MORE than a decade after the Brisbane Bears left the Gold Coast, an AFL club is in negotiations to play a couple of home and away matches in the Queensland city in 2006. story doesn't look like the stadium hold too many people. its home to the southport sharks. oh, and btw and unrelated, i think its the NRL proposed gold coast team that has the terrible idea of their nickname to be the Dolphins.
and just found this from the gold coast bulletin [note, entire article posted b/c they don't archive articles] --------------------------- THE Gold Coast, a national football code wasteland since 1998, has now become the centre of a desperate sporting race between rugby league and Aussie rules. To add to the frenetic mix are moves within senior rugby union circles to base a team from an expanded Super 12 competition here by 2006. The mastermind behind the Coast's NRL business plan, Michael Searle, admitted last night that his consortium's bid had now become 'do or die'. "We do not believe there is room in this city for two national teams," he said. "Whoever gets in first will take the whole pie." The general manager of the Labrador-based Southport Sharks Australian Football Club, Paul Wyatt, said last night that his club was in negotiations with a Melbourne AFL team in relation to hosting several home and away games in 2006. "We have certainly had negotiations with an AFL team that is looking at playing games up here," he said. "We haven't determined when or how many games and I am not going to name the team. "However, my understanding is that the AFL is saying, 'yes', that it can be done. "We are now entering into negotiations to put the event on." ----------------------------- ---------------------------- and an editorial by the paper- What the Bulletin thinks 3Aug04 WHAT is it about the Carrara sports stadium that makes it so difficult to turn into a success story? Why has this prime piece of real estate become an albatross around the city's neck when it should filled with cheering people every weekend and be earning a solid return for the city. No doubt there are as many real reasons as there are theories, and certainly a lack of community support in the early days put paid to attempts to keep national code sporting teams on the Coast. Without those teams there is no chance of Cararra ever reaching its potential but, of course, the Catch-22 is that without Cararra having the facilities in place and ready to go, we aren't likely to get the teams. It's a vicious circle that has to be broken if this city is ever to see a national code of any sort regularly played here again. The biggest problem with Cararra is that it was designed to be something for everyone - a multi-use stadium where a myriad of sports could be played. It was big picture thinking that history has shown was way wide of the mark. Multi-use stadiums just do not work. Carrara was fine for AFL which demands a big oval playing area, but was shocking for rugby league which has a smaller, rectangular playing field and it left spectators feeling they were miles from the action. The one-size-fits-all approach did not work then and will not work now, which is why a decision on whether Carrara has to be revamped for a national AFL side or for a relocated NRL team has to be made - and then stuck to. Ideally, each should have its own home ground and in a city of this size, and allowing for the forecast growth of the region, there is no real reason why that should not be. But short of that miracle happening, it is time the city council and the State Government bit the bullet and promised a redevelopment of Carrara as a single-code ground. Then it would be up to each code to prove its case.
another article from theage.com.au oh, and i find this all particularly interesting b/c of my chance of moving to australia (in a few years) which would so happen to be on the gold coast.
A couple of points while passing through. The AFL will not have use of the MCG in March/April 2006 because of The Commonwealth Games. (MCG will have capacity back to 100,000 for that event.) They are looking for alt venues for that period because Telstra Dome will not be able to handle all of the games. Another AFL coach to be sacked today -Wednesday 4.30 pm press conference- Peter Rhode coach of Western Bulldogs- This is despite very recent assurances by club president. Huge pressure on the AFL coaches now.
Carrara is a happy hunting ground for Geelong, with the Cats kicking the league's highest ever score there, 37.17.239 against Brisbane in 1992.
Maybe because people on the Gold Coast have better things to do, such as enjoy the weather and stay on the beaches rather than supporting football code of any kind.