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- Potential US investor Marco Masotti will meet for the first time with the president of the western province, Zelt Marais.
- Masotti has been courting WP since July and has made an offer of around R100 million to acquire a controlling stake.
- Masotti will meet “as many people as possible” and will also visit the Cape Town Stadium.
Marco Masotti, the New Yorker looking to acquire Western Province Rugby, will arrive in Cape Town on Thursday, where he is expected to meet with the union president Marais Store for the first time.
Masotti is currently in Durban, grew up on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, but will fly to Cape Town on Thursday and stay until Tuesday next week.
The purpose of the trip is to have a face-to-face time with the powers that be at Western Province Rugby and talk to them about the complexities of a proposed 100 million rand deal that would give Masotti and MVM Holdings a majority stake in the union and his professional arm.
Giving up that control, as previously reported, is understood to have been the main obstacle to moving the deal forward even though union members, including management and players, were desperate to get over the line to secure injection. financial and stability that would come with foreign investment.
Masotti had previously expressed that the deal would not be on the table forever and that he had other companies to consider, so this week’s meeting could be a watershed moment.
Last month, WP Rugby President Ebrahim Rasool said this meeting could be key to the deal, while Marais, meanwhile, has been largely silent on the matter.
While in Cape Town, Masotti hopes to meet “as many people as possible” and talk to them about the “basic terms of the deal.”
With Western Province and the Stormers set for a relocation from Newlands to Cape Town Stadium next year, Masotti will also visit the iconic 2010 FIFA World Cup venue during his stay.
