Gold Coast Titans chairman Dennis Watt rubbishes talk of a forced NRL recloation to Brisbane
TITANS chairman Dennis Watt has responded to talk the club is in danger of being forced into relocation as part of a broadcaster push to have a second team in Brisbane by 2023.
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TITANS chairman Dennis Watt has rubbished talk the club is in danger of being forced into a Brisbane relocation, insisting the off-field systems are in place for a prosperous future on the Gold Coast.
The NRL rumour mill went into overdrive today when a report out of Sydney suggested the Titans, Cronulla or Manly were in the firing line for relocation as part of a broadcaster push to have a second team in Brisbane by 2023.
Gold Coast’s on-field results this season do little to quash the speculation, with the Titans bound for a second wooden spoon after sacking coach Garth Brennan in July and winning just four of 23 games.
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However, with new coach Justin Holbrook on the way in 2020, Watt reassured Coast fans the club was going nowhere.
“It’s purely speculation, it’s media speculation. I’m pretty confident the broadcasters would, in a perfect world, want more Queensland teams, not less Queensland teams,” the former Broncos chairman said.
“It’s been talked about for some years, the prospect of a second Brisbane team and the concept of a local derby, which works so well in so many other sporting arenas. But the reality is, unless it’s an extraordinary situation, the NRL has no real power to shift clubs against their will.
“We’re dug in in this rugby league heartland. Even though the on-field efforts have been below par, there’s been a lot of progress within the club itself in terms of its capabilities, its junior development, its engagement, its long-term financial sustainability.
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“The team hasn’t performed this year as well as we would’ve liked but with a full team back on the paddock under a new coach, we’re pretty confident going forward into 2020.
“We feel we’re masters of our own destiny … and we’ve put a lot of things in place to ensure the future success of the club.”
The Coast has long been considered a graveyard for professional sporting teams, with previous NRL incarnations the Giants, Seagulls and Chargers all collapsing between 1988 and 1998.
However, Coast rugby league founding father Paul Broughton, who was chief executive of the Chargers when they were kicked out of the NRL, said the development of junior talent was reliant on the Titans’ survival.
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“The Gold Coast junior league was created by Gold Coast people and is well conducted at every level. One cannot deny that rugby league is in the city’s soul and it will always remain as part of its DNA,” Broughton said.
“It must survive 2019 and beyond because this game needs it to be part of the Gold Coast’s future, deserved by both the need of how the city is viewed in relation to Brisbane and for some of the best loyal fans in the nation.
“Two state-best league teams (Burleigh and Tweed Heads) and three of the game’s major rugby league schools (Keebra Park, Palm Beach Currumbin and Coombabah State High) are in this city.
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“Of one thing you can be sure, move the (Titans) to Brisbane and rugby league Gold Coast will never return to the NRL.”
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