WATCH: The team nicknames that were almost picked instead for the Gold Coast Suns

“Our advisory group decided against the winner of what the name was meant to be.”

WRITER | August 14, 2024 - 4:20pm

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Aspiring to connate the AFL's first expansion side of the 21st century with tourism, a hands-on AFL marketing department nearly chose to brand Gold Coast devoid of their current nickname.

In 2008, Gold Coast's AFL moniker was shortlisted to five mascots, with nicknames the Ironmen and Marlins highly-regarded, however the Stingrays was the triumphant choice.

Yet, the advisory group chose to go against the community's decision.

As Gold Coast's inaugural employee, Andrew Thomas was a part of the board that asked the community what the upcoming team's name should be.

"Our advisory group decided against the winner of what the name was meant to be, and that was the name of the local elite development squad... so it made sense to mirror that. The advisory group at the time decided 'well, you know what, let's move away from that. We want to be known as something really simple'," Thomas told the AFL Team Builders Podcast.

"You think about your big brands and they're quite simple. You think of McDonald's and you think of Apple, they wanted this GC symbol to be that. If we've got a mascot, people won't call it the Gold Coast, they'll call it the Stingrays. They wanted to have a strong tourism connotation [with] Gold Coast and people to reference us as Gold Coast."

So for "three or four months", the AFL advertised their newest football team purely as the Gold Coast Football Club. It wasn't until backlash from the community that spurred the decision to backflip and instate a nickname for the team.

"We got a fair bit of feedback from Gold Coasters saying 'Hey, great, love it, but my kids that go to the footy can't say anything. What do you want them to say, go GC, go Gold Coast'... so the advisory group decided to pivot," Thomas added.

To find out the current Suns nickname came to fruition, watch the seventh episode of AFL Team Builders, where initial members of the Gold Coast Suns – inaugural chairman John Witheriff, first official employee Andrew Thomas, and two inaugural squad members Nathan Bock and Charlie Dixon – take you through the difficulties and experiences that have shaped Queensland's second football club.