Blackheath agree £1.5m deal to buy ground
Blackheath managing director Russell Ticehurst has hailed the purchase of Well Hall as “a momentous day” in the club’s 166-year history.
Never before, not even in their days at the iconic Rectory Field, has the world’s oldest open rugby club owned its own ground.
Well Hall, their semi-professional base since 2016, is believed to have been bought for circa £1.5 million, a real bargain when you consider its location a few miles south of the River Thames in southeast London.
Blackheath’s plan to buy Well Hall from the University of Greenwich was mooted 12 years ago and has been five years in the making, with Ticehurst, club patron Barrie Nealon, current chairman James Fleming, COO Nick Probert and president Rory O’Sullivan chiefly responsible for getting it over the line.
Ticehurst, who played alongside players like Mike Friday and Barrie Stewart at Blackheath in the 90s, is delighted it has finally gone through, saying the purchase will future-proof the club.
“We had a 25-year lease, which was great at the start but as soon as you try and apply for any grants to develop floodlights or a new pitch or something like that, the first thing they ask you is, ‘do you own the ground?’ And when you say no, they ask, ‘how long is your lease?’ 12 years. ‘Oh no, we need longer than that.’ So you are caught between a rock and a hard place almost immediately,” he pointed out.
“I think we have spent about a million and half pounds on the ground improving facilities since we’ve been there, but we couldn’t keep doing that unless we had some security of tenure, which we now have.
“When you suddenly put a one and a half million asset on your balance sheet, which you have never had before, it fundamentally changes the financial mechanics of your club and you don’t look as bad off as people think you are. It does change your position as a small business, not just as a rugby club; it make you far more sustainable for the future in terms of what you can and can’t do.
“It’s going to be exciting, the next five years.”
Historically within the county of Kent, Blackheath FC might have noisy new neighbours in the form of Wasps if the fallen ex-Premiership club are successful in their plans to build a new ground 10 miles down the road in Swanley.
Wasps have to jump through several hoops before that plan comes to fruition so would Ticehurst ever countenance the idea of a groundshare at Well Hall?
“If there are things to talk about, let’s have a chat,” he said.
“We’ve always welcomed opportunity and progress but it has to be equitable and it has to be fair and sensible.
“We have been around for a long time, we haven’t had the financial trials and tribulations some clubs have had. Part of owning the ground was so that we didn’t get into those positions so that we weren’t the next club in the financial graveyard through ego and desire; spending money isn’t a problem, repaying it is the problem.
“We hear a lot about the Wasps situation locally but we don’t have much dialogue with them, unfortunately.
“One of their guys gave our president a ring several months ago just to say that before it comes out in the paper we thought we’d let you we were developing in Swanley, and that’s the only dialogue we’ve had.”
