Oval row may unseat Gold Coast Titans

A plan for top-flight rugby league and Australian rules football clubs to share Carrara stadium has sparked a brawl that could force league's newest team - the Gold Coast Titans - to play its entire first season 80km away in Brisbane.

The dispute started earlier this year when the Gold Coast Council agreed to let the Australian Football League stage up to 10 games for the Melbourne-based Kangaroos at Carrara Stadium over three years.

The decision means the council will not install extra temporary seating to turn the Carrara ground into a rectangular playing surface for Titans games.

National Rugby League chief operating officer Graham Annesley, who is trying to help the Titans resolve the situation, claims it breaches a deal signed with the club ahead of its first season next year.

And he warned yesterday that the Titans could now switch games to Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.

"If we are forced to do this, the Gold Coast Council will have to explain to Titans fans why they would have to travel three hours to Brisbane and back each time they attend a home game," Mr Annesley said.

"It was made perfectly clear to the council prior to the Titans' licence being granted last year that they must play in a rectangular stadium, and now they only seem intent on appeasing the AFL instead of looking after their own rugby league team."

The Titans are unhappy with Gold Coast Mayor and former Olympic runner Ron Clarke, whom they believe has reneged on the deal that the club must play with the ground in a rectangular configuration.

It has been estimated that the council's refusal to allow temporary seating could cost the Titans more than $1 million in lost revenue.

 

The situation could come to a head today when Titans officials meet Deputy Mayor David Power and other council representatives.

"We tend to have a renegade mayor hell-bent on doing whatever he can to force us into the situation we're in," Titans managing director Michael Searle said. "The benefit we've got is he's only one of 16 and he doesn't have control of the council.

"Hopefully we can put all the evidence in front of the existing councillors which emphatically confirms there was an agreement with the NRL and us around a squared-off facility if we secured a licence."

The Australian rules fraternity is fighting another battle over stadiums in Western Australia, where the state Government has proposed a new multi-purpose arena that would break the stranglehold of football and cricket over Perth's major sporting venues.

The new stadium, mooted in a government-commissioned report that raised the possibility of demolishing football's Subiaco Oval, would help smaller codes such as soccer and rugby secure venues for events.

The Titans were meant to play out of Carrara for one season before switching to a new $160million stadium at Robina on the Gold Coast.

Mr Searle said yesterday that while it would be disappointing if the club had to play games out of Brisbane, it would be able to cope.

"Financially we could do it but it's certainly not desirable," he said. "It would be an absolute last resort from us and I'll fight hell and high water to beat Ron Clarke."