This looks so bush league it's not funny. The Illawarra name gets dropped they just become 'The Hawks' new owners announce they'll start playing games in Canberra etc so slowly moving the team out of Illawarra and then a month into the season it's announced The Hawks are now renamed Illawarra again and thus there to stay for good.

This is silly. Their sponsor purchased most of the memberships to achieve it - what happens next year? Year after?

Is Illawarra any more engaged and committed to the Hawks after 'feeling what they missed out on'?

What happens to the idea of expanding to Canberra? Moot now?

Don't get me wrong - it looked silly when you have THE in big bold letters and the Hawks in small writing on TV graphics. Made sense for teams with a city, but to have "THE" more prominent than "Hawks" showed little forethought!

"It was a membership drive, it was stupid.

Winning games is what drives member numbers up."

If the Hawks are completely and entirely un-viable any season they struggle, and possibly even when they're winning (assuming KET is correct), then they might as well be moved or shut down.

The community needs to show their support.

RIP the The Hawks.

Illawarra / Wollongong whatever you want to call them have been steadily declining in their support.

In their winning year with Rotnei Clarke and Marvelle Harris under Bevo they weren't selling out.

Even when they had the #3 pick of the NBA draft the community did not support the team and under Campbell's stewardship they lost $1.7m over 3 years.

Whilst I hope they carry on their success and keep a team there, the community there don't really deserve a good team.

Are they serious? 4379 couldn't ever round it up to 5000? Pathetic.

Absolutely would love Hawks to succeed in their current home.

Legitimate questions though:

#1 Is 4379 members enough to survive
#2 Is enough to survive
#3 Are we likely to see a decline in numbers in future years once this marketing ploy is over, regardless of win/loss status
#4 Is the stadium sufficiently renovated enough to hold a sustainable NBL team
#5 Is the stadium sufficiently big enough to hold a sustainable NBL team into the future, with consideration of increased costs/cap etc.

The Hawks feel like they're living on sentiment of the few opposed to being a sustainable model or at the very least growing to the point where their prospects look reasonable (ie. Taipans re sustainable model & 36ers re growing)

Funkyness cut off my #2

#2 Is the actual number of members minus peppermoney's purchase enough to survive

This is what frustrates about Adelaide - the Memorial Drive tennis stadium is receiving an upgrade.

Why not do it properly instead? Have Basketball/Tennis/Netball there, even concerts, even soccer (was in one mockup in the news)! In the city on Memorial Drive or North Terrace, split the operation costs between the sports/entertainment and provide a world-class stadium right in the city with ease of Public transport, and have the benefits of food, bars around the area (Peel st etc). Worked for Adelaide Oval with AFL/Cricket, would work for Bball, Tennis, Netball, Soccer, Concerts.

Don't waste $40mil on an upgrade just for tennis and resign a city stadium to the scrap heap!

The owner bought 1500 of the 4379 memberships.

The sponsor I thought

the nbl cup taking away actual home games to victoria

The alternative wasn't having those games at home, the alternative was not having those games at all.

Each team still gets 14 home games, same as every year since at least 2013. COVID restrictions allowing, of course.

Can hawks reach playoff this year? How many nbl each team will play some news say 28 and some say 36 games..Thant's to much for 2 import and playing 2 games a week..injury will come to this player..

The hawks lost how much under Campbell? Would love to see the facts on that one. Every club lost money - bar Perf - and it's not like he didn’t inherit a shit sandwich...

Added to that, I think you’ll find Campbell was simply the go between for Stafford and whoever/whatever he wanted. They signed a few players over his tenure that he wouldn’t have touched with your wallet. During his time, Bevo had final say on who they went after - the horrendous signings of Cedric, Jordair & Conklin were all bevo. It’s the primary reason Bevo shunned Sydney, JVG said he had autonomy and Bevo told him to shove it.

Basically, you don’t know anything about the dynamics of any club Dick Broker, but don’t let that stop you from channeling your inner Boti.

True, Jett was handy for the price they outlayed. Cedric however was horrendous, they would have had Bairstow that season but he was approached early on before they signed their imports and he wanted to wait. Brisbane gave him a timeline and he chose to resign. He's probably thankful he re-upped with Brisneyland...