Whole new ball-game: Kings owners want to buy share in the Bears

Colourful Sydney Kings part-owner Paul Smith and former NRL executive Paul Kind are set to become key stakeholders in the Western Bears if, as widely expected, they become the league’s 18th franchise next month.

Smith and Kind’s Total Sport and Entertainment has for months been in secret negotiations with a WA consortium of businessmen, including chairman Peter Cumins.

The sports marketing company’s involvement was outlined in the bid document lodged with the NRL three weeks ago.

“We’ve come in at the 11th hour,” Smith told this masthead on Monday. “We’re not suggesting at all that we’ve driven the process. We’ve been presented with an opportunity to take 15 per cent. We’re not desiring majority positions on this.

“With the structure of the ownership group, particularly a new set-up, there will be a contest of ideas in the environment we’ll be forming and operating in. But we made it clear we want to be involved in the business. We’re not going to be passive investors. This isn’t a rebuild, but a build.”

A year of speculation and debate about the merits of teams based in Perth, Christchurch, Brisbane and Port Moresby is expected to end in the days following the NRL grand final on October 6.

Sydney Kings part-owner Paul Smith, who is set to buy into the Western Bears NRL franchise.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The WA consortium is considered the overwhelming favourite to enter the premiership from 2027 — the last year of the current broadcast deal with News Corp and Nine Entertainment Co, publisher of this masthead.

It has secured the $30 million required by the NRL and has the endorsement and support of WA Premier Roger Cook, who has pledged an upgrade of HBF Stadium and a high-performance centre.

More than that, the consortium accepted ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys’ advice to breathe nostalgic life into the North Sydney Bears, who will host one match in Sydney per season and will provide elite pathways for players.

TSE’s involvement can only help the franchise’s cause given the success of the Kings. Smith had his fingers burned in 2018 when his $10 million offer to buy 50 per cent of St George Illawarra was rejected. The club took less money from Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corporation.

Andrew Bogut is now a part owner of the Sydney Kings, having been brought on board by Paul Smith.Credit: Getty

After taking full ownership of the Kings in 2019, TSE turned the perennial National Basketball League underachievers into champions again, winning the title in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

It brought former NBA stars Luc Longley and Andrew Bogut (first as a player, then owner) into the business and focused on enticing a new audience to Kings matches.

Average attendance grew 208 per cent from 2017 to 2024, membership 290 per cent and sponsorship revenue by a whopping 491 per cent. It also created Hoops Capital, a basketball business that fostered junior talent and streetball.

TSE has sold down its Kings investment in past two years to 23 per cent, mostly to Wollemi Capital Group, which was founded by Teslsa chairwoman Robyn Denholm.

“We’ve always wanted to be involved in rugby league, but it would’ve been a disaster if we landed two whales at the same time,” Smith said. “If we’d have dragged the Dragons into the boat, and had the Kings flapping around, we’d have sunk the boat. We wouldn’t have been able to cope. We’re better positioned now to be effective in rugby league because of what we’ve done with the Kings.”

TSE’s involvement happened by chance after Kind, who was the NRL’s head of commercial and marketing for 13 years, ran into Perth businessman Terry Creasey in a corporate suite at Origin II at the MCG in June.

Creasey, who is part of the WA consortium, owns several McDonald’s franchises in Perth. His son, Joel, is a well-known TV personality.

“Terry spent halftime extolling the virtues of the bid,” Kind recalled. “He’d seen what we’d done with the Kings and said we needed to get involved with the bid. I reported to Paul [Smith] the next day that we’d been invited to have a discussion.”

Should the ARL Commission approve the Western Bears’ bid —including TSE’s part-ownership — Smith and Kind won’t be involved in football matters.

Rather, they will need to work out how to sell an odd marriage between a fresh, new-look franchise in the west that has superficial links to a 1908 foundation club in the east. While TSE will have a seat on the board, North Sydney will not.

“It’s not a relocation,” Kind said. “It’s not South Melbourne to Sydney, it’s not Fitzroy to Brisbane. I’m not even sure what to call it. What is the narrative? We need to get all that right.”

Meanwhile, in the west, the franchise will be a different beast.

Market research suggests WA fans don’t follow teams as much as they follow sport. They are wildly passionate about their state.

Doesn’t Smith know it. He had a running battle with Perth Wildcats fans, players, and coaches during his time as Kings chairman, including some notable tongue-fu in the media with their former owner, SEN boss Craig Hutchinson.

The WA bid wants to tap into the thousands of fly-in, fly-out workers from rugby league-mad states, as well as courting new supporters. More than 1.8 million people live within a 45-minute drive from HPF Park.

“You’ve got a lot of education in the WA market,” Smith said. “If someone tries it once and they don’t enjoy it, they’ll never come back and tell 50 people and watch the AFL. There needs to be a real focus on a quality experience.”

Neither the NRL nor representatives of the WA consortium had any comment.

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