BASKETBALL
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The Wollongong Hawks' fight for survival took another encouraging upturn on Friday after the club was all but assured of more time to pull itself out of voluntary administration.
Three days after securing an all-important major sponsor, Hawks general manager Kim Welch and owner James Spenceley received indications from the firm overseeing the club's financial difficulties that the approaching deadline would almost certainly be extended to the first week of May.
Richard Brien, of Nicols and Brien, expects to receive a promising proposal from the Hawks this weekend which he will forward to the club's creditors ahead of a crucial meeting on April 9.
"Thirty days from the ninth would be a very telling period, because that's the time frame within which a deed would have to be signed," Brien said.
"The proof of the pudding will be when we get something from Spenceley saying what he's prepared to do, and creditors can draw their own conclusions from that when they meet.
"If creditors are happy to accept the proposal we have up to 30 days to get a deed signed, and that probably gives Welch another 30 days to get all his ducks in-a-row - to be able to say 'we're good to go next season because I now have all the sponsors I need to'.
If there's any shortfall I guess it's to Spenceley to say if he's prepared to throw in the dollars to cover whatever the shortfall might be."
Since being placed into voluntary administration four weeks ago, the Hawks have significantly strengthened their financial position with close to 30 pledges of sponsorship.
Scoring a new major sponsor on Tuesday was the missing piece of the puzzle.
"We just have to keep gathering businesses and their support through this period and past this period so we can give ourselves the best chance," Welch said.
"There's definitely hope looking forward, but we need to keep rallying that support. If we get it, it looks like we could be good to go."
Brien said the Hawks' plight had prompted an unusual response from creditors.
"Most of the people who are creditors probably have some sympathy for the Hawks and want to see the Hawks continue, so there's an extra bit of positive feeling coming from the creditors, which is not normally there in an insolvency situation," he said.
"It's all been positive thus far. Ultimately it will depend on what the final proposal is and what the creditors' attitude is to that proposal, because it's up to creditors.
"Having some clarity on just what the position is with creditors and the company will make Kim Welch's job a lot easier in going out into the market place trying to get sponsors. He's done a pretty amazing job from everything I'm hearing."