United vision for new home
GOLD Coast United have begun the search for a permanent training base as their formal Expression of Interest (EOI) for an A-League licence takes shape.
With EOIs due to Football Federation Australia (FFA) by May 24 as the latest step in the A-League bid process, officials from the NPL club have been in talks with Gold Coast City Council about developing their own high-performance centre somewhere on the Coast.
Currently training at the Carrara Southern Sports Fields but playing out of Station Reserve at Robina, United’s hope is to have their own three-field facility with games played at Robina’s Cbus Stadium.
Discussions with Stadiums Australia about the $100,000 hire fee for each Cbus match have also taken place, with United chairman Danny Maher calling on the council to help deliver the club’s ALeague dream.
“The big thing for us is to get the structure right. The two keys (for a training facility) are council support and the financial backing,” he said.
“We’re not tied to an area, we’re an all-of-Gold-Coast entity so we’d be happy to look at any site. We just need the land to do it.
“Certainly at the senior level (the council) are very supportive of what we’re doing for the city, however to get the actual cogs working below that and get them moving fast enough is very difficult.
“We’ve got momentum at the moment so we want to keep that going.
“Everyone is scrambling for fields. The NPL is the highest level of competition we have on the Coast and football is the highest participation so they have to realign some of their facilities.”
Sports Gold Coast’s vision for a 5000-seat boutique stadium on the Coast has United’s backing, but the club would likely only use the venue for its mooted W-League side.
Maher said while the Cbus hire fee was exorbitant, it remained the best venue for ALeague action.
“We know Cbus is an attractive TV prospect and the Gold Coast is the biggest city in Australia without an A-League licence. They put a team on the Gold Coast previously because of the interest in the region,” he said.
“(But) the city has to have a mid-tier stadium. If you imagine a housing market, your only choices on the Coast at the moment are a one-bedroom apartment or a milliondollar penthouse.”