Clive Palmer is showing early signs of being as clueless about the sports business as another well known Gold Coast businessman, Christopher Skase.

Palmer wants to cap home game attendances at Skilled Park for his Gold Coast United A-League team at 5000 people because he wants to save $100,000 in operating costs. This from a bloke reportedly worth a lazy $5.5 billion.

It led to a virtual boycott of the side from Gold Coast fans last Saturday night with just 2616 people attending the 2-0 loss to North Queensland Fury. It made for a shocking spectacle on TV, with all the fans on the same side of the stadium as the TV cameras, meaning empty stands for those of us watching at home.

Wonder what Robbie Fowler, the Fury skipper and former EPL star, used to massive crowds at Anfield, Old Trafford and Wembley, made of all this?

Palmer is now at loggerheads with the league and in particular, A-League boss Archie Fraser, who as his time at St Kilda would attest, is a gruff Scot who is never backwards in coming forward. This battle of wills will be intriguing.

Palmer's sporting naivete reminds us of Skase, the disgraced (and now dead) former Qintex boss, who ran the Brisbane Bears shortly after their creation and entry into what was then the VFL. Together with Paul Cronin, one decision was made after another in the early days of the Bears to the stage where beleaguered coach Peter Knights was being told who to play in the side. It was a circus and the poor decisions at start-up were still hurting the club close to a decade later.

If Palmer thinks that the embarrassing TV pictures from Saturday night show his club and his sport in a good light, then we would have to question whether he is smart enough to run a major sporting team.

Thankfully for Gold Coast sports fans, the NRL's Titans are in better hands, as is the fledgling AFL club, whose first competition match is a little more than a year away.

And while on the subject of summer sports leagues, we were also intrigued by some news footage of last week's Melbourne-Gold Coast NBL clash. Unlike the soccer, there was a large enough crowd in the attendance, but the TV footage looked as though it had been shot by an iPhone. Once again, not a particularly good look.