Perth Glory owner Tony Sage has admitted he's never been closer to walking away from the club ahead of another costly and challenging A-League Men's season.
Sage's comments come in the wake of Western Australia refusing to open up their border due to COVID-19 with suggestions it could remain closed to some states until mid-next year.
Due to current restrictions, Glory have been scheduled to play five of their first six games of the new campaign away from home with no guarantee they'll be able to host games in early 2022.
That has left the Glory owner in a tough spot as he stares down the barrel of another severely interrupted season.
"It’s very sad. It’s the first time in 14 years that I’m thinking of throwing in the towel," Sage said on Triple M.
"There’s no support from government, no support from the central body. I can understand from the central body, there are 11 other teams in the competition...
"It’s just devastating for fans. We’ve got a pent up demand for memberships right now just waiting for the second set of fixtures to come out and that’s so they know they have the 13 home games.
"We’re entitled to 13 home games but we don’t want a situation where it was last year where they crammed seven games in 11-12 days. That’s just not fair on our players or our fans. We won’t cop that.
"I’ve never thought of throwing in the towel as much as I did yesterday when I heard those (state border) comments. If I throw in the towel it will have to be forever. What the league will have to do is get someone in to run it or run it themselves for this period of time."
Glory have made a splash in the off-season by signing former Premier League star Daniel Sturridge.
WA's current restrictions however mean there's no guarantee Perth fans will be able to watch their marquee man regularly as Sage prepares himself for another big financial blow.
"It’s just so difficult...last year when eight, nine games of ours were restricted or empty, the loss was $4.5 million roughly," Sage said.
"The signing of Sturridge, that was a big, big call for myself and the club...for the fans to see him only once before Christmas and then maybe not after Christmas is just devastating.
"I think 99 per cent of players in the A-League have been double jabbed."
Perth Glory will kick off their 2021-22 A-League Men's season at HBF Park against Adelaide United on November 20.