Betham serious on buyout of Warriors
Monty Betham insists he is not looking to make up the numbers after relaunching his crowdfunding bid to buy the Warriors.
The former Warriors captain first started the campaign to get fans to purchase the club from Eric Watson last week, but ended it on Monday, saying in a social media post that it was not a viable option.
But after speaking with the UKbased Watson this week, it is now back on the table with Betham announcing on social media that he has entered into official negotiations with the long-time Warriors owner.
Betham, who played 101 games for the Warriors from 1999-2005, is meeting Watson’s legal team, Warriors managing directorturned executive chairman Jim Doyle and new chief executive Cameron George in coming days before unveiling details of his plan on Monday.
Betham has assembled a team of high-profile business people to lead the governance of the club should the bid be successful.
‘‘Obviously my expertise is the football field and rugby league, it’s not in the governance and the shareholding and everything else. You need some real quality people who are very specific in their roles,’’ Betham told Stuff.
‘‘I can’t name anyone but there’s a couple of guys there that are known to all. The people I’m involved with are very good in what they do, they’re very successful and they don’t like making up the numbers and those are the sort of people I want to be around. They’re really good people as well and I’m really excited about working with them.’’
Betham’s announcement came on the same day Watson relinquished his role as chairman of the club, with Doyle taking over as executive chairman from September 1 with chief operating officer George to become CEO.
Watson had been discussions to sell the Warriors to Paul Davys, only for the Auckland businessman to withdraw his offer this week after becoming disgruntled with the process.
Watson has said there were several parties looking to buy the Warriors, with a reported asking price of $20 million. While it remains to been if a fan-backed bid could purchase the club outright, they could purchase a share of the ownership with Watson staying on at a reduced capacity.
‘‘Whether it will own 100 per cent of the club and how that’s structured that’s obviously quite complicated but there’s multiple sports [teams] around the world that are part-owned by a supporters group,’’ Doyle told Newstalk ZB.
‘‘If Monty and a lot of the members and fans come together, and potentially with that and Eric and one or two individuals or whatever the case may be, that’s certainly a huge possibility.’’