Terry Serepisos salutes the crowd during an A-League home match between Wellington and the Newcastle Jets in October 2011. Photo / Getty Images
The Wellington Phoenix’s original owner Terry Serepisos will return to the Cake Tin for the first time in a decade this weekend, rallying behind the men’s side as they brace for their most monumental match to date.
The controversial businessman has been invited by current Phoenix general manager David Dome to attend Saturday’s A-League semifinal showdown against the Melbourne Victory at Sky Stadium.
“Ricki Herbert [and] some of the old players are invited – [the club] want to acknowledge my input [for] what I’ve done in New Zealand football, the Phoenix and my involvement and my part in it,” Serepisos told the Herald.
“It does make me proud, it brings back very good memories for me.”
After rapidly assembling a Wellington property empire two decades ago, gaining a national profile from owning the Phoenix and a foray into television as host of New Zealand’s version of The Apprentice, Serepisos was bankrupted in 2011, owing $203 million.
Last month, BusinessDesk reported he borrowed a sum of $152,500 from an Auckland company in 2018 that has now ballooned to around $2.5 million in nearly six years, and the lender wants it repaid.
Serepisos’s lawyer says that the loan’s terms were oppressive and insists the matter should go to a full trial.
Speaking publicly for the first time in years, Serepisos expressed to the Herald his amazement at witnessing the club advance to an A-League men’s semifinal, with the stadium set to sell out.
“I couldn’t be more proud of it,” he said. “I think they’ve done an amazing job and [have] an amazing team, an amazing coach.
“No matter what comes out of this, where they’ve got to as in right here, right now, is a huge achievement that nobody obviously expected. They were supposed to be wooden spooners, but look at them, they’re on top of the table.
“How can you not be proud of it? You gave something, you’ve done something and look where it’s gone.
“I’m just supportive of the team. The club was owned by me and is owned by [new] guys, but it belongs to the country and it belongs to the city. It belongs to the Yellow Fever, it belongs to you, belongs to everybody.”
Acknowledging the financial toll the Phoenix had on him, Serepisos conceded running the club came with a hefty price tag.
“It took a lot out of the cashflow. I was losing about $2 million a year and the current owners know that it takes a lot too. A lot of people don’t realise that when you’re putting $2 million of cashflow out a year and then a global crisis comes along - it is not easy for anybody.
“I kind of underestimated the global crisis.”
Since going bankrupt, Serepisos revealed he’s spent most of his time in Greece for a more relaxed lifestyle, though he goes back and forth.
”I do watch a lot of the [Phoenix] games on TV. I am a follower, I am a supporter of it.”
He said it was hard losing the club now owned by Welnix, a consortium of seven Wellington businessmen, because it meant so much to him.
“It was my baby. I created it, I built it. I put a lot of effort and a lot of time into it. The players all became like family. It was built on a family environment, the culture and to this day, I’m still very close with a lot of those players from back then.
“It was hard to lose it but it was also time to pass the torch on and I feel very happy that the new owners have carried that flame on. They exceeded my expectations a little bit – the current owners on the development of the youth – they’ve done a great job there.”
He said the money wasn’t everything and the highs would always outweigh the lows.
“It started in 2007 and how that all came about was the Auckland Knights, the defunct club was losing the licence. I was in a barber shop getting a haircut and on the radio comes that they’re looking for an investor to take over the licence and they need $1.2 million.
“I had lost my brother to leukemia and I thought, ‘well I’ve got all this money, let’s do something that we can give back to the city’. So I went along with it, bought the licence for $1.2 million, transferred it from Auckland to Wellington.”
“I lit the flame again for New Zealand football. It all started right there... it was all part of resurrecting football because also New Zealand football was also in a big problem. New Zealand football in general was not in a good place.”
Since the Phoenix’s creation, Serepisos put a big emphasis on culture, with the team and players seeing it as one big family. He said they would have barbecues and play ten-pin bowling together.
Phoenix legend Paul Ifill, who played over 100 matches for the side, and current goal-scoring star Kosta Barbarouses stick out to Serepisos as some of the club’s most prominent players.
“I rate Paul Ifill as the best player that’s actually been to this club because he was just magical. He was one of those people that you gave him the ball and everybody just knew he was almost going to score a goal, nine out of 10 [times].
Barbarouses was one of Serepisos’ first contracts, getting his break at 17 years old. He said ironically his first match was against the Central Coast Mariners - the likely opponents the Phoenix will meet in the grand final this season, should they see off the Victory on Saturday.
Serepisos equally acknowledges the Phoenix’s supporter group, the Yellow Fever.
“[They’ve] been the heart and soul since day one. You can’t ask for a better group of guys. When it comes to supporters, they’ve been absolutely stunning, amazing, wind, rain or shine, they’re there.”
Serepisos was also behind the exhibition football game that brought superstar David Beckham and his LA Galaxy to play the Phoenix in Wellington in 2007.
“I put down $2 million and obviously, we brought David Beckham to New Zealand and packed out the stadium of 34,000.
“The day before that, I worked in with the council, we got 16,500 kids on the pre-match game.
“We had four days hanging out together, we went to Peter Jackson Studios together. We had a massive, huge after-party of all the who’s who in New Zealand and kept in touch a little bit, but I have a lot of respect for that man. I think he’s an amazing person.”
Looking back on those moments of joy, juxtaposed with his past mistakes, Serepisos believes it has all been worth it.
“Certain people that may not like me, the ones that will never show their true faces and it will be a minority of people, but what I have got is every one or every two days I get people come up to me and thank me for what I did with the Phoenix.
“I have old grandmas come up and actually thank me in a supermarket and say ‘thank you for what you’ve done because now I can go to the games with my grandchildren’.”
“I feel that I kind of I lit the torch, I created it. I named it and for four years obviously ran it and then I had to pass the baton on.”
As he looks up north at the creation of Auckland FC – founded by American businessman Bill Foley – Serepisos feels it’s a great idea.
“I think that Auckland should have had it a long time ago. I think that the city’s evolved and it can handle it. The Phoenix has put New Zealand football on the map again and it’s allowed all the generations and younger generations to come through and it’s certainly time for them to come in.
“It’s going to be unbelievable for the rivalry that will happen between these two clubs so I’m hats off to all that. I think it’s amazing.
Serepisos recognises Auckland – being an international city – will find it easier to sign top players than what he did.
“One of the biggest things that is going to attract with Auckland, [owner Bill Foley] owns AFC Bournemouth in the UK, which is a Premier League team. Players look at that and they think well, maybe I can get my foot in the door here to go into a team in Bournemouth.”
Moved by the Phoenix’s transformation and the emergence of the Black Knights, Serepisos refused to dismiss the idea entirely of returning to the sporting scene.
“I’m not sure at this stage, I’m enjoying my life and having a more relaxing time.
“To run the football club is not easy. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Did I enjoy it? I absolutely did but you’ve got to also be passionate in what you do and I’m a passionate footballer. So that’s something we have to look at in the future.”
Right now, Serepisos is just as hyped as any other Wellingtonian ahead of Saturday’s match.
Providing his official score prediction he believes it’ll finish in regular time, with the Phoenix winning 2-1.
“I really, really feel it’s their time and I just have this feeling that they’re going to do well.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast. She’s equally passionate about women’s sport and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.
Qualification is massive for the sport and also comes with huge financial rewards.