Should the Gold Coast hold the toilet seat aloft at season's end, most people will think of a turbulent inaugural season with predictions of going through undefeated, heart attack scares and promises to shape up health-wise, threats to cap crowd numbers, and this week's claims that the FFA is corrupt and conspiring against Queensland (or just the GCU).
Sadly, though, few people will think of another, more depressing aspect and one that has longer- and wider-reaching consequences for both football and non-football fans alike. Today mining magnate and billionaire Clive Palmer announced that he was setting up the world's largest coal mine courtesy of a $60 billion deal he, the Queensland state government, and China have just signed.
To say I'm disillusioned is an understatement.
For many of us football is an escape from the daily grind and the bombardment of guilt at what impact our choices and lives are having on the environment, so I understand that it's uncomfortable to have such issues encroach on our one apparently guilt-free pleasure. But does knowingly supporting a team that's funded by profits made at the expense of the environment not make you a little uncomfortable?
The severity and enormity of climate change is something that we've only recently begun to grasp and I don't blame Palmer for making money through mining in the past. But when we know better, we should do better.
He claimed during the week that the FFA should 'pay more attention to making the books balance,' but I'd argue that Palmer should pay more attention to the needs of the environment than keeping his books solidly in the black. Were he investing in a cleaner future (say solar technologies) I'd be the first to commend him (and maybe even pledge some allegiance to the GCU), but Palmer's securing a dirtier future for both himself and us with a multi-billion dollar deal that thumbs its nose at the environment and future generations.
Super heroes have to choose to use their powers for good rather than evil. I'd argue that billionaires too have to carefully choose how to use their money-derived powers. Palmer is in a unique position to make a positive difference in the world, to invest in leading technologies, to fund environmental innovation, and to inspire others to act too.
We absolutely all have room to improve in terms of our environmental credentials, but I consider knowingly and wantonly pillaging the landscape to profit from selling a resource that undeniably contributes to climate change when you know better and have other options is unconscionable.
What are some extra, short-term jobs when you're decimating the environment long term? What's an extra $60 billion when you're already a billionaire? And why let a pending defamation lawsuit against Premier Anna Bligh get in the way when you can sign a $60 billion deal? (Although as a side note, the irony that he's suing Bligh for defamation while he himself is implying that the FFA is corrupt provides us with some comic relief.)
I know sport and politics shouldn't mix, but Bligh and Palmer threw them together by signing on the dotted line. And let me make it clear that I consider Bligh - Queensland's first female Premier and a woman who I'd hoped would use this opportunity better and who would leave a better legacy than she's currently doing - equally, if not more, responsible for this travesty.
Palmer is simply behaving like a good capitalist within the boundaries Blight - and yes, the 't' is intentional - and her government set for him. Me? I can check all the ethical investment boxes on my superannuation forms I want - it's going to count for nought in comparison to the tonnes of climate-changing coal Bligh and Palmer are planning to carve out of the Queensland landscape.
The only consolation I can take is that Bligh might be secretly rueing her decision as Palmer offered her a back-handed compliment during the press conference: 'I salute the Premier for being here on a Saturday morning when most mothers would be out with their families.' Such an offensive comment would never, ever be made about a man and I'm pretty sure Palmer too has kids that he could be spending time with on a Saturday...
But I digress.
I will be exercising my democratic powers next election to ensure that Bligh doesn't get a second term and will be vociferously writing and campaigning against this decision in the interim. But Palmer is not an elected government official tasked with keeping the community's and the environment's best interests in mind - with him we cannot express our dismay in the same way.
We vote with our buying decisions when a company is found wanting (say, for example, Nike and sweatshops), but rarely do we examine where the money our footballing teams are backed by comes from. Perhaps it's time we start.
Might it mean that we have fewer footballing teams? Probably. Would there be other benefits ethically and environmentally? Most likely. In fact, I know it's possible-inspiring, life-changing events based on affecting social change through ethical means such as the Homeless World Cup spring to mind.
Palmer might make the money from the mine but we and the environment will end up paying for it. It's not something that I'm prepared to do. My lone withheld entry and pie and beer fees are unlikely to make a difference to Palmer's in-the-black bank balance and, while the team isn't even necessarily making him a profit, it's the principle of the matter and it's a start.
Irrespective of whether Gold Coast United may or may not win the league (and, for the record, I don't give a flying phooey whether or not they get the Grand Final - the team who wins the major semis should be awarded it, but that's a bridge Palmer's prematurely trying to cross), whether they may or may not boast good players, or whether or not they're a team contributing to burgeoning Queensland football culture, I can't conscionably support a football team that's backed by money made ostensibly at the expense of the environment.
Can you?
