THE Illawarra name is expected to return in time for the Hawks first game at WIN Entertainment Centre on Wednesday, after the club's ownership hit the membership target set by the NBL.
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Hawks co-owner Dorry Kordahi confirmed major sponsor Pepper Money has bought 1500 memberships, to be used by the company's customers and region's high school students, taking it past the 4379 number - 43 for the number of years the foundation club has been in the league and 79, the year the NBL started.
Kordahi will fly to Melbourne on Friday, before the Hawks take on Phoenix on Sunday, to meet with NBL executive chairman Larry Kestelman and chief executive Jeremy Loeliger.
The NBL placed a number of conditions on bringing the Illawarra name back, but Kordahi is confident the ability to meet the membership target will ensure the league bosses' endorsement.
"This is something we've worked really hard towards," Kordahi said.
"We've seen a lot of corporate support and within the community to reach the target and we're hopefully at the point where we can have the Illawarra name back.
"We've built this club back up from scratch when we first we had to ask the NBL for basketballs so Sam Froling could come in to practice.
"But we always wanted the Illawarra name for the club and hopefully, before Wednesday night we can have a huge crowd to be part of it."
The Hawks went into liquidation at the end of Simon Stratford's ownership, resulting in the NBL dumping the Illawarra name when the new owners - led by Kordahi, former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo and US businessman Michael Proctor - took charge.
The NBL had planned to expand the Hawks footprint by taking games to Canberra before the AIS Arena was shut and the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
But led by new coach Brian Goorjian, the Hawks have marched to a 4-0 start to the new season in the Queensland hub.
Goorjian, a six-time NBL championship-winner, launched an impassioned plea at a press conference last month, declaring he could win every game and the title, but his job would not be done without the NBL returning the Illawarra name.
Kordahi maintained the business model, given corporate sponsors have taken up memberships, would only be sustainable if fans put "bums on seats" throughout the season.
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