Saw this on Reddit from a Sydney fan. Wouldn't put it past the FFA (or, at the very least, a couple anti-Nix media outlets) to formulate a plan like this
After the 10 year conditional licence extension was given, your owners seemed really confident of meeting the requirements. However, with the plateau (then decline) in your crowds, maybe you guys have been hovering around the benchmarks set by the FFA. So, if you guys triggered the automatic extension, it would be by the skin of your teeth, while if you got kicked out it would be because you only just fell short of the benchmarks (resulting in extremely negative PR for the FFA, and potentially leaving them vulnerable legally).
By constantly leaking stories about your owners wanting to sell the licence, they might create discontent among the Nix fans, who would feel as though the club's owners have given up on them. This might lower the Nix's crowds/viewership even further over the next two seasons, making sure that they quite definitively fall below the metrics necessary for renewal, allowing the FFA to safely replace you with a big city club that they (and Fox) want.