HULL KR chief executive Paul Lakin has revealed that Brisbane Broncos were interested in buying the Super League club back in 2020.
At the time, owner Neil Hudgell had placed Rovers on the market, with Lakin returning to Craven Park after a spell in football with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City.
Lakin, who was initially involved at Hull KR between 2004 and 2008, during which time the club were promoted to Super League, said discussions took place with Brisbane – who the Robins will face in February’s World Club Challenge.
“Neil was disillusioned,” Lakin told the League Express podcast.
“Like all owners in rugby league that put money into a club on a yearly basis, he was tired of the struggles that Hull KR were facing being in the bottom four. He had fallen out of love with the game.
“I had come back to Hull KR to sell the club for Neil, but, at the same time, I knew that by selling the club I would probably be doing myself out a job.
“I was quite relaxed. We did openly look to sell the club but we were progressing as a club operationally and on the pitch.
“You could see a few small shoots of progress and after six months, he told me to take it off the market and we progressed from there.”
Lakin then went onto reveal the “genuine interest” from the Broncos.
“We actually had two very detailed conversations with Brisbane Broncos who were very interested,” he said.
“I had a couple of (Microsoft) Teams calls with the chief executive, to the point I brought Neil into a Teams call.
“It fell down on the basis that the Brisbane chief executive left quickly for whatever reason and the new chief executive that took over wasn’t as interested.
“The Broncos are a very wealthy club with one of the biggest brands in Australia. They saw it as a potential player pathway in both directions at the time.
“They saw it as a foothold in Super League. We never got the stage of talking exact details on money but we were well down the track and there was genuine interest.”