The EFL have begun the initial approval process over a potential new investor for Plymouth Argyle, the club’s owner and chairman Simon Hallett has revealed.
Hallett told a Plymouth Argyle Cornish Supporters’ Association fans’ forum in St Dennis last night that he was ‘on the verge of being able to come public with something’. The United States-based businessman has been searching for someone to put additional funds into the Championship club since the summer of 2023.
The process has not been an easy one, but Hallett seems optimistic the hunt could be drawing to a conclusion and he declared it would take the club’s playing budget from the bottom two or three in the Championship to just below halfway.
Hallett told the fans’ forum at the St Dennis Working Men’s Club: “Our ambitions are essentially to compete in the top half of the Championship and at the moment we are competing in the bottom half of the Championship.
“We have been very open about this, that we are looking for new investment, which we think will help us both continue to develop the infrastructure and continue to grow the revenue base, in order to invest or spend more on the first team squad, so that’s part of the strategy.
“But I have always been clear since I first became chairman of Argyle that I thought my resources could get us to the Championship and if we wanted to push on beyond that we would need someone with different resources.
“We have been disappointed in how long it has taken to find a new investor. I have been thinking this for about eight months, but I think we are on the verge of being able to come public with something.
“We have actually got the EFL already beginning the initial approval process. The progress has been slow and every time I think we are close, you get a little bit closer but you don’t quite get there.
“I’m still hopeful we are going to be able to land a new investor who is going to be able to help us push on, but this year we are competing in the bottom half of the Championship because we have failed to get the resources that we had hoped.”
Hallett continued: “My view is that the club should be self sustaining and, again, we have been absolutely clear about this. Even under my predecessor, James (Brent) always said this club has to be self sustaining.
“There are several models of running a football club, particularly in the Championship where the average club, I think, loses £25 million a year. So the average club is losing money that is financed effectively by their shareholders, either in the form of equity or in the form of debt until the sugar daddy decides they don’t want to do it anymore,.
We have rejected that model and, again, we have been absolutely clear our goal is sustainability so that if I get hit by a bus or the source of finance dries up for any reason the club will be safe.
“We do need new investors. If we can’t find them then we will turn to the shareholders again. There will be money made available in the (January) transfer window and the only source of money is the shareholders.”
A new investor would play a very important part in Argyle being able to increase the current capacity of Home Park, where they have been sold-out crowds of 16,000-plus pretty much every game since the start of last season.
Hallett said: “We think that by spending quite a lot of money we can increase capacity to about 22,000. When we get more clarity about safe standing, when we get more clarity about likely attendances, part of our investment opportunity is not just to spend money on the first team, it’s to continue to build the infrastructure in a way that generates not just higher quality facilities for the first team but also generates revenue.
“Clearly, we are losing a competitive edge by having a stadium in the Championship that only seats 17,000. It’s very much at the lower end of Championship capacities.”
Hallett added: “We have got the initial stages of developing a masterplan for what we can do around Home Park. They will generate revenues but we are still waiting on the new investors.
“The people we are talking to now are very excited by this kind of opportunity but it will include filling in the corners, it will include safe standing when we can and so on. Everything has been on hold, and we are obviously not happy about that, but I’m afraid that’s the way it has been over the last 15-16 months.”
Asked whether the potential investor was a consortium or an individual, Hallett replied: “As soon as we are able to tell anything we will. I hate having secrets and I’m not very good at keeping them! I’m hoping we will be able to tell you everything, I’m not going to put a date on it but as soon as possible.”
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