KEY POINTS:
Terry Serepisos does not accept he has snatched one of the biggest hospital passes in New Zealand sport. Just as quickly he admits picking up the sub-licence to run the Wellington-based team in soccer's A-League is a gamble.
"It will," he admits, "cost a lot more than $1.2 million [the minimum start-up cash required] to get this thing going. There are costs that are going to be there from day one."
He knows that in accepting a three-year contract he is "up for a lot more than that". He says he has not gone into the figures but feels there is the potential to make money.
"If Wellington embraces what we are doing, who knows what the outcome will be," he said yesterday.
If the city does not - and the Auckland experience with the Football Kingz and New Zealand Knights suggests he and his fellow backers are being a trifle optimistic - that scenario does not bear thinking about.
Serepisos, 43, pointing to his successful business acumen in running his property development and investment company Century City Developments, obviously holds no such fears.
But who is this man being lauded as soccer's saviour?
Serepisos's claim to sporting fame was winning the Wellington secondary schools shot-put title in his Rongotai College days. But he has been around the fringes of sport in Wellington, supporting horse racing and basketball.
Now tagged the "white knight" after galloping in with the bucket of cash needed to keep a NZ franchise in the Hyundai A-League, he can no longer hide behind anonymity.
Born in the Greek village of Paleros, Serepisos arrived in Wellington with his parents and two brothers in 1965. His father initially worked as a painting contractor but later moved into property investment.
Serepisos played his football in the second team at Greek-supported Wellington Olympic, but admits he was no great shakes as a soccer player and certainly nowhere near the class of schoolmate Wynton Rufer.
He retains his support for the club through his 12-year-old son Julian and cousins who play there. Family is important to the man heading the yet-to-be-named Wellington team who, after much wrangling, have been handed the spot surrendered by former licence-holder Octagon Sports and the Knights.
But Serepisos has endured losses - his father died 18 months ago and brother Kosta six months ago (to leukaemia).
In his early days, Serepisos ran a chain of menswear stores and later a bar in Courtenay Place, before turning to property.
He is determined that while he will have a hands-on role with the club at first, he will, "once the right people" are in place, step back but remain chairman of the board.
Serepisos says he will have a board of seven to nine members, including a New Zealand Soccer-appointee, whose first task will be agreeing on an all-important chief executive.
"I have a couple of people in mind," he said.
"But this has to be run in a professional manner."
