Hopefully Bryan stays off twitter this time around.

As a long term Hawks loyalist.

This is great news. Far better than the other proposed ownership model.

https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6795846/nbas-colangelo-buys-into-nbls-hawks/?cs=2443

i guess Bryan will run the team Dorry is the money who is Michael proctor and what does he do

Interesting bit if their release.. they mentioned how exciting it was to play games in Canberra and expand the supporter base. Then drop the "Illawarra" part of the name. Some ducks lining up I think.

there should be a grantee of 5 yrs ownership before they sell

Great news for basketball along the south coast aswell as the canberra region.

Goes to show the NBL is starting to get noticed on the world scene.

Dropping the Illawarra from the name was always going to happen imo they are trying to start something new and keeping the Hawks is a sign they still respect the history of the club.

These guys are all smart men in their own right and hopefully can convince players to join the team.

Makes you wonder who will be the coach surely it's not going to be Flinn

My expectation from the drop of Illawarra is they will be gone from the region within 2-3 years unless the WIN entertainment centre reduce costs and refurbish.

are these guys going to spend the money?

Illawarra dropped to remove any bankruptcy claim on new organisation.

who thinks Campbell and Flinn are going to have a job next season

I think not , past record I don't think will be good enough for new owners

Not a lot time left to sort out roster if new coaching staff is in before free agency.

Good news for the league with people still willing to invest in these tough times.
But I think tough times for the new owners as I think there won't be much to build a team around.

808496 get's it...

Gibson, you heard it hear 1st.

Surely a whole new coaching staff and front office will be hired in the coming weeks.

Moving the team to Sydney or Canberra if the WEC isn't fixed within 24 months seems very likely too imo

Anyone familiar with basketball in the ACT would know it's not realistic. Stop putting it forward as an option.

Collars is now in the league!

this has the bullets type deal to it....lets wait to see if they money settles into the nbl accounts!

Also they won't be in the south coast region much longer!

Nsw government knocked down the entertainment centre, gave it developers to build units, smashed down a thirty year old rugby stadium to build a new one that nobody goes to. You work it out.
The Sydney tennis stadium has a roof on now and could be turned into a basketball stadium.
My bet is Newcastle if the fans show more passion than Illawarra.

Newcastle have as much chance of getting a team as Kyrie has of running his own league in competition with the NBA

Newcastle oh dear. better off with Canberra but they can't even run a basketball competition. Their last foray in the SEABL saw them winless. Hawks still hapless

Games in the Gong, Canberra and Newcastle how will that work with sponsors and season seat holders? So much for all the Ball BS.

Local Hawks die hard are ropable, can't see this working.

The 4 diehards will get over it

The few die hards who turned up good on ya. The pretend ones bad luck. This or nothing.

Dropping the name is stupid, I understand changing Wollongong to the greater area of Illawara years ago but now what, south coast hawks?
Like that would make any difference to supporter growth.

Canberra, Newcastle, Wellington, Geelong, Townsville, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Western Sydney are the only other options that could ever be.

As previously said, name had to change so the new ownership doesn't take on previous owner debt. Business 101.

Hawks had a lot Monday night games last season, it's a horrible place to get to and park, the food was crap and expensive. They have 2500 solid supporters but the casuals don’t bother to go due to these problems.

South east Melbourne too similar.

South coast or greater south or southern coast or south sydney or southside

As previously said, name had to change so the new ownership doesn't take on previous owner debt. Business 101.

" and that previous entity must then settle its debts in accordance with the legal priorities." So the last owners have to pay all outstandings?

Kordahi was on Perth radio last night saying that their first priority is a head coach, so Flinn is obviously gone. Thank goodness. Should never have been a head coach in the first place.

Any rumours on new coach?

Gibson

The Hawks asst coaching has been a joke for a quite a while now...its really been lucky they had Gordie & Rob

Do we think NBL twitter goes after "Collars" to see if we can gt his "Wife" into a bit of friendly banter.

Strange how business & the Illawarra aboriginal Group are pulling their sponsorship from the Hawks because Illawarra has been taken out
I get Illawarra Hawks are the last original club standing but seriously by pulling their sponsorship out only means the end of the franchise & moving on. If the people of Illawarra want the team to stay they need to get behind it in both business & fans

Fans definitely do but a local business would invest with the expectation that local people see their sponsorship, otherwise what is the point?

Wollongong will be the home base and they will play a few games in Canberra probably 2 to 3.

Newcastle has been mentioned as another place aswell as Western Sydney.

Alot of people are having a say at the moment but did they actually even attend games when the club needed them to.

Politicans are piping up having a go at the NBL but did they help with getting the NSW gov to actually fix the WEC.

Now we have a sponsor pulling out due to a name change seriously that is rather pathetic imo.

They should be thankful the NBL actually went through the process to find the right type of people to push the club in the right direction.

Agree, I am a regular "Hawks fan" and I will be over the moon if we get new young fans in Canberra, Newcastle jumping on board,

There needs to be a little honesty here, we have 300'000, Sydney have 5 million people, you would have to be a marketing wizard to convince sponsors to ignore those numbers

8 games - Gong,
6 games - Canberra / Newcastle ( 3 each)

Finals in the Gong

Long time Hawks fan here also. I was a bit surprised when they dropped Illawarra from the name but doesn't mean that its not gone forever.

I am more interested in how they are going to re-build the team and it has to be from the ground up.

They have got to get the back room staff right then bring in a coaching team who has experience and last of all the right type of players.

Dech, Froling, Glover and Harris are all young and have talent if they can add some veteran experience and get some good imports they can be more then comeptitive.

The newspaper is on the war path with some kind of agenda. Probably due to the fact they had been sprouting on about La-melo was a done deal as owner and completely blindsided by the announcement and realising they didnt have the real inside information like they thought.

I agree on coaching staff, the quality of the people they bring in with show how serious they are

Could they get?

Import/Naar
Dech/Glover
Adel/Blanchfield or Coenraad
Cooks/1 of those Aussie kiwi pfs from college or overseas (M.Maker, Mayen, Wetzell, Freeman etc etc)
Import/Ogilvy

Also grab another big as NS imo like okwera or jones

Idoubt AJ or Blanchfield will be back and i think the club can do better.

Coenraad has had his time and also should look past him.

If Crooks gets the flick i doubt his sun would come and i thought he would chase money in europe.

I also think Naar will move on also and Grida is done for a while.

It's alright to say move on but not certain some Illawarra players have got what other clubs need. Some might get some relatively low offers that might keep them.

MOst of the previous players were good but not really elite NBL players. Still an aloso ran side and talk of finals is very premature.

I believe hawks had four players under contract that the nbl said they would honour so they remain at hawks. Dech is one of them.

D2.0 flog

But another overpriced wildcats shirt D2.0 to show your Twitter friends that you don't have in real life

It's Dazz. Nuff said.