Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans is bullish about the Suns’ ability to survive the COVID-19 crisis, saying the league knows how important retaining a national footprint will be in the future.
The financial implications of the league’s shutdown due to the global pandemic has forced Evans to repeatedly dismiss suggestions the struggling Suns would not survive the crisis.
Since joining the league in 2011, the Suns are yet to reach a finals campaign and last year received an assistance package that included draft picks and expanded academy access, along with operational and strategic support from the AFL.
Despite Gold Coast’s precarious position, Evans says the AFL’s drive to ensure it emerges from a post-coronavirus world as a truly national competition made him confident in the club’s future.
“The AFL have been very strong in saying that all 18 clubs and all 14 AFLW teams will come back to the competition,” Evans told reporters on Friday.
“And really the AFL’s strategy will not change.
“NSW and Queensland – 53 per cent of the eyeballs and bodies for participants, live in those two states and it will be a very, very big part of the AFL’s plans for the future.”
Evans said that other non-Victorian teams such as Brisbane, GWS Giants and Sydney shared the Suns’ confidence.
“There won’t be a national competition without those teams,” he said.
Evans is pushing for the AFL’s quarantine hub to restart the season to be based in south-east Queensland.
He believes the Gold Coast and Brisbane would be the perfect location to resume the season in Australia’s winter months, but is also confident his club’s experiences during the 2018 Commonwealth Games can be drawn upon if the hub is located interstate.
With Metricon Stadium hosting the Games, the Suns had to play ‘home’ matches in Cairns, Perth and the Gabba for the opening 12 weeks of the 2018 season.
“We almost felt like we were in our own travelling hub there for the first 12 weeks and there are some benefits from having that,” Evans said.
“I think (the players) will cope pretty well.”
