Rebecca Frizelle

REBECCA Frizelle, group operations manager of James Frizelle’s Automotive Group, has guaranteed the future of rugby on the Gold Coast after receiving the licence to run the Titans from the National Rugby League.

Ms Frizelle, with husband Brett, have been long-term sponsors of the club and she was the club’s chair until stepping aside in September while the licence bid was being reviewed by the NRL.

The Frizelles are joined in the operations of the club by former owner Darryl Kelly and wife Jo who rescued the Titans from closing down in 2013 before the NRL took control in 2015.

Three rugby league clubs – Seagulls, Chargers and Giants – have closed down in the Gold Coast area since 1988.

Queensland’s The Courier-Mail newspaper said the Frizelle and Kelly families – who won the licence over a $25 million bid by a Brisbane fund manager – had guaranteed to keep the Titans on the Gold Coast while they transition it into a community-owned club.

“We’ve got no intentions of shifting it from the Gold Coast, there is no doubt about that,” Mr Kelly told The Courier-Mail.

“We are looking to entrench it and eventually our aim is for it to not only be a community club but owned by the community. That’s our long-term aim.

“We’ve got to build the financial model and it’s got to be sustainable for the club. It’s 5-10 years to get to where we need to be.”

The NRL said in June that it would no longer financially support clubs. Frizelle and Kelly are to open up an external revenue stream for the Titans to help it become profitable.

By Neil Dowling