EVEN if they called in the receivers tomorrow, it seems the Newcastle Knights remain light years away from being privately owned by one mega-rich man or woman.
Knights chief executive Steve Burraston, assisted by chairman Rob Tew, has investigated various examples of private ownership in the past 18 months.
Burraston said he had spoken to sponsors and potential benefactors, and studied the operations of NRL clubs Manly, Brisbane, Gold Coast and South Sydney and community-based American NFL gridiron teams like the Green Bay Packers, trying to find the right fit for a club like Newcastle.
That pursuit will continue in earnest in the next two months so the Knights' board can present members with a preferred model to be discussed at the club's annual general meeting in May.
What the Knights want to avoid - almost at all costs - is selling the farm to one manor baron.
"You don't want to be in a situation where the owner wants to pick the team every week," a Knights source said.
Burraston has, at various times in almost three years heading up the Knights' administration, had separate conversations, mostly casual, with the likes of Nathan Tinkler, John Singleton and Con Constantine about the concept of private ownership.
Some of the millionaire businessmen Burraston and his Knights predecessors have spoken to have indicated they would relish a hands-on ownership role, and others would be happy to remain in the background as philanthropic silent partners. Some club sponsors have indicated their interest in being part of an ownership group comprising a membership component rather than plotting a hostile take-over and going it alone.
Wests Group chief executive Philip Gardner said yesterday that he and Burraston had not discussed the issue of privatisation - yet.
"Our preferred situation is that they continue in their existing form and continue to represent the city," Gardner said. "If they've got substantial issues, then we'd be happy to sit down and talk to them, but anything we did would have to go back to our members. We're happy in our position as a sponsor but we've had no discussions with them about that (privatisation). At this stage, no-one in their board has said that they're not able to continue as a going concern."
Burraston said the Knights were determined to protect their identity as a community club.
"That is something that we don't treat lightly, and we pay the utmost respect to, and that is probably the biggest deterrent for a full privatisation model," he said.
"If it came to that, if our finances were in such a state that we had to move in that direction, then we'd have to consider that. But what the board is trying to do is maintain our membership and community structure foremost and above everything else."
The egalitarian principles the Knights were founded on, which gave birth to the Newcastle-based Aussies for the ARL movement that fought the good fight during the Super League war, are still deeply embedded in the club's membership base.
Some of their more vocal and influential long-time members might not stand for one person wielding absolute power but would surely be receptive to the idea of part-ownership if that was put forward as the only alternative to the Knights going belly up.
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