KET
Years ago

White knight to save Gold Coast?

THE mystery white knight, who could not provide the funds to save the Gold Coast Blaze two weeks ago, has resurfaced and will meet the Tomlinson family this morning in an 11th hour development which could save the club.

Last night the club still did not have the funds to continue next year. The meeting with the investor, believed to be a mining magnate, will be the final chance for the club.

Mrs Tomlinson last night confirmed the club received a shock call from representatives from the original investor seeking a meeting.

"We have been contacted and asked to meet with the investor again, his representatives did not indicate what the meeting was about," she said.

Tomlinson said the shock meeting had provided a "flicker of hope."

It is believed the club needs just $500,000 more to operate next year after they reached an agreement with Gold Coast Basketball which would see the two entities share resources.


Read More from Goldcoast.com.au

Topic #28751 | Report this topic


Tiger Watcher  
Years ago

Word been around for a while that big Clive has been sniffing around getting a deal done.

Of course with the demise of his A-League franchise he needs to stay in the spot light!

Good if he gets it done as then Tinkler will join in with a club in the Hunter Region cause if soccer doesn't want the Billionaries we'll certainly take them!

Reply #370154 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Tinker has already asked about a team but got turned down.

Reply #370155 | Report this post


skull  
Years ago

haven't we already been down this road with these types of owners??

Reply #370156 | Report this post


natwhereyouat  
Years ago

NBL want teams to be community model teams.. Rightly so. These owner teams fail when the owner gets sick of losing money or bored.

As much as i'm a fan of Tinkler's marketing ideas etc, i agree with the NBL/BA's stance.

Reply #370158 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Its not Clive - or Tinkler

Reply #370159 | Report this post


orbit  
Years ago

There won't be any players left!

Reply #370160 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

While the one owner thing is a valid point, there's a difference between Seamus McPeake/Eddie Groves rich and Clive Palmer rich...

Reply #370162 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Clive Palmer eh?

Rename the Blaze the Gold Coast Titanics?

I wonder if the FBI will allow him to keep the GREEN uniforms?

Reply #370177 | Report this post


Chewy316  
Years ago

Anon 370155, Tinkler still owns the Jets in the A-League, all of the issues with the Hunter Sports Group and the FFA were resolved.

The NBL needs Palmer's $$$ but they don't need his ego which is as fat as his triple chin. No thanks.

Reply #370178 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Only $500,000 to stay in the League. What crap.
White Knight, even more fanciful.
Are the Blaze now saying they have $2.5 - $3.5 mIllion in revenue to stay in the NBL. How can that be possible? They owe money around town to the Tomlinso's ,e veryone else PLUS Joyce and they think they can continue on. I have never heard such utter spin.

Reply #370188 | Report this post


skull  
Years ago

not sure about a white knight riding in......more likely the grim reaper !!

Reply #370193 | Report this post


bowtie  
Years ago

I can't get my head around the fact that it's so morally and ethically wrong to give the owners another go at this. Did a horribly wasted, huge sum of their own money, give them the right to do it again? Pay up every single cent owed to the people connected with this club and maybe there's no harm done.
But...It's much too late for that now and Joyce gets 7 cents in the dollar any day.
Shame, Shame... if allowed to happen!!

Reply #370202 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

"Did a horribly wasted, huge sum of their own money, give them the right to do it again?"

Yes, that and the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Reply #370203 | Report this post


Mutley  
Years ago

A white knight to save a white elephant perhaps?

Reply #370208 | Report this post


Sector7G  
Years ago

Why would you bother? Surely you'd let it sink and then set in as a new franchise.

Reply #370210 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

It effectively is after voluntary administration but without the set up costs.

Reply #370213 | Report this post


bowtie  
Years ago

I am expecting them back in.
I can't put my finger on why, but this last minute stuff could easily just be the Tomlinsons themselves.
Expect an announcement tonight.

Reply #370217 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Mark Howard- "For all those waiting for an update on @GCBlaze @BasketballAus is planning to have a statement put out a little later this evening"

Take from that what you will...

Reply #370219 | Report this post


NBL Fan  
Years ago

PLEASE SURVIVE!!!!!

Reply #370220 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Now no announcement expected until tomorrow. "awaiting response from Blaze owners", the official word.

I don't understand how they can keep so many people out of the loop, ridiculous!

Reply #370228 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

ok, so I have often defended BA here, sometime I have bagged them.

This time they have lost it.

They are not in control of this. If it is true that the "club" is not responding to requests for information then BA is out of the loop, and GC is controlling the agenda.

Should have made an announcement at 5:05pm that the club were out of the league. Not simple by any means, but having acted decisively on the Melbourne Camouflage bid, they needed to show strength and decisiveness on this one too.

Reply #370235 | Report this post


bowtie  
Years ago

Blaze are making another submission tonight.

Reply #370236 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

BA are very poor managers of most things NBL related.

Reply #370247 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

The problem Anon, is that since the time of Bill Palmer IMO, no one has been a good manager of things NBL related.

Reply #370294 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

I have a question. Does anyone know if the TV deal (ten) is predicated on a certain number of teams being in the league or in certain markets?

The current AFL deal requires 18 teams. This is the reason everyone knows the AFL will not let North or Port or Western Bulldogs die.

I'd be interested to know if some such stipulation applies to the NBL. Paul?

Reply #370295 | Report this post


Hook Shot  
Years ago

Had enough of this mob! GONE... AND good riddance.

Reply #370310 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

How is there still not an official release as to if the blaze are gone or not?

Reply #370313 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Bill Plamer oversaw the demise of the Rollers, the Supercats and the Devils.
One of the major reasons the Rollers was booted out was that Carrara was not at an NBL standard then. Nothing has changed in those last 15 years, and now the Blaze are talking about playing out of there. That's just a joke. How the NBL can allow that is simply beyond me.
The Blaze say they only need another $ 1/2mill to play next season. How on earth is that possible in any logical sense? if they can play next season, then clearly there was no need for VA in the first place.

Reply #370348 | Report this post


natwhereyouat  
Years ago

The official word is.. Gold Coast have obtained the 500k via a corporate fan. The Blaze have submitted their proposal to BA/NBL.

BA will meet on Monday to go over the proposal and decide the outcome.

Reply #370349 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

#370348

yep, and Ross Oakley, Wayne Jackson et al saw the demise of South Melbourne and the removal of Fitzroy from the AFL. They did well, very well.

Bill Palmer took the league onto national free to air in prime time, negotiated long, multiple term deals with mitsubishi the likes of which the league has not seen since and saw the NBL boom.

People continue to blame league CEO's for local teams failures. You overestimate the capacity and expectation of the national office to influence local teams failures.

Is Andrew Demetriou responsible for North Melbourne's crappy Etihad deal? Is he responsible for Port Adelaide's football department spending?

Was Bill Palmer responsible for the fact that Geelong played out of a venue that could seat only 1850 people or that Hobart was not a corporate powerhouse centre that could support the team?

And while we are asking, we should clarify something. Hobart died. Geelong and the Gold Coast were offered generous redundancies, negotiated by Mal Speed, to leave the league. In other words, it was a deliberate plan, and the two teams were paid to leave - close to 7 figure sums at the time.

Reply #370350 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

the whole thing reeks of amateurs - from the blaze and the nbl. no wonder nobody except a current sponsor wants to give them money - til now. same thing here in bris - plenty of money around, but not to waste on dickheads

Reply #370358 | Report this post


Happy Days  
Years ago

Lets hope for the leagues sake they can get on the court.Run a low budget program with 2 imports and a group of SEABL players and then build from there.Look at guys like Jazzmar Ferguson,Jerrell Williams,CJ Massingale etc etc.

Reply #370359 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

yeh lets hope yet another group of people get bailed out for their ongoing stupidity, and save them from.their fate, growing up and learning any lessons. lets then categorise it under guilting in order to appease the fans. a lot of stupid decisions get made under guilt tripping for the players and fans - like two very unsuited people in a toxic relationship deciding to "stay together for the kids"

Reply #370362 | Report this post


BJF  
Years ago

HO, the biggest income streams of any sport are its league sponsorship and broadcast deal. The NBL has both in place but only pass on an insignificant amount of money to the teams.

Every AFL team would fall over if the AFL HQ operated their business in the same manor.

Reply #370363 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

BJF The AFL also takes the majority of non season ticket gate takings. NBL takes none.

It works both ways.

Reply #370373 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

BJF I warmly acknowledge what you say. I am not sure it has a bearing on what I am saying to Anon.

Too much is said here without the context of history wrapped around it.

Anon's inference is that Palmer was poor because three clubs left during his time. (more actually did but nonetheless).

However to support you I would say that if Palmer and Speed were trying to strengthen the league by getting rid of those three teams then well done. None of those markets at the time heavily influenced TV or sponsorship decisions. Poor drawing teams hurt your league crowds. etc etc.

In similar ways I have argued here against the inclusion of Newcastle under Tinkler and Wellington. Neither of those help the strategic needs of the league in regards to TV and sponsorship. That is why Brisbane and Melbourne #2 are so critical - and NOTHING else.

Reply #370375 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

Oh and BJF. The TV and sponsorship deals now in place are dwarfed in actual terms by what the league had in place under Palmer and Speed.

I would suggest to you that the league now operates on revenues of less than 2 million per year. Back then it was more like 5-7 million.

Reply #370376 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

What utter rubbish. Paying out teams to get rid of them. How is that sensible? The Rollers were in a poor facility and arguably should have never been allowed to ever join the NBL.
Geelong struggeld and like many teams now spent too much money on players etc. Make no mistake if Geelong were allowed to get their sh!t tohether, there would be every chance that they would still be around. Geelong are still a strong recruiting area, and strong across many divisions. The growth and popularity is still as strong as ever.
Hobart were averaging probably 3000+ people to their home games.Hardly poor crowds,by the Tigers standards now.
Hobart also applied for a new licence and were told that even though they were applying for the old devils licence, they had to buy a new one.
The difference being over $500,000. They guy heading up that bid said shove it. It's just and NBL cash money grab.
That guy is still around and is a multi, multi millionaire.
Other Melb clubs have folded, and I simply dont understand why it would have been necessary to BUY clubs out. if they are that bad, as some were. Let them fail

Reply #370387 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Blaze have said they will spend close to the cap. It won't be a budget team.

Reply #370391 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

#370387

Again, you fail to understand the context of history. Completely.

While Hobart were averaging maybe 3000 per game, it was at a time when the mainland city clubs were averaging closer to 6-8k. Sydney was selling out almost every week, Adelaide was rocking, the Melbourne teams were drawing big crowds.

Back then 3000 at Hobart or 2000 (max) packed in at Geelong, with no chance of bigger crowds or in Geelong's case, a bigger venue, was not anywhere near where the rest of the league was. Gold Coast were in a terrible venue and both Geelong and Gold Coast were seen to have untenable financial models.

Geelong's model could never survive because their venue was just too small. Forget the myths of 2000+ people at a SEABL game, the Geelong Arena never crammed more than 2000 people into it.

Now, you will need to find a place where I said paying out those teams was sensible?

Because I have not said that have I?

I said those teams were paid out (it was a little History lesson for you), and I said that Mal Speed (not Palmer) negotiated those deals. And I said it was a planned outcome. The other teams wanted the poorer performers in the league out. When Geelong and Gold Coast came to town they drew poor crowds, they wanted more big games. And guess what... that is what TV and sponsors wanted too....

I agree, they could have allowed those teams to fold without paying them out because that is what would have happened.

Of course the alternative to paying them out might have been to watch them die awful, long agonising deaths and re-berthing as we saw become PR disasters at places like Canberra and Newcastle (and now Gold Coast), which of course, was what was allowed to happen AFTER Palmer was released from the league.

As for the nonsense of Geelong being a strong recruiting area - of what relevance is that? And of what truth is it? The last and only player from Geelong to play NBL since they left the NBL (from memory) is Herbert. That's hardly a strong recruiting area, no matter how successful the Supercats have been at the next level.

Reply #370393 | Report this post


bowtie  
Years ago

Blaze will be back and they will be playing out of the Convention centre again.
According to the twitter of Daniel Meers, GC journo.
Does anyone else still think this has been a scam from day one to relieve the owners of a pile of bills?
Apart from them being debt free, what's the difference?

Reply #370400 | Report this post


natwhereyouat  
Years ago

bowtie, it certainly looks that way from the outside..

Reply #370402 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Yea, so what team are they gonna have?

I guess they could start with

C IMPORT
PF Petrie
SF IMPORT
SG Goulding/Dillon
PG Gibson

Fill out the bench with SEABL/NZBL guys if need be as many proven Aussies have signed elsewhere, could they get a Nevill, Bose, Khazzouh type?

Could be pretty good if they get the right imports or land one of the better Aussies if they chose not to go to Europe.

Reply #370404 | Report this post


Venom  
Years ago

Daniel Meets did not say the club was playing out of the GCCC - it was one of the reasons they burnt so much money. BA needs to apply the $1mil rule to everyone or remove it. They remove it we'll be revisiting this again with owners walking away and players/coaches/fans out of pocket. When will this bullshit with owners going into VA to get out of bills and then restarting again result in anything different ? I want the Blaze to stay around, but this is destroying the league's credibility. If they had a $1mil guarantee, it would have been activated and paid everything out and the NBL would have taken the license back. Its practically trading insolvent atm.

Reply #370409 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Just shows us all how poor the VA laws are the ability for the current owners to be able to avoid their fiscal responsibilities, and start anew and ultimately do the same thing again, and ultimately go broke again.

Reply #370412 | Report this post


bowtie  
Years ago

Daniel Meers said 10 hrs ago Twitter,
"will be playing GCCC if if in comp"

Did I assume wrongly?

Reply #370417 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

The talk about playing at Carrara was NOT for next season but for if/when the existing facility there is revamped for the 2018 Commonwealth games.

The Blaze have been able to renegotiate the deal with the Convention Centre and if they are in the comp next season games will still be played at Broadbeach

Reply #370420 | Report this post


LC  
Years ago

I wa reading today's Gold Coast Bulletin and it confirms they have raised the 500k but do not have the bank guarantee but are indicating they could do so by the end of this year...now over to BA...

Have BA allowed other teams leeway on the bank guarantee in the past?

Reply #370428 | Report this post


Camel 31  
Years ago

As I recall Bendat didn't wanna put one up 'cause he was rich.
Here Groves didn't put one up . Later, he sold the team.
On radio : " Have the new owners put up the $1M ?"
Sengstock : " Er , well , er , we've met them , and
well ,er, they have the financial means to run the club. "

Reply #370445 | Report this post


bowtie  
Years ago

Less and less changes to last season except the owners saved a pot of dough, threw out their debts and little people get less than they are owed.
Did I miss anything?

Reply #370461 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

No. All a plot to ensure BJ doesn't bet paid.
Now they want to do it all again.
No way.

Reply #370468 | Report this post




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