Chief operating officer Scott Munn said the club had made significant progress towards getting a ground and the hunt for a chief executive was well advanced.
“We can only say everything looks positive and I’m sure they will come up with a positive outcome as soon as possible,” Munn said on the club's venue prospects.
GC17 is the competition's 17th franchise and will field a team in the TAC Cup this season. It is expected to gain a licence to field an AFL team in 2011 later this year.
Munn said a CEO would be appointed as soon as the team was granted its AFL licence.
“We began that process towards the end of last year. We were incredibly impressed with the level of candidates that put themselves forward,” Munn said.
“That list will be shortlisted and we’ll look to make an appointment soon after the licence [is granted]. The CEO would come in and really look to structure the team beneath him.”
Munn said while the club was patiently waiting to receive the word on the AFL’s 17th licence.
“There are commission meetings every month this year and as long as we get the box ticked on one of them I’ll be comfortable,” he said.
“I’m sure there will be an outcome at some stage during the year.”
Munn began with the club in March, 2008 and said the organisation had grown significantly.
“For us it has always been about the community and I think that is integral in making it work," he said.
"We’ve been very keen to make sure we’ve communicated with every person on the Gold Coast whether they are football fans or not,” he said.
“Those football fans that do exist here we will make sure they get as much information they can as early as they can.
"It’s a challenge, you start with just a few people and now we’re up to 20 staff members and we’ll turn over in excess of $5 million this year. It grows very quickly.”
Speaking at the football department’s headquarters – a small portable office on the outskirts of Gold Coast stadium – Munn admitted there had been moments of uncertainty as he tried to help get the AFL’s 17th team up and going.
“There was (uncertainty). But there was an extreme amount of work had been done prior to that in terms of the market and the people here," he said.
"The game development team here headed up by Troy Clarke and Corey Bell had done an incredible job in growing the Auskick participation.
“From our perspective that was where we saw an untapped goldmine in that they had double-digit growth here in junior participation over the last two years. That community level was where we really focussed.”
