Fury on the brink

The golf course entrepreneur has decided that losses estimated to be in the region of $40,000 a week are no longer sustainable and is leading the call for local businesses in Townsville to dig deep and turn the Fury into a community-based outfit owned and run by more than just one individual.

With the FFA on standby to step into a bail out the Fury – which needs in the region of $1.5 million to continue operating for next season – Matheson, the man whose wallet and vision brought Robbie Fowler to the A-League – revealed that it was time for him to divest himself of his ownership.

"The team will be far better as a community owned side with a broad base of investors," Matheson told The World Game. "That creates an environment where people have a sense of belonging to the club.

"Football is an expensive business and what we’re working on now is a broad based ownership strategy. The next two or three months are going to be critical (to the future) of the Fury and it’s up to the community now to get behind it.

"If I stayed on for another year then at the rate we are spending we wouldn’t exist anymore."

Matheson headed a group of entrepreneurs who initially pledged to back the club but he was the last man standing as the global economic crisis claimed his cohorts along the way, leaving him with a massive financial burden.

A-League boss Archie Fraser has been in constant touch with Matheson in recent weeks and the peak body, which already props up Adelaide United, is poised to offer assistance.

A spokesman said: "The FFA will play its part in working with Don Matheson on attracting investors and helping to make sure the club lives up to its potential. We will look at what needs to be done and we will work through it."

Matheson insisted he would be not turning his back on the club for good, adding: "You don’t just walk away after putting in the work we have. We will want to play some role.

"But we have to role the dice, put a board in place and they can out in place their own leader and that might not be me. Either way we will continue to support the side. How that pans out will be up to the new board."

Matheson is confident business will come on board, adding: "We have a good product which we are comfortable with, We have something to build on and the club will go forward.

"I will retain some level of ownership myself, but I am not sure what level that will be. I think people will recognise what I have put in already. We’ve had a good reaction from local businesses.

"You look at the model of Melbourne Victory which has between 70 and 90 owners, the Green Bay Packers are community owned and the Townsville Crocodiles in the NBL have between 60 and 80 owners. These are the models we have to copy.

"Year two is critical for us, if we get through that we'll be there for ever."

Matheson, who admits he has learned the hard way by taking over a club in a brutal economic environment, insisted that the future of marquee man Fowler would not be affected by his cutting his financial ties with the cub, insisting: "Robbie is here simply to play football and he has a year on his contract still to run."