Former NSW treasurer and Newcastle Knights patron Michael Costa is the latest high profile identity to come out in support of the Nathan Tinkler bail-out, declaring the NRL club can finally end its hand-to-mouth existence.

Newcastle-bred Costa has thrown his support behind the Tinkler Group's $100 million 10-year proposal, which is expected to be voted on by members in March.

The cash-strapped Knights need 75 per cent of voters to approve the deal, which Costa says is unprecedented in the NRL as far as members' ongoing involvement is concerned.

The former politician joins Knights luminaries Andrew and Matthew Johns and Paul Harragon in backing the proposal.

But he has warned the club will continue to struggle if it doesn't embrace the deal.

"This club has been living for a number of years now hand-to-mouth, every year's been a struggle and I know because I've been involved," he told AAP on Thursday.

"This deal puts them in a different ballpark. It means that they'll be able to look at the next 10-year period with some financial security.

"There's no doubt this will make the club the envy of the rugby league and I think that in itself is a statement of how important it is."

Costa said Knights members were being offered a unique deal which gives them more say in their club than other privately owned sporting outfits across the codes in Australia.

"There's no question that it's probably one of the most generous deals that any rugby league club in the league has seen but it's more than that," he said.

"It's unique in the sense that the money that Nathan Tinkler and the Tinkler Group is offering is guaranteed over a reasonably long period of time.

"In addition there's a guarantee that any surpluses or profits that are generated by the arrangement will go back into junior sport in the region.

"And what makes this deal even more unique, in terms of other deals where private involvement has been in clubs, is that there is an ongoing role for the membership and that I think is critical."

He said that meant "the general supporter base's requirements for an active involvement in a club that they feel is their own", including protections such as the Knights reverting to their traditional structure if "things go wrong".

"It's not a privatisation in the purist sense," Costa said.

"I think it goes beyond that, it's a hybrid form that allows private money but membership involvement and strong membership involvement."

Costa would not expand on whether he would seek involvement in the new structure, if it is adopted.

"I've been patron of the club and I'm always happy to help the club but at the moment what we've got to do is finalise the deal and make sure that the members support it because it is in the long-term interest of the club," he said.

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