Nathan Tinkler has claimed ownership of the Newcastle Knights with the NRL club's members voting on Thursday night to hand the franchise over to the mining magnate.
Needing 75 per cent members approval for his $100 million privatisation plan to become a reality, the Tinkler deal received a staggering 97 per cent of the vote at an extraordinary general meeting at Newcastle Entertainment Centre attended by approximately 1500 people.
The announcement was greeted with huge cheers before chants of "Newcastle, Newcastle" broke out.
The meeting - which began late to accommodate the more than 100 people still outside when it was due to begin - lasted less than 30 minutes with chairman Robert Tew addressing the crowd and fielding just a handful of questions before the ballot was conducted.
Tinkler's offer will see him immediately wipe out the club's debts, which are estimated to be in the region of $4 million, while he has also guaranteed $10 million in annual sponsorship revenue over the next 10 years and at least $2.5 million annually on junior development.
The deal almost never happened when Tinkler - owner of the city's A-League franchise Newcastle Jets - pulled the offer off the table on February 21 in frustration at the procrastinations of Tew and chief executive Steve Burraston, who had failed to endorse the bid, labelling it a "mirage".
Tew and Burraston floated the concept of a patron's trust model as an alternative, but a revised bid by TSG was then backed by the Knights board followed by an advertising blitz which helped secure Tinkler the large margin of victory at Thursday night's ballot.
"From the outset it's been the board's imperative to get the best deal for this club and this vote tonight is an historic vote in the history of this club," Tew said.
TSG chief executive Ken Edwards said his organisation was humbled by the overwhelming approval of the members.
"It certainly is history," Edwards said.
"When we spoke to about 800 members a few nights ago, I said at the time that in my view that there were two heroes in all of this - one was Robbie Tew and the board of the Newcastle Knights - who have done an outstanding job representing your interests, making sure that this club is the very best that it can be.
"The other was Nathan Tinkler.
"I'd nominate a third hero to this story and that's the members - thank you.
"On behalf of Nathan and the team at TSG ... we'd just like to let you know that we're humbled to be given the privilege of being the joint custodian, with members, of the Newcastle Knights."
