Fight to save the WNBL: The potential saviours, protracted talks and million-dollar losses
Opals remain in the dark. A rival league is on a poaching raid and the clock is ticking as multi-millionaires mull what’s next. MICHAEL RANDALL and MATT LOGUE take a deep dive into the state of the ailing WNBL.
Basketball
Don't miss out on the headlines from Basketball. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Two of Australia’s richest people are among the struggling WNBL’s potential saviours as media magnate Craig Hutchison attempts to secure a second club.
CODE Sports can exclusively reveal multi-millionaires Gerry Ryan and Robyn Denholm have joined powerhouse NBL owner Larry Kestelman in expressing interest in taking ownership of the WNBL as Basketball Australia ramps up its move to attract investors to revive the ailing league.
And, in the wake of a Geelong consortium’s bid to relocate Melbourne Boomers, CODE can reveal Hutchison’s SEN — which already owns WNBL club Bendigo — has been in talks with Basketball WA about acquiring the Perth licence.
NO SHORTAGE OF INTEREST
Billionaire property developer and Dodo founder Kestelman has had a longstanding interest in pairing the WNBL with the NBL.
Basketball Australia boss Matt Scriven claims there have been “10-15” potential buyers reach out with interest in investing in the women’s league.
Ryan, the $700 million Jayco magnate who owns Southside Flyers and has poured countless millions into women’s basketball over the past three decades, believes he can help the WNBL realise its potential.
Sydney Kings and Flames majority owner Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s Australian chairwoman said to be worth some $300 million, also has interest in a WNBL takeover through Wollemi Capital.
Ryan revealed he faces a bill of close to three-quarters-of-a-million dollars, despite his Flyers winning the 2024 WNBL title, and said he had a vision for the league where clubs were more sustainable and players were feted as heroes.
“I’m prepared to invest in the league, going forward, definitely,” Ryan told CODE.
“I’ve just gone through our budget and we’ll probably lose $700,000 instead of $900,000. We just won a championship, you’d think there would be more income coming in the door, but it’s even worse than last year.
“We need to get higher profile people around the league, generate more interest and grow it.
“If we’re going to compete against netball, A Leagues, AFLW, we need to showcase our players as the heroes we know they are.
“How you generate that interest, you leave that to the professionals, but we need money to kick that off.
“You’ve got to get eyeballs on it. We need to invest in the marketing, in the broadcast, in the product.
“I’ve offered that, if people don’t want to take it up, I don’t need it.
“I haven’t heard from them (BA).”
NEXT STEP — AND THE DOUBT THAT COMES WITH IT
BA engaged consultants Alacria Global to help it determine the best course of action for the league and recently tapped cap-raising firm EagleHawk Capital to canvas and vet potential investors.
Scriven said commercial sensitivities prevented him from revealing details but he was confident of having a deal sealed with a new owner or owners within the month.
“All those conversations now sit with EagleHawk,” Scriven, who has a “worst case” deadline of early July for the process to be complete and new ownership in place, said.
“They run through that process and we’re getting a lot of interest.
“The most important thing, now, is getting the right investors into that process and there’s a few who are really active.”
A source said the key selling point for the WNBL was its “untapped potential” — the NBL, which was on its knees when Kestelman took over from BA in 2015, is now thriving. Potential investors would need to envisage the WNBL’s unrealised growth, with the reward for building up the league the opportunity to cash out on its improved value — and the plaudits of revitalising the oldest women’s professional sporting league in Australia.
Conversely, the sale could be hampered by uncertainty over the future of the Perth Lynx and Melbourne Boomers, who have an increasingly frustrated suitor wanting to move the licence to Geelong.
Five of the eight WNBL clubs, in the past six years, have changed hands amid heavy losses. Figures from the 2022-23 season, seen by CODE, showed the eight clubs combined lost almost $5 million at an average of over $600,000 per club. Ryan’s revelation of a $700,000 loss suggests that is unlikely to change this year.
It appears there is some uncertainty within Alacria as to what the WNBL represented for a potential investor, with multiple sources saying the company had been asked what it was selling and how much it was hoping to get.
One source said of Alacria’s response: “He said: ‘I don’t know’.”
“Basketball Australia couldn’t run a bath. This is a s**t show.
“I don’t think they have a key understanding of what they are doing and what they are trying to achieve.
“Hope is the best strategy for Basketball Australia right now.
“If the clubs fold, the league folds. BA hasn’t got the capacity to run eight clubs.
“This is like watching a slow moving train wreck as it unfolds.”
Contacted by this masthead, Alacria’s Chris Nunn, who is heading up the project, declined to comment.
HUTCHY WANTS TO ADD LYNX TO SEN SPORTING STABLE
While nothing formal has been put to BA, chief executive Matt Scriven said there were no rules prohibiting an entity owning more than one club — despite acknowledging potential governance and integrity issues that could arise.
“BWA’s had conversations with a few different people and SEN’s obviously definitely interested,” Scriven said.
“It’s been raised with us, but we haven’t got a formal notification of any licence transfer.
“They can (own two teams) but they need to seek permission.
“The things we would be making sure is, from a governance point of view, putting up separations of businesses to ensure there’s no challenges between the clubs or manipulation of any sort, and we’d look at what it means from a voting structure.
“They’re all the things we would look at if something was put in front of us, just to make sure the integrity is maintained and not compromised.”
CODE contacted Hutchison about his potential interest in the Lynx, but he declined to comment.
BWA has been attempting to sell the Lynx for over a year and, while boss Nathan Cave said the situation was in a “holding pattern”, after incurring losses in the hundreds of thousands over several years, it can no longer justify investing member association funds into the WNBL club.
Hutchison has built a media and sporting empire with five professional clubs across Australia and New Zealand — Bendigo Spirit (WNBL), Melbourne Mavericks (Super Netball), Perth Wildcats (NBL), Otago Nuggets (NZNBL), Southern Hoiho (Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa).
WILL BA ‘WELCOME’ LARRY FOR WNBL RESET?
A source told CODE that dialogue had increased between BA and the NBL over the past few weeks but neither party is “close” on any agreement.
Past greats, including Opals legend Michele Timms, want Kestelman to take over and he maintains, as he has done for the past year, an interest in the league but stressed he was waiting to be “welcomed in”.
“I don’t need to be an owner or have shares, but I stand ready to help and be involved,” Kestelman said.
“I think the WNBL deserves to be better than what it is today.
“For that to occur, some changes need to happen, but, until I’m welcomed in, I don’t need to do it.”
Kestelman believes the formula for future success is unity in the sport.
“I think the whole thing needs to be looked at holistically and the NBL, WNBL and the whole ecosystem of basketball needs to work together,” he said.
“Basketball Australia and the NBL have a better relationship than ever before and there is a great opportunity for the WNBL to have a reset.
“Our vision is for the entire sport to work better and closer together and the NBL and myself stand ready to help the WNBL.
“We’re having productive conversations with Basketball Australia and we’ll see where it lands.”
Kestelman, as the sole owner of the NBL, has had carte blanche to make the changes necessary to put the men’s league in the strong position it is in today.
With proposals including shared ownership with WNBL clubs and BA, it’s understood Kestelman and the NBL could find situations where they are hamstrung to make quick decisions, given the potential for competing internal interests.
JUST DO SOMETHING — AND TELL US: OPAL
Opal Keely Froling, who is an Australian Basketball Players’ Association delegate, said the need for change was “obvious” and the ABPA had requested more detail from BA on its plan.
“We’re just waiting on more information, like everybody else,” Froling said.
“It’s been very, ‘Oh, we’re working on it’, but we don’t know what’s going on.
“I think it’s really positive that they’re doing something, finally, I’ve been in the league for over 10 years now, and it’s been the same.
“Trying to look at it in a good way, ‘great, we’re doing something about it’, but now it’ll just be a matter of what?”
Froling believes the WNBL has as much potential as other elite women sports in Australia, provided it can secure more investment and a wider-reaching broadcast deal.
“You look at them (other women’s sports) and you think, ‘how awesome they’re doing all that and why can’t we do that?’,” she said.
“We have one of the best leagues in the world, the talent’s there.
“I just think we’re not quite marketing it and putting it out there as much as it could be.
“You look at, and I know it’s a much-different world over there, the (US) college basketball this year’s taken off.
“You see players on ads, they’re doing all this stuff so they become names so people become interested in it, that’s where we’ve got to start.
“The market’s there, women’s sport is going off right now, but I just feel like we’re a little bit behind on all that.”
THE HOLD UP LEAVING STARS’ FUTURES IN STASIS
The WNBL was forced to shift free agency as it deals with the spotfires on multiple fronts.
BA is yet to table a proposal for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement to team owners, leaving the future of dozens of the country’s best women basketballers in stasis.
Under the current one-year CBA — which took some months to strike last year — it’s understood free agency could have commenced on April 8, some 21 days after the season ended.
But instead, players will have to wait until May 10 — “not ideal”, Froling says, but necessary given the future of some clubs and the direction of the league aren’t certain.
“At the moment, you can’t really start it (free agency) without knowing where the (Melbourne) Boomers will be or if they’ll be Boomers, and not knowing what the league looks like,” she said.
“We also don’t have a CBA in place, so I do understand why it’s been postponed but, as a player, you’re like ‘I would like to know what I’m doing with my life’.”
There are some clubs which need to replenish almost entire rosters — at least two have only one contracted player.
The WNBL, late on Friday, April 5, announced on its social media accounts, without explanation: “The league and the ABPA are pleased that the opening of the Free Agency period will allow clubs and players to plan appropriately for the upcoming 2024-25 season.”
Scriven passed off the delay as part of normal negotiations.
“I’ve sat down with the ABPA twice now, with their player delegates, (and) had some really, really positive conversations,” he said.
“They were absolutely fantastic in that meeting about what we were trying to achieve in the league and where we’re at. Keely Froling was outstanding in the meetings.
“We’re in a process to make the right decisions and get this right.
“The engagement (from players) has been really high, the players are such an important part of it and that’s why we’ve been spending time talking to them, taking them through where we’re at, listening to them and that’s what we’ve been doing, so there’s no concern over the CBA.”
CODE contacted ABPA boss Jacob Holmes for comment.
KIWI RAID ADDS ANOTHER LAYER OF UNCERTAINTY
A new threat has emerged to the WNBL at a critical juncture, with the cashed up New Zealand competition, led by former Melbourne Boomers general manager Justin Nelson, shifting to an October-December slot in direct competition with the Australian league.
The Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa, backed by Sky Sports NZ, has embarked on an aggressive poaching raid. Tauihi translates as ‘To Soar’ in Māori language and league bosses are soaring into Australia to tempt locals — who would then face a choice.
It’s understood the NZ league will offer marquee contracts comparable to the WNBL — for half of the time commitment. The average wage in the WNBL in 2022-23 was around $38,000, which equates to $1800 per week. In the NZ league, mid-tier Australian players could earn as much as NZ$3000 per week for three months’ work.
Scriven acknowledged the new adversary was a concern but believed BA’s plans for the WNBL will trump NZ’s advances.
“Once we announce what we’re going to do, I’m not really worried about it, to be brutally honest, in the long term,” Scriven said.
“There may be some destabilising over the next little bit but, if we announce what we’re doing in the next three or four weeks, I’m not sure who will go to it.
“You’re always going to have players, maybe DPs, but I think the trajectory we’re on, I’m very, very confident of where we’re going.”
CODE has been told BA’s refusal to entertain multiple bids for a New Zealand-based WNBL franchise contributed to the rethink across the ditch.
But Scriven said league expansion had to begin at home.
“We’ve got to get our own market right, first, and then look to expand,” he said.
“In the time I’ve been in the role, that’s been our focus, getting the right structure into our league.
“There’s some really good emerging markets, Brisbane, another team in Sydney looks really interesting, Tasmania’s an interesting option, and there’s an opportunity with a New Zealand team down the track.”
Tauihi will begin before the Australian league’s November start and be done before the WNBL’s March conclusion, leaving players then free to sign with a club back home.
Last year, Opals captain Tess Madgen and Southside Flyers grand final hero Jas Dickey played in the Kiwi league.
Boomers Tall Ferns pair Penina Davidson and Tera Reed will be prime targets to bring home, given the uncertainty surrounding the future of their club.
The NZ league has aggressive expansion plans, with CODE confirming discussions have been held with potential franchisees in Australia and South East Asia — no WNBL clubs are involved in these talks.
More Coverage
Originally published as Fight to save the WNBL: The potential saviours, protracted talks and million-dollar losses
2500 days of 36ers pain, what’s five more?
The long suffering Adelaide 36ers will have to wait five more days to learn their playoff fate, after slipping their chance against the Phoenix on Sunday. LIKES, DISLIKES from Round 19.
Wieskamp caps off Phoenix’s rollercoaster win over 36ers
South East Melbourne Phoenix import Joe Wieskamp was the hero in the clutch as his side secured a thrilling win over the Adelaide 36ers in a game which went down to the wire. Recap the action from the round here.