Western United has new owners in a deal that is ‘believed to be the richest in Australian sporting history’. This is everything you need to know about KAM Melbourne, their plans for the club and beyond.
Code Sports reports the investment is worth $100 million and is ‘believed to be the richest deal in Australian sporting history’ with big plans in the works for the future of the club.
Inaugural owners Western Melbourne Group embarked on an ambitious vision in 2019 to build a dynamic sport-driven retail and residential precinct, with a 15,000-seat stadium to be the centre-piece of the project in partnership with Wyndham City Council.
The club’s new owners will now work to turn that vision into reality and have also announced an intention to form a ‘wider football-focused multi-club international strategy, providing elite pathways for Australian footballers in the coming years’.
So who are the new owners who have invested into the A-Leagues?
Meet Western United’s new owners: Maciek and Mikhail Kaminski
KAM Sports is led by father-son duo Maciek and Mikhail Kaminski.
Maciek, born in Poland in 1958, has a net worth estimated at over $1 billion, with the duo’s wealth largely coming from real estate.
They were reportedly in negotiations to buy Premier League club Everton in 2021 and Belgian top-flight outfit KV Kortrijk in 2023, but those deals fell through, leading to the investment in Western United which looks set to be the start of something bigger.
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Maciek’s son Mikhail serves as CEO of KAM Sports. He has no plans to relocate to Melbourne any time soon, but told Code Sports he will be hands-on in the club.
“[WMG] has something that we feel we can really bring a lot of value to — involving the real estate, the development and the rest of that,” Mikhail Kaminski told ESPN.
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“It’s very interesting, when you talk about those big projects, all of the fans really want to hear about [is] what’s going on with the club.
“Obviously, that’s important, but for us here, it’s the infrastructure play and bringing our historical [knowledge], where we made our family money, to bear, and getting this project moving and getting the stadium built. That’s really what drove us to this project.
“[The stadium is] priority one, number two and number three, frankly, to get shovels in the dirt, to get a stadium that WMG promised to the community. That’s where we are going to take the first steps to focus on and get that started.
What brings them to the A-Leagues?
“Our background is in real estate and real estate development so for us this was really a real estate play,” Mikhail told Code Sports.
This deal does not just see the Kaminskis purchase Western United, but also comes with an 800-home property development and the promise of a 15,000 seat stadium.
When completed, Western will become the first A-Leagues side to own their stadium.
“Making sure the stadium is built and working with Wyndham City Council is our number one priority,” Mikhail added.
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“We’ve looked at a couple of different (football clubs) but nothing has come over the line.
“We’re really excited about this opportunity and understanding how and what else we can invest in the A-Leagues.”
Excitingly for A-Leagues fans, the new owners have already spoken about their intention to develop Australian talent, developing pathways globally with a multi-club model.
“There is a bunch of good young talent in the A-Leagues, it gives us a very large geographic diversity and we think there’s a lot of great players we can help promote into Europe and the rest of the world,” Mikhail told Code Sports.
“The continued development of local talent, both male and female, and creating grassroots to elite pathways under the Western United brand is top-of-mind for my family.”
