Dicky Evans Announces Plans to Step Aside from Cornish Pirates Role

Cornish Pirates owner Dicky Evans has revealed he plans to step aside at the end of the season, though he will continue to contribute towards financing the team.

Evans has been involved with the rugby team since 1994. He now intends to sell 150 shares in the Championship club and has made a committment to provide £400,000 on a two-year rolling basis.

In a statement on the Pirates website, Evans said: “We need to alter the ownership of the club in readiness for the next push as I’m not getting younger.

“I have to think of my family for a change, four people who have been incredibly supportive of me,” he added.

“I intend to step aside, not down, at the end of the season as the owner of the company and hand over ownership to the many superb friends and supporters who follow the team.

“Consequently, over the next eight months to the end of this current financial year we need to develop a plan to enable friends and supporters of the Cornish Pirates worldwide to take ownership through a basic share issue format.

“They will be taking over a company clear of all loans and debt – paying a nominal £1 for the whole shareholding.”

Since Evans arrival at the club, the Pirates have risen through the rugby leagues, but have been frustrated in their attempts to reach the Premiership. Evans believes the club need a new stadium in a central location in order to reach that next level. The club have played in Kenwyn and Camborne in the last ten years, and are currently based in Mennaye Field in Penzance. 

Evans continued: “This is the next major step in securing our future. The stadium will come eventually and it’s essential that the Cornish Pirates are in a position to move to the centre of Cornwall and consolidate on the business and spectator support available there, witnessed by the year we spent at Kenwyn – our most successful year at this level financially.

“The rugby will be of the highest calibre possible within the budget constraints that are always with us and the party atmosphere will continue both home and away.

“Cornish people deserve a top-class sporting team and venue – we have the ability to produce the former and as each obstacle to a stadium is surmounted there is no doubt that will come.”