So why didn't they sell it to Melo for $1.00 when they could?

Pissweak effort by the people of the Gong. Their crowds were awful. Have the number 1 NBA draft pick and still failed to turn up. Wind em up. It's done.

Have a potential number 1 NBA draft pick and still failed to turn up. Wind em up. It's done.

Edited for accuracy.

Hawks will never be stable until they move from the WEC. It's too expensive to rent. Subpar facilities. Absolutely no parking (legit not a single car park allocated) and falling apart.

Hawks have a new local owner business man ready to step in, with Ball but the nbl asking exhorbitant money for the license. There are no winners here. Past five seasons of glory days could be over.

You need new drugs lovebroker, the hawks will be fine just need an owner with a plan.

Hey Lovebroker, maybe try having an anger thrap before logging on. Clears the mind for most....I'm sure you've got a station set up in the basement with posters of Pinochet, Abbott and co. covering the walls. Just do evereyone a favour and get one away before hitting the keys.

Unless angry is simply your default setting...

Trash management.
Trash club.
Trash players.
Trash city.
Trash, repetitive comments.

Trash posts by a trash human being.

Serious question - would you say this season just passed that each club ran at a profit sans Illawarra?

Time to move on from the hawks. They've been a pain in the ass to hear about for ages. Them and the crocs didn’t have the money, keep the league to major cities.

LB, you really should seek professional help. Your pure hatred of the Hawks is not healthy, and often deluded.

I will worry about the health of the league as long as our biggest populated state can only support 1 team

ever team needs a rival team so bring back the hogs

Yes and joke that LK and the NBL are, they want to milk $10mill for the Hawks licence + there is still $2mill owing. Good luck with that!

Incredible to think that a club that cannot compete fiscally with almost every other club in the competition would place a focus on signing young talent to long contracts in the hope of developing them for future success. Absolute madness!

Standard tripe from the tool shed. Then again, if you refer to yourself as Lovebroker, what should we expect.

So much uneduacted hate for one person. Sad.

Now now KET, don't confuse him with facts.

So it's gone from we lost only $100,000 to we lost $2mill? How did the NBL allow this?

I must admit, I'm getting pretty sick of the hawks and their shit off season performance. Nostalgia is nice but I’m ready to see them in the rear view mirror.

Get out of the Gong! Worst fans of any team. Don't even show up. Don’t deserve a team

Yep, time to put up white flag and say it's over. How many times have they been in this scenario.
Current and post Covid19 it's going to be hard to even sustain the league let alone the poor cousin Hawks.

That's it in a nutshell, sustainability. Apart from Perth, all really have fickle fan bases which will take a bigger hit with economic downturn. Why were payrolls so big that created financial instability. Argument includes keeping best home grown talent here. As we're finding now like Kay, they'll be off to Europe. Clubs keep trying to outspend others to buy titles. Was great to see Cairns in finals proving getting in young affordable talent. Look at major league baseball, Yankees and Red Sox are always spending big but not always winning it all. They're propped up by TV and other forms of income, but smaller teams have to find alternate ways of competing. But NBL teams just throw money around and just think it's going to be ok, league will bail us out because they can't do without out. Without LK the league would be done. The upcoming year will might finally get through to teams to tread carefully, otherwise they'll be in same position as Hawks. Have no idea how Tasmania are doing in this crisis but to come in this season they need to have everything setup. If their are no crowds either because of social distancing or the public not having the disposable income then they are stuffed before ball has been thrown up. As with all teams, plan for and expect the worst case scenario. If a club can't afford to spend $300k on a top import, don't. Plenty of players out there that are more affordable. Can't sign Goulding to big contract, don't, hardly going to be bringing in crowds if their are none. Maybe we can't brag we've got best league outside of nba, but we will have a league.
RIP Hawks,hopefully it won't be RIP NBL!

There is a difference between losing $100,000 and owing $2,000,000

LK out here thinking that people will pay big money for an NBL licence when a number of owners would take $1 to get out

The bottom line is that the NBL doesn't generate enough money as a league or as individual teams to justify paying players over $100,000 in salary.

Before the Perth fans say we do , you have a philanthropic billionaire as an owner who underwrites the costs. That in itself is not indeprendently sustainable and reliant on Jack's commitment, it could all change tomorrow.

Its not an uncommon problem in sports as NRL and AFL teams struggle to and are reliant on their parent entities to assist.

"Yes, the entire concept upon which the Wildcats and Breakers built their programs is clearly flawed"
You are an idiot Koberules if you belive that to be true.

I believe this to be the truth as very well stated above.
"you have a philanthropic billionaire as an owner who underwrites the costs. That in itself is not indeprendently sustainable and reliant on Jack's commitment, it could all change tomorrow." You have 10,000 lemming all paid up and no NBL.

Lemmings? Yeah, blame the fans who actually want their team to succeed. Idiot.

If Kestleman finds someone willing to pay for the Hawks' licence, do any of the Hawks' debts get paid from the proceeds of the licence's sale?

Once Bendant got involved they have always paid way above market value for players to win.
Kestleman trying to obtain $10mill. for a licence that isn't even worth $1 shows exactly what he is all about. The Money.

""A total of eight players started receiving the first instalments of their remaining salary and superannuation entitlements last month and all payments will be met in full," the NBL said via statement last week."

How is this even possible under the governance of the NBL?

Buying the Hawks is like buying a car with rust and bald tyres or a house with a leaking roof.

Hope to see Hawks survive but buyer beware .

"Buying the Hawks is like buying a car with rust and bald tyres or a house with a leaking roof."

Does NBL want a buyer for the team/club or for the licence only, though?

This was always on the cards!

ITs over fort he Hawks and the COVID Pandemic put the nail in the coffin.

A strong bid came from those associated with another NBL team but this was knocked on the head by the League office so now they have another licence to sell..say hello to the new NZ team

The hawks have had suitors but nbl played games with those potential owners and blocked the sale.

Played games with?

Originally there was a 50/50 deal done with Ball and a local investor. The NBL said no. The NBL then tried to get a 51% Ball ownership and 49% new investor of their own and the Ball group said no.
LK still wanting $10 mill for the licence FFS. Not sure where it is at now.

why did they block the sale?

Just go with 8 team comp for 2020/21.
It will be tarnished by coronavirus anyway.

Give Hawks time to get their shit together for the 2021/22 Season. If they can.

Kings did there best to save them but were blocked at every stage by you know who

Smith was happy to chuck in 25% but nbl said no, only one owner per team. There is local owner waiting with support of the Balls 25%, nba guys like to own basketball teams but not even most them can afford the nba. At present I believe that contracts have been signed on new ownership but licence price is a sticking point.
Hawks are worth nothing so not certain anyone would buy a license.

Tory Lavell and Lamello Ball on Twitter. All up nbl now.

Hawks-Kings has always been huge until recently with the slow demise of the former.

I'm surprised at the questions about it - how long have you been following NBL for?

When Hawks were still relevant there was even a fight between fans outside the stadium in Wollongong (mid 2000s).

A league has been crap except for the derby, swans closer to 30,000. Sydney's transport infrastructure is poor. WEC has no parking, not close to public transport .

How many attending swans games are ex pat vics or south Australians who just want to go to live game and maybe adopt swans as second team.
What is it with the low attendances? NRL is low compared to afl, yet State of origin show the passion of fans. West Australia has much smaller population yet crowds are always high, lack of alternatives?

People only go to "events" in NSW hence state of origin is huge.

A League gets money because the Socceroos and the WC are packaged into it

NBL has no hero events like that to attach itself to

NBL Sydney had one "Event" last year and that was the Lamelo game where they drew 17,000.

West wanderers have struggled for crowds since they have been losing. Sydney is one of the most expensive towns in the world to live in, Jack ain't far away from the truth, tollways getting across Sydney are also very expensive.

TV doesn't care about 17,000 people at an event

They care about how many hundreds of thousands that will watch a major tournament

Boomers don’t get the media support or the eyeballs that Socceroos do

Soccer has been very smart by separating the WC and Olympics. Basketball hasn’t and can’t realise any commercial value like soccer.

The discussion was around crowd attendances to sport in NSW #064. And TV does care about attendances as you only have to look at the re-boot of the AFL where they are going to use simulated crowd noises.

"Yes, the entire concept upon which the Wildcats and Breakers built their programs is clearly flawed"

Well said!

Yep both owned by wealthy people who were prepared to back both times without worrying about the cost.

Unfortunately it's similar to Townsville's demise. The town only has themselves to blame.

If you have ever lived in Wollongong you would realise when the steel works basically got rid of everyone and so many people either have to work in Sydney or not work at all money for sporting events just doesn't make sense.

Going to any sport is a luxury then you have the NBL who play games on stupid nights like Thursday and Monday and you wonder why crowds are down.

The Hawks as soon as Campbell was made C.E.O was doomed to fail Kim Welch did a much better job but he saw the writing on the wall.

You have had two guys as owners who have done little to help the situation then the Illawarra trust who refuse to spend any money on an aging WEC.

Hell even the Dragons don't get decent crowds any more and they to are run by a bunch of old dinosaurs who think living in the past will appease the fans.

You think Kim Welch did a better job, he is part of the reason the Hawks are in this position with the 2 previous owners

@KET but the TV deal for Olympics is negotiated outside basketballs influence and BA and NBL dont add any commercial value to accessing the Boomers games.

Soccer negotiate their own TV deal for the WC, hence soccer more powerful than basketball

Basketball would do well to follow the soccer model and have Olympics being truly amateur or U/23 and WC the best of the best

So the year with Lisch and Penney wasn't pretty?

That was the first season out of liquidation last time.

They just need an owner willing to invest in staff, coaches. Historically they've underpaid in these areas and not competitively recruited.

A skilled marketing and sales group would help.

Man I wish people wouldn't just assume shit because someone said it's true.
"Crowds aren't down though they're up and at record highs just not in the Gong though."
The Hawks average crowd was 3382 over the last 15 home games. A high of 5064 NYE last year and a low of 2273 4/2/19.

Crap at the best for a venue that holds about 6000 people in basketball mode.

In order for the Hawks to have a decent shot in the Illawarra the venue would need to move to the Shellharbour area. Dapto, Albion Park and Shellharbour are still expanding rapidly. If you live in the Illawarra you are aware how much everyone hates the CBD. It's dirty. It's bare. It's dodgy. It's expensive etc.

Look at the demographics of the region. Wollongong and surrounding suburbs (West Wgong, North Wgong, Fairy Meadow etc) are mostly either poor uni students going to UOW or elderly retirees. South of Wollongong is where all the young families come from. The market the team wants.
Who is going to drive 30min into the CBD to park a solid 10-20min away from the venue (if you're lucky) to go to a game on a weeknight?

Then there's all the times previous management and ownership have screwed over local businesses and fans.

Not surprised they are often in this position. And it won't change until they do something about their home location.

People and businesses who been screwed over will be very hard to ever win back that is so true. Every time the team is reborn that is probably a whole lot more businesses who will never be paid for the services they provided and its not like there are infinite businesses in the region to replace them. Shellharbour might be growing but moving there sounds crazy to me.

Move them until you find a town that will embrace them

Sorry Zodiac. Missed the except. If they had an officially low 2000 number you can bet it was a mid - high range 1000 number. Take that to the bank.

"Crap at the best for a venue that holds about 6000 people in basketball mode"

Just confirming the capacity of the WEC is 5,673 in basketball mode.

No.They should be able to find a sponsor. In the old days the benchies did many clinics and were paid to do it. A way of topping up their meagre income. Kellogg sponsored and the teachers had ongoing support after the schools visit. Truly not that hard.

getting a new owner if the licence is tied to the Illawarra Region might prove pretty difficult in the current climate outside of the current ings owner who by all reports is keen.

I can't understand why the NBL has an issue with an owner having both teams considering at many stages along the journey Chairman of the league owns a team and the league itself which means the same person also had a slice in up to 3 teams.

" In the old days the benchies did many clinics and were paid to do it. A way of topping up their meagre income."

It shouldn't be something that is only for the benchies, nor should it be something to top up income. Its fan engagement and the benefits are that the club creates fans from an early age.

If the players dont want to do school & community visits as part of their current contract then something is wrong with the culture of the club.

Watch this space Bullets are having major probelms with ownersip.....they are next

Just like buying apartments off the plan when it comes time to complete the purchase of an NBL team and acquire the remaining % sometimes its better to cut and run than to stump up the rest of the money.....how is the weather in Brissy by the way?

DEC funded and Tassie a yar away is great news....if only we didn't have two teams in dire strights with one in administration and a dispute re the completion of the final installment on the other!

I guess a 7 team league can work

At a guess I'd say the Martin-led consortium would be looking for reasons not to take up the next 37.5% of their ownership, due to the uncertainty of the league going ahead.

Certainly under the old NBL the licence was tied to the city and not transferable.