ALLAN McKenzie knows well the level of scepticism in Victoria surrounding the concept of an AFL team based on the Gold Coast.

He's heard it for all of the near-decade he's been championing the cause as president of AFL Queensland team the Southport Sharks. And longer. He has heard it since the ill-conceived and poorly set-up Brisbane Bears proved such a spectacular disaster before their shift in 1993 to the Gabba and Queensland's capital.

He understands the lingering cynicism about the prospect of either the Gold Coast Kangaroos or a new 17th AFL franchise. But that doesn't mean you stop trying to convince the doubters that the climate has changed.

"We've been in pursuit of it now for the best part of 10 years, and our conviction has just grown stronger as the Gold Coast has matured and has become more ready for a licence to be based here," he said.

"There's always going to be a bit of scepticism about the Gold Coast market because of its history. But you've got to remember when the Bears were here, the Gold Coast was probably lucky to have 200,000 people. Now it's the best part of 500,000.

"The Gold Coast has at least doubled in size in that 20 years, but not only that; it's increased in maturity, as well. There's a lot more strong businesses that are Gold Coast-based now, and a lot less reliance on transients and developers now than there was back then.

"With a proper set-up, stadium, training and administrative headquarters, the support of Gold Coast businesses and the Southport Sharks, it's quite capable of being run successfully."

Not insignificantly, either, whichever entity becomes the AFL's south-east Queensland club will have the access to poker machines the gaming laws denied the original incarnation of Brisbane.

Southport knows all about the pokies. The Sharks are the leviathan of the Gold Coast football scene. Their licensed club is the second-biggest in Queensland and second-highest for poker machine turnover, with 280 "one-arm bandits" — the maximum number allowed.

Southport has been in talks with the AFL, as recently as the last couple of weeks, about a commercial association with a Gold Coast club. McKenzie, like other football people on the coast, has been heartened by recent developments.

The Gold Coast advisory group, commissioned by the AFL to explore the viability of a club in the region, delivered its final report to the league in grand final week, giving the thumbs-up not only to the prospect of a relocated Melbourne club, but a new entity should the Roos ultimately decide not to go.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou's insistence this week that the Gold Coast venture would happen with or without the Kangaroos, says McKenzie, was particularly reassuring. The main concern now, he says, particularly if a 17th licence is to be granted, is time.

"There's infrastructure that has to be built, and you're going to need a lead-in period for that to be able to be done," he says. "The stadium (still most likely a redeveloped Carrara), of course, is the vital component, then there's training and administrative headquarters … two years is not very long for those sorts of things to be built."

McKenzie concedes that having to start from scratch without a ready-made club such as the Roos would make things harder.

The failure to give the Bears meaningful draft and list assistance 20 years ago put the fledgling club behind the eight ball on the field from the start. That's something its modern successor couldn't afford.

"Obviously, there is a need for the team to be competitive at least from the start, otherwise it won't get support," he says.

But McKenzie points to the reasonable efforts in both competitive and crowd terms so far of other Gold Coast sport "new chums", such as the National Rugby League's Titans and basketball's Blaze, as evidence that the sporting interest in the region is burgeoning.