Media reports have indicated that discontent with percieved conflicts of interest from the NBLs owner, Larry Kestelman, have led to a FIBA complaint from the owner of the Illawarra Hawks, Jared Novelly.
Since 2015, the NBL has been privately owned and run by Kestelman, a co-founder of telecommunications company Dodo, who has spent millions of dollars on the competition and has held equity in several teams.
The Hawks owner has reportedly sent out an email to other club owners proposing to buyout the ownership of the league, and complaining about “secret ambassador agreements, gambling revenue, the sale of the JackJumpers, integrity concerns and financial transparency”. He reportedly has some level of support from 7 of the 10 club owners.
The AFR reports that the owner of National Basketball League champions the Illawarra Hawks has written to the sport’s international governing body accusing the league’s billionaire owner Larry Kestelman of conflicts of interest and asking that he be suspended from duties while an investigation takes place.
“At the same time as operating the league, Kestelman has held ownership stakes and business interests in at least three of the 10 teams in the NBL in suppliers, sponsors and partner organisations connected to the NBL as well as in property development adjacent to NBL arenas,” the letter says.
The letter sent to FIBA claims the seven “non-Kestelman” teams receive a disproportionately small share of NBL’s net profit – 2.45 per cent per team, which Crest claims is “insufficient to cover operating costs, financially unsustainable for most NBL teams and … much less than the profit share for teams in comparable leagues”.
According to the Guardian report, Club owners have expressed concern they must continue to meet multi-million dollar annual losses while the NBL – as a commercial entity owned by Kestelman’s property development group – can set the terms of media deals, club agreements and player payments.
In addition, the sale of the Jackjumpers will see Kestelman personally benefit – the club was established by his investment group – but the other owners are frustrated by his benefiting from their success, while they cop multi million dollar losses.
A spokesman for the NBL said: “The NBL considers that its time and resources are better invested in helping to grow the game of basketball in Australia and New Zealand, from grassroots to elite levels, rather than responding to further iterations of baseless allegations, which the NBL has previously addressed.”
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