The first step in the building plan for the proposed new Gold Coast AFL team will be put in place on Wednesday, 20 February.

AFL Chief Broadcasting and Commercial Officer Gillon McLachlan, detailing a tentative time-line for the expansion club as he launched the 2008 season at Northcliffe Surf Lifesaving Club today, confirmed he would lodge a business plan for a Gold Coast team with the next AFL Commission meeting.

This will be a forerunner, he said, to a vote to confirm a 17^th license by the existing 16 clubs in which it would require a three-quarters majority against the new club to defeat it.

“The vote is really the first step in the process,” he said. “We will put to the Commission a full business plan which will detail why we think a 17^th team based on the Gold Coast will be a good thing, and we’d be very confident if it makes sense to the League it will make sense to the clubs.

“I haven’t heard any club say they are opposed to a team on the Gold Coast and history tells us that if we build a good case on the basis that it is good for football the clubs would support that.

“The national expansion of the game has seen the incumbent clubs prosper and the clubs have shown the propensity to support the AFL and the Commission where they see a holistic benefit.

“They are prepared to live with some short-term pain for long-term benefit. It’s like the special distributions which the Kangaroos, the Bulldogs and Melbourne receive … the clubs see it as relevant to the competition so they support it.”

McLachlan confirmed that it might be 2011 instead of the originally targeted 2010 before the Gold Coast based team was up and going.

“Nothing is set in concrete. Over the next six-eight weeks we hope to get the go-ahead from the clubs, firm up a process via which we will award a license, and then we’d like to have the license awarded by the end of the year. Then, it seems fair and reasonable to give the license-holders two years before they bounce the ball,” he said.

“We identified 2010 as a possible start date when we were talking about a relocated Kangaroos. But building a new club from scratch is a different scenario and it might be that 2011 is more relevant.”

McLachlan was accompanied by Gold Coasters Nick Riewoldt (St.Kilda), David Hale (North Melbourne) and Daniel Merrett (Brisbane Lions) as he launched a 2008 season which will include a minimum of two pre-season games, starting with the Essendon-Brisbane NAB Cup game at Carrara on 16 February, and three Toyota AFL premiership matches.

He also confirmed a series of improvements to Gold Coast Stadium, Carrara, facilitated in partnership with the Gold Coast City Council, designed to improve the spectator’s AFL experience. These include:-

• An extra 2500 seats have been installed to provide seating all around the ground, and all existing seats have been painted.
• The playing surface has been re-shaped to bring the public closer to the game.
• All corporate areas have been upgraded.
• The road and bus interchange has been upgraded to provide better public access.

McLachlan said he was not in a position to offer any update on the stadium issue, except to reaffirm that a redeveloped stadium was essential for a Gold Coast-based 17^th club.

“Building an infrastructure like that is a difficult, complicated and expensive process which requires the support of the State Government, Local Government, Business and the AFL and we’re continuing to work to secure it,” he said.

Admitting the AFL had looked at “eight or nine” alternative sites, McLachlan confirmed that Carrara was the League’s preferred option “all things being equal”.

McLachlan asked the Gold Coast public to be “a little patient” as the AFL worked through the process.

“I’d be disappointed if (as was suggested by the media) people are getting frustrated because it was only 6 December that the Kangaroos made their decision not to relocate to the Gold Coast, and there has been the holiday period since then.

“There is an awful lot of work to do but we are very comfortable with where we are at on all the key issues. We’d just hope people would understand that we’re working through the process and will keep them informed as is appropriate and when things are relevant,” he said.