Mensink admitted the controversial decision was taken two weeks ago, just ten rounds into the competition, in a desperate bid to cut costs at the club owned by one of Australia's richest men, mining magnate Clive Palmer.

But he denied it was a sign the tycoon had fallen out of love with the club, and insisted it was actually a move designed to ensure the club remains viable for years to come.

Gold Coast United yesterday confirmed plans to restrict the crowd at Skilled Park to 5000, confining fans to the west grandstand, meaning all three televised stands will be empty.

The plans yesterday wiped out all the cheap home end tickets and left the cheapest adult ticket priced at $42.

However Mensink revealed the club had today now cut ticket prices down to $30 for the cheapest adult seat, with children now $15. However those prices no longer include free public transport.

The FFA have already demanded answers over the move and told the club it breached the terms of the business plan they submitted when they won the franchise.

But Mensink insisted the new rules were here to stay until fans proved they were willing to turn up in their thousands to see the club.

However angry supporters are now threatening to boycott this weekend's home game against North Queensland Fury in protest at the decision, which could send Gold Coast's average attendance - already just 5651, with the last two games barely making it past the 4,000 mark - tumbling even further.

Today Mensink admitted to au.fourfourtwo.com the club may have made mistakes in marketing the franchise - but said they were learning as they go...and for now, the cap stays.

FFT: So is Clive Palmer bored with Gold Coast and given up on the club already?
CM: No, I don't think so. It has to be put in perspective. If you are a business and losing money in a particular part of it, you try to minimise that. That's the way we've looked at it. We recognise the community is only supporting up to the level of 4-4,500. We have an opportunity to reduce those costs and cater for that amount of people until the demand is there.

How is this going to create demand though?
We are still doing our activities in the community. There were things said about us not advertising which were absolutely untrue. We do ads in the newspaper, ads across a couple of radio stations but for some reason people seem to think we're not doing those things. We're out at schools. We have a commitment with one of sponsors down at Tweed Heads today. We did a couple of charity events. We can only do what we're doing and if the community decide not to recognise that then we can't drag them to the event unfortunately.

These are all fairly recent events though - you didn't really embrace the community from the outset...
In pre-season, we took two games a week to the local premier league teams and they attracted 5-800 people where they benefited. We gave them free tickets. I can't see how that's not engaging with the community. We've been doing those things. It's been disappointing - maybe from the beginning of the season we didn't interact enough, but to be honest, we've been on the road for quite some time. With the travelling and training requirements, it does make it a bit difficult to fulfill certain community involvement.

That's true for all clubs though, isn't it?
To be honest, all clubs have had five years up their sleeve.

But none of them have had your kind of crowd figures, apart from New Zealand Knights and even they got a 9k and 7k crowd at one stage?
But the Gold Coast is suffering some problems because of the financial crisis as well.

Again, that applies to all clubs...
Gold Coast is a microcosm of Australia - it's the first one to suffer when there's financial problems in the country and the last one to recover. There's a lot of hospitality and retail people on the Gold Coast and it does make it hard for them.

You do have one of the richest men in Australia at the helm though
Is that the reason that we shouldn't be running it like a business? Without Clive Palmer, the club wouldn't be here in the first place.

Is there much point when there's no fans there?
Well, why would we put a club here if we didn't believe in it? The decisions have been made to make sure the club is here for a long time and not a fly by night. A lot of sports have come and gone on the Gold Coast - we don't want to be one of them. We want to be here for a long time and challenge the Titans when it comes to being a popular sport. We haven't given up on it at all. There's only a demand for 4-4500 and we've adapted to that. We're looking to rebuild from there. When we believe the demand's there, we'll open up the stadium again.

What do you think the attendance will be this weekend?
Hopefully it's a sell-out. We don't get an early indications unfortunately - I wish we did or else we'd know what's going on  - but we need to instruct the stadium two weeks prior about our intention. Given the history we had, that was the basis for the decision to reduce the stadium.

This decision was made two weeks ago but you only told members yesterday?
Members were only advised yesterday because we had to make sure the various implementations were done and the necessary work with Ticketek and members' allocations were all taken care of. We can't just go out, do it and then solve problems that come up. We've tried to problem solve it before it happens.

So after ten rounds you ran up the white flag?
I don't think we need to be negative about it. We want to be here for not just this year. We want to be here for the years beyond. We want to make sure football is successful. It's a matter of re-grouping and minimising the cost. It does cost Clive Palmer in opening the stadium up. I think it's unfair to judge Clive as giving up or suggesting he shouldn't have got involved when you've got to ask why aren't the people coming?

That's not the fault of the fans surely?
Isn't it? The team's on top of the table, you had second versus third with Perth and we only got 4,000. So is that the fault of Clive Palmer? Why didn't they come? They knew about it. The game's on.

Do you think there's been a problem with the marketing of the club's image? The club has an image of being very arrogant...
In what way? Because we're confident in what we say? Because Mr Palmer put the line out there that the media jumped on about going through the season undefeated?

That's one part of it, but there's so many other parts. For instance. the decision to disregard the community in Lismore by cancelling Central Coast match in pre-season...
That wasn't a disregard for the fans in Lismore, that was more of a decision to give the local community an idea what it's going to be like paying football on the Gold Coast., In hindsight that could have been wrong, but that was a decision made at the time about educating the local community about playing football at Skilled Park.

You say it could have been wrong, so do you consider the marketing has been wrong?
Not across the board. We're learning as we go. We know we've got to get out there and promote the club. We're not being arrogant and thinking people are just going to show.

Some fans don't like the club's image and that's been a turn-off...
We have been betrayed by some media parts. There was an article yesterday in the Bulletin that there was disharmony in the team and the team being split. But that's far from the truth.

There are repeated rumours that the players are very unhappy with the board...
Players are able to voice their concerns if they want to - and we haven't had those voiced. A lot of them have suggestions about doing things and we take that on board and we look at it and justify if we do it or don't do it. But we take those matters on board. We don't disregard things. If there was dissatisfaction with the board, the players would tell us.

The players flew commercial flights to New Zealand last weekend - what happened to the private jets?
That's right, yes, they did. It was never promised to be for every game. Mr Palmer has commitments commercially so he had to use the jet. That was always the case form the outset - the use of the jet was never full-time. There had to be occasions where that has to happen. There was one occasion where he didn't, but every other time Mr Palmer has travelled with the players as well.

He turned up in the dressing room a couple of games ago too - that's unusual...
Yeah, to say, guys you're doing a great job. I don't think that's a big deal. You've got a guy here who one minute people think he's not interested, and on the other hand he's in there supporting his players. He's a man who's given us the opportunity to put together a very good squad, he's secured the services of Jason Culina, and he supports the players in what they're doing.

How do you think this weekend's game will look on television with three empty stands?
It's not ideal, of course not. But at the end of the day, the decision was made because we couldn't afford to lose thousands of dollars either. A lot of money has already been invested but there was no ideological story sold to Mr Palmer that there was going to be a profit from day one. That's wasn't a question - but the issue is, you don't want to go on throwing away money all the time either. It's a long season which is one of the reasons we've done this now.

It's very early into the season to be panicking - we're not even halfway...
I don't know if it's panicking. I think we're securing the foundations so we're here beyond this season.

No other club has had to do this.
Ask them that. There's a lot of clubs out there losing money as well. I can't speak for them. So be it. That doesn't mean we have to follow the norm though, does it?

Was this option ever a part of the arrangement with the FFA when you got the franchise?
It was an option given to us after everything had been signed off. We are in discussion with the FFA to find a way through it. We've taken it upon ourselves to do this and this is the way we've approached it to minimise costs. Until we receive support over the 5,000 patrons this how we're looking at it at this stage.

Are you under pressure from the FFA to reverse this?
To be fair, FFA have acknowledged that they don't want us to go ahead with this and they have corresponded that to us. We are having dialogue with the FFA about it as we speak.

Have they threatened any sanctions against you?
No, not at this stage. We are working together and working forward.

As far as you're concerned though, the only resolution is that this will go ahead though?
For this weekend, yes. It will probably have to be the following home game as well because of the notice we have to give the stadium.

Will it be reviewed on a weekly basis?
It's constantly being reviewed. We'll be in discussion with Ticketek and the stadium and will know when the demand is there again.

How would you feel about fans boycotting this week's game?
If they choose to do that, it will be disappointing, but I can't stop them. They'll miss a good game of football. Gold Coast has a point to prove. The players have a point to prove after the result last week. They were all disappointed in themselves at how it all panned out and they are definitely looking to get back in the winner's circle.

Finally, there are constant rumours that Jason Culina is now going to be trying to get away in January - have you heard anything about that?
Just rumours - I haven't heard anything, the club hasn't heard anything and I don't speculate - football is full of these rumours everywhere so I don't waste time worrying about them.