Yeah and I just heard Kevin Rudd was the PM, old news. Tough to see the 36ers win that one in the 'Gong, just so much emotion involved froim their side of things. Who gets saville on the cheap next season?? His play doesnt warrant the big bucks anymore.

Some are instinctively blaming the NBL for what's happened with the Hawks but I don't think that's completely fair.

- the Hawks needed community funding to stay alive for this season
- the owners begrudgingly carried on though they've quietly shopped the licence around for 18 months, hoping a second Asian team might snap it up back around the time of the Slingers and bail them out
- the public gripe from the ownership is the bank guarantee which is in place to protect against a team like the Hawks going under to the detriment of the competition
- reality is the Hawks owners just aren't interested in paying to keep the club afloat; nothing wrong with that, but just say it rather than citing the new league surety as the problem
- the club is throwing "1979-2009" type death notices on their site without explicitly trying to properly sell the team from what I can tell (and what I've heard from Wollongong)
- the owners (when pressured) admitted they hadn't even asked their sponsors for more help in keeping the club alive; that seems like a pretty basic and easy thing to try and their not having done it says to me they just want out

It's never good to lose a foundation club and a great league brand like the Hawks, but I just wish they'd try to sell the club and/or openly seek help in transitioning to a new group who does want to keep a major team in Wollongong.

Theyve never got great crowds. I love the quote "We have everything going for us, except the extra financial backing required for the new competition". Let me put this into perspective if a similar quote was attributed to other proffesions:

"I've got all the potential to be a great writer except i can't read or write"

"I've got everything it takes to be a super model except for the fact that i'm fat and ugly"

"I've got all the capabilities of a test cricketer except the ability to bat, bowl or field"

sorry, jokes aside, i reckon they'll be back in a few years.

Gee tough crowd in here.

The Hawks played by the rules.
They never paid over the salary cap. So what happens to the team that does the right thing, we lose our team due to the greed of other teams....

Things were going great until teams such as Adelaide, for example, started paying under the table cash for exorbitant player salaries from large bags taken from BASA canteens.

Almost every NBL team (other than the Hawks) cheated by rorting the salary cap. Some teams have had 3 players salaries alone over the salary cap. In doing so their teams are stacked giving an unfair advantage in talent but also making the league a battle of 3 teams. Its boring folks.

Curtley they never got great crowds yet they did when they were winning, sounds simple but now when teams are stacked do you really think its worth going to watch a team of Australian and Import talent worth 1.6 million against a team worth $800K???

Isaac your gripe about the bank guarantee is what all teams are reacting over with some teams even amazingly saying that as their paying their players in excess of $1 million per season (hello!!) they should be able to use that as collateral and lessen the guarantee.

To say Isaac the owners aren't interested in keeping the Hawks alive perhaps is without doubt the dumbest thing I've ever heard from you.

Isaac, Isaac 'trying to properly sell the team???
Who is going to buy the Hawks?
In fact who would even think of buying the Sixers?

I mean gee Isaac there's no salary cap, there's no FTV or major sponsor and you need $1.5 million just sitting there!

I just can't understand why anybody would buy an NBL team!

Isaac you seem obtuse to the Hawks plight and seem o.k with throwing the Hawks under the bus when the bus has been driven over the cliff by owner's rorting the league.

poor form Isaac

I too agree that Isaac is the most level headed and fair poster - until today and only on this subject.

The canteens at times but mostly it came from on a regular basis from the door takings at all the venues you mentioned.

Under the table cash = higher paid player = stacked team = uneven competition = teams rort to be competitive = teams who can't compete fold

Whilst I am sorry to see Hawks go and always admired how they have played with ordinary teams at times.
Getting 1.5K to a home match like last one doesnt work for any national comp. Unless they re invent a Syd. team the same occurs . Those figures are a embarresment. Feel more for Taipans getting better numbers and important part of cairns district community

Who would even think of buying the 36ers? Err, negotiations have been happening for months (compounded by the fact that the venue has been involved).

It's fine to say that the salary rorters make life harder for a cap-abiding team (I agree) but even in a perfect world, you're going to have teams with a losing record. Prior to this year, the Hawks had qualified for the play-offs with winning seasons from the championship year in 00/01 until 05/06.

In two seasons under Cooks, they've dropped back a little (not his fault, IMO, cheaper rosters as you said). After a dodgy season with import trouble, they locked in two imports this season and added Saville back to the mix.

That's 1-2 seasons below .500 for the crowds to start dropping. I submit that some may have left as a reaction to Joyce's behaviour and then others as a reaction to him being cut loose - can't blame that on other teams or the league. In Adelaide we've had a few dodgy seasons recently and the crowds have been OK, so maybe it's something about NSW/Wollongong (I saw that the place has lost other sporting teams over the last few years too). When it's got to happen to a few teams in any league, you can't desert your side after a couple of losing seasons!

Don't think I relish the loss of any NBL team, because I don't at all.

I'm just saying that pitching this as "the NBL killed a foundation club" is not entirely fair. Saying that no one will buy the club is defeatist when serious attempts have not been made. The Taipans have a for sale sign on the front page of their web site and have placed newspaper ads.

As I said, the owners admitted to not appealing to their own sponsors for help. They have been looking to sell for 18 months and want out, but when has that been openly stated?

I'm not saying that they don't want the Hawks to survive but that they want out of the sheer cost of it all but don't seem to be wrapping things up all that well.

About the bank guarantee - yes, all owners (bar maybe one) are probably whinging about it and it's a tough situation that needs to be addressed but the Hawks were openly invited by the NBL to submit a non-compliant bid and they declined.

"We're obviously disappointed," Derwin said of Wollongong's pull-out.

"We had encouraged them to put forward a bid whether it conformed with the criteria or not so it's disappointing that they opted not to put anything forward."

They didn't say, "If we can play without the surety, we're interested" or "Dump the guarantee and make the cap $800k and we're in." They didn't put a notice on their site and in the papers and do publicity work saying "We can't shoulder this load any longer, can anyone else step up to help keep this team alive. We'll sell the licence cheap. You can even submit a non-compliant bid." They put "1979-2009" on the front page of their site and left it at that.

If that happened in Adelaide, people would explode.

Well said Isaac

Excellent rebuttal.

its not the nbl fault just certain owners at the hawks.

Reference salary cap, the are rumored to be over the cap this year.

The club went sour when they hired the CEO that was forced to leave under suspicious circumstances.

They should never have got rid of joyce.

Its very sad day to see them go, interesting that Hawks play the Blaze, for there last game. Fitting against joyce blaze. It could actually be the end of joyce coaching career as well as rumors are his gone.