Twenty-eight years later the club was revived and was officially announced as a professional expansion team for the A-League's 2009–2010 season on 28 August 2008.

The governing body had been in conflict with Palmer over a variety of license breaches, controversial statements, sacking the coach, giving a 17 year old a professional debut and appointment as the match day captain, and his decision to implement a "crowd cap" that closed most of the stadium.

The club finished out the season and were shut down shortly after with their place in the competition taken by the hastily formed Western Sydney Wanderers FC.

[6][7] The Galaxy was strongly expected to join in the 2008–2009 season along with North Queensland Thunder, expanding the league to ten teams.

The club continued to grow throughout a 13-year period and became a regular feature in the sports media pages of Brisbane and Gold Coast newspapers before disbanding in 1979.

Gold Coast United was reformed and a campaign to enter the A-League in 2008 fell short when the FFA decided not to have new franchises in 2008–2009 leaving the club to focus towards the 2009–2010 season.

[13] The same day, FFA chief Ben Buckley confirmed that Gold Coast United and the Palmer consortium had succeeded in securing the franchise.

[16] On 9 April 2010 it was reported that Clive Palmer had ended his financial support of Gold Coast United, putting the club at risk of instant closure.

The 2011–12 season began with several key players departing including Bruce Djite to Adelaide United and the loss of Shane Smeltz to Perth Glory.

On 27 January 2012, Clive Palmer once again caused controversy by deciding to close all but the western grandstand of Skilled Park for the remainder of the A-League season.

On 29 February 2012, the FFA revoked Clive Palmer's Gold Coast United's A-League licence, however, they were allowed to play the final four games of the season.

The original badge for the club was created in 1967 with a simple shield featuring a two-colour split fill of blue on the left and gold on the right.

The second-era Gold Coast United club badge featured the colours of blue, yellow and white on a skewed shield shape with an artistic image representing the city skyline of Surfers Paradise on the left alongside the ocean and surf on the right.

For the 2011/2012 season, the Hyatt Regency Coolum Resort became United's title sponsor replacing Queensland Nickel, a company owned by Clive Palmer.

The lowest crowd attendance was 1,141 when they played the Central Coast Mariners FC at Skilled Park, on 22 February 2012 in a 3–3 draw.

[26] In December 2018, the club was granted council access to use the newly constructed fields and facilities at Coplicks Family Sports Park in Tallebudgera Valley as their permanent training and administration base.

A media-generated rivalry which commenced before the two teams' first meeting, and in honour of the two owners of the clubs, mining magnates Clive Palmer and Tony Sage.