THE EX FACTOR
It’s a huge weekend in Exeter’s sporting history as its two teams play big finals ...
THE man who had the plan has identified a potential downside to the greatest weekend in his city’s sporting history. ‘The burglars,’ says Tony Rowe. ‘This will be a paradise for them. Two teams from Exeter playing big finals in London — there won’t be many people staying home so I hope everyone sets their alarms.’
With that, Rowe lets out a loud laugh. He is the chief of Exeter Chiefs, a powerboat racer turned entrepreneur, turned biker, turned chairman who has orchestrated this rugby club’s rise from a group of amateurs to the brink of the Premiership title in just 19 years. One more win, against Wasps at Twickenham tomorrow, and they will be champions — only the ninth club to win it in the competition’s 29-year history. ‘Wouldn’t that be nice?’ says Rowe. He has built this club meticulously and rapidly, having set out his ambition two decades ago to be No 1 in England and Europe. But there have been no corners cut getting here — unfashionable Exeter Chiefs, tucked away in a corner of England with just one British Lion (Jack Nowell) to their name, are the most profitable rugby club in the land. And yet they are only half of a brilliant Devon adventure.
Five miles across town from Sandy Park, with its corporate suites and mobile cryotherapy chamber, sits St James Park, effectively held together by a shoestring and run on one.
It’s where Exeter City do what they can to stay alive — they haven’t paid a transfer fee since 2010 and in November sat bottom of League Two. But that was then. On Sunday, they play Blackpool in a play-off at Wembley for a place in League One.
The Exeter City tale is both fascinating and odd. They were dragged to the brink of extinction by John Russell and Mike Lewis, who took over in 2002 and brought in Uri Geller as vicechairman and Michael Jackson as an honorary director. At one stage Jackson stood on the pitch and encouraged fans to link hands in the fight to cure AIDS.
Russell and Lewis left a year later, replaced by the Supporters’ Trust in 2003 with the club £4.8million in debt and relegated to the Conference. Russell and Lewis later pleaded guilty to fraud.
‘When the Trust took over they needed directors and I was one of them,’ says Julian Tagg, their chairman, a local who was a club ball boy in his youth. ‘I had no designs on being in charge and still don’t — I’m a teacher. Suddenly I was trying to run an organisation where players hadn’t been paid for months.
‘On my first day the bailiffs turned up. It was surreal — this man said he was the sheriff, which I thought was something you had in Western movies. But we bought ourselves some time and fought back bit by bit. A key is finding the right guy and we have been as high as League One and we now have a chance to go back there.’
That guy is Paul Tisdale, who was appointed in 2006 and is the second longest serving manager in the country behind Arsene Wenger. He is the cravat-wearing deep thinker who twice turned down Swansea when they were in the Championship on account of promises he made to Exeter.
Tagg estimates Tisdale operates with a wage budget that ranks around two-thirds of the way down the division.
‘We run on a sustainable basis,’ Tagg says. ‘This club has been hurt in the past and we stay debt free now. We don’t have a bank overdraft. We can’t do things quickly and we know we have to develop our own players and sell, but we know where we are at.’
A new stand goes up this summer painted by volunteers. ‘It’s all about progress, one step at a time,’ adds Tagg.
Across town, Rowe likes Tagg and City. He also built something out of nothing at Chiefs, but with the liberty of a blank piece of paper rather than major debts.
‘I first got involved with the club in a sponsorship capacity in 1993 when they were a community club in the fourth division,’ he says. ‘When I took over in 1998 they were at the old County Ground, sharing it with speedway and dog racing. Dire.
‘The club shop was a cupboard at the back of the ladies toilets. A lady would lean out of the window and sell you a shirt. We needed better revenue streams to become professional, so I set up a Millennium Club around 1998. We built a club shop, put carpet in upstairs, put in 400 plastic seats for the corporates and sold them a gold card for £50. That was the start of us commercialising.
‘It started from there, but right back then I said to Rob Baxter, who had been our captain and is now head coach, that the aim was to be champions of England and Europe.’
They built their £15m stadium in 2006, and after constant growth in the Championship, took the step to the Premiership in 2010.
The coach is instrumental in the rise. Like Tisdale, Baxter has had rare longevity, having taken the role at his hometown club in 2009, and like Exeter City the club are largely built on homegrown talent. ‘There’s a lot in that,’ says Rowe.
‘This isn’t a fairytale. People might see us as small compared to established clubs but this was all planned, this is not a fluke.
‘And I would say the same for the football club down the road. We are different-size operations but we know hard work.’
That hard work has taken two differing parts of this city to the capital for a big weekend, with 35,000 out of a population of 125,000 expected to make the trip.
‘It’ll be great for both clubs,’ says Rowe. And for the burglars.