"Gold Coast: Football club to farce"

From ESPNsoccernet

Review by Tyler Copan in KIN 435 (section 1)

The Gold Coast United is a soccer team that plays in the Australian A-League. The team was founded in 2009 by mining magnate Clive Palmer. At their inception, Palmer proclaimed that the team would fly through their inaugural year without a single loss; he was sorely mistaken. Gold Coast United, instead of winning all their games, quickly became the worst and most despicable team in the league. In their latest blunder, Palmer named one of the newest and youngest members of the team, 17-year-old Mitch Cooper, to be the team’s captain in their match against the Melbourne Heat. This action in itself is ridiculous because Cooper had only played a few games with the team and he had not been in any position to deserve the right to be called captain. The coach of the team, Miron Bleiberg, publicly spoke out against Palmer’s move which led to Palmer suspending Bleiberg for not supporting him. For any other team, this might not be such a big deal, however, Gold Coast United are not just any team. From constantly picking up star players for absurd amounts of money and then those same players not accomplishing anything to constantly having minimal fans and sponsorships at any of their matches, Gold Coast United seems to be going down the drain fast.

The marketing and sales implications of Clive Palmer’s actions are disastrous for both the Gold Coast United soccer team and the Australian A-League in general. This is bad for Gold Coast United because the actions of their immature owner cause them to be constantly losing fans and other potential consumers of their products and services. Also, since no one is going to their games and they are constantly losing fans, nobody wants to become sponsors of the team and the sponsors that the team does have are probably going to move on to other teams relatively soon if they have not already. The actions of Gold Coast United and its owner Clive Palmer are disastrous for the entire Australian A-League because the sports industry in Australia is extremely competitive and, if Gold Coast United is constantly losing fans and sponsors because of their ridiculous actions, that makes the entire league look bad and could cause potential revenue producers to move on to other sports like Australian Rules Football. In conclusion, Gold Coast United and billionaire owner Clive Palmer seem to be taking actions that lead them down a road that ends in dissolution of the team and maybe even of the league.
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Review by Katie Gebauer in KIN 435 (section 1)

The article Gold Coast: Football Club to Farce explains how another incident by the Gold Coast’s coach Palmer has turned them into a joke. The billionaire, Clive Palmer, funds the Gold Coast team that began in 2009, because like other teams they are struggling with a lack of crowds and lack of sponsorships. Palmer told coach Miron Bleiberg that he was to make the 17-year-old new comer, Mitch Cooper captain for the game against Melbourne Heart. To me it seems that Palmer was trying to achieve new fans by making a young player captain because it showed that he supports youth. Supporting youth could get parents to take their kids to the games, could get young kids to follow the team and players a little more because of their ability to relate to Cooper, and being that Cooper was expected to be very good it could create hype around him which would help out ticket sales and sponsorships. This fact is proven because the first thing I noticed about the article was that Hyatt was the sponsor that Cooper wears on his uniform. What company wouldn’t want to advertise and or sponsor a team or player that is getting that much hype?

The part that Palmer misunderstood about what he did was the affect is would have on the fans. The fans take the game, and the role of captain, very seriously. It is given to someone who shows teamwork and leadership, many fans viewed giving Cooper the role of captain as a joke and a slap in the face to the hard work and effort that the players put into the game. I believe Coach Bleiberg understood this, which is why he assured fans that his role as captain was just a ceremonial gesture. Palmer then came back and suspended Bleiberg because he saw that statement as undermining what he had planned. Being that most of the fans didn’t agree with Cooper becoming captain, the fact that the coach was suspended angered them even more.

Basically this article sums up how this is just one of many instances that Palmer is tarnishing his teams reputation through bad decisions, and how that tarnished reputation may soon lead to the end of this team.