Brett's pet dog would be an upgrade on Clarke !!!

Does maher have a Labrador? If he has, I agree with spinner.

Did heal or anstey coach?

No one has coached before they coached.

But I think Cole going public with these bids when these bids are still in the early stages do more damage then good.

Not to mention the very going public is an attempt to put pressure on the sale itself.

If Cole takes over the 6ers, what happens when his "backers" realise they are going to lose $2M per year and pull out?

He's pitching Maher/Arsego as coaches and Smyth as CEO.

But Cole wants assurances about availability of the Arena first.

Interrogating Boti reveals that Cole's money is an ex-Adelaidean now in New York. Cole would set things up and then return to San Diego.

http://www.botinagy.com/blog/coles-group-to-buy-36ers/

Boti Nagy ‏@boti_nagy
@isaacforman Issues w bank/Eddy/receivers - that stuff is over my head 2. If AAs been sold, why not say so? Not quite that simple apparently

have*

... 'SOS one of the bidders to buy The Arena '.. Nagy.

shouldn't be hard for someone in SA to do a quick title search on the Adelaide Arena....(can't where I am currently).

Libertine, is there an alternative method to PropertyAssist and paying?

Fun fact: I designed that PropertyAssist template over a decade ago when I was an absolute rookie. So ugly!

Title search will only show a settlement event not a contract event

Charles Sturt Council may be able to tell you if the transfer has taken place.

So put in a CEO with absolutely no experience and a coach with the same. Cant people learn from the mistakes of the past.

Why doesn't Cole present this to the NBL on the proviso it goes ahead if the Arena is available. Will save him some time and get things rolling quickly come seasons end.

This is a big thing to keep putting out there if it doesn't come off.

I think the most promising thing about this is that he wants Maher as a coach because of who he is and has said he will provide the support to get Maher where he needs to be as a coach, the understanding Maher needs help is the most crucial element to the plan.
Smyth will have plenty of support as CEO and will put a lot of passion into the club that we have been missing. With Smyth and Maher the supporters will get behind what is a struggling club.
To have an Adelaide born backer is a big deal as well, provides some passion from the owner. Ken clearly wants this badly.

Passion from the owner, because SOS aren't Adelaide guys?! Money and commitment are what's needed.

Smyth as CEO with support sounds like duplication of responsibilities and more expensive in an era when teams need to be smart and lean. Smyth as CEO sounds like "And then Mark Davis can be the marketing guy, and Mike McKay can be receptionist, and Jason Williams can handle catering.." A risky way to get a guy who can schmooze with sponsors.

The club needs discipline, strategy and resolve in the office, led by a firm identity.

Someone suggested David Spear?

Can anyone advise what Phil's qualifications are? Has he any experience in running business/managing people?

What us he doing now?

There's a lot more too running such a business than being a well know person, nit saying it can't be done but learning on the run in such a high profile position could be a big risk.

How would Jan go as a CEO? She is a hard task master and be what is needed?

I think its a good basic structure - add some local business people to the board (Spear, Sexton, Dawe etc) and that should round out the skills required.

SOS have not bid on the Arena.

Maher as coach makes alot of commercial sense, with an experienced assist like Arsego, a must.

Interesting couple of months coming up.

Jan Stirling has a lot of respect in the basketball community and appointment involving her would be applauded

Yeah definitely agree with having someone like David Spear involved or even someone like Peter Ali. Both have run companies before successfully.
I'm in agreeance with the Anonymous poster above, Cole does talk the talk but often doesn't walk the walk. Definitely your spiritual cult leader raising dodgy money.
Isaac, I reckon the passion from the SOS guys died very quickly when their bank balance's starting to take a hit.
Started off with how many? 6? Now down to one? Definitely not a profitable business venture at the moment but I think if the team can start to build some success it can turn around very quickly.
Would Perth and NZ be the only teams making a profit at the moment?

Perth and New Zealand both making big loses, cause they win by spending big. Perth may be doing better now with all the extra seats.

Phadreus - Perth on target to make a nice profit. Was mentioned in a feature article (not online) in The West business section a few weeks ago.

Gotta love people just naming ex legends as saying lets make them the CEO or the owner!

To be a professional organisation we require suitably qualified people running the show with experience.....now not all of these are going to work out but if I'm investing my hard earned cash I’d want the CEO to have background in business/corporate sector an preferably some sports admin background.

You can't just say "hey Smyth used to coach and could play a bit, damn lets make him CEO"

All that will happen with jobs for the boys is a financial disaster...lets step out of our little Adelaide centric circle & old boys club and look Austwide for professionals to take our off-court admin back to being the best in the comp and hopefully then the on court will start to take care of itself!

Spot on Isaac, Thankgod for the SOS, things just didn't work out, I really do hope they stay on with the Sixers in some capacity. I cannot thank them enough for the money and passion they have given up for the Sixers to survive. Has anyone seen these guys after a(now) standard loss after a game at the Arena, they actually look like shattered men, which they just to do not deserve.

Isaac, I reckon the passion from the SOS guys died very quickly when their bank balance's starting to take a hit.

Hasnt Smyth co-owned Sammys for a number of years? I think that would be an example of some pretty sound business experience.

My fantasy basketball league had this discussion this morning. Cole is talking about a 'mystery' investor with a rookie CEO and a rookie coach (sound familiar?).

Serious misgivings about the CEO more than the coach quite frankly, it's alot different running a sports team than it is coaching one.

However, I think the high profile names are designed clearly to catch attention and if the right people can be put in place around the 'leaders', who knows what might happen.

I think the ideal situation re Smyth CEO is if you could sort of split it into 2 roles, it may cost a bit more, but could work quite well imo.

Say you make Smyth General Manager of Basketball operations, and have another person with more business experience as the General Manager Commercial. Yes its sort of a doubling up of roles, but in many ways it isnt.

Smyth basically takes care of basketball, ensure the coaches are doing things at a high level, team selection is done well, could pick the imports with/for the coaches which is something he did very well imo, i cant remember him ever cutting a import mid season and his most highly criticised are probably Horvath and CT, and both were decent and would look awesome compared to many we have had since. A bit like NBA GM's do.

He also seems to have a well known name around SA even amongst people who dont follow basketball and a media presence. If he can ensure the team, especially imports are selected right ie no paying out and replacing guys and the coaches are doing there jobs properly, hopefully can stay longer term, the money saved in not replacing imports/coaches could pay a reasonable portion of his salary especially when you take into account the extra crowds a well coached team with a good squad of players and good imports would bring.

He could also do the media rounds as often as possible and generate some real interest/hype, if that brings even an extra 500 people to each game i reckon its worth having him involved and would end up being not overly expensive.

Plus im pretty sure as coach he would have met alot of sponsors/business people that may not currently be involved with the club, maybe he could help get them back involved, i have heard him talk about the Shahins on a few occasions, so he may be able to attract them to be involved in the club.

So basically if Smyth
- helps recruit the right players/imports
- helps the coaches to make sure they are getting things right.
-uses his profile and media precense to generate some extra interest/hype in the team which leads to some extra ticket sales
-help get some of his business contacts ie the Shahins involved as sponsors
If he can do those things well, he could generate his salary in savings on not replacing imports, and generate more interest leading to an increase in ticket sales and sponsorships. Not all unrealistic imo.

Then the business GM takes care of the running the business side of things.

Given we have in the past we have had more business people who may have not excelled in the 'basketball side of things' and that hasnt lead the club to great heights i would be interested to see more of a basketball person like Smyth involved in the management of the club, imo if they can afford to split the role to get the best of both worlds, possibly wont cost much extra either.

Teacher, I'd favour a front of house or managerial type from a restaurant situation before an owner. You can co-own a racehorse, but you're probably not directly influencing the hands-on success other than enabling the process.

I do see value in a cult leader/visionary for the club, but that could be Maher. I'd have all-systems-go in the office, though.

If you wanted to get ex-club people involved, someone like Sapwell is a great people person. Could probably handle a GM/ops role.

I've run mine for 15 years, it's abysmally run and no evidence at all that I could manage anything else successfully!

And we are back to the dog!

clarky, deleted that to make my point more concise, but it's no secret!

Lot of speculation re: the Arena being sold.

Haven't seen anyone speculating to whom it was sold though.

Any ideas?

If Boti and Cole are to be believed, it just about sounds like the final step in a done deal.

This is the first Sixers story to put a smile on my face in a long, long time. As long as Maher has an experienced assistant & Smyth has some experienced front office people I think it will be a success.
I don't mind Jimmy Buckets idea of splitting responsibilities between a Manager of Basketball & a Manager of Commercial. But, everything considered, I'd be happy for Smyth and Maher to be appointed to these roles.
Like Cole says in the interview, "If it comes to that, I'm sure we (Smyth & Cole) can be Pat Riley to his (Maher's) Eric Spoelstra if he thinks he needs it."

I got the impression of the Arena being under contract , subjective to ..... , so , cain't state that they are friends of Basketball just yet .

Nagy : " Cole is also concerned the brand is being tarnished , in some cases deliberately. "
Hodge : " When you cut the grass , the snakes appear . "

"Cole also concerned the 36ers' brand name and viability were being challenged and the club's name tarnished, in some instances deliberately."

I found that sentence written by Boti to be quite intruiging. It would be interesting to find out some more meaning behind this including details of who and how?

Clarke and Radford sabotage :P

Atleast that's how I read it

Just received this email from the 36ers:

March 1, 2013

COLE UNABLE TO SECURE FUNDING


There has been ongoing communication with Ken Cole in relation to the interest he has expressed in taking a majority interest in the Club.


The Club today received written confirmation from Ken Cole informing the Club that he was unable to secure the funding required to move forward.

Link: http://sitedesq.imgstg.com/clubscripts/linkblast.cfm?key=8b964283-033d-4dbc-937d-c73cefa92ed4&memID=3369952