But Wests boss Phil Gardner says the Knights remain "a work in progress" and he ruled out any chance of Wests spreading its wings and becoming a white knight for the finally-embattled Newcastle Jets.

Carrying debts in excess of $2 million and without an owner and a coach just a few weeks out from the start of the A-League season, the Jets have never looked more vulnerable.

But while he sympathises with the predicament the club finds itself in, Gardner, who is also Knights CEO, said Wests aren't in a position to come to the rescue and bail the club out of trouble after revealing for the first time he has been officially approached in the past to get involved.

"It's not something we would entertain," Gardner said.

"We've been approached before. Martin [Chinese owner Martin Lee] has previously spoken to me about getting involved but there has never been any interest from our end. There is enough on our plate.

"To put another professional sport on top of what we are already doing and to have to manage that too, remembering the Jets have lost a lot of money - it needs someone whose complete focus is on it.

"Someone has to provide the downside safety net and it's difficult to see any of the A-League clubs being profitable in the short to longer term. The stress that we'd bring to our organisation - you really have to be focused on one team."

Gardner said he also highly doubted Wests members would support any moves to take on a second professional sporting organisation.

"For our members to contemplate it, it would have to make some commercial sense which it doesn't," he said.

"It's really, really difficult. At the end of the day, we are a rugby league club so that's where we sit.

"It was enough of a challenge for us with the Knights given they had lost huge amounts of money over a long period of time.

"One of the reasons we took the club on is because they are so important to the psyche of not just Newcastle, but of northern NSW.

"But for us, the Knights are very much still a work in progress. So let's get that right first. The smartest business people I've ever met stick to their knitting and that's what we will do. The task has been an enormous one and a huge amount of work has gone into getting us to where we are now. But the Jets would be an even greater challenge given where the A-League sits currently."

To date, the challenge of finding a new owner to take over the licence from Lee has proved too great for the club and the FFA.

As late as last week, a potential owner who had been in exclusive negotiations for quite some time with the club and the governing body, ended talks and withdrew.

FFA officials said on Monday they were still "in discussions with a number of prospective buyers".

If they fail to come up with a replacement, there is a strong chance the Jets will be forced to rely on rival A-League club owners to come to the club's rescue and provide a financial safety net.

The plan is to support Newcastle for up to 12 months, while continuing to search for a long-term ownership solution.

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