Tickets sold out quicker than the Casino’s New Year’s Day Mariah Carey concert, with dozens of disappointed supporters forced to join a waiting list for tickets as the event reached capacity.
For those fortunate enough to attend, the 2013 luncheon delivered on all of the Club’s pre-event promises with guests treated to a fantastic afternoon, good company, great food, quality entertainment, and prizes.
Charismatic co-host Tom Murphy shook off some early nerves to entertain the crowd in partnership with SUNS TV Host Jess Skarratt, the veteran defender grilling his team mates and bravely quizzing Coach Guy McKenna in a series of interviews conducted throughout the afternoon.
After just two years, the Ladies Lunch has quickly established itself as one of the Club’s most exciting off field biggest events with CEO Travis Auld telling goldcoastfc.com.au small growth had been anticipated this years event would be bigger, the enormous community interest had surprised organisers.
“We had around 500 people attend the lunch and it was by far the biggest ladies lunch on the Gold Coast,” said Auld.
“It certainly is something we as a football club, but also as a community, should be really proud of.”
Auld said the Women of the SUNS Ladies Lunch was a fantastic prelude to this next weekends match against Adelaide at Metricon Stadium, with Round 14 officially designated as “Women’s Round”.
“If you talk about the role women play in our great game you’ll find that 40% of our supporters are female with almost 100,000 women playing our game across the country,” he said.
“There are four or five women’s teams on the Gold Coast now and one of them just competed in the State Championships.”
“You can be a mum, a staff member, a partner, an umpire, a support and a player in our game now, so we acknowledge how important women have become for our code.”
Auld said the club remained committed to introducing new initiatives involving the Women of the SUNS program after receiving such positive feedback from the wider community.
“We thought what we would do here at the Gold Coast SUNS is build a women’s coterie group that gives members the opportunity to network,” said Auld.
“You don’t have to love AFL, in fact you don’t have to love the GC SUNS because we’ll talk you in to that over time, but the idea is you can socialise with other women on the Coast, come to games and events with similar-minded women.
“So far the response has been fantastic.”
"We know women are wonderful promoters, so if we can show them a really good time they’ll go and tell all their friends and anyone else who will listen and therefore that’s how we might build their support at our Football Club."
Click here to see the full photo gallery of the Ladies Lunch in 2013.
