Cornish Pirates: Dicky Evans confident club will attract new investors

Dicky Evans says he will have put in around £25m into Cornish Pirates by the time he cuts his ties in 2025

Cornish Pirates benefactor Dicky Evans says he is confident new investors will be found for the Championship club.

Evans has pledged a final £2.5m over the next three years before ending a 27-year relationship with the side.

Pirates are currently third in English rugby's second tier and are hoping to build a new stadium in Truro to share with Truro City Football Club, whose funding from Evans is also ending.

"We have a very attractive proposition," Evans told BBC Cornwall.

"We've got a very good side, a great management, good coaches. We're on the verge of something great.

"I do believe there are people out there who'd love to have a Premiership side.

"When I sold my two businesses previously I sold them at the right time. I think this is the right time to sell this - I don't want any money for the shares, but I think it's the right time to do it."

Kenya-based Evans saved the club from bankruptcy in the 1990s and financed Pirates' rise to the Championship.

He has seen the club twice make the Championship play-off final - losing to Worcester in 2011 and London Welsh in 2012 - as well as winning the 2010 British and Irish Cup.

But the onset of Parkinson's disease has seen his day-to-day involvement become less. He sold his stake in the club to Jersey-based firm Vorladron Limited last May but is still on the club's board of directors.

Pirates' current home at the Mennaye Field in Penzance does not meet Premiership standards and the hope is that work will begin soon on the planned Stadium for Cornwall in Truro which will allow the club to be eligible for promotion to the top flight.

The club are eight points behind Championship leaders Doncaster but with two games in hand, and still have a chance of winning the title should they win their remaining games and other results go their way.

"They may not win the league, but they're in a very good position," added Evans, who says his total investment will be around £25m when he finally severs his ties.

"The stadium's just about ready to go, the team's a very good team, so it needs new investors as I won't be around forever."