New owners of Perth Heat, Black Pearl Sports Group, open up on Australian Baseball League licence acquisition

Weeks after their long-time owners pulled the pin and after a brief stint under Baseball Australia’s management, Perth Heat are back in private hands. But there is a twist, with the new owners revealed as Black Pearl Sports Group — who also recently purchased the Heat’s Australian Baseball League rivals Sydney Blue Sox, meaning half of the league’s four teams will be run by the same organisation. BPSG have taken control of the Heat licence, which spent just weeks in the hands of Baseball Australia after long-time Perth owners Christian Galapoulos and Michael Carter made the tough decision to walk away in late June. It comes after BPSG took over Sydney Blue Sox on June 19, less than seven days before the Heat licence officially became available. Speaking to The West Australian, BPSG managing director Cole Sherertz said Perth had initially been their priority when they first looked into acquiring an ABL licence. “Perth was initially the team that kind of got us into the space of looking at ABL teams so to have the opportunity this early on, in the early stages of the Black Pearl Sports Group, it’s really exciting,” Sherertz said. “We were initially in the market for Perth, and were interested in that team...I won’t get too far into the details, but ultimately, that deal didn’t come to fruition. “We re-shifted our focus, and with the help of Baseball Australia, they said ‘Sydney needs a license holder and we think you guys would be a great fit for that.’ “The Perth license was handed back and during our discussions, we said we would like first right of refusal for Perth, if that license ever came available, thinking maybe a year, two years down the road. “The opportunity came up about a month later. We were ready, we were prepared to jump at that and to be able to manage multiple entities across the ABL.” Following Melbourne Aces’ decision to exit the ABL to play matches against Korean teams and Canberra Cavalry’s withdrawal from the league, it has left the league with just four teams, down from six last season and eight at the end of the 2022-23 season. But Scherertz downplayed any notions of favouritism or BPSG’s multi-club ownership threatening the integrity of the league. “Who do I have in my best interest? Well, I’ve got both, and they’re separately operated entities,” he said. “We obviously have different managers. The top level is all overseen the same but really, at the end of the day, we want to put the best product out on the field. “There’s no favouritism going either way, it’s how do we fit the needs of each franchise and deliver the best experience possible that we can for the fans and for the players?” Sherertz previously served as Oregon State University’s lead baseball manager, where he formed a friendship with Australian young gun Travis Bazzana — who was the no.1 overall pick in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft. BPSG have not been an entity long, having only been registered on the ASIC in late May. Sherertz is planning on moving to Sydney, while the company’s director Stuart Scott is based in Perth. While Perth will have the same owners as one of their rivals for next season’s Claxton Shield, the arrival of BPSG will give Heat fans some added relief after it appeared not long ago the team may collapse. Baseball Australia had planned to operate the Heat licence throughout the 2025-26 season, which starts in November, to ensure the ABL could continue next season. “There’s a perception that ABL teams are a leak for money, but with our plan and how we want to go about business, how we want to engage the community, I wouldn’t be doing this if I saw this as just a passion project that I could throw money in,” Sherertz said. “We took a serious look at the ABL for the last six months and multiple franchises, and said ‘here’s the problem, here’s where the leaks are, how do we change that, how do we fix that?” The Heat have won 15 Claxton Shields, stemming back from their time as the WA state team, but their last championship came in 2015 and they have fallen at the final hurdle the past three seasons.