Christian Hauff and Jodi Millhahn have been announced as new owners of the Perth Lynx, which participate in the Women’s National Basketball League.
Christian Hauff and Jodi Millhahn have been announced as new owners of the Perth Lynx, which participate in the Women’s National Basketball League.
Confirmed on Thursday night, the new husband and wife ownership signals a new era for basketball in Western Australia - although Business News understands SEN Teams, the sport business arm of Craig Hutchison-backed Sports Entertainment Group, may assist with some management of the club.
Mr Hauff and Ms Millhahn, a beauty entrepreneur, also became part owners of the Perth Wildcats last season, after acquiring shares in SEN Teams.
Originally known as the Perth Breakers, WA’s national women’s team was renamed the Perth Lynx in 2001 under the ownership of Basketball WA.
Prior to the 2010-11 WNBL season, the club was re-branded as the West Coast Waves and played under this banner until early 2015, when the licence was taken over by legendary Perth Wildcats owner, Jack Bendat, and the Lynx name returned.
In March 2020, BWA – the state’s governing body – took over the Lynx licence for a second time.
BWA’s head office in Floreat is located in the Bendat Basketball Centre, named in Mr Bendat’s honour.
Despite on-court success over the past three years, BWA – which is responsible for growing basketball across all levels in the state – was the only state governing body managing a WNBL licence.
In May last year, BWA said it was looking for parties who were interested in potentially taking full control and ownership of the licence.
Late last month, Mr Hauff – who is the co-founder of Quantitative Brokers – publicly spoke about how he would enjoy to see the Lynx franchise grow even further.
On May 30, SEG revealed it had received a non-binding indicative offer from MT Arena Capital Investment to acquire the Wildcats.
SEG, which holds a 95 per cent stake in the club, said there was no certainty a transaction would eventuate with MT Arena, which said it would look to pursue a staged 90 per cent acquisition of the Wildcats.
