Dorry Kordahi is heading down the freeway to inspect the not-the-Illawarra Hawks very own 'ground zero'.
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The new owner spoke to the Mercury while embarking on a fact finding mission on Thursday, the first steps in rebuilding the club and what it will look like next season.
His starting point was the great rock of the Hawks, general manager Mat Campbell, the man who saved the club in 2009 and has been fighting tooth and nail to keep it alive since.
They met at the Snakepit offices, a demountable left as an empty shell out the front of the Beaton Park training base, at the end of Simon Stratford's ill-fated time of ownership.
From there, Kordahi met with new St George Illawarra chief executive Ryan Webb to compare notes about the state of elite sport in the region.
Key stakeholders were on the schedule of meetings, including former coach Matt Flinn, about what role he may have at the Hawks, a club he's been involved in almost his entire life.
New coach Brian Goorjian is expected to fly in to Sydney and make the same trek down next week, but it could yet be delayed by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and travel restrictions out of Melbourne.
If Kordahi declares the Snakepit office, which has perennially operated on a shoestring budget, unsuitable, he'll look to secure a working space in the Wollongong CBD.
In a wide-ranging 40 minute chat on his way to the Illawarra, Kordahi was forthright and passionate about his new project.
A high school drop out and apprentice hair-dresser, Kordahi started selling T-shirts out of his parents garage at the age of 23, before breaking into the Chinese market and building it into a promotion, merchandising and corporate clothing empire.
Even with the support, profile and coaching nous of Goorjian, this could be his biggest career challenge yet.
The initial premise of this columnist's call was to establish or dispel the rumours flying since the new ownership deal was announced, in preference to a joint bid by Illawarra businessman Tory Lavalle, the owner of the NSW football title winners Wollongong Wolves, and NBA draft hopeful LaMelo Ball, through his manager Jermaine Jackson.
Was Larry Kestelman as owner of the NBL still the majority owner? The speculation had remained he or the league owned as much as 75 per cent.
"No, absolutely not," was Kordahi's frank reply.
"We're always looking for new investors and opportunities as we establish what we're doing, but whatever rumour you've got there is wrong."
Was there an intention to move the club's operational offices to Sydney?
"It's not practical," he said.
"That's where I'm heading now, to meet Mat at the Snakepit, but it's going to take a lot of work. If it's not workable there, we may look for office space in town.
"And my business is in Sydney, so there will be times where we will have to be flexible in how we're operate, but it only makes sense to keep the offices and the training base in Wollongong."
By Friday afternoon, Kordahi had a better understanding of the Illawarra sporting and corporate landscape, as well as the level of resentment about removing the region from the Hawks name. The Mercury launched a 'Put It Back' campaign in a bid to maintain the Illawarra identity, amid the backlash in the community about the NBL edict.
The fear remains becoming just the 'Hawks' is clearing the path to eventually relocating the team to Western Sydney, Canberra or even Newcastle, like Homer Simpson on a hunger strike when the Springfield Isotopes were to move to Albuquerque.
Kordahi is adamant he's open to the idea of keeping every home game at WIN Entertainment Centre.
He hopes crucial talks with Venues NSW lead to more palatable game night terms to play there, as well as a commitment for a significant redevelopment.
Kordahi said his work with the club is in such infancy that plans to take games to other cities in regional NSW is well down the agenda.
In simple terms, how many games are in Wollongong will be determined by the amount of support through sponsors, purchasing of corporate boxes, merchandise and "bums on seats", he says.
The conversation inevitably shifts to the most sensitives of topics, the dropping of the name and how the Hawks intend to make that support work without it.
"We set the whole league ablaze when we announced Goorjian's signing," Kordahi said, a story which was exclusively revealed by the Mercury on Monday.
"We're going to do everything we can to have a product and team everyone can get behind. But it has got to be up to people to get behind it, otherwise it can't be a success."
