Mal Hemmerling is the early word. From The Advertiser:

ADELAIDE City Council's CEO Mal Hemmerling is the new owner of the Adelaide 36ers, according to unconfirmed reports.

It is believed Mr Hemmerling is part of a business consortium that has bought the team.

Government sources told AdelaideNow a Government announcement about the basketball club's future ownership would be made at noon today.

Mr Hemmerling was not immediately available for comment.

The Distinctive Homes Dome has been bought by Brisbane-based businessman Eddy Groves, owner of the Brisbane Bullets' NBL franchise and the nationally franchised ABC Learning Centres.
The third Basketball Association of SA "sale item", the women's Adelaide Lightning , was purchased by the Whyalla-based Marino family.

In terms of the 36ers, I hope that the apparent conflict of interest was well managed?

what does Eddie want with the Dome?

confirmed yet?

Confirmed.

Hemmerling and Groves combined to buy the Dome and team for $3.95m+GST.

Link Engineering in Whyalla bought the Lightning for $113,000+GST.

Just received the press release now.

Full press release on www.adelaide36ers.com - sorry about the forum struggling - it can't cope with all the attention!

It was quiet because it looks like a dodgy deal has been done! this is not the result we wanted or were after. Bruce Carter you stink!

Whoever says that 'these people are better' and 'this deal stinks' must have access to the thousands and thousands of (confidential) pages of documents that were available to Mr Carter and the government for all these weeks gone by. Uneducated, uncorroborated, speculative and stupid things to say

# 89758


Why? What is so bad with Mal Hammerling or do you have a vested interest with Mr Ron Bassett and Mr Paul Bell from MVP sports?

What the objective to find the best out come for the Adelaide 36ers? In my eyes this is the best outcome as Mr Mal Hammerling is a long time supporter of the club and the sport of basketball in South Australia (30 odd years)

Will Chris Lucas loose some sleep over the next few days? Maybe he should have had a good look at Marino...
Best of luck to the Marino Family I hope they can develop the Women's Program into a money making juggernaught and start paying the players the $$$ they deserve

Just a bit off topic but I was wondering about this bit that was taken from the news item on the website.
"Money raised from the sales would be used to reduce that debt, with the remainder of the debt to be written off, Mr Foley said."
So if the debt is writen off what happens to the clubs who owe money.
Coming from a club that does owe money I personally think that the debt that is owed still needs to be paid back.

If you have a problem, YO I'll solve it

Check out my hook while the DJ revolves it

We shall have the most bejewelled rats in the land!

Quote: Best of luck to the Marino Family I hope they can develop the Women's Program into a money making juggernaught and start paying the players the $$$ they deserve

Hasn't happened so far so why would it change?

So much negativity from a group of people who "feed" off the generosity of the public purse for a basket case (pardon the pun) sport! All of a sudden its the new owners who "have to do eveything"

Look at the positives. Someone bought the damn things!

I think we are not seeing this from a business perspective. Eddie buys the dome and renames it the ABC centre. He then gets more National coverage on the TV and in the general community further enhancing his already massive empire. He owns it out right and gets money out of it through leasing to the 6ers and others. What is bad about that? He has got to where he has because he is a smart man. Maybe with him being so invloved in Basketball there are opportunities for free to air? If it does fall over I am sure he could wear the cost.

Hemmerling is a great choice as well as he has the many years of business experience, has a record of doing things well, and obviouly has great finiancial backing. The governemnt wouldn't take a risk on this.

To the Marinos, I think this is the best thing that could have happened for Women's basketball in this state. There is a genuine love of the sport by these people, and to be honest a lot of the other parties were not interested anyway. I guess Lucas would be a tad concerned considering he wasn't interested in signing Angela this year. We will wait to see on this issue.

I think all the choices that have been made are great and lets hope BSA can get their house in order so that Basketball in this State can finially move forward.

Would Eddie (the good Eddie) Groves look at selling his shares in Brisvagus (Brisbane) and taking a larger interesting in the Adelaide 36ers with Mal Hammerling now he has a vested interest in the DHD?

For him to buy the DHD there must be some sort of sustainable competitive advantage in it for him?

Why would he buy the dome and still have a majority ownership interest in the Brisbane bullet, something is very fishy.

It's already been either implied or directly stated that the remainder of BASA's debt to the government will be written off.

Thanks to whoever posted Mal's history - good for those who don't know much about him.

It makes sense now. Guess who was waiting out the front of the Adelaide City Council Building at around 8.50 AM, in King William St this morning? Phil Smyth.

The NBL's statement on today's announcement by the SA government can be found on nbl.com.au at the following url:

http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&aid=3606

You know you've made it as a basketball forum when Marc Howard makes his first post! I'm going to retire while at this pinnacle! ;)

I to need to say congrats to the marino family, i believe that they will better women's basketball in south australia, well done and good luck

At least it dosnt look like we will be playing at the ent ctr. The Powerhouse looks like it will host a few more matches yet.

Great for the 6ers.

Money, business cred. and passion! It looks great. Only two questions. What happens to club debts? ( This apparently varies between $0 and $86000. No level playing field here!) Will Woodville still be able to use the Dome, or will they become homeless again?

What debt are we talking about when we say the tax payers have to foot a $7m bill. The government throws away so much of the tax payers money to unemployed bums who have no intention of doing a decent day's work. All I can say as someone who has been a constant tax payer for many years and have never relied on the government for any payouts whatsover, I am happy my share of the $7m has gone into developing children in the sport of basketball in the last 20 years or so. 20 years and thousands of children who have benefitted in somethig that is healthy, educational and fun is a small price to pay. Its money well spent, not a debt.

The debt is from the original capital outlay of the dome anyway.
Thew ent centre deal was half the problem and that was the gov decision.
I see it as their debt not SA Basketball.

EC

I would like to knwo when the state government got into unemployment welfare. Last time I checked, that was a Federal Government task.

Not having a go at any of the other bidders, but Mal Hemmerling as an owner of the 6ers was probably one of the best decisions that could be made. As Chairman of the NBL Board (a position he is stepping down from to avoid a conflict of interest), he has his finger on the pulse of basketball. As a storied business man, he has the business acumen to run the team quite well.

TO an earlier post claiming a "fix it" job because Bruce Carter, Mal Hemmerling and Eddie Groves are/were all on the NBL Board, every club must have a representative. As Adelaide did not have a current board, Carter had to be the rep. Groves is obviously the Brisbane rep, and Hemmerling appointed as chairman. Big deal. At least they know NBL basketball, unlike some of the other bidders, who would have not known the first thing about running a national league club.

Yogee, don't you thinks its the same tax payers that have had to foot the bill for the debt as the ones contributing to welfare? Yogee, are you a South Australian taxpayer or an Australian taxpay? Sounds quite silly when you put it that way.

Can we not get into a discussion on the merits of welfare?

How about a fairer comparison? Over $20 million for the Adelaide oval recently and no channel was reporting about taxpayers being robbed on that deal.

How many people go to a state cricket game? A few hundred?

I like the sounds of this...

While Groves' partnership with Hemmerling will ensure NBL basketball continues unabated at its purpose-built stadium, it is in desperate need of a facelift.

Hemmerling said he could not speak for Groves. "But I don't think Eddy will be too worried about the costs involved," he said.

Maybe Mal is expecting Eddy to get the rats to work for him for free!
Even they wouldn't eat the food there though....

Eddie is a smart man and would not have bought the dome unless there was a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Lightening have lost a lot of players is this due to lack of payment or the coach?

I'm more than happy with Mal Hemmerling being involved with the Sixers, but am curious as to where he is getting his money from.

Bottom line is he has an excellent reputation in business and sporting circles, and knows basketball backwards.

More concerned about Eddy - not the fact that he owns the Bullets and is buying the Dome, but that he has a much different reputation in business than Big Mal. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Dome hosting all sorts of events soon!