THE Newcastle Jets are set to kick off their third consecutive season under temporary ownership but executive chairman Shane Mattiske remains hopeful the club will change hands "in the short term".
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Newcastle's A-League franchise has been bankrolled by the owners of four rival clubs since the demise of Chinese businessman Martin Lee in January, 2021.
Lee was stripped of his licence - as were his predecessors Nathan Tinkler and Con Constantine - after experiencing financial difficulties.
Since then there have reportedly been interested parties, including a Melbourne-based consortium and an American one, but nothing has come to fruition.
The Herald has previously reported that the asking price for the Jets is in the vicinity of $15 million.
"We're at a point where there's a strong focus now on a shift to new ownership," Mattiske told the Newcastle Herald.
"That's something that we've been talking about for some time.
"The owners are looking to make a change and that's something that people who support the club can look forward to, that we'll move to a more permanent ownership model.
"That's something that we'll be talking about more in the short term. It's on the agenda now. It's always difficult to predict when that is going to happen, but that will be a focus over the next few months."
Mattiske said that the club had stabilised after the departure of Lee, followed soon after by two seasons that were heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
"We've set ourselves up for the season," he said. "We've signed two great squads.
"Our membership and sponsorship is all in great shape, in terms of growth. We've got some wonderful partners around us.
"Our academy is strong, and we've got some great talent coming out of it that is getting recognised in national sides. So the club is in great shape, but this is also the right time where it should move to a more permanent ownership structure."
Mattiske admitted it had been a tough process in reconnecting with fans after back-to-back seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21 when crowd restrictions were in place because of COVID.
Last season the Jets drew an average attendance of 6152 per home game, which was an improvement on their previous two campaigns, but well below their peak years of 2007-08 (14,176) and 2017-18 (12,560).
Mattiske said history showed that there was "huge" support for football in the region, and he was optimistic that has been reignited by the recent success of the Matildas in reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
He said Newcastle were "absolutely" confident that both their men's and women's teams could challenge for spots in the play-offs.
"We're here to win," Mattiske said. "We believe we've got two squads that can be involved in the finals. There's no reason why we can't.
"We've got some great young talent and the style of football our teams will be playing will be attacking, front-foot football that Newcastle fans like to see."
The Jets' men drew 2-all with Wellington in a pre-season friendly on Saturday.
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