GLOVERS NET A £2M PROMISE!
NEW Yeovil Town owner Martin Hellier has pledged to pump £2m into making the Glovers a National League force again.
Hellier, a local businessman and outspoken critic of outgoing owner Scott Priestnall, bought the club nine days ago.
Yeovil were relegated to National League South in April, less than a decade after winning promotion to the Championship.
Last year also saw the £2.8m sale of Huish Park to the local council in a controversial buy-and-lease-back agreement.
Hellier’s purchase grants him buy back rights to the stadium and the 51-year-old says he “absolutely” intends to reunite the club with its home of 33 years. In the short-term, however, the priority is to fund an immediate return to the top flight.
Structure
“You cannot buy a club and say ‘I hope we score some goals’ and hope that will bring some ticket revenue and then we can improve ourselves,” said Hellier, who confirmed that Mark Cooper will remain as manager, and that the club will stay full-time next season.
“With any business you have to make investment and see it make results. It is my full intention to invest in the club and promotion has to be the aim.
“That is absolutely our ambition and I don’t think anyone would have a reason why it would not be. We have to be back up there.
“There are no guarantees and ultimately it comes down to sticking the ball in the back of the net, but we will try and design the structure and invest in the structure to let that happen. But, of course, that has to be our absolute ambition at a minimum.”
Hellier, below, is the chief executive of the Hellier Group, a Somerset-based investment fund reportedly worth £75m.
He initially became involved with Yeovil as the sponsor of the main stand in September, and since then has used his Twitter account to criticise both Priestnall – who bought the club from long-standing owner John Fry in 2019 – and the local council.
Measured
“I can openly apologise for the passions during the process of trying to buy the club which may have led to a few outbursts,” he explained.
“When you are this person in this community and you are witnessing something which should just not be happening, whether it was done by people who live far away owning the club or by certain people within the council, you are watching these things happen and not being able to control them.
“But that is sat on the shelves of history. We are the people that have removed the problem which has been with us for a number of years. We have done that and we ask people to have patience and belief. We will be measured on what we do from now.”