Sporting clubs have back Mayor Tom Tate’s bid for a new boutique stadium on the Gold Coast

THE cost of leasing Cbus Stadium has been blamed for affecting all sporting clubs and stopping music events from playing on the Gold Coast, fuelling calls for a boutique stadium.

GOLD Coast sporting and entertainment figures are strongly backing a proposal to build a new boutique stadium in the city.

The Gold Coast Bulletin revealed on Saturday that Mayor Tom Tate was supporting the plan to build a stadium which would hold between 5000 and 15,000 spectators and provide an alternative to the Stadiums Queensland-owned Cbus Super Stadium in Robina.

Rugby and soccer officials say the city needs a smaller stadium due to the huge cost of staging events at the 27,000-capacity Cbus.

Titans CEO Graham Annesley said he expected to strike a deal with Stadiums Queensland to reduce the leasing costs of Cbus Stadium within the coming days and weeks. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

The proposal has also attracted the interest of the Gold Coast Titans, who have been locked in negotiations with Stadiums Queensland to reduce the cost of playing at the Cbus, and see an alternative venue as offering a potential long-term solution.

Despite the momentum behind the new stadium, Titans chief executive officer Graham Annesley told the Gold Coast Bulletin yesterday said he expected to strike a deal with Stadiums Queensland shortly.

Mr Annesley said the Titans wanted to slash their leasing costs by about $500,000 a year.

“Our objective is to find a solution and there has been a lot of goodwill from Stadiums Queensland,” he said.

Concept design for Pizzey Park by McDonald Architects. Photo: supplied

However other stakeholders are keen to push ahead with the new venue, with a meeting to be held in two weeks to discuss where it should be built.

“The outcome of that meeting would be that everyone goes away for three months and comes back with the ideal sites and feasibility of doing these stadiums,” Sports Gold Coast chairman Geoff Smith said.

“There’s about six or seven sites.

“So the council has to give us the land for say 50 years to an entity which has to be responsible and proper — it has got to stack up commercially and it has got to be affordable for families.”

L-R Sports Gold Coast chairman Geoff Smith and Gold Coast United chairman Danny Maher are behind a push for a 5000-seat stadium on the Gold Coast. Picture Mike Batterham

Gold Coast United chairman Danny Maher said all his club would need to get a boutique venue off the ground was “council permission and land”.

Mr Maher — who recently had two American investors come on board for the club’s potential A-League return — said the city was in dire need of a mid-sized stadium.

“If stadiums on the Gold Coast was like housing we’d have the choice of a one-bedroom apartment or a multimillion-dollar mansion on the beach and nothing else in between,” he said.

“We’ve got community fields with tin shed clubhouses and then we’ve got stadiums worth $200 million that cost $100,000 to open the doors.”

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He said a venue holding between 5000 and 15,000 people would cost no more than $20 million to build.

“A big thing that’s affecting every sports club across the Gold Coast is the cost of that damn stadium (Cbus Stadium),” he said.

Not quite a full house at a Hyundai A-League match at the then named Skilled Stadium between Gold Coast United FC and Brisbane Roar FC back in 2012.

Gold Coast Rugby Union boss Kim Bending says stakeholders should look no further than Goodwin Park, which houses union club Coolangatta Tweed Barbarians and league side Coolangatta Knights.

The southern end of the Coast is stacked with clubs of various football codes, with Coolangatta also containing Len Peak Oval, which is used for Aussie rules.

“I believe that’s the right position for it and it would not only grow our game but it would grow league and soccer as well,” he said.

New Gold Coast rugby union chairman Kim Bending. Picture: Jerad Williams

Entertainment guru Billy Cross also welcomed calls for a new venue, saying the city was missing out on events due to the prohibitive costs of using the stadium at Robina.

“The problem with somewhere that’s so expensive like Cbus Stadium is, is that it’s so expensive to run,” he said.

“They’re being run to make so much money but then the local operators like the Titans or any concert promoter will say nope, too expensive, can’t do it.”