Warriors buyer: Deal near and I’ll be in the hot seat

Hawaiian businessman says rival bid from Auckland Rugby League on ‘life support’

Hawaiian businessman Richard Fale says he will personally drive the Warriors once his consortium completes the purchase of Auckland NRL club, probably this week.

Many things point to the club being sold by Eric Watson — an owner since 2000 — within days and Fale said the parties would gather on “mainland United States” this week.

Current Warriors chief executive Cameron George has made a plea for any new owner to retain the current staff.

Fale told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that four consortium members would come to Auckland to steer the club.

“[The financial controller] and I will definitely be there for sure. We’ll probably have two others who will have a long-term presence there, meaning 18 to 24 months, boots on the ground, getting everything off and started.

“It looks like I’ll be the one primarily in the driver’s seat for us.”

Fale described the Auckland Rugby League’s rival bid as probably on “life support”.

“We are extremely close — we’ve come to a verbal agreement,” he said, confirming weekend news reports.

“The big bump in the road, regarding the structure of the sale, we’ve been able to combat. The current owners have met us halfway on how we will solve that problem.

“It will be a share sale with adjustments with . . . a couple more blankets of security. We are waiting for that to be put down in black and white.

“If they were going to take the ARL bid, they would have taken the ARL bid. Eric Watson takes who he wants. We’ve been able to hammer out whatever disagreements we had on the structure of the sale.

“So we’re doing good . . . as long as the document reflects the conversation we have had, and we have every confidence that it will. It has to have all the legalese language in there and we’ll be good to go.”

After a poor 2017 season, coach Steve Kearney will feel that a brilliant Richard Fale start this year will improve his prospects of remaining under the new ownership. But overall, Fale said the Warriors’ outstanding four-win start was irrelevant to the consortium’s bid, reportedly around $24 million.

“Even if they were at the bottom of the ladder, it doesn’t matter to us one bit,” he said.

“It is a fantastic asset, great community, great country, we are ready to do whatever it takes to keep marching down that road towards the premiership.”

Meanwhile, George said: “What I can assure any person owning the club is we have a committed group of staff and players all striving to achieve the same thing, winning on and off the field.

“At the end of the day, if the new owner has a new vision or ideas and that involves me or others, well, so be it. Owners are entitled to do what they wish to do. I just hope that whoever buys the club, the staff are protected. We have a great group of people who have worked hard for a couple of years.

“[Our aim is] day to day, when we pull on that jumper for the fans, we are doing the best we can . . . most importantly, when people come to Mt Smart, they enjoy the experience and are happy the club has provided a great game day for them.

“The response so far has been very positive. We could not have hoped for a better start [to

2018].”