Nick Knowles: TV presenter buys stake in Cornish Pirates

The club has been looking for more investment since long-serving owner Sir Dicky Evans’ near three-decade association with the club ended in January 2025.

Cornish Pirates’ ownership is now a mix of their United States-based investors and a group of shareholders based closer to home.

“That’s an enabling investment to take us to the stage after this,” added Pettipher.

“So it’s important, but it’s not a lottery win, I would say.

“We have a 10-year development plan. If I can make it faster I will, but the 10-year development plan is a series of investments that gets us to be a top of Premiership club.

“That’s a long way from where we are because we have to be ready, have to meet minimum standards, and we have to be a fantastic Championship club.”

While the lack of a suitable stadium that meets Prem Rugby criteria could be seen as the club’s biggest obstacle to promotion to the Prem under the new franchise-based system, Pettipher says there are other equally as big hurdles:

“There are many minimum standards that are required to become a Premiership club and one of those is a business plan that allows you to commercially exist,” she said.

“There’s a new minimum standard that’s come in which is a salary floor, so not just a salary cap. So the business plan has to support a £5m budget for your rugby players alone.

“People don’t think about the fact that we only have 14 trading days a year, 14 home matches.

“So actually, what we have to do as a business is create a business that is working 365 days a year and is generating the sort of income that can support a club with a business plan required by the Premiership.

“The great thing about these new investors is they are very, very talented business people as well as rugby people.

“So adding in business brains and planning brains and information networks and contact networks is a gift that they give and an investment that they’re putting in alongside the financials.”