The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club that competes in the national rugby league (NRL) premiership. The club is based in the Gold Coast, Queensland. The Gold Coast Titans have the distinction of being the National Rugby League’s newest team out of the sixteen clubs that compete in the premiership.
The Gold Coast Titans are the second rugby league club to be based in the Gold Coast, the first team was the now defunct Gold-Coast Tweed Giants (also known as the Gold Coast Seagulls or the Gold Coast Chargers, who were active between the years of 1988 to 1998.
Founded
The Gold Coast Titans were founded in 2007 and played their inaugural season from the 18th March. The teams founding began as a bid for a team to return to the National Rugby League following the Australian Rugby League’s decision to remove the Gold Coast Chargers club from the league following the 1998 season after many years of infighting, the loss of a number of key players and many board changes.
The Australian Rugby league chose to remove the club from the competition because they wanted to add a second Brisbane team to the competition. The attempted launch of a second Brisbane team did not success however and so in 1999 a former Gold Coast Chargers player, Michael Searle formed a Gold Coast bid team. The board included a number of other former Chargers players and was active Lobbying the NRL to include the Gold Coast team and expand the competition. The bid team successfully organised a number of pre-season trial matches to demonstrate the popularity and demand for rugby league in the Gold Coast, the games drew impressive audiences of between 16,000 and 20,000. With the fast growth rate of the Gold Coast areas since 1998, the need for a Gold Coast team was clear.
The 2004 bid for the Gold Coast team was rejected in 2004. Despite the rejection the team announced their team colours and jersey to the public on the Footy show. Their name was initially set to be the Gold Coast Dolphins and their team colours were going to be jade, white and orange but this was met with disapproval by the Redcliffe Dolphins who threatened legal action. The NRL announced in the middle of the year that there would be no 16th team added for the 2006 competition.
At the time the reasons for rejection were around the quality of the teams home ground. Despite the rejection the club continued to push for a 2007 entry into the NRL competition. Their bid was boosted by the announcement that the Queensland government would commit $100 million to a new, larger stadium on the Gold Coast, to be completed in 2008. The promise of a new stadium was enough encourage the NRL to accept the bid and it was announced that the Titans would enter the completion in 2007.
Following their admittance to the competition, the Gold Coast Titan undertook a recruitment drive and quickly signed a number of well-established players.
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Notable Achievements
The Gold Coast Titans are yet to win a premiership, but have made appearances in three finals games in the years 2009, 2010 and 2016.
Club Earnings
The Gold Coast Titans make some of their earning through a TV channel, known as Titans TV that is operated throughout the Gold Coast region. The channel mainly features matches and highlights, as well as player biographies. The club also has a number of major sponsorship deals, including a million dollar naming rights deal with Qantas and Jetstar Airways. They have also had sponsorship deals with local Audi dealerships and more recently with the brewer of XXXX beer, who are now a platinum sponsor of the team.
In their debut season the club earned $16 million. The following year they turned over $22 million, resulting in a $1.5 million in profit. In 2012 it was revealed that the club had fallen into $35 million worth of debt and that wind up procedures were underway. After fighting it off they were announced to be debt free the following year.
Home Ground
Currently the Gold Coast Titans home base is at the Cbus Super Stadium located in Robina, Queensland. This has been their home base since 2008. The stadium holds 27,000 people, and the stadiums construction was one of the important factors that pushed the NRL to accept the clubs bid to re-join the national rugby league.
In their inaugural year, the Titans played out of the Carrara stadium located on Neran-Broadbeach road. The oval only had a capacity of 16,000 and was one of the main reasons the bid was initially rejected by the NRL. After the Queensland government announced plans to construct the new stadium, the NRL agreed to admit the Titans into the competition. The new stadium construction was commenced in 2005 and was completed in time for the 2008 season. The construction project was managed by the same construction company that managed the Suncorp Stadium, Telstra stadium and the Gabba builds.
Coach
The Gold Coast Titan’s most recently appointed coach was Justin Holbrook, who will take on the position for the 2020 season. Justin Holbrook was formerly a rugby player and previously coached the St Helens Super League team. The CEO of the Gold Coast Titans announced that the new coach would be the clubs last stand and that results were expected to improve under the new coaching regime.
Emblem and Colours
The Gold Coast Titans were initially set to be named the Dolphins, but the threat of legal action by the Redcliffe Dolphins saw them draw the name and enter the NRL competition without a name decided. The club in cooperation with the Gold Coast Radio station 90.9 Sea FM, set up a naming competition for listeners to participate in. The competition entries were shortlisted to ten options which was then narrowed down to three choices, the Titans, Stingers and Pirates. The voting continued online with the name the Gold Coast Titans eventually winning out on September 2005.
The jerseys were also chosen through an online competition, participants had six options to choose from.
Mascot
The Gold Coast Titans mascots are known as Turbo and Blade. They are dressed in armor in different colours and are very popular amongst fans. There is a plethora of different merchandise available featuring the mascots, including stuffed toys.
Supporters
The official fan group of the Gold Coast Titans is called ‘The Legion’. Their online chat forums are called ‘The League of Titans’. They have had a number of passionate supporters from the beginning, and the fan enthusiasm and spectator numbers played an important role in getting them admitted into the NRL.
The Gold Coast Titan have a number of notable supporters, including the TV personality Michael Caton, Australian surfer Joel Parkinson, actress Margot Robbie and Australian  tennis players Bernard Tomic and Samantha Stosur.
The clubs cheer squad is the Hogs Breath Café Sirens.
History
The Gold Coast Titans played their first game in 2007 in a trial game against Melbourne Storm, who were previously the most recently added team. They were beaten right out of the gate but they won in the following two pre-season trial games against the Parramatta Eels and Penrith Panthers. The pre-trial games were a promising sign of things to come for the team.
The Gold Coast Titans first official match was played against the St George Illawarra Dragons. Whilst the game was originally meant to be played on their home ground, it was moved to the Suncorp stadium as a result of the huge demand from eager fans who wanted to attend the game. They played their debut match against 42,000. The club performed well during the game but they fell 14 points behind in the second half of the game and failed to make a full comeback. The match was a tight one regardless and they only missed out by two points, finishing 20-18. The match was played with Chris Walker, who made his comeback onto the field with two tries and two conversions.
Only a week later the Titans achieved their first official win against the Cronulla Sharks. The Titans finished the season in the 12th position, after 10 wins and 14th losses.
Even despite having a less than stellar home ground, the team had the second highest attendance of all the clubs during the 2007 season.
The Titans had a strong start to 2008, signing Ashley Harrison at the beginning of the year. Their first game was played against the Queensland Cowboys. Jordan Atkins became the second person in the history of Australian rugby league to score four tries on his debut. Their first game was a sell-out with a huge number of spectators. It only took six rounds for the club to hit the top of the ladder, a position they managed to hold onto until round 11. They finished the year in 13th place. In 2009 the club signed four new players and managed to reach the top of the ladder after six rounds. They won some early games away from home, contrary to critic’s expectations that they would fail away from their home ground or without their skipper Scott Prince. The season was the most successful for the club, seeing them finish in third position.
The following season was a mixed bag with some player losses, but it was there second year of qualifying for the finals. They finished in 4th place. The 2011 season was the Titans worst recorded start to a season with the team losing the first four matches. They only one six games in total for the entire season and subsequently won the wooden spoon. The following season saw the team start off strong, but suffered in the mid-season. They missed out on the finals despite a late season revival. The 2013 started with the team winning 4 of their first 6 matches, but they faded out in the mid-season. The club finished 9th for that year. The following season followed a similar pattern but they struggled in the later season.
In 2015 the club was put into voluntary administration. The club started with six wins and six losses, and found their way to the top 8 after round 13.
The following years 2017 and 2018 were forgettable years for the team. In 2019 the club struggled, sitting at the bottom of the ladder for much of the season.
Community interaction
The Gold Coast Titans take part in a number of community programs including school programs, community events and foundations. They also support a number of charities such as The Ronald McDonald house and the White ribbon charity.
They also take part in a number of outreach programs for the younger generation such as the NRL mini-league.