Sports on the Gold Coast, Queensland
[3][4][5] On-field performances have also generally been poor, and as of 2022, no Gold Coast-based team has won a premiership in a national professional club competition.
Only one Gold Coast team has ever reached the Grand Final of any major sports league in Australia without winning a premiership or championship.
One of the city's two current professional teams, the NRL's Titans, fell dangerously close to suffering the same fate in 2015 as Australian media outlets reported they were trying desperately to avoid the curse.
In 1991 the Gaming Machine Act passed in Queensland which caused considerable damage to the Seagulls' bottom line, and the club withdrew from the NSWRL in 1995 due to financial strains and the looming Super League war.
[10] Property entrepreneur Jeff Muller took over the club, renamed it the Gold Coast Gladiators and moved it to Carrara, Queensland, but his licence was revoked before the start of the 1996 season.
A new administration renamed it the Gold Coast Chargers, and it competed for a further three years before folding as the NRL contracted in the aftermath of the Super League war.
The club struggled financially, and Skase spent $29 million propping up the team for three seasons before he fled the country following the collapse of his business group Qintex.
Gold Coast philanthropist Reuben Pelerman took over ownership of the struggling club, and lost a further $10 million over three years before he decided to permanently relocate the team to Brisbane in 1993, staving off media rumours of the Bears merging with fellow cellar-dwellers Sydney to form a combined Queensland/New South Wales team, the Northern Swans, or relocation to either Tasmania or Port Adelaide.
[16] Professional football returned to the Gold Coast in 2006 when the Brisbane Lions and the North Melbourne Kangaroos began playing some home games at Carrara Stadium.
[19] On 3 June 2008, Football Federation Australia announced that Gold Coast United FC would join the A-League for the 2009–10 season and would play home games at Robina Stadium.
[24] The Grand Slams are the highest level of domestic beach volleyball that can be played in Australia and count towards the national rankings as well as Olympic qualification.
The Gold Coast Turf Club hosts weekly horse races every Saturday from 12 o'clock midday for a minor entry fee.
Facilities include a bookmaker's ring, betting tote through UBET, four small to large function venues and public food and drink outlets.
The Gold Coast has previously been home to professional teams/events in baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby union, soccer and tennis.
The Gold Coast Clippers were a foundation team in the now defunct Australian Baseball League and competed in the inaugural 1989-90 ABL season.
The Clippers played home games at Carrara Stadium during their first season but re-branded to the Daikyo Dolphins a year later and set up base at Palm Meadows.
Daikyo, the major sponsor of the Dolphins, ended their association with the club in 1993 and the team once again re-branded to become the Gold Coast Cougars and also returned to Carrara Stadium for the 1993-94 season.
The Blue Tongues General Manager was unable to secure government funding for a new dual-rink facility on the Gold Coast and the team officially folded in 2015 when their AIHL licence expired.
The event was held in Sanctuary Cove at the Hope Island Resort Tennis Centre and was won by Guy Forget and Jakob Hlasek.
[28] In 2006 Tennis Australia decided to merge the Gold Coast and Adelaide events into a larger ATP-WTA joint tournament in Brisbane to be first held in 2009.
The last edition of the Gold Coast event was held in 2008 and was won by Li Na, who defeated future career rival and rising star Victoria Azarenka in the final in three sets.
[29] Byzantine Living History trains in hand-to-hand combat with blunt and rounded steel weapons from Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire from the 9th to 13th centuries.
The Tweed Heads Seagulls also compete in the Queensland Cup and are based in the suburb over the Gold Coast-New South Wales border.
World class breaks including TOS, Sandpumping Jetty, Burleigh, Currumbin Alley, Greenmount Beach, Kirra, Snapper Rocks and Duranbah (just over border into NSW).
Popular fishing spots include the Sandpumping Jetty on the Spit, Offshore reefs at Palm Beach, The Narrowneck Reef, the Gold Coast Broadwater, Jumpinpin, Coomera, Logan and Albert Rivers, Currumbin and Tallebudgera Creek and fresh water environments at Robina Lakes and Hinze Dam.
There are waterskiing areas at upper coomera, santa barbara, along the western Broadwater, Tipplers, Currigee, Isle of Capri, Carrara and Tallebudgera Creek.
Surfers Paradise International Raceway existed just to the west of Carrara Stadium until it was closed in the mid-80s and lay derelict for several decades before finally being built over.
[citation needed] The centre includes nine purpose built villas which provide accommodation for touring groups or sporting teams, FINA approved 50-metre outdoor swimming pool, an IAAF certified 10 lane 400-metre athletic track with 3000 seater capacity stadium, a 600 m2 gymnasium and health spa.
The nearby Nerang State Forest, with its hilly terrain and well-maintained trails is a favourite recreational area for mountain bike riders.
The venue is located in the suburb of Southport and hosted the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships which saw the most successful Olympian of all time Michael Phelps compete on the Gold Coast.
