Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena has reaffirmed both commitment and desire to be involved with the club long-term.
From his childhood growing up in Perth’s northern suburbs, Mark Arena has always loved the Perth Wildcats.
Following decades of following the club as a diehard, Mr Arena purchased the club for $40 million from Craig Hutchinson-led Sports Entertainment Group in 2024.
The staged acquisition process was initially due to be completed by 2028, however Mr Arena and SEG agreed to a fast-tracked acquisition timeline, which was completed on Tuesday.
Speaking to Business News, Mr Arena reiterated his desire to own the Wildcats stems from wanting to give back to the sport and community that he loves.
“I’m here for the long term,” he said.
“You know, I’m the youngest owner by far. I’m the only owner doing also the CEO role in the club.
“I’m here for the long term. I’m not here to make some money and then cash out after a couple of years or anything like that.
“For me, this is my giving back to the community. But saying that, we need to be sustainable right?
“So, every dollar we make goes into what we do as a club – and that’s kind of two objectives – winning championships and community impact.”
In September last year following news that both SEG and Mr Arena (by way of his investment vehicle MT Arena Capital Investment) had agreed to accelerate the remainder of the sale, the Wildcats owner spoke about his desire to further increase the club’s presence within the digital technology space.
However, Mr Arena said he would only begin this process, out of fairness to SEG, once he attained 100 per cent ownership.
“I don’t want to give too much away – it’s going to be a multi-year project until it’s seen from our members and fans,” he said.
“I want the Wildcats to be kind of the pinnacle for basketball in Western Australia. And if you want to play basketball, or attend a game, it can all be in a single platform.
“So that’s kind of at a high level what we are looking to do, but again, it’s going to be multiple years to have something see the light of day.”
Wildcats fans and members have had additional opportunities to attend matches at RAC Arena this year, following the NBL’s creation of the Ignite Cup.
The tournament, which runs alongside the regular season, is played on Wednesday nights and has added 20 additional matches to the calendar.
Each NBL team plays two home and two away Ignite Cup games throughout the 2025-26 season. At the end of the competition, the top two sides on the separate tournament points table playoff for a chance to win $300,000 – with 60 per cent of this allocated towards the players, while the remainder is given to the club.
The runners up receive $100,000.
Aside from teams being able to secure points based on winning games, points are also awarded for scoring the most points each quarter. As a result, the maximum amount of points possible to accrue during an Ignite Cup game is seven.
Mr Arena said he was a fan of the concept, however the club would look to make a change next season in relation to membership with its presence.
“I think it’s been good,” he said.
“I think we possibly made a mistake not including it (Ignite Cup) in our memberships, which we will look to rectify for next year.
“Every Ignite Cup game, if it goes ahead next year – or at least every Wednesday night game – will be included in the memberships, so that’s another key thing which will happen as well.
“But I also like the fact that with the Ignite Cup that you can win something else. It’s not all-or-nothing when it comes to the championship.”
Mr Arena told Business News long-term the NBL was also exploring the possibility of increasing the number of days that games will be played.
“The long-term objective of the NBL – and this is driven from the NBL, not us – and I agree with the long-term objective, is to have a game every day of the week,” he said.
“So obviously around Christmas-New Year time, there’s been a game every day. Me personally, I’ve loved that. Every afternoon and every night being able to watch a game.
“That’s the objective and the starting point for that is adding an additional night and that’s Wednesday night.
“There’s always going to be times that are better for some people and other times are better for others.”
