The Warriors could have a new owner as early as next week, with businessman Richard Fale revealing he has agreed on a price to purchase the club from Eric Watson.
The Hawaiian-based Fale, the leader of a Tongan-American consortium including a group of retired NFL players, is in the country and has spoken extensively on New Zealand radio this week.
“We’re really close,” Fale told Trackside Radio on Tuesday.
“We’re here with boots on the ground to do a verification of all the numbers and verify everything we’ve been communicating about.
“We’ve brought our mergers and acquisition specialist over from New York City and he’s going to take a blow torch and sledge hammer to everything, to make sure everything’s panning out the way we think it is and then we’ll take it forward from there.
“Everything we’ve come across so far has given us that indication, so everything’s looking really good.
“Everything we’ve looked at so far, indicates we’re in a great spot. But we could find something out today or tomorrow.”
While there could be concerns the ownership change may disrupt the Warriors’ apparent watershed start to the 2018 NRL season, Fale indicated there would be no overhaul of the football department in the short-term.
“We don’t pretend to be subject matter experts in the game of rugby league itself,” the ambitious Fale said.
“So we’re going to essentially allow the seeds that have been planted to bear fruit.
“It was a fantastic game last week (against South Sydney) and I’m looking forward to seeing what the performance is going to be like this Saturday.”
Fale was also interviewed in studio by Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking on Monday and was equally emphatic and enthusiastic about the impending purchase. He also spoke glowingly of the Warriors’ first-up victory, a 32-20 carve-up of the Rabbitohs in Perth.
With Watson’s price-tag the stumbling block for several other prospective buyers, Fale confirmed money was effectively no object to his consortium – provided the numbers stack up in a business sense.
NZ Herald’s Michael Burgess has covered Fale’s bid to buy the Warriors extensively and reported on Monday that the group will consider building their own stadium in Auckland.
Categories: Team News + Stats, WARRIORS NEWS
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