Leeds entrepreneur assists Hartlepool FC secure future by expanding into property development

A Leeds entrepreneur has helped Hartlepool Football Club secure funding to enter into the property development market as a way of generating cash.

The club plans to bid on the land currently occupied by the Mill House Leisure Centre which is adjacent to the 7856 capacity Victoria Park ( also known as the Northern Gas and Power Stadium).

The League Two club’s long term plan is to develop 130 houses and mixed use retail units on the land.

As well as boosting the local economy, the new development will also enable the council to both relocate and improve the leisure centre, according to Hartlepool owner and chairman Gary Coxall.

The club secured the funding through Access Commercial Finance, with entrepreneur Matt Haycox working as the lead consultant on the deal.

Haycox, who is behind the UK lap-dancing brand Wildcats, said: “I love working on challenging and time sensitive deals, and having the chance to do it for someone as high profile as Hartlepool FC and getting to see how this will impact on the local community is very exciting.

“Gary and his team have been a pleasure to work with and I hope this is the start of many deals for us in the football world.”

Coxall, who took over the reins of Hartlepool FC last year, added: “I’m not interested in dealing with big banks. You can never talk to the decision maker, you can never get an answer right away.

“Things move fast in football and property and Access provided us the funding we needed 3 days after the 1st call!”

He continued: “This isn’t about greedy owners lining their pockets, but about making a club secure for the long term. In football, you make money on match days, through transfers and sponsorship.

“We can’t compete with bigger clubs on most of that, and we could just say ‘We’re putting the ticket prices up’ but who will that help? We’re looking at making the club self sustaining through property development so that prices don’t have to go up, not now and not in the long term.

“We’ve said from the start our plans are to grow Hartlepool United whilst maintaining the strong community links and this project will benefit the community so much that those links can only be strengthened.

“This will be a big step towards securing and stabilizing the future of Hartlepool.”

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