Breaker's players huddle, 2024. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Change is on the horizon for the New Zealand Breakers with the sale of the Auckland-based NBL club.
The ownership group, lead by former NBA player Matt Walsh who is based in America, have sold the team with new owners set to officially take over in the coming days.
Walsh became the majority owner of the club in 2018 along with Romie Chaudhari who at the time was a part-owner and director of football club Swansea City as well as partners Adam Goodman, Dan Katz and former NBA all-star and NBA champion Shawn Marion. In 2020 NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo also took a stake in the club.
The club was sold to Walsh's group by Paul and Liz Blackwell who had owned the club since 2005.
A potential sale of the club had been rumoured over the last couple of seasons.
Sources at the Breakers expect the latest sale to bring big changes to the club that finished the NBL season ninth in a 10-team league.
RNZ understands the new owners will keep coach Petteri Koponen who joined the club for this season but other people involved with the club will be without a job.
The Breakers won the NBL Championship four times under the Blackwell's ownership but have struggled under the American ownership group that were in charge during the Covid season that the Breakers were based in Australia.
The Breakers last made the playoffs in the 2022/23 season after finishing the previous season with the wooden spoon.
The new owners of NZ Breakers Club Limited are New Zealand-based Stephen and Leon Grice who have taken 50 percent ownership each of the club.
They are involved with Rako Science which introduced a non-invasive saliva PCR test to New Zealand.
NBL clubs Perth Wildcats and Tasmania JackJumpers have been sold in the last couple of years.
The Wildcats were sold to a life-long fan of the club, Mark Arena, who is a tech entrepreneur that bought a 52.5 per cent share for $40 million in July 2024.
The JackJumpers were bought by Brisbane-based private capital firm Altor Capital in January after first being put on the market in 2022.
RNZ has contacted the NBL but they would not comment.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
