Management team step in to rescue Nottingham

Nottingham has today announced that the club is under new ownership as a management-led team completed the purchase of the club from the former owners Jason Brewer and Luke Jones on Christmas Eve.
The new group, led by known ‘friends’ of the club in existing directors Alistair Bow and Simon Beatham, represent a significant shift from the previous ownership structure of the club.
In a statement, the Midlands side reassured its fans “the rescue package represents the first step towards securing the club’s future in the Greene King IPA Championship and enables Nottingham Rugby to meet its immediate financial demands while discussions are taking place with several parties to help add further stability to the Championship side”
Club Chairman Bow will remain with the club in his current role, whilst existing Directors Beatham and Diane Orson will also stay on the board. They are joined by Philip Barltrop, former Finance Director of Aggregate Industries UK and Chris Simon, the club’s current Operations Director. Further board appointments will be made in due course.
Nottingham Rugby has been seeking new investment for almost a year. The club has faced tough times on and off the field since climbing to its highest ever Championship finish of 2nd place in April 2013. The club narrowly missed out on a place in the Premiership Play-Off Final against Newcastle.
Chairman Bow said: “This is good news for Nottingham Rugby, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We’ve been working hard for almost 12 months to secure the necessary funding to ensure the survival of one of the oldest rugby clubs in the country. I’d like to welcome all of our new shareholders to Nottingham Rugby and thank them for their commitment for the next three seasons. We’re on the way to achieving the first stage of our plan, which was to stabilise the club and make sure we have a base level of funding to maintain our existence and place in the Championship at least.”
Chief Executive, Simon Beatham said: “We’ve achieved our initial objective of securing immediate stability for the club, but our target is to ensure we have the mechanics in place to take us up to the end of the 2015-16 season. This is when the league structure and agreement with the RFU (Long Form Agreement) will be renegotiated. It’s extremely important that we have a position at the top table of professional rugby until at least that season.
“This initial group of shareholders have shown tremendous commitment to keeping this great club of ours going for the next three seasons, although that will not distract us from our continuing discussions with other interested parties who share our aspirations to once again challenge at the top end of the championship. Playing professional rugby at this level currently needs significant investment to make up the shortfall.
“We want to challenge for the play-offs again and to do this we still need to invest further in the club. I genuinely believe, as do my colleagues, that we are capable of bringing Premiership Rugby to Meadow Lane at some stage in the near future. Today’s announcement enables us to get back onto that journey, but we all know we’ve still got a long way to go and need the support of the people of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and the surrounding areas to be able to achieve our vision.”