North Queensland razorbacks games in the QSL?

transcript from Lowy on Eddie McGuire Tonight.(sunday 6/5/12) "(In) Newcastle, football is entrenched for many, many years. ... there's 10 to 12 thousand people who come to every game, so there is a game there that is needed.**important point - the community supported the team. "Tinkler needs Newcastle and Newcastle needs Tinkler so I took a different approach for him. "Last weekend, I flew to Brisbane where he was working and I met him and we sorted it out. "The people of Newcastle, he made a promise to them and they wanted him to keep that promise so lots of things happen around there and I get on famously with him now." Lowy said Tinkler's willingness to stay in the game was the difference between him and fellow billionaire Clive Palmer, who saw his licence for Gold Coast United stripped off him towards the end of the Hyundai A-League season after a series of provocative stunts. "Palmer didn't really want to stay in the game I don't think," said Lowy. **2nd important point "Because he was vacillating, one week he was in, the next week he was out. "He broke many rules and you've got to pull the shutter down sometimes," he said. Final word, better to cut off the gangrenous limb before it takes down the entire organism. http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/Lowy-meeting-saves-Newcastle/47205

I think Gold Coast still has the potential to be successful. They could have easily averaged 5000-6000 per game if the club was run properly. sadly it seemed as if Clive Palmer had burnt all the bridges, at least for that club. For GCU's final 2 games, I expected a rallying cry of support, with 5000 or even up to 10,000 showing up in force, the result was the same 2,000 people and an additional 4000 Brisbane Roar fans turning up, it was as if the general Gold Coast public had given up. My hope is that the A-League consolidates itself financially, then in 4 years time just before the TV deal after the next one that's about to be negotiated, they look at expansion again, but this time on doing it properly. North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast, Canberra, Wollongong and Tasmania all need to get a serious look at, and they need to be run properly. No more personal billionaire play toy clubs. - Stadium contracts need to be sustainable (Docklands stadium pay the Victory to play there, you heard right! (over $50k per game) and they earn a commission on our crowds) - Realistic market research and promoting needs to be done - Aims of achieving at least a 5000 loyal fan base (minimum), with room for future growth. - The TV money needs to be at a point where it can distribute enough money to these clubs without spreading the league too thin - Flexibility for sponsorship deals, the more money the merrier! - proper membership promotion and affordable tickets at the stadium - Encouragement for active fans to grow, lets admit it we all love singing and a football atmosphere! The beach were very vocal in their first season If the above points are not planned, then there is no point granting a new license.

you are always welcome on the 'Soccer' bandwagon but be prepared to feel a little left out though. The true way to 'get' the sort of passion flowing through your veins that only football can provide is to pick a team, best off with your local team or one closer by than Europe & invest yourself emotionally and physically with it. Follow it country wide and marvel at the skill on the pitch and the passion in the stands. Once every 4 years with the National team is a pale approximation to the depth of feeling that following your club team week in and week out can provide. Learning football is like learning the not-so-secret language of the world it opens up the doors and hearts of the planet. Football is like the Force in Star Wars, it flows through us, its energy both giving and taking(it can give positive feelings or negative feelings sometimes) it unites and binds us.

It was on the telebox at the pub I had dinner at last night, the addition of 2 new teams in quick succession hasn't exactly raised the skill level and thus the spectacle of the game. Got a nasty suspicion the glory days(high water mark) of the Aussie game are back in the 1990s. Pity you cant just pop over to Costa Rica and pick up a Carlos Hernandez type isn't it;)