Michael Searle's one-man reign over Gold Coast Titans set to end

BESIEGED Gold Coast Titans boss Michael Searle's one-man reign is set to end.

BESIEGED Gold Coast Titans boss Michael Searle's one-man reign is set to end after players were summoned to a meeting yesterday to be told of the majority owner's last-ditch blueprint to save the financially-stricken club.

As the Titans' property arm fights to stave off liquidation amid a crippling $25.3 million debt, The Courier-Mail can reveal Searle has lined up an investment consortium to haul the football club out of its estimated $5 million black hole.

The development came on a dramatic day for the club, with the Titans' entire playing roster called to a summit on their day off to be briefed by Searle on his latest rescue plan.

The Titans' teetering brand received a boost when Searle, attending a Battle of the Codes luncheon on the Gold Coast, announced the club had brokered a fresh five-year sponsorship deal with major backers iSelect.

He later addressed Titans players at the ill-fated Centre of Excellence, informing them he had secured up to six investors that would ensure the NRL club is debt free.

But the Titans empire remains on life support, with insolvency firm KordaMentha last night revealing the Centre of Excellence had yet to be sold - more than two months after Searle publicly spruiked the building's sale.

Under the rescue package it is understood Searle will relinquish his majority shareholding to the purported backers, diluting the unfettered power he has enjoyed without a football club board.

Searle's future will then depend on whether the club's potential saviours choose to include the underfire Titans autocrat on a newly-implemented advisory board.

The identity of the white knights is unknown but private financiers Phil Ward and Bob Clark, who are owed $4.88 million by the Titans' property arm, are believed to be among the interested backers.

It remains to be seen what the ARL Commissioners make of the planned ownership structure as some commissioners were concerned about committing resources or investment into the Titans in its existing structure.

Eager to recoup their existing debt, Ward and Clark agreed to purchase the Centre of Excellence on April 4, but have yet to obtain the necessary funding to complete the sale.

Should the proposed sale formally collapse in the coming weeks, the Commonwealth Bank, as chief financiers, has the power to seize the building to recoup its $13.4 million debt.

Searle will formally sign off on a $200,000 Deed of Company Arrangement on Monday, giving the Titans property arm's unsecured creditors as little as 1.86c in the dollar.

Robert Hutson, of KordaMentha, last night confirmed the insolvency experts were still waiting on Ward and Clark to secure funding to purchase the Centre of Excellence.

"It is still subject to finance, that is the condition that hasn't been satisfied at this stage," Hutson said.

"The purchasers (Ward and Clark) are confident it will settle, but their complaint is that the negative publicity around the reporting on the Titans has made finance harder to get.

"If we have evidence that there is a strong probability that the sale will proceed, we will keep it on foot.

"But if the sale doesn't proceed, that would be the only case in which (the Titans property arm) would be wound up."