To the relief of Newcastle Jets fans and those of the A-Leagues alike, Maverick Sports Partners were unveiled as the Club’s new owners.
The June announcement ended months of speculation, with questions being asked about whether the Jets would even survive financially.
Now under fresh leadership, Maverick Sports Partners will support the Club’s future and build on the tight-knit community that Newcastle represents.
Speaking to Soccerscene after the deal was confirmed and ahead of the Round of 32 Australia Cup tie with Rockdale Ilinden, Jets CEO Shane Mattiske describes the feeling of elation, the challenges it presented, upcoming business plans and how the A-Leagues will still thrive.
How has everything been since the confirmed announcement?
Shane Mattiske: It’s the end point of one big stage of the Club’s history.
We’ve been working hard in the background to build a strong foundation for growth in a real transitional period.
The critical thing was to find a new permanent ownership group – we are really pleased to launch into that new era alongside Maverick Sports Partners.
It’s great for the players, community and stakeholders because it sets up our future and puts us in a position where we can focus on growth and makes everyone happy.
What have you seen in the Newcastle community with their support?
Shane Mattiske: We are seeing strong engagement from the corporate sector and our members.
Our memberships went on sale and our target of 10,000 members is ideal but we of course aim for more. We’ve already had a great response from our membership base, with early renewals and quite a few new members coming in despite being away from the formal part of the season; this is really encouraging.
We’re looking forward to the team getting back on field and seeing the fans come out and we’re confident that the work’s been done to support that through good crowd growth and build on the successes of the women’s and men’s teams.
It is exciting to see so many people lean forward and now want to get involved in the Club, with the comfort of the new era that also celebrates our 20th year coming up, highlighting the heritage and history of the Jets.
Do you have any plans in mind with Maverick Sports Partners at this stage?
Shane Mattiske: We are already making changes. Jason Hoffman is the first big example where he has come in from being an elite player to the corporate side of the Club.
He’s creating a connection between the men’s playing squad and our community team. Jason is one of those people that has got a big presence and has an identity.
Through his efforts, we are already seeing some great engagement at corporate level.
In addition, we are launching a new product called ‘Jets in Business’, where the broader business community come together and network with other organisations that has got an interest in football through this community and the success of our men’s and women’s teams.
We’ve also added Ken Schembri as General Manager of Football and Ben Hawes as General Manager of Commercial, Digital and Marketing.
We do have some big ambitions in terms of our growth. We are focusing very hard on our corporate revenue growth and membership numbers, with some big targets for our community engagement going forward.
From a personal point of view, how were the challenges in your role?
Shane Mattiske: For the past three and a half years, this has been a period where we’ve seen the game come together, particularly representatives from clubs in the game who recognised the importance of Newcastle and this region.
We’ve received great support and without it, we couldn’t progress to this stage.
There has been a lot of work on creating a strong platform to grow from, when further resources came under a new ownership structure.
A lot of people here, such as our playing group, have worked hard and performed really well despite the uncertainty that was going on.
All our people inside the Club and our corporate partners believed that this club did have a strong future here, with dedication and commitment that we would realise.
It’s really rewarding to get to this point where we’ve set ourselves up to grow and got a good collective within the Maverick Sports Partners ownership, with interesting dimensions that will help us for business skills and great experience in the football space.
What do you make of the state of the game and the A-Leagues?
Shane Mattiske: The last 12 months have been an incredible period for the game, featuring the Women’s World Cup. That has unlocked a connection to the whole Australian population – there would be very few families, adults or children that wouldn’t have been inspired and engaged by the success of the Matildas.
The diversity that exists for the tournament proved to be a watershed moment for football in this country.
At the elite level, you’re seeing people engage in football and you can see how that’s driven growth.
From a Newcastle perspective, we more than doubled our average crowd for women’s football, ending with 7,000 to set a new record for the semi-final.
We’ve seen huge growth across the board in participation; football is the one sport that’s booming and there’s incredible numbers in female participation, so we have some really bright signs for the game’s future.
You can’t get away from the fact that the APL have had to work through some challenges as they refine their economic model. Being close to it, we think they are short-term challenges and there’s confidence around the way they intend to work through them.
You look to those indications around the strength of the base that sits behind football and that gives everyone comfort that in the medium-longer term, there is a strong future for football.
The economic model just needs some slight refinement, and that’s what it being worked through at the moment.
