SOUTH Sydney stalwart George Piggins has offered to buy back the famous foundation club from celebrity owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court on the conditions the club bases itself in Gosford and refunds him the purchase price out of the NRL's promised relocation grant.

Piggins, who led the long fight to have the club reinstated to the NRL, believes the team, now based at Homebush, is South Sydney in name only and that its future lies on the NSW Central Coast.

"I'll buy the club for $3million, which is the price Crowe and Holmes a Court paid, and relocate it to Gosford under the proviso I got the money back from the $8m-plus the NRL put on the table last time they were talking about it," he said. "The football club would get the balance of $5m."

Piggins, a millionaire businessman, shied away from being tagged a second-time saviour, saying: "I wouldn't be a Santa Claus. They would have to pay me back. And they would have to move the football club to Gosford, where they played Melbourne on Saturday night.

"I only want to see the colours of the club survive, and even those colours have changed greatly from what I see on TV. Two years ago, I said I would never go to a game but be happy to see the Rabbitohs on TV.

"Now, with them playing at Homebush and scheduled to play three games in Perth next year, all we can offer the people of South Sydney is to see them on TV. You're not going to sell a Sydney side to Central Coast people unless they play and train there."

Piggins's offer comes as Holmes a Court has stepped back for veteran administrator Shane Richardson to return as chief executive, while lawyer Nicholas Pappas has once again assumed chairmanship of the football club.

Richardson had made considerable progress on a possible Gosford move before Holmes a Court - facing escalating costs - signed a long-term guaranteed deal at Homebush.

But Pappas, no longer an ally of Piggins, may resist his overtures. Piggins suspects Holmes a Court will refuse to sell anyway. "He won't give it up," he said. "He'd rather move to Gosford himself and get all the NRL's $8million."

NRL chief David Gallop made it clear $8m was a base offer, saying: "Given the fact $8m was on the table a few years ago, if a club said, 'Give us $8m plus X', we'd look at it seriously. We've made no secret of our desire to have a team on the Central Coast. The community is ripe for it; the facility is there. But we are interested in a total relocation."

Sydney Council has spent $20m redeveloping Redfern Oval into a state-of-the-art training facility with capacity for 8000 to watch games. Any plan to have the team train at Redfern and play at Gosford would alienate Central Coast locals, who rejected the Northern Eagles franchise.

Gallop also said a full relocation by Souths may complicate matters with Sydney Council.

The takeover of the Rabbitohs by Holmes a Court and Crowe has also yielded them 11,000 square metres of Redfern real estate which, when developed, will be valued at $40m-$50m. They own half of this, with builder Trivest controlling the other 50 per cent.

With the football club recording a $4m loss last year and budgeting for a $2m shortfall this season, the passion of Holmes a Court and Crowe for Souths must be measured against the Redfern property bonanza they will realise. Piggins revealed John Singleton, who owns the marketing rights to Bluetongue Stadium, and former ARL chief executive John Quayle had approached him about a Gosford move.

"They came to me years ago and asked, 'Can you get Souths to Gosford?"', Piggins said. "I said, 'Yes, but only after I've exhausted every way of getting it to work at Redfern'.

"If the mayor of Sydney and the council had spent the same amount of money on my plan as they have on making Redfern into a dog walking park, South Sydney would be alive and well. Now it's all over. Do or die. Move to Gosford or die on the vine."