A-League news: Central Coast Mariners up for sale, could be relocated
The A-League’s wooden spooners are facing another huge challenge, with the Central Coast Mariners set to be sold. Owner Mike Charlesworth believes the time is right for a change.
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There are no guarantees the future of the Central Coast Mariners lie in Gosford, with the A-League’s wooden spooners facing a ‘daunting’ shake-up after officially being put up for sale.
Owner Mike Charlesworth on Tuesday announced his intention to step away from the competition’s strugglers, leaving the A-League’s smallest club facing an uncertain future.
Mariners CEO Shaun Mielekamp insists, with a booming junior system and strong ties to the community, it is “imperative” that football retains a strong presence on the Central Coast — but admits a Godfather offer could leave the club with no choice but to consider a move away.
“If there is a massive offer and a massive opportunity from another region, I know it’ll be looked at,” he said.
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“Previously they’ve been knocked back but they’re going to be looked at. So our task right now is to make sure that the best opportunity is right here on the coast.”
Charlesworth earned the ire of Mariners fans in recent years for running the club on a shoestring budget, as they went from champions one month after he became the majority shareholder to the competition laughing stock with just one finals appearance and four wooden spoons in the seven seasons since.
But he deserves praise, Mielekamp says, for keeping the club afloat during the financially crippling COVID-19 shutdown — and for the mountains of cash he’s invested over the past decade.
“Mike loves the club and has put in ten years hard work and millions and millions of dollars to build what we’ve got here,” Mielekamp said.
“I’m sure he’ll be just as passionate that it’s allowed to grow and his legacy that he leaves with this club long term is the stability and strength we’ve got in this region.”
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The club remains financially stable and continues to produce top-quality young talent, as showcased in Monday night’s thrilling 3-2 win over the Melbourne Victory.
They, along with offering an ‘exclusive region’, having a top-shelf Centre of Excellence and being the anchor tenant at Central Coast Stadium, are among the chief reasons Mielekamp believes will prove enticing for prospective buyers.
The uncertainty around next year’s salary cap – and the prospect that it be abolished altogether, a position the players are pushing in ongoing discussions over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement – could also work in the Mariners’ favour.
Should the salary cap be scrapped, a concerted push for a domestic transfer system would likely follow. And that could help a team like the Mariners, who have grown tired of developing talent only to lose them for nothing to rival clubs.
“We can be a very strong development club - that’s in our DNA and our history and if we can unlock that opportunity to increase the financial revenue streams for this club by having transfers,” Mielekamp argued.
“If that needs to be coupled with changes to the cap and the floor, so be it, but I think that there’s a huge opportunity for our club.”
Mielekamp, who said there had already been significant interest from prospective buyers but no concrete offers, also flagged the potential for a community-based ownership group in line with the model employed by German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund and NFL team the Green Bay Packers.
He also dismissed reports Charlesworth would be tempted by a $4 million offer to sell his stake in the club.
“I want to smash that. That is a totally false figure and absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
“An A-League licence is definitely worth more and the conversations already have been more than that number.”
Originally published as A-League news: Central Coast Mariners up for sale, could be relocated