{"id":161484,"date":"2025-09-22T17:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/161484\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T17:19:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:19:15","slug":"former-wests-tigers-bosses-complete-deal-with-melbourne-storm-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/161484\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Wests Tigers bosses complete deal with Melbourne Storm – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wests Tigers<\/a> bosses Justin Pascoe and Lee Hagipantelis are continuing their move back into sports management, having purchased Super Netball team the Sunshine Coast Lightning off the Melbourne Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Storm, who have long been linked to the Sunshine Coast through Queensland Cup team the Falcons, put their energy into the netball program back in 2016.<\/p>\n

With the club now set to launch their own junior female rugby league pathways, as well as ending their tenure with the Falcons at the end of this season, CEO Justin Rodski said the time was right to hand over the club who have become one of the competition’s most successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis move will now allow the club focus on rugby league in our home of Victoria,\u201d Rodski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a strategic focus to invest in our core business, rugby league, and we are working closely in partnership with the NRL<\/a> to grow the game, invest in pathways, and strengthen our academies to support the next generation of male and female future Storm stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm will field more teams than at any point in the club’s history in 2026, with a reserve grade outfit to be held under their own umbrella for the first time, while they will field teams in all junior New South Wales Rugby League<\/a> competitions.<\/p>\n

The sale – to Global Sports Management which is run by former Tigers bosses Pascoe and Hagipantelis – will see the duo continue their move back into sports after recently purchasing the Ottawa Blackjacks in Canada, and the Newcastle Jets in the A-League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve got family here, I’ve spent much of my life connected to this community, and more recently I’ve been lucky enough to call it home. To now have the opportunity to contribute to the growth of sport here, and to lead a franchise as special as the Lightning, is something I feel both excited and humbled by,” Pascoe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to acknowledge the Melbourne Storm<\/a> organisation, who have done an outstanding job in establishing this club and setting such strong foundations. Our responsibility now is to build on that legacy. We are committed to ensuring the Lightning continues to shine\u2014not only as a leading netball franchise in Australia<\/a>, but also as a club that the Sunshine Coast community can proudly call their own.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wests Tigers bosses Justin Pascoe and Lee Hagipantelis are continuing their move back into sports management, having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-161484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}