This guy is worth a solid $22 million. Hopefully this will help Wollongong pick up their crowds etc with a possible increased marketing budget??? Also will they now be able to spend more of the salary cap???

Wheres Nat when you need him, he would be all over this.

Vocus Communications is his company in Sydney.

LOL at Nat not breaking the news. Us members got emailed tonight.
Looking forward to what this will do for the club. Grate news for Hawks fans.

Who actually owns the club at the moment?

Community based model. There's no private owner.

Is this why they haven't signed any players?

Congrats to the guy who has made $22m (if that is true).

However I feel that $22m is not that much when we talk about the potential of an NBL club to bleed money.

If he does buy the club I still hope they remain a club that keeps a tight budget to keep the books balanced.

People complain when ATF report things before they're officially announced by the club. Then complain when we wait until after it's officially announced.

NBL fans. Esh.

There's next to no front office at the moment. That's a major reason why nothing has been announced.

Unfortunately a bigger marketing budget won't mean more ticket sales. Wollongong is Uni town, there's a large market but they're poor. Dragons struggle to draw consistent crowds as well. You need affordable ticket prices (like they did at the end of last season), educated scheduling and yes marketing. Hawks also need to work with the IBA (local basketball association).

This opens the door for the Hawks to put together a roster at near the cap if they wanted to. But in the long run how long will he be happy losing money before he tries selling the team? Losing 200, 300, 400k a season is a bit of a hit in the back pocket.

Personally i'd prefer his company signs on as a naming sponsor for 5-10 years and they stay as a community model. That's more stable long term.

OR

James comes along, buys out the WEC/Buys into it, lowers cost for the Hawks which would help the Hawks survive long term. They need to see 3k+ to break even!

Even better.. Buy Shellharbour city stadium, renovate it, extend it to fit 5k people. Move the team to Shellharbour (South of Wollongong CBD, in the Illawarra still). Larger population, mostly young families with money and still expanding. Wollongong has mostly uni poor Uni students... But we're getting off track a little.

WEC needs to sell 3k+ to break even**

I'm with Marcus Camby, 22 mil is a lot of money however is not that much when we're talking about buying a professional sporting team that bleed a couple hundred thousand a season.

I'm not sure what swifty moves can be done with a good tax agent when it comes to owning a sports team that runs at a loss...

"Personally i'd prefer his company signs on as a naming sponsor for 5-10 years and they stay as a community model. That's more stable long term."

I think this is spot on.

$22m being on the small side for bankrolling an NBL team was the same thought I had when I saw the figure. Hope it works, bit nervous though.

The population of wollongong is a tad under 300k, and UOW has 24k students enrolled. I think you're

Overplaying the mostly a uni town angle a bit.

Pwned agree, looking at traffic in mornings on the F6 I think a lot of those UoW students come from outside wollongong too.

"The population of wollongong is a tad under 300k, and UOW has 24k students enrolled. I think you're Overplaying the mostly a uni town angle a bit."

True, however most Uni students live around the Wollongong area where as that 300k figure is the whole Illawarra from Stanwell Tops down to Kiama/Gerringong. To drive from north to south would take around.. 45-60min I think so it's pretty spread out.

More research needs to be done before we just say "yeah sure come buy us" burn someone elses millions.

Is this why they haven't signed any players?

From google, regarding his business. I dont know what any of this means. Hopefully it's good.

Vocus Communications Limited (ASX:VOC) is pleased to announce that it has been admitted to the S&P ASX 300 Index, effective from the close of trade on March 21, 2014, as part of S&P's quarterly rebalancing. The S&P/ASX 300 is comprised of the top 300 listed companies in Australia. In order to be eligible for inclusion in any of the S&P/ASX indices, stocks must meet certain criteria regarding listing, size and liquidity.

All three very good ideas, Nat, which I also would prefer to happen instead of moving from a community based ownership, as like has already been said, move to a private ownership, what's to stop him from getting up and selling it when he sees how much money he's actually not recouping... Like we've seen with Perth, it takes a lot of money spent off court as well to help finally get a profit on the court, with all the other factors (ticket prices, some crazy scheduling against local events which people seem more interested in, etc) he REALLY needs to know what he's getting into in the long term...

Having a naming rights sponsor that is putting in a lot of cash and getting promotional benefits out of it would surely make more sense? Hell, even cutting down on the costs like the stadium, which is apparently really high for what it is, would be a huge step for them as well...

I have no special love for the Hawks (probably more of a bit of rivalry hatred more than anything!) but I'd hate for this to only last a season, something happen to his business (like Tinkler in Newcastle) and then the team suffers...

I know a savvy businessman would more than likely take the path of less cost for most reward, so the numbers must point that way...

If the club gets sold into private ownership, do the original investors into the community model receive anything?

NRE are staying on as naming-rights sponsor, and there is no chance of this guy investing in the stadium AFAIK.

The stadium is government owned so no chance of that happening.

NRE were taken over by Wollongong Coal, so NRE won't be part of the Hawks as they don't exist.