Titans battle to avoid Gold Coast curse

The Gold Coast may be “famous for fun” as the tourism slogan goes, but it’s anything but fun for professional sports administrators trying to crack the market in Australia’s sixth biggest city.

Tuesday’s news that the ailing and scandal-hit Gold Coast Titans have been placed in voluntary administration – with the NRL forced to step in and take over ownership – is just the latest in a long history of clubs coming to grief on the golden sands of south-east Queensland.

The Titans are the third attempt to establish a professional rugby league team on the Gold Coast following the ill-fated Giants/Seagulls from 1988-95 and the Chargers from 1996-98.

Several other codes, including basketball, soccer, rugby union, baseball and ice hockey have all had a go at establishing a foothold on the Gold Coast.

The A-League’s Gold Coast United was perhaps the most famous of those other franchises to have gone to the wall.

Bankrolled by Clive Palmer, the mining magnate’s management style put him offside with the community and A-League administrators and after three seasons of falling crowds and interest, United’s licence was revoked by the A-League at the end of the 2011-12 campaign.

They joined a graveyard which already held the ghosts of the rugby league teams, ice hockey’s Blue Tongues, baseball’s Clippers and Cougars and NBL franchises the Rollers and the Blaze.

Only the Titans and the AFL’s Suns remain despite the Gold Coast having a population that is only surpassed by Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

It is the presence of the Suns which will ironically ensure the Titans have a longer-term future.

When the Giants and Chargers failed the AFL barely had a presence on the Gold Coast, with a fledging Brisbane Bears outfit soon to head up the M1 to the big smoke, but the region is now a crucial battleground in ensuring the best outcome at the negotiation table with broadcasters for all-important media rights deals.

Leaving an area with 590,000 residents in rugby league heartland purely to the AFL is unthinkable to the NRL’s executive.

For that reason they’ll keep the Titans alive when in the past they may have been packed up.

Since a peak average attendance of 21,618 in 2008 – the club’s second NRL season – Titans’ average attendances have been falling every year, including when the team came within a game of the grand final in 2009, to an all-time low of 13,194 last year.

With the NRL’s commitment ensuring the club’s future, convincing the community to turn up and watch matches is Titans chief executive Graham Annesley’s great challenge.

NOT MUCH GOLD ON THIS COAST – The sporting teams that have come and gone on the Gold Coast

Rugby league

1998-95: Gold Coast Giants/Dolphins

1996-98: Gold Coast Chargers

Rugby Union

2007: East Coast Aces

Soccer

2009-12: Gold Coast United

Baseball

1989-99: Gold Coast Clippers/Daikyo Dolphins/Gold Coast Cougars

Basketball

1990-1996: Gold Coast Cougars/Rollers

2007-2012: Gold Coast Blaze

Ice Hockey

2008-2013: Brisbane Blue Tongues

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