ARL Commission chief executive David Gallop has revealed the magnitude of Gold Coast’s financial woes were not apparent when the club was handed a new five-year NRL licence late last year.
As he admitted the future of besieged Titans boss Michael Searle would come under review once external accountants had concluded their review of the club’s finances, Gallop said the complexities behind the reported $25 million debt were still coming to light.
The Titans were granted a new licence to compete in the NRL last year, when the relationship between the club’s beleaguered property arm and the football club were not yet clear.
Much of the financial woes are associated with the building of the Centre of Excellence, which was supposed to provide an income stream for the club but is instead now on the market as the Titans attempt to find some money to help cope with their debts.
“As things have come to light, the complexity of their arrangements has certainly made it more complicated,” Gallop said of the reasoning for giving the club a new licence in 2011.
“We’ve known for some time that they had some problems within the building and within the investment that they made into the building, and that’s become more complicated over time.
“But it doesn’t mean we haven’t been monitoring their situation.”
Asked if he expected Searle to remain in his position with the Titans, Gallop said: “We certainly need to talk to him about that once we get a clear picture of where things are at.”
“I’ve been in contact with Michael and he’s going through a tough time personally, no doubt about that.
“We need to look at viability of the football club and that’s what we’re doing at the moment.”
That is expected in the next few days, as the auditors complete the review of the company.
“We have external accountants still working on getting to the bottom of things up there,” Gallop said.
“The commission has made it clear we want a Titans team, but it’s too early to predict how that will necessarily will be done.”
As the Titans struggles continue, Gallop was in Canberra on Monday inspecting a government funded upgrade to the Raiders’ training facility, while also hearing of plans to build a new indoor stadium in the nation’s capital by 2020.
It continues a good recent run for the club, having announced the signing of a new major sponsor just last week.
“They’ve been an important part of the community in Canberra for a long time,” Gallop said.
“It’s not the easiest sponsorship market, but I’m pleased to see them now with a sponsor, a big company, a show of the strength of their team that they get that kind of support.”
