Martin Hellier: New Yeovil Town owner says stabilising club is first priority
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New Yeovil Town owner Martin Hellier on why he bought his local football club.
New Yeovil Town owner Martin Hellier said he has "not waved a magic wand" and his priority is to stabilise the club and reach "calm waters".
The Yeovil-based businessman completed the takeover of the relegated National League team last week.
He confirmed the plan is to buy back their Huish Park ground and that an additional £2m will be available to invest in the club.
Mark Cooper will also stay on as manager next season, he said.
"We've not suddenly waved a magic wand and all the problems have gone away with cashflow or what the club owes," Hellier told BBC Radio Somerset.
"There's some quite urgent audits to conduct as far as finance goes, the management of it and so on.
"But [the priority is] really stabilising the ship and just getting into some calm waters, creating some breathing space.
"Obviously there are priorities in different verticals of the business - the team, the players, the coach, how we're moving forward next season - you've got that whole side of it.
"We've also got the financial side of it, the management side of it, the brand output, the guidelines, the matchday experience, the decor of the building, if that gives you any idea of the degree of task ahead of us."
Hellier, a long-time Yeovil Town fan and sponsor through his firm the Hellier Group, has bought the football club and is also the majority shareholder of Yeovil Town Holdings after taking over from former owner Scott Priestnall.
The latter company has the right to buy back Huish Park and the surrounding areas after it was sold in 2022 to South Somerset District Council.
"The first thing to ensure was we absolutely have that right [to buy back Huish Park]. It's safeguarded, it's going nowhere, it will belong to the club and we've bought enough breathing space to tuck that one away, make sure it's safe and concentrate on the actual priorities standing with us now," Hellier said.
"From the outset, from this day, from this morning, the line is transparency, we have nothing to hide.
"There's no doubts at all that some time down the line there will be development on that land but the difference being is that development will be a development on land that belongs to the football club in which the revenues will benefit the football club. That's it in a nutshell."
'No scattergun approach'
Yeovil will play regional football in the National League South next season but will stay full-time professional, alongside the likes of Torquay who were also relegated.
Cooper will remain as manager with the "absolute ambition" next season to win promotion back to the fifth tier.
"He's [Cooper] had zero resource in all the time that he's arrived," Hellier continued. "The club has had zero resource in the last four years and again it comes back to the fact if you want someone to do a good job, you've got to arm them with the good tools to do that job.
"If after that we under perform, we don't do what was expected of the club or of Mark, then we review it at that point.
Mark Cooper was appointed Yeovil manager in October 2022
"I'm really not looking to radically destabilise everything, changing managers, it really would appear a scattergun, desperate approach.
"We need to look at the things that are in place at the moment and are we getting the most out of them, rather than throwing them all out and starting again."
Priestnall's tenure led to a period of discontent and tension between the Glovers supporters and the club ownership.
Hellier said he wants to open lines of communication between the groups going forward in the form of frequent forums.
"All I can say is I cannot influence the past, I can influence the future," Hellier added.
"Any trust, any animosity, any bad feelings that they've had, I'm very sorry, I wasn't involved in that at the time. I'm here now.
"Without blowing our trumpet, we are the people who have removed the problem that's remained for a number of years and we have done that. We ask people to have patience and belief and we will be measured on that."