Local businessman Martin Hellier has said he believes that Yeovil Town will go in to administration if the club’s on-off takeover is not completed soon.
The owner of Hellier Group, which has been sponsor of the Main Stand at Huish Park since last September, claimed he has been blocked in his bid to buy the majority shareholding of chairman Scott Priestnall despite having entered in to initial discussions at the end of last year.
In an interview with Three Valleys’ Radio presenter Adi Hopper, he confirmed his interest in buying the club and surrounding land owned by South Somerset District Council which he outlined in a message to fans earlier this week – see more here.
In the interview, Hellier said: “You cannot do (a deal) if the seller does not want to engage with you, and I say ‘seller’ on the assumption he wants to sell. You have to question why that person is stonewalling every effort for people to come in.
“Given the state of the state of the club’s finances, it is a bit like the homeless person you invited for Christmas dinner complaining that they didn’t get to carve the turkey!
“In this state, and it really is ‘put on your big boy pants’ time, in my opinion the club is going to go in to administration.
“All I can say with absolute certainty is that your owner will not enter any dialogue with myself, and if he is also not entertaining anyone else, it is a given (the the club will go in to administration).”
In the interview, he said claims a quarterly rent of £50,000 is due to SSDC next month and said he did not know how the club would meet the charges describing its financial situation as “reading like a Greek tragedy.” When Gloverscast has approached SSDC regarding the amount of rent which would be charged to the club and we were told: “These are matters for the owner to respond if he wishes.”
He revealed he had contacted SSDC around his interest in buying the land which Huish Park stands on together with surrounding ground which was sold to the authority in a deal worth £2.8m last May. However, he was told back in January the deal could only be completed if it was approved by Yeovil Town Holdings Limited, a company which has Priestnall as a majority shareholder.
Hellier added: “We have clearly stated we have no interest to build houses on that land for personal gain, it would be our intention to reunite the ownership of the surrounding lands and the stadium with the trading business of the football club.
“If there was any development of that land it would be directly for the benefit of the football club to bring in revenue streams which would help support it. It is time for people to act like the business people they claim to be to sit at the table and figure out.”
You can listen to the interview in full on Three Valleys Radio’s website – click here.
The problem here is that this club is like a bride that’s been taken up the aisle (no pun intended) so many times, then the groom has been scared away and she fails to believe that anyone wants her.
To be honest there as so many nightmare scenarios with the club its a bit scary to consider any. Is anyone truly capable of saving this club? I mean 50k a 1/4 rental, what bonkers agreement was that!
We as fans who have been rogered for years are not going to believe anyone is going to save this club for our benefit. The land- the bloody land, that seems to be all people talk about. Until a prospective owner stops talking about the land we may start to believe that its about the football. MH? Says the right things, but then so did that FB Priestnall!
Still to this day no real protests bar keyboard talk, the passive Yeovil fans sat by and watched it happen. I think there was a ‘sit down’ protest planned but then Priestnall introduced the smoke screen ‘Stewards’ and we clapped them around the pitch, desperate for anyone to care. I do believe that, just my view. I’m sick of it now,, they got us all back in our droves and then abandon communication as SP did. Uggla and his childish ‘fake’ attack on Weymouth bites him on the arse tomorrow when they stay up and we have no club.
What a mess. Why does Hillier look like a I am type, weird picture, clearly loves having his photo take, unlike person in the background, who clearly doesn’t want to buy there.
So you have access to the clubs books to 100% confirm this is what will happen or is this just you predicting
how can the club be unable to pay wages and rent when a year ago it sold it for £2.8million .where has all that money gone . Unless there is fraud there should be no problem
[…] Local businessman Martin Hellier claims that Yeovil will go in to administration if the club’s on-off takeover is not completed soon. You can read what he had to say by clicking HERE. […]