The Michael Searle/ Titans business plan was sound. They have no Leagues Club to fund the football club, so the Centre of Excellence, was built as an income producing assett, that would pay for itself and the football side.
Unfortunately, the GFC came at the wrong time, and the Gold Coast, being a tourist based town, was hit very hard.
Had the Centre of Excellence been able to lease all of the office space, we wouldn't even be discussing this, or any other relative football issues, simply because I think this business, despite statements to the contrary, are affecting the team and coaching staff.
The Football side of operations made a profit for the first few years, but has dropped off due to non football issues.
Robina has a town centre, the stadium, and not much else, apart from being surrounded by a housing estate. Public Transport is a bit of a joke, as is parking, and the Gold Coast demograhic is hardly a " Football Following " one.
What a lot of people don't know about the gold coast is that it has a high transient population, who own business's their but are not Australians, and have to leave the country every 3 - 12 months to satisfy vesa conditions, yet they own houses and business's and so many are asians who just have no idea what football is.
For those who don't know the place, in winter, you can go anywhere there after 10pm, and you will not find a soul in sight. Go down a few K's to Mermaid beach, and your lucky to see a car anywhere driving after 8 pm. It is definately a money area, but has been hit hard with the GFC, many an investor has done moeny, with apartments in Q1, which were selling for several million dollars, now around the $700,000\. Searle has stuck $3 mil of his own money in the pot, so I reckon he needs help by the NRL and private investors to keep them going, as the AFL would make a field day out of another Gold Coast side going under. 😛ray:
