Afl To Step Up Push Into Gold Coast

The Age

Friday March 31, 2006

CAROLINE WILSON

THE AFL's push into the Gold Coast has continued to intensify with Southport Football Club's boss, Paul Wyatt, set to meet the competition's long-term strategist Ben Buckley in Melbourne over the next fortnight.

The wealthy Southport Sharks, which have underwritten all five AFL games in Carrara this season to the tune of $1.2 million, have made no secret of their long-held ambition to purchase an AFL licence.

While the Sharks are planning to enter into a business partnership with Collingwood involving a Gold Coast gaming investment, the Southport club's AFL leanings are understood to be increasingly pointed in the direction of the Kangaroos.

With the Kangaroos yet to determine the future of their off-shore fixtures, lobbying also intensified in Canberra yesterday with North Melbourne's corporate backers in its ACT venture meeting senior bureaucrats in a bid to convince the ACT Government of that club's importance in Canberra.

While the Kangaroos' board met yesterday, The Age believes the issue of home games at Carrara has not yet been officially discussed by the club's directors. While the board meeting did table the on-going debate about renewing its contract with the ACT and scheduling home fixtures at Manuka, an increasing degree of sensitivity surrounds any foray into Queensland.

The AFL has continued to push its belief that weekly games in both Sydney and Brisbane/Gold Coast are the future of the AFL. The league has become increasingly mindful of the impending introduction of a rugby league side into the expanding southern Queensland area and is determined not to miss the opportunity to make its code No. 1 in that region.

Southport boasts a bank balance of $21 million, excellent training facilities, a QAFL side, an under-23 team and 350 registered juniors this season. It has pledged to fund the AFL's Gold Coast push this season - two pre-season games, one NAB Cup fixture and two home-and-away games - in return for the gate and signage rights at Carrara.

It is understood to be investigating the Kangaroos' complicated ownership structure. There is a growing view among influential Kangaroos that a relocation to the Gold Coast - something the AFL has not officially discussed with the club - could provide the long-term answer to the club's financial and membership woes, not to mention its struggle to obtain AFL-class training facilities.

The Kangaroos' biggest shareholder is director Peter de Rouche. Director John McGowan is another big shareholder along with former president Andrew Carter, former social club director Robert Smith, former player Kerry Good and his partner Peter Johnston.

While the above A-class shareholders are understood to control the future of the club, the Kangaroos' structure also includes B-class shareholders, whose holding, while relatively small, has been structured so that each share is worth 75 votes.

Those B-class shareholders include former club chief Ron Joseph, dual Brownlow medallist Keith Greig, former chairman Bob Ansett and Richmond director and former Kangaroos CEO Greg Miller.

© 2006 The Age

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