After several months of negotiations, which included beating consortiums in Europe and the far east, the Pelligra Group are now in control of Adelaide United.
I had broken this story several months ago and provided details along the way for readers of The Roar, but it has finally been confirmed with local media reporting last night, that the ownership change will happen at season end.
The outgoing ownership group, helmed by Piet Van Der Pol – had a shadowy reputation and links to Chinese sporting organisations as well as the Chinese government that the public weren’t aware of
The group itself were wanting over $20 million dollars to sell the license and it may surprise a lot of people at the size of the fee that was agreed to by the Pelligra group.
While Perth Glory, Central Coast Mariners & Newcastle Jets are still all on the market, many people living in the eastern states might be shocked with Adelaide being the first club to change owners,
For anyone not familiar with Adelaide United, this is a great piece of business for the FA as well as the Pelligra Group.
Adelaide United are the best financially run club, outside of the traditional big four (Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City & Western Sydney Wanderers)
They have one of the best stadium deals in the league and speaking of the stadium, construction is well under way with a 50-million-dollar renovation. They regularly play finals football.
Once you factor in the generational young talent coming through the state – owning Adelaide United is an exciting proposition.
While some fans of Adelaide will be upset at being owned by a corporation in Victoria, the Pelligra group have been making acquisitions in Adelaide for the past few years.
In 2017 the group paid $55m for Elizabeth’s former General Motors Holden plant – now an industrial park.
The Pelligra group bought a CBD office complex for $25.5 million and will spend over $30 million refurbishing it – They also own another city office complex, & renovated a separate one recently
A $50 million dollar investment in a golf course, resort and residential community construction started in 2020 on the picturesque Kangaroo Island & they also paid $30 million dollars for an old hospital.
Adelaide Arena which was the home for years of the states NBL club; the 36ers was purchased for $4 million dollars with a further $20 million dollars going into its redevelopment
The Adelaide Giants baseball team was bought for several million dollars and will have a new stadium built in the tune of $40 million dollars – Ross Pelligra even bought a seaside home in Henley Beach for $3 million recently.
While these figures are eye watering, The Pelligra Group’s purchase of Adelaide United; does not mean the club will be taking a seat at the leagues rich table next season.
The club will still be run under a tight budget with an emphasis on producing local South Australian talent and finding overseas bargains and interstate a league player wanting a second chance. However, the wheels are already in motion for the playing group and staff within the club.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
Star players Stefan Mauk & Ben O’Halloran were sold in January, with several more departures scheduled for the off season – including talented youth Kusini Yengi & Mohammed Toure while the likes of Joe Gauci, Yaya Dukuly & Bernado have had offers from rival a league as well as European teams.
Assistant coach Ross Aloisi and the director of football have left recently with the head of sports science and several other administrative positions soon to be vacated.
The club have agreed a deal to sign Hiroshi Ibusuki and are very close to permanently signing loanees Craig Goodwin & Lachlan Brook.
The biggest issue that the new owners will need to address is the fans, in particular how dysfunctional one of the competitions most partisan supporter groups, the Red Army, has become.
However, in a season where instability has been the norm, having one of the competitions most consistent clubs become even more stable under the financial clout of the Pelligra Group – will have other clubs looking on in envy
Megeng
Roar Rookie
TV revenues are just another source of audited revenue for the NRL clubs. So they don't run at a loss actually.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@Matthew - That's part of the problem mate, too many people seem to think it is. They think to be an active member you have to be a hard thug, but in reality all you need to be is inclusive and have a genuine love for your club.
Matthew Reid
Guest
Cringy maybe, led by a 14 year old girl is what makes me proud. Shows her passion and shows the inclusivity of the group. Active support doesn't need to be a bunch of men wearing hoodies and getting drunk.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Victoria is a freakin' weird place when it comes to a lot of things SecretScout. Adelaide is a laid back comfortable place, and I am pleased for the club. Go forth and conquer.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
There's a simple solution to these issues. Facilitate a forum between the club and its supporters and just lay it on the line. This is 2022. Modern society is acommodating of diversity, gender, race and sexual orientation. So too is the club. If there is an issue with that, then keep it to yourself. Division within the club is something that nobody wants, so be respectful, and be considerate, put the club first. As much as you dont like it, nothing lasts forever. Players move on, Kappos change. If the lass who's managed to get herself a ranking position with the Red Army is doing a good job then kudos to her. Let the whingers prove they can do a better job. This is not 1985, this is 2022, get with the gameplan people!!
HR
Roar Rookie
Is it that difficult to understand? As far as I can tell, the club has been run either implicitly or explicitly as a development club – one that takes young local talent and endeavours to sell to bigger, richer clubs either interstate or overseas. The thing that frustrates me is seeing much of the club’s best young talent move to other clubs (though it’s fair enough that they want to move to bigger and better things, in the case of players that move overseas, and it’s great that they get the opportunity to do so). The lack of domestic transfer fees is an issue when it comes to budget too – it’s difficult to build a war chest if the only way that the club can earn transfer fees is to sell players to overseas clubs.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Rodger, I never said it would be easy. The positive slant to this is that the major NPL clubs know that this is coming, they have done so for a quite a while now. Any club worth their salt should have been, and should continue to be, industrious in building a healthy sponsorship base, building the club's coffers, preparing for a warchest. Image how many clubs are going hammer and tong to be ready for this, because my sources tell me they want it, and they want it bad. I know my club, Lambton Jaffas are, they've amalgamated with one of the biggest licenced clubs in NSW outside of Sydney. What about South Melbourne, it was reported about 18 months ago that the club had 20 million in cash reserves ready for the future. What the footballing public need is education. They've never had something akin to what the Poms have had for over a century. To the Poms benefit, they dont have cross-country volleyball or any other major code to compete with. (Acknowledging that they do have RL in England.....settle down!!!) This is where eventually, football supporters will be loyal to their clubs, be they NPL or A-League, and hopefully, eventually that differentiation will not exist. They'll be just football clubs and it will come down to which Division they're in. The next 10 to 20 years are going to be a moving feast of football evolution in Australia
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@FIL - You ask "What’s the reaction going to be when pro/rel comes into play." I ask you, what do you think the reaction will be? A second team being 'promoted' into the A League from Adelaide would be a disaster for them. Why? I hear you ask. The answer is simple, to play in the A League, they would need to play out of Hindmarsh, or at 2nd best the new Football SA mini-stadium at Gepps Cross [Capacity 5000] so immediately their costs jump, plus full time professional wages for the players and support staff. P/R sounds idealistic but there is a hell of a lot of hard work to go before it can be implimented.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@Ali - The author won't own up to who he really is, he suggested to me once that he can't do his job if everyone knew who he was. A strange answer TBH. Some authors on here just sprout an opinion, which is fine, but they frame it as an informed piece of journalism, which it isn't.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@Andy - I think you should of asked the actual Red Army about your statements before putting it in print. If you made those statements without any actual proof that is what the majority of older Red Army members felt, you may be in for a surprise. Most on the Red Army Facebook page are calling you out mate.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@Matthew - May be he spoke to someone, who knows someone, who has a second cousin who went to a game once and was disappointed when he/she got told to behave. There has been some good feedback on their [The Red Army] Facebook page about the article. Most of it less than complimentary.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@Tim - According to the facebook pages of Red Army Group, several in fact, there are no issues. Andy may have spoken to an individual who might have been 'upset' but the Red Army had, has and will continue to have a pretty good working relationship with the club.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
change is the only constant, in life :) well besides death and taxes
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
correct, they are still circling newcastle like a shark smelling blood in the water. i think theyre some way apart in terms of overall price though
josh
Guest
Here's the NSL bitter comment that no one asked for, or needs.
josh
Guest
Scary that you're proud of that cringey goalkeeper chant.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Adelaide havent changed from the days when Veart played for them and hardly did anything, and remember when Mori was scoring 20-30 goals in the NSL , Veart came came back from Europe and couldn't even score for Adelaide City .This is another oldies first club, the youth angle is just because they cant afford enough oldies, Ibusuki tall but cant really head the ball, all his goals have been tap ins or headers from close range, stuff that Blackwood can do on a budget, and he wouldn;t come cheap. 80% of the wages spent on an unsellable old mans legion, while some of the youth it seems are only short injury replacement contracts. The good thing about South Australia is its poverty , see if you can only find enough full rego fee paying for 80% of the squad then they can scout the remaining 20%. Other states it will be at 100%. In NSW its even worse, a full rego paying kid wont get on the field and might not even get into a squad because they have all the kids that having parents paying for the academy, and trips
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Franko There is a strong chance Adelaide United will become a feeder club to South Melbourne.
Grem
Roar Rookie
The A League clubs are no different to most clubs in many competitions and need an injection of funds from somewhere. We are lucky that there are many people with good contacts or businesses that love the game. These people are generally smart business people who won't soon be parted from their money, but have a passion for the world game. Many sporting clubs run at a loss. The Sydney teams in the NRL mostly run at a loss and it's only tv revenue that keeps them going. I believe that Melbourne Storm, a "transplanted" team of NSW and Qld players that plays in a non league state has been propped up for many years. I also believe there are a few propped up AFL teams in the non AFL states that wouldn't survive without injections of money from the AFL. My understanding is Barcelona FC and a few other big clubs are not doing too well financially at this moment, so I guess the A League is in good company.
Igor Oligarchov
Guest
How can these A-League 'clubs' franchises, be worth more than a cracker? They all lose a lot of money, if someone is prepared to lose money they get the gig, simple as that. No ifs or buts about it. The clowns paying 20 million to own a club are seriously dills and won't be rich for long. A fool and his money, will soon be parted as the old proverb goes.