Illawarra return lets Hawks truly take flight

The league's edict was a non-negotiable condition of granting the Hawks NBL license to the new ownership group comprising Kordahi, former NBA executive Brian Colangelo and US businessman Michael Proctor in June.

It seemed a minor detail, but Kordahi quickly realised the new group couldn't realise its bold agenda for the club without the name of the region it represented.

"When we were going to announce it in June and the league said you might have a couple of issues, I didn't know Illawarra wasn't going to be a part of it to be quite honest," Kordahi said.

"For me it was the Illawarra Hawks but [I'd always called them] the Hawks. Then once it was announced, I thought 'OK well this is a big issue here and I had no idea about this'. It did catch us off guard.

"I had Brian Goorjian already signed up to the club and I knew that was going to come out [the following] Monday and I was hoping that would change the direction... but I didn't think it would be this much of a burden on what we were doing.

"But I've always said we aren't going anywhere. I said from our first press conference with me and Brian, the DNA of the Hawks is the Illawarra region. It's the Snakepit, it's where we started. You can't have one foot in and one foot out, I've always believed you've got to be [all] in it."

That belief was enough for Kordahi to lobby the NBL to see Illawarra re-instated, the response a lofty membership target of 4379 - representing the club's 43 years and inaugural season in 1979.

"I lobbied for this back in November. It hasn't been a PR exercise, whoever took the club on had that [stipulation]," Kordahi said.

"Did I read the fan pages? Yes of course I did. Did I get annoyed when we were 4-0 and people were complaining about the name? Of course I got annoyed with that because it is annoying [for everyone].

"We've said all along we wanted to change the narrative and change the perception of this club and having the Illawarra name a part of what we do is important. It's something we've believed in and something we've trusted in in the direction we're taking.

"It's been a slog, I know a lot of fans weren't happy with the direction it was going with the name but, from our perspective, we've always believed we were the Illawarra Hawks. To officially have that now is an exciting chapter for us."

The target had appeared unattainable, particularly given the number of fans disillusioned from the jump, but Kordahi came up with an innovative approach to have major sponsors Pepper Money, MCR and City Motors fork out sponsorship dollars in memberships.

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It's an approach that's been treated with some skepticism, including in the halls of the NBL, but Kordahi says it's simply a start. Crucially, it was enough win over league owner Larry Kesteleman.

"Our [fan] membership is consistent with where it was last season. Am I happy with that? No, but it's a starting block," Kordahi said.

"I understood where the NBL were trying to go with this club in trying to make it a regional team but, the more time I spent here, I realised there really is a strong community here and I think previous ownerships haven't really engaged themselves with that community.

"Once I saw our membership numbers weren't going up, I didn't want this to drag on all year. I went back to our corporate partners and said 'I need your support, I can find an innovative way to drive these memberships'.

"Our aim is to activate these 3000 memberships in the community. To me it's about getting back to the grassroots. I've seen clubs that have invested in the grass roots and invested in the direction we're going with this.

"It's not going to happen overnight, but it's going to be compound building and it's about getting a new fanbase, winning them across and showing them what we can do."