WNBL franchise, high-performance centre part of Hawks' long-term vision

It's a plan incoming CEO Stu Taggart is happy to unveil as the club's 2023-24 memberships go on sale amid hopes for an improved on and off-court return this season.

Now six months into his role, Taggart is confident the club will bounce back quickly from a dismal 3-25 on-court campaign under rookie coach Jacob Jackomas.

In a wide-ranging chat with the Mercury, Taggart outlined the club's vision for a quick turnaround on the floor and a more stable future off it.

While the Snakepit will always be the foundation club's spiritual home, its limited shared facilities with the Illawarra Basketball Association aren't up to being a full-time home for a national sporting franchise.

While potential development of the Beaton Park site has long been mooted, Taggart said Crest is keen to work with stakeholders to bring about a new facility either at its current location or elsewhere in the Illawarra.

"I think when I came in it was really important to listen and I spent a fair bit of time getting some unfiltered feedback," Taggart said.

"Pretty clearly common themes emerged about where there was weakness and a big one's facility. Everyone quite often jumps to the WIN Entertainment Centre but, in many respects, that's secondary in the facility sense.

The priority is the high performance operating environment, from the training and preparation perspective. Whilst we're are a resilient group and work hard, we don't have an integrated facility where we've got strength and conditioning, aquatics, high performance environment.

"We lift at Figtree at Baimed, from a strength and conditioning perspective, we split our training between the Snakepit and WIN Entertainment Centre across the season.

"The facility is a really big piece and there's some pretty big ambition in that space and we've got to work with, particularly local government, but also over time, potentially state and federal."

The plan is to create a facility for both permanent use for the club's elite programs, that also remains the home for the sport's community competitions.

"Integrating elite and community is the aspiration," Taggart said.

"Our ambition would be, how can we create a hub for basketball in the Illawarra?

"We want kids playing sport and we want to be part of that story. There's a lot of demand for community basketball in our region so it's really trying to build a value proposition for an elite and community basketball hub in the Illawarra.

"We've started that work, we've conceptualised what that could be. We've looked at what else is happening across Australia, a good example's the Basketball Centre of Excellence in Melbourne.

"They're in the process of finalising a build down there where the Southeast Melbourne Phoenix will be housed, the WNBL team, Basketball Australia Basketball Victoria.

"We sort of try and build an ambitious value proposition around what that could look like. There's a thriving basketball ecosystem in the community and, if there were more facilities, I'm confident that more people would play basketball."

One of Australia's oldest elite female sporting competitions has been plagued by instability, with club owners having been at war with Basketball Australia over the future of the WNBL.

It comes after clubs losses exceeded $5 million last season despite quality playing stocks and fan-bases. It's seen a push for the league to break away from Basketball Australia as the NBL did in 2015 when Larry Kestelman bought the league.

With hopes for a full high-performance facility being built, Taggart said there's no reason the Hawks couldn't also boast a WNBL franchise.

"We're an elite men's team at the moment and seeking corporate partners or appealing to the whole community it's a 'you can't be what you can't see' type discussion," Taggart said.

"I've got a daughter. I can take my sons to NBL, I can't take my daughter to WNBL currently in the Illawarra. We're doing a lot of work in that area.

"We've engaged with Basketball Australia around the process they're going through currently, around the capitalisation strategy of the league and the expansion strategy of the league.

"Until we have the full picture of what it looks like commercially, it's hard to comment, but in terms of the ambition we think it's the right thing to do and we think it would be a very valid investment. We definitely want to be part of that conversation."

The Hawks are the WIN Entertainment Centre's anchor tenant playing 14 home games at the 'Sandpit' each season. However, there have been persistent calls to see the rundown venue upgraded for the first time in its history.

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Venue and game-day experience is crucial to NBL clubs that, in the absence of a lucrative television rights deal, rely on attendances and memberships for their ongoing viability.

Taggart says he remains in dialogue with Venues NSW, but said the creation of high performance centre remains the organisation's top priority.

"I've been in regular contact with Venues NSW," Taggart said.

"Having been through this process in other parts of Australia, and around the world, around sporting infrastructure, it takes time. The economic landscape, the political landscape is all part of it in the moment, but seeing what the future could look like, I think it's pretty exciting.

"People have been waiting, but I think the vision that we're seeing and starting to hear about is looking positive for a redeveloped WIN Entertainment Centre and beside that, a redeveloped WIN Stadium as well.

"There's work that's going on around what that looks like from Venues NSW and, to their credit, they're engaging with us and asking what is important to us from a basketball perspective.

I think there's a real intent with this government to look at it. Obviously with Paul (Member for Wollongong Paul Scully) and Ryan (Member for Keira Ryan Park), being strong advocates over many years for redevelopment, that's positive too.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that there's some positive things to really look forward to, but I think strategically the focus really is around the elite facility as being a higher priority for us, partly because we understand the development process, scale and the cost of what the WIN Entertainment Centre redevelopment would look like."

With memberships going on sale on Thursday, Taggart's confident the venue and experience will add value to the on-court product with no repeat of the weeknight-heavy schedule the club saw last year.

"We can create a good atmosphere with what's there," Taggart said.

We've looked at cost of living pressures, we've looked at how we can simplify our membership packages and programs so that we can launch this week and then work a bit harder in the front office around corporate partnerships and other areas too.

"We would always be looking to enhance the experience but, at the end of the day, people come to watch the basketball. They want to watch these guys and the talent that they have, and over time we'd love for them to be watching WNBL as well."

Initiations don't come much tougher than what Jackomas endured as a rookie last season, with a horror injury toll almost solely affecting imports that saw a youthful side lose more than 10 games by single-digit margins.

With the club's roster now all but locked in prior to preseason, Taggart's confident the upcoming season won't see a repeat of on-the-floor strugles.

"I came in in the final week at NBL23, a very tough season on court, but I was able to get an insight into what Jacob's trying to build on court with him and his coaching staff," Taggart said.

"It was about finishing well and, and competing in those final few games of NBL23 and that's what I was really impressed by, everybody's desire to put a line under it, own it, accept the reality of it, and work together on what we can improve.

"It's really important [understanding] the journey they've been on, and then there was a real focus immediately on building for NBL24. I think Mat Campbell as GM of basketball and Jacob and the other assistant coaches have done a great job in building the roster.

"From what I understand in debriefing on NBL23 was that, with a different season structure of NBL22, with Brian (Goorjian) stepping away and Jacob stepping into the role, a lot of the recruitment and those types of things suffered.

"It was nobody's fault in many respects, but it meant that having the stability in June-July of an essentially fully settled squad wasn't in place. I certainly listened to that and have tried to support the basketball side of the business to give as much opportunity for Mat and Jake to be building the roster.

"We're really excited about where we've got to. We're in really good shape, we've built a really solid roster building upon great players that we have, and inserting some new exciting talent."

With Jackomas recently extended until the end of 2026, Taggart said there is a firm focus on long-term success as well as a quick return to finals contention this season.

"We're backing Jacob as an emerging Australian coach and backing Australian talent in terms of his future and our future," Taggart said.

"Obviously we're hoping to we'll start to see some really positive results in NBL24, but it's also not just about next year. It's about sort of setting us up for sustained success.

"It happens in sport a lot, it's very easy to just focus on what's our playing squad for next year, how are we going to win next year? We want to try and build a model that sets us up for sustained success.

"We've done some really good things as a club, but we can always do more."

With fans and sponsors battling cost-of-living pressures following two years lost to a pandemic, it's been difficult for sporting franchises to re-engage fan and sponsorship bases. It's something Taggart's made a top priority since getting his feet under the desk.

"There's a lot of resilience in this group, both in the playing and coaching side of the business, but also the front office," Taggart said.

"Part of my job's been being objective and coming in and not having perhaps any baggage in that journey of the last 12 months particularly, but even the last three years.

"It's been tough for everybody in the community through the pandemic and those types of things, so everyone's had to build resilience. I've enjoyed coming in and I've enjoyed the challenge.

"There's no silver bullets in turning things around immediately. It's hard work. You have to keep fronting up. The other component that's really important is how do we engage better with the community?

"The pandemic's impacted that, that's the reality for all sports. It's just about how we create a club that matters more for the community, both front office and the basketball side."

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The Hawks remain without a major sponsor, but Taggart said the club's search will align with broader strategic and cultural objectives.

"A big part of it is what we stand for," he said.

"If I'm the CEO of an ASX listed company, I'd be asking what do you stand for? I think in coming into the club, I've really tried to focus with our team on defining that so, when we have those conversations, we've got a much more compelling story in what is a really competitive market for corporate partners.

"There's a lot of activity in that space that we're working on, we're trying to get in front of the right people both within the region but also national brands and international brands. There's a lot of work going into it. We don't have anything to talk about right now, but we hope that we will very soon."

Novelly is now the Hawks sole owner following confirmation that previous part-owners Brian Colangelo, Dorry Kordahi and the family of the late Michael Proctor have relinquished their stakes in the franchise.

Kordahi was the face of the new ownership group when it was awarded the license three years ago, bringing Brian Goorjian to club, engaging Pepper Money as a major sponsor and overseeing a membership drive that saw 'Illawarra' restored to the club emblem after the NBL made its removal an initial condition of granting the group the license.

He was not sighted at games last year amid a reported fallout with Novelly.

Former NBA Executive of the Year Colangelo was also instrumental in recruitment, playing a key role in bringing current captain Tyler Harvey and former Next Star Justinian Jessup to Wollongong.

However, the club reported this week that previous owners have elected to pursue other business interests.

"That was a choice for the other minority investors in the club who have all contributed in a really positive way," Taggart said.

"I wasn't part of that, but I see the fruits of that labour and acknowledge the investors who are a big part of the resurgence of the club. I know they worked hard and they provided a lot of counsel through that period."

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