NEWCASTLE soccer legends Ray Baartz and Craig Johnston are clinging to hope that the city's A-League flagship is not about to sink without trace.
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The future of the Newcastle Jets is again under a cloud, amid reports that takeover talks with a prospective new ownership group have stalled.
The rival club owners who have been bankrolling the Jets for the past three years have reportedly decided that arrangement can no longer continue, and protracted negotiations with overseas consortium FC32 had been expected to culminate in a sale by late December.
Three months later, no deal has been struck, and fears that the Jets could fold were only reaffirmed on Tuesday when Australian Professional Leagues (APL) chairman Stephen Conroy said it would be a "terrible tragedy" if the foundation club was not part of the A-League next season.
"We need to know by relatively soon whether this is going to be a club that is going to play next season or not," Conroy said.
Jets executive chairman Shane Mattiske issued an emailed statement to members on Wednesday, explaining that while the sale process was taking "longer than planned", there were "several parties that we are in advanced discussions with".
He added: "We are confident this will be completed soon."
For Baartz and Johnston, two of Newcastle and Australia's all-time greats, there is a sense of deja vu as they ponder the worst-case scenario.
Since the halcyon days of KB United's inaugural season in 1978, the city's national-league soccer team has folded on a number of occasions, and a procession of owners - Con Constantine, Nathan Tinkler and Martin Lee - have walked away millions of dollars worse off.
Baartz and Johnston are naturally concerned about suggestions history could be poised to repeat itself, leaving the region where they both learned to kick a ball as kids - before proceeding on to Hall of Fame careers - without an A-League presence.
Johnston, who rose from Lake Macquarie to play for the mighty Liverpool club in the 1980s, said Newcastle had "always been a soccer town", and urged the community to rally behind their team.
"We are Novocastrians," he told the Herald. "We're not Sydneysiders, we're not Melbournites, we're not Gold Coast yuppies. We're working-class Newcastle, and we deserve a good football team.
"Our women are flying the flag at the moment, and good on them. But somehow we need to find a way to keep this team alive.
"Our code is the biggest sport in the world, so it's a lose-lose if we go under."
Johnston said a football team gave its city an "identity" worldwide.
He said the powers-that-be should remember that Newcastle and the Hunter has a proud footballing heritage, dating back more than 100 years.
"The Jets do have a loyal supporter base, who have stuck by them through thick and thin," Johnston said. "They've loved that team and paid their hard-earned money to support them. They don't deserve for the team to just evaporate."
Johnston suggested Newcastle's financial woes were a reflection of the A-League competition, as a whole.
"This is not unique to Newcastle, or even Australia," he said.
Former Socceroos vice-captain and Jets chairman Baartz said he would be "devastated" if the Jets were forced to fold.
"It's just so disappointing that it looks like we're back in this position again," Baartz told the Herald.
"Especially when there was so much positivity before Christmas about the possible sale, but now it looks like it might all fall through. I don't know what to say. I don't know where we go next."
The former Socceroos vice-captain and Jets chairman said Newcastle and the Hunter had "so much potential" as a footballing region, but it was a constant struggle to fund a national-league franchise.
"You need some sort of benefactor to come in with a passion for the game and the finances to support it," Baartz said.
"Where you find that sort of person, or that sort of company, who knows? We've tried many things over the years and nothing works, and yet we all know there's so much potential in this area.
"There's so many people involved in the game at so many levels. It's frustrating."
SInce hosting the 2017-18 grand final at a sold-out McDonald Jones Stadium, the Jets have not once featured in the play-offs, and their crowd figures have suffered accordingly.
"It's about what happens on the park, that's what builds success," Baartz said.
"Unfortunately we've struggled for so many years now that I think people are frustrated with how the team is performing."
