Footy clubs cry foul

GOLD Coast’s footy clubs have united to slam Labor minister Mick de Brenni’s un-Australian attitude to sport and accuse him of peddling falsehoods about Queensland Stadium deals.

The cities’ NRL and AFL clubs united last night after sports minister de Brenni issued a public smackdown of the Titans and Suns claiming their financial woes were the result of poor on-field performances.

The Titans say they pay about $500,000 per year more in Government fees than their rivals in NSW while the Suns insist they have made repeat propos- als for a more commercially viable deal for Metricon Stadium that incur “zero costs to Government.’’

Both clubs say de Brenni is wildly out of touch with Australian values around sporting participation and his comments were an attack on the Gold Coast community.

Suns chairman Tony Cochrane said de Brenni’s comments were “harmful and disrespectful to the Suns and our community’.’

In a strongly worded statement to members, the Titans attempt to address “a number of inaccuracies and false assertations” in regards to the hiring arrangements at Cbus Stadium made by de Brenni.

The club claims it is the most efficient operation in the NRL competition but still operates at a loss because of unfair stadium deals.

“The Titans have never sought government assistance to underwrite the operating costs of our business as has been insinuated,’’ the statement said.

“Our only objective throughout discussions with government stretching over the past 3½ years, has been to reach a longterm agreement on fair commercial terms similar to those in place for NRL clubs hiring governmentowned venues in other states.

“The difference between government charges currently imposed on the Titans and those in place for very similar facilities in NSW is approaching $500k per annum.’’

Insiders from across Queensland’s sporting landscape said de Brenni’s stunning claim that “clubs with a winning formula can make a strong profit utilising our stadiums’’ were a nonsense that ignored the financial woes.

It also angered the Titans who believed a Government that only valued winning was out of step with Australian values.

“The inference that only winning clubs have a right to survive goes against every accepted national trait we try to instil in young Australians encouraging participation, sportsmanship, and continuously striving to improve regardless of results,” the Titans said.

The Titans and Suns say they happily provide community services that should be the responsibility of Governments which save taxpayers millions.

“The Titans undertake this work at our own cost as good corporate citizens because we see the difference it makes in the lives of people every day.

“The community initiatives that The Titans support are across multiple important areas including education, indigenous programs, and grass roots development.’’

WHO the hell does Mick de Brenni think he is?

Here’s a bloke who’s never had a job – having worked his way up the ranks as a union hack – bagging the Gold Coast and its footy teams from his Brisbane ivory tower.

A scan of the sports minister’s CV betrays a stark absence of corporate or private sector experience.

Perhaps that helps explain his ignorant and stupid response to a legitimate, considered and rational case put forward by the Suns and the Titans to end the unfair tax on their businesses by the State Government.

Mr de Brenni has angered people across this city with his suggestion that our clubs are financially struggling because they are losers. No Minister, you are the loser.

Your suggestion that the clubs’ problems would dissolve if only they started winning ignores one glaring inconvenient truth: they are handicapped by the unfair charges with which your government slugs them.

The facts are that both the Suns, with their onerous sinking fund charge, and the Titans, with their expensive rental bill, are short changed by the Queensland Government, via Stadiums Queensland.

To break it down more simply, let’s start with the Suns.

They are charged the highest transport and police costs in the AFL, at the insistence of Stadiums Queensland.

It amounts to about $8 per spectator, compared to about $2 per fan at the MCG.

Secondly, they are forced to pay $850,000 a year into the sinking fund which is established to fund refurbishments as the stadium ages.

However, that charge was based on the assumption that Metricon would host 24 events each year. Since its inception, the most it has ever hosted is 13.

So if usage is 50 per cent of what was projected, it follows that the funding requirement for refurbishment should fall.

Moreover, the Government has just spent up to $30 million sprucing up the stadium for the just-completed Commonwealth Games.

Hence, much of the expected deterioration of the arena has already been fixed.

But Mr de Brenni’s department mandarins hide behind a legalistic argument that because there was no clause stipulating that the contract with the Suns could be reviewed, it must stay in place unchanged for 25 years.

This is just plain silly and the government should know better.

In the case of the Titans, the rent charged amounts to an unfair tax that leaves the club $500,000 worse off per year than its Sydney rivals.

CBUS has also never been properly developed to cater for parking. The difficulty patrons have to get there acts as a deterrent to building consistently higher crowds.

Moreover, CBUS lacks the surrounding amenities enjoyed by Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. It’s a regional stadium yet its tenant is charged big-city rates.

If, as the Government insists, these charges are reasonable, why is it that neither Metricon nor CBUS attract any other events?

In the case of CBUS, the Titans are the only tenants. If this unfair tax helps kill them off, the Government will have a shiny stadium that nobody uses.

It’s time the Government got fair dinkum and ended this Brisbane-centric bias against the Gold Coast.