REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Monday, May 30, 2011

IT passed the first test with flying colours, but Suns executives weren’t dropping the ball when it came to ensuring Aussie rules fans continued to pack Carrara’s Metricon Stadium.

Suns chief executive Travis Auld said staff would hold a postmatch debrief, while club members would be sent surveys and the general public encouraged to provide feedback on their gameday experience.

A total of 21,485 fans packed the redeveloped Carrara stadium, and Auld said feedback had been overwhelmingly positive.

“We had a stadium we knew was a great stadium, a fantastic asset,” Auld said.

“It’s an asset that looks and feels like the Gold Coast. The members, public and corporate areas are unique and people love it.”

Fans heeded the message of public transport use, arriving in droves on buses from train stations and satellite parking stations, with most of them positive about the experience.

“It was pretty good. We parked the car and walked straight on the bus,” said Merrimac’s Tony and Eng Francis, who travelled to the game with their children Dylan, 8, and Gemma, 6.

“For us it was (easy) because we parked away from the stadium.”

Auld said the opening of Metricon Stadium was the final piece of the puzzle for the Gold Coast Football Club, while business and tourism leaders heralded it as a “shot in the arm” for the local economy.

Gold Coast Tourism chief executive Martin Winter said Aussie rules fans would inject “tens of millions” into the local economy annually, while the media exposure of having the Gold Coast brand mentioned weekly throughout the nation could not be measured.