There may be life after the Huskies

Southern Huskies backer hints at ‘snippets of gold’ in failure

THE man behind the Southern Huskies says he is “massively disappointed” at the demise of his grand plan for a Tasmanian team in the National Basketball League.

Justin Hickey, the Tasmanian millionaire owner of funky drink-bottle company HydraPlay, told the Mercury it was a difficult decision to pull the plug on his dream.

“For it to end like this is very disappointing, but life goes on,” he said.

Mr Hickey confirmed the State Government would be informed of the situation and that every cent the Southern Huskies owed would be paid.

THE businessman man behind the Southern Huskies says he is “massively disappointed” at the demise of his grand plan for a Tasmanian team in the National Basketball League.

Justin Hickey, the Tasmanian millionaire owner of funky drink bottle company HydraPlay, told the Mercury it was a difficult decision to pull the plug on his dream, but he said “life goes on”. Hickey said he was restricted in what he could say, but confirmed the State Government would be fully apprised of the situation.

He also confirmed that every cent the Southern Huskies owed would be paid.

“We have an exit report from my solicitor going to the Premier, which covers a whole raft of things,” Hickey said.

“We spoke to the Government on Friday to let them know the situation.

“They are expecting the report and they’ll take it from there.

“It is super-important they understand why we are exiting and why we are not investing any more money.”

The exit report may contain good news for Tasmanian basketball. “Hopefully the Government will go through it thoroughly and realise there are some snippets of gold in there that will hopefully be able to make not only basketball but sport better in Tasmania,” Hickey said.

Asked how he felt about the bombshell announcement on Friday that the Southern Huskies were packing up shop, Hickey said: “Massively disappointed. For it to end like this is very disappointing, but life goes on.”

Hickey said he had invested $1.7 million into the Huskies project. He would not confirm the Huskies owed a reported $150,000.

“Where are these figures getting plucked from?” Hickey said.

“We know full well how much money is owed and everyone will get paid, and the Government is aware of that.

“You can call them debts, but they are actually invoices. In any business some invoices get paid within terms and some get paid outside of terms for certain reasons.

“There are a few creditors we need to take care of, but they are just invoices that we will sort out.

“We are not shying away from anything. Everything will get tidied up.”

Hickey said if the Hobart Chargers were resurrected it would be “awesome”.