Gold Coast United FC

Brought my boy from a Brisbane club and there is such a huge difference. No one responds to emails or texts ever. Never see the TD out on the field. Grounds are in such bad repair and training constantly cancelled due to rain with no backup. Coaches constantly leaving so teams without even a coach for the amount you pay.

Insufficient toilets and shelter. The toilets were absolutely filthy.

I would not recommend Gold Coast United to any family with a keen young footballer. The men in charge of the academy have no interest in you, or your child’s development. They simply see families as a source of income to maintain their relevance in football.

A club like this needs to generate other sources of income to reduce costs to families, and attract the best players, however GCU see parent as their only source of income, and increase costs, using parent guilt as their only marketing strategy.

It is also difficult to believe the board has allowed its two head coaches to open a private academy, and recommend GCU player join their elite training academy……. For an additional cost of course 🙄. This completely undermines the GCU academy and what you pay over $2000 annually for. It also creates a scenario where players in their private academy will receive preferential treatment in the GCU academy.

If you do all the training, clinic, tournaments (charge significantly more than other clubs for the same tournament) and off season program they recommend you will pay well over $3000 a year.

Save your money join another club

What a joke this club is it’s all how much money they can extract from parents. We were promised track pants when fitted for uniforms this never happened and uniforms didn’t arrive till around 3rd round. Coaches were promised many teams didn’t get one so it was up to some dads. So far this year we have forked out around $2000 for our son to play soccer but he and other players spend a fair amount of time on the bench as our coach uses players from other teams so that we can win. I thought pre academy was a development team for the team to learn but no it’s win at all costs. For our team to play invitational competitions our club charges over double the costs that other clubs charge their players. I for one would like to know where all the money is going. Communication is also a big problem they don’t like any form of criticism and don’t respond to emails. Clive may have ruined this club a few years back. But the current management seems to be following in his footsteps. We won’t be returning next year and have heard of several other parents who won’t be back. But be aware they will get in touch stating your child played so good they should now go up a grade to Academy which would probably cost an extra $500 or so.

Fantastic, well run club.
Very friendly and they have some incredible coaches.

Terrible main Coplick fields 1 and 2 towards the end of the 2023 season - mostly sand remaining. Especially tough on the goalkeepers

Pretty low grade fields.
Lack of sufficient line markings and goal box markings, and exceptionally steep camber on the fields pretty much destroyed the fun of playing soccer here (it's a rolled ankle waiting to happen, you've been warned).
No shade, cover, or pavilions across any of the fields. The grass is dry, brown, uneven,and unkept.
The only place to get refreshments is the long walk to the bar. So kids wanting drinks are exposed to alcohol and bar culture.
I gave to 2 stars rather than 1 because there are at least toilets here, somewhere, apparently.
But, I would recommend going to just about any of the other fields on the GC before this one. There are many better options (eg. Palm Beach, Musgrave, even Coomera).