A done deal: Warriors to get new owners

Richard Fale’s consortium will be the new owners of the Warriors.

Eric Watson has agreed the structure of the purchase of the NRL club to the Hawaii-based businessman, who is fronting a consortium which includes current and former NFL players.

Fale revealed to Stuff that agreement had been reached verbally by the two parties. The lawyers then got to work putting it all together with the correct legal wording and confirming the agreement in written form.

Fale’s group will assemble in Arizona early next week to begin the final arrangements for the purchase and this is expected to take a couple of days.

The confirmation of the sale of the Warriors ends a saga that has been going on since last August, when Auckland businessman Paul Davys put in an offer of what was believed to be $15 million for the club.

It was reported at the time that Watson was looking for $20m and the final price of the Warriors is understood to be closer to $24m.

Selling the club when they’re on a four-game winning streak and looking to have their best season in a long while could seem strange. But it is worth remembering that Watson is a shrewd businessman and one of the golden rules of business is to buy low and sell high.

Fale’s plans to revolutionise the experience of going to Warriors games, or being a supporter of the club and plans to lift those levels to what are at large American sporting events, like NFL, NBA and MLB games.

Negotiations between Fale’s group and Eric Watson’s Cullen Investments weren’t smooth sailing.

When Fale was in Auckland a couple of weeks ago the whole deal nearly fell over when Watson suddenly upped his price for the club.

Even as recently as this weekend there was a potential deal breaking situation over the way the Warriors would be sold.

Fale wanted to do an asset acquisition, where they would buy all the individual parts of the Warriors, but Watson was looking for a share sale, where the club along with its assets and liabilities would be taken over.

Fale was concerned that there could be some unexpected liabilities down the line if the deal was done this way. But it is likely there has been an agreement reached on this, with assurances made to Fale.

Auckland Rugby League, who were the other main contenders to buy the club, had for a short period of time become the front runners to take over the Warriors, because they didn’t have a problem with a share sale.

Even though they were offering less money than Fale’s group, the simplicity of the sale this way appealed to Watson.

The ARL had been interested in reacquiring the Warriors for some time.

They initially made a joint bid with the Waipareira Trust and were granted and exclusivity agreement to buy the Warriors.

But when the Waipareira Trust pulled out, those negotiations collapsed and the exclusivity agreement ended.

They then launched another bid and saw ownership as part of a bigger picture to rejuvenate the sport in Auckland and also set up a semi-professional league.

There were initial talks of doing a joint bid with Fale’s group, but this didn’t last long and relations between the two have been frosty ever since.

The ARL had been in discussions with former Kiwis coach Graham Lowe, who was a part owner of the Warriors in the 1990s and the club’s former CEO Wayne Scurrah. But it appears that has all come to nothing.

Fale’s group will need to get approval from the NRL to buy the club, but this should be a formality.

Chairman Jim Doyle is likely to stay involved for a while to help ease the new owners into the club.

Cameron George has done an outstanding job as CEO in revitalising the club, as has Aaron Lawton as fan engagement manager and both are expected to stay on.