Former Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade believes the Suns will forever live off the AFL’s teat.
Eade, who coached the struggling franchise for three years before being sacked late last season, says based purely on geography the club, along with GWS Giants, are severely hamstrung.
“I think it will be very difficult for Gold Coast and GWS to be self-sufficient totally in the market they’ve gone into,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“GWS is in Western Sydney and it’s a rugby league heartland and a lot of teams from different codes have gone into Gold Coast and folded.
“We’ve got to give it time.”
Eade disagreed with SEN co-host Tim Watson who said the Suns had 10 years to get it right or face possible extinction as a Gold Coast-based franchise.
In the past 12 months the club has appointed a new CEO (Mark Evans) and a new coach (Stuart Dew), while appointing Craig Cameron as list manager and Jon Haines as general manager of football.
“I think people would realise it’s going to be difficult on the Gold Coast because there is no big industry other than tourism,” Eade said.
“Membership is crucial and you attract members by being successful on the field.
“I don’t think the AFL will want to move Gold Coast and I think we’ve got to give them time to find their feet and get things right.
“Whether that’s a time frame of 10 years I’m not too sure.”
In 2017 the Suns had 11,665 members, down 9.25% on its 2016 figure. Conversely, GWS saw a 36.7% jump in its membership in 2017 to 20,944 on the back of a preliminary final berth last year.
“If you look at GWS they are probably not economically that great as well but they’ve been successful on the field so we don’t really talk about them,” Eade said.
“I’m not sure how we judge the Suns. Is it in terms of profit? Is it they only lose $1 million a year or do they have to make a profit?.”
Eade alluded to growth in junior participation on the Gold Coast as a positive and said that would be further pushed along by the side playing finals inside the next five years.
“If that happens the crowds will come.”
Less than 15,000 people saw the Suns play in seven of their 10 matches at Metricon Stadium this year. The biggest home crowd was 17,275 in the Round 17 loss to Collingwood.