Exeter Chiefs boss Tony Rowe says a takeover by American investors can lead to the side becoming “the best club in the world”.
Cannae Holdings’ Black Knight Rugby, run by the same group that owns Premier League football side AFC Bournemouth and NHL side Las Vegas Black Knights, completed their acquisition of the Prem side on Tuesday.
Rowe, who had bankrolled the club for 25 years, will stay on as chief executive and be part of a three-man executive board alongside Cannae’s vice-chairman Bill Foley and chief executive Ryan Caswell.
Rowe says new money from the takeover will be used to fund Exeter’s playing squad with new players being targeted for the upcoming season.
“We’re not going to put it into any capital project, we’re going to put it in around our squad,” he said.
“Hopefully next season we’ll be able to spend up to the salary cap.”
He added: “We’ve been talking to Black Knight since way before Christmas, so we’ve known for some months now that, unless something was drastically wrong, today was going to happen.
“You just can’t go out tomorrow and pick up the guys you want, so Rob (Baxter, director of rugby) has been recruiting and I’ve been signing them off for the last two or three months.”
