Barry Hearn on Brentwood Town investment: ‘I’m a tight bastard but I’m a believer’
Matchroom president Barry Hearn on why he has returned to football with Brentwood Town FC, aiming for promotion to the English Football League and educating the council on the club’s need to buy its stadium.
Barry Hearn doesn’t miss a beat when asked if he has missed football since selling Leyton Orient more than a decade ago: “No, not at all. It’s a terrible business. I would never be involved in football. I always said I wouldn’t be involved in football other than Leyton Orient.”
It’s an unusual way of announcing a five-year financial commitment to Brentwood Town FC and ambitions to make them an English Football League club by 2031, but Hearn says he is motivated by leaving a legacy to the community which he and his Matchroom empire call home.
“Because we’ve got our head office here, because as a family we lived there for 20-odd years, there’s an affinity towards the area, and I like the way they’re going about things. I like the fact that it’s community-driven,” Hearn tells City PM.
“I’m 78 and I don’t know how long I’m going to be here. I want to make sure I’m enjoying every hour I’ve got on God’s earth, simple as that. I saw six games at Brentwood Town last year and they were six very good experiences. We didn’t win them all. I enjoyed the experience. Sport’s been my life for over 50 years. It’s not going to change.
“The ideal plan for me would be that we eventually end up with a team made up of local players, kids that we’ve inspired that have gone on and developed their skills and become an asset to the team itself.
“Making money is great. It’s what you spend it on that really counts, and how you’ll be judged. We look after our family first, and then we look after the community that we came from.
“So, my family’s looked after, I move on to the community, and that puts a smile on my face. And I’m a very selfish person – I like to smile all the time – but that’s all I ask for.”
Hearn: Brentwood Town can be in EFL in five years
Which is not to say that one of the shrewdest operators in sport – a self-described “tight bastard” who continues to pull strings in boxing, darts and snooker and has built up a business worth £1bn – has suddenly gone soft.
“I like winning – that’s an understatement; I absolutely insist on winning – and we’ll see where we go,” says Hearn of Brentwood Town, whose elevation to the Isthmian Premier League last year has left them three more promotions from the EFL.
“The first phase is promotion from this division. We’re aiming at five years to be a Football League club. Do we achieve it? It’s very unlikely. But where do you set your dreams? Well, we set the bar high, and then we do our best.”
Hearn has a 20 per cent stake in the club as well as injecting a six-figure sum via a sponsorship from Matchroom but says Brentwood Town need “20-50” other supporters from the affluent area to lend their resources to the project.
“Equity in non-league football is not something I spend too much time thinking about. Most important is: is the club sustainable? That’s going to require a certain amount of growth from within the club and the potential of other support from outside the club,” he says.
‘Money not a problem but Brentwood Town need stadium’
That support includes from the local authorities, with Hearn and Brentwood deeming acquisition of the club’s home ground – surrounded on three sides by green space – a necessity for realising their ambitions.
“If we’re going to invest in the ground, which we have to do if we’re successful, it needs to be our property. So we’re going to go to the council, put some pressure on them, and say, ‘Well, are you with us on this journey? Because we’re on it’,” he says.
“People know Brentwood. They know Jez Dickinson, the chairman [and majority owner]. They know that Matchroom’s a major company within this area, and we don’t mess about. So we want to know straight up.
“It’s very early stages, and they don’t want to sell anything. But they’ve got to be educated on the proper way forward, and that may take some time. We’ve got the benefit of new councillors here that we think will understand a little bit more.
“Maybe Brentwood Council won’t understand the bigger picture, but we believe they will. We think they’re sensible, intelligent people, and they will understand that this is for the benefit of everybody.
“Money’s nowhere near a problem. The question is: is it worth the investment? Is it worth the journey? And for that, we need to be successful. I’m a tight bastard. I want value for my money, but I’m a believer if I believe.”