Is Gold Coast The Poisoned Chalice of Australian Sport?

Everybody loves the Gold Coast. What's not to love about sunny weather and long stretches of pristine golden sandy beaches?

The Gold Coast is undoubtedly one of Australia's biggest moneymakers courtesy of a booming tourism industry as well as a growing urban population.

But as a sports hub, the Gold Coast has proven to be a tough market to crack.

Football was the first to find out. Despite the initial backing of the wealthiest man in the Sunshine State and a flying start to their short history, Gold Coast United has been an abject failure with home crowds as low as 1,000 and not even hitting 5,000 for the playoff games.

And now it's set to be consigned to the A-League scrap heap along with the other failed Queensland football club from Townsville.

Now, even the booming NRL is finding it hard to break into the Gold Coast sports market with the Titans reportedly in danger of joining the football club in history.

This comes a day after the Titans announced the signing of $1.8 million of Dave Taylor from Souths and that Cooper Cronk was also on their radar.


However, all their delusions of grandeur will remain that should the new independent ARL panel decide to remove the Titans franchise from the NRL.


So why has the Gold Coast been so difficult for professional sports teams to crack?

Firstly, it's a pretty new area of Australia whose population consists of either retired old folks or immigrants new to Australia, most of them haven't followed rugby league or Aussie rules football before. Look at the struggles the North Harbour rugby union has in trying to get people from what is essentially a suburban and migrant-strong part of Auckland to watch its games. Both Harbour and Gold Coast don't really have much heritage to count back on unlike Brisbane and the Sydney clubs.

Secondly, it's still pretty much regarded as a tourist area. People don't visit the Gold Coast for the sport. They visit for the sandy beaches and theme parks. And sadly sports teams over there haven't quite figured out how to marry those two and form what could be a very lucrative partnership.

Thirdly, Gold Coast United, the Titans and Suns are essentially new teams starting in a new market. Of course there will be growing pains early on and after the initial hype, the crowd numbers naturally will go down. The only franchise I know that has managed to carry on the initial hype after foundation is the Seattle Sounders MLS team but that's because they have become one of the top teams over there - expect a bit of a decline in crowd numbers once the glory days end.

Hopefully, sport gives the Gold Coast the time it needs as this is one region of Australia that deserves its sports teams. It'll be painful but it will work in time. After all, heritage doesn't come overnight.