For love and money, Tony Sage bound to Perth Glory

Perth Glory owner Tony Sage’s $28m dream might finally come true this weekend.

Tony Sage, Perth Glory’s owner, at Optus Stadium. Picture: Philip Gostelow

It is the $28 million dream 13 years in the making for Perth mining identity Tony Sage, one that may finally come true tomorrow afternoon.

Sage owns 100 per cent of A-League soccer club Perth Glory, which will host the grand final in front of more than 50,000 fans at Optus Stadium and is hot favourite to beat Sydney FC and take home its first title under his stewardship.

While he is incredibly excited about the match, Sage tells The Weekend Australian it could also mark the end of an era for the colourful mining executive. He has made a fortune arranging finance for the buying and selling of mines, lost plenty of money as the deals have dried up in recent years and spent a considerable chunk on the Glory as well.

So much so that it is time, he explains, to bring on a partner to share the financial burden.

As the A-League’s only sole Australian owner of a club he is finding it harder to keep up off the field with cashed-up international owners and local billionaires and consortiums who hold the other A-League licences.

“I’m up to about $28m in losses now,” Sage says. “Has it been worth it? Probably not from a financial point of view.

“We’ve been averaging losses of $1m-$2m a year and this year it will be closer to the $3m mark after bringing in coach Tony ­Popovic and some new players.

“But I really love the club and it is a family operation, in a way. My wife, son and daughter are involved and it has been a great passion for us. I’m excited for Sunday, I’m nervous but it would be fantastic if we win. It would be an absolute dream come true.”

It is the first time Glory have hosted a season decider since 2003, during the waning days of the old National Soccer League when the club was considered the benchmark for what was a ­struggling competition about to collapse.

Yet Glory have since struggled to recapture that era, spending several years underperforming on the field and being booted out of the finals series in 2015 when they were found to have cheated the salary cap. Even Popovic, a highly successful coach during his time at Western Sydney Wanderers, has yet to win an A-league grand final.

But he has put the Glory in position to win the game’s ultimate prize in Australia and qualify for next season’s Asian Champions League (which Popovic won in 2014 with the Wanderers), which Sage, who has stakes in ASX-listed mining companies such as Cape Lambert Resources and private investments across Australia, Africa and South America, hopes will assist in getting someone to share the financial burden.

Glory’s travel bills are substantially more than the other A-league clubs and Football Federation Australia will keep the gate takings from tomorrow’s final, meaning Sage’s team makes little financial return from the biggest game of the year.

“We’ve got it out there that I would like a partner to come in to help with the Glory, and we’ve had plenty of approaches,” Sage says.

“But so far we have not found the right fit. It might happen this off-season, it might not. But we’ve got to the stage where it needs to happen.

“Deals have really dried up in mining for us and it is probably getting to the stage where while I can afford it, I’m eating into the kids’ inheritance in all likelihood.”

Sage says he has had approaches from overseas corporations that would like to see their brand associated with the Glory, and also foreign clubs, though he hints those deals would require a change of name for the club — as is the case with Melbourne City, now part of a global empire headed by Manchester City.

It is something Sage would rule out. “We will always be the Glory; that will not change. We won’t be rebranding.”

Tomorrow’s grand final also marks the end of an era for the entire A-League. Launched under the leadership of former FFA chairman Frank Lowy in 2005, when the sport was on its knees fin­ancially, club owners have been agitating for change and are likely to emerge in charge of an independent league by the end of June.

The infighting has gone on for more than two years and has seen the league at times starved of attention, with television audiences plummeting and attendances stagnating.

Sage says the owners have lost $350m combined in the past 14 years — including past owners such as Clive Palmer and Nathan Tinkler, and Sydney FC’s Russian owner David Traktovenko, who has covered more than $50m in losses — and deserve the chance to control their own destiny.

“We think we can do things more efficiently and if we get control then you will see us invest more in marketing, marquee players and really promoting the league,” Sage says.

All of that, and a possible transaction to get control of the league from FFA, will probably necessitate the owners digging into their pockets again and make it even more important for Sage to bring in another source of funding.

“I always want to be involved in the club. I just have that passion for it. I’ll be nervous on Sunday though. But it is going to be great.”