Central Coast Mariners' use of their home ground may be in jeopardy just six weeks out from the start of the season because of outstanding bills of about $300,000 for unpaid loans and venue rental fees.
The Mariners' opening day derby against Newcastle Jets on October 11 could be under threat as it is understood the A-League club has been warned by the venue's owner, Gosford City Council, that the gates will not be opened until all debts have been repaid, some of which were accumulated under previous administrations.
The club owes the council about $100,000 in unpaid stadium rental fees and is negotiating another sum of about $200,000. The outstanding rental fees were accumulated over the course of last season and, while the club has agreed to a payment plan to clear the debt by October 30, senior officials have been warned they may be denied the right to hire the venue until the debts are repaid. The Mariners purchased the scoreboard with financial assistance from the council in 2008 but are still yet to repay the full amount believed to be close to $200,000.
Mariners chief executive Bruce Stalder said the club is confident of repaying the full amount before the start of the season and is working closely with Gosford City Council to find a solution. "The club was helped by the council in getting the screen together," Stalder said. "We haven't concluded our side of paying it back or worked out how we want to use it in the future. We have to finish this and resolve the matter."
The Mariners are also set to hand over the licence of their youth academy to the local football association following a disagreement over how the program was run from a technical standard and $38,332 of mostly registration fees owed to Football NSW. Central Coast Football applied for the licence of the Central Coast Mariners Youth Academy, which plays in the NSW Premier League 2, and reached an agreement with the club to repay the Mariners' outstanding bills.
CCF chairman Darren Sprod said: "We signed a heads of agreement with Central Coast Mariners to run our program this year and we've now cancelled the agreement. We're about to sign an agreement to repay the debts outstanding and we're taking back the program.
"We are really supportive of [new Mariners coach] Phil Moss and the team. Our angle is to develop youth on the central coast and we tried a model this year and it didn't work. We hope to work in conjunction with the Mariners looking forward." The two parties had disagreements over funding provisions including a $175,000 pledge withheld by Central Coast Football. Stalder admitted there were some errors in the management of the program that occurred during the transition of leadership at the club and says the matter will be resolved soon.
"We as a club certainly made some mistakes with the delivery of that program," Stalder said. "We've had nothing but a sincere attempt to resolve the issues but it wasn't in time. To say the model doesn't work is a fairly large jump. It's endorsed by the FFA (Football Federation Australia) and it's certainly a strong model ... We'll have a very good resolution."
