Everything Adam Pearson, Andrew Thirkill and Richie Myler said on Hull FC takeover, IMG, recruitment, Las Vegas and Liam Byrne

Following the news of a Hull FC takeover being agreed in principle, the club held a fans’ forum on Wednesday night. Current Black and Whites owner and chairman Adam Pearson, director of rugby Richie Myler, head coach John Cartwright and prospective new owner Andrew Thirkill were quizzed by a group of around 200 fans.

Here’s what was said.

Adam, there’s been some big news at 1pm today, seeing as you’re the man that made the statement, tell us what’s going on?

Adam Pearson: I’m sure everybody has seen the news today, it’s a landmark moment for the club that after 13 years of ownership, securing new owners in Andrew Thirkill and David Hood OBE, I’m absolutely delighted because I don’t think we could have a stronger board going forward to really compete with the big three or four out there, particularly our neighbours across the river. Over time we should be able to compete at the right level again and since Covid it’s been an enormous struggle to financially make everything work. It’s been 18 months of looking for the right owners and I believe we’ve found them.

Andrew, welcome to Hull, what would you like to say to Hull FC fans?

Andrew Thirkill: I’m delighted to be here. It’s the start of an exciting journey, it happened very quickly. Adam approached me about six months ago, wrote me an amazing letter which I found of great interest. We had a brief meeting and Rich (Myler) ended up being the director of rugby from that meeting. Rich has loved the job and talked to me about the club and how big it is.
I came across in September for a game against Salford, we got well beaten but the fans were fantastic. I was in awe of the support of the club. I had a great time at Leeds but I thought there was no skin in the game, it was an ambassadorial role and I thought I wanted to go to the next level. Business background, relatively successful, I looked at Hull and thought I could make something of this. It’s a great rugby league city and club.
I’m really excited, I know David Hood who I’m working with on the project is too. I don’t know what the future holds. I’ve no idea, if we’re as successful as Adam has been, three Wembley finals in five years and two Challenge Cups, we’ll be extremely happy but that’s all in the future.

Andrew, how to do you plan to improve the in stadium experience off the field?

AT: It’s all very new. David and I are investing substantial sums of money and will be doing in the future to get the grading up to a Grade A. That’s what’s important and we expect to do that and get above 15 points. We’re only just a touch below 15 at the moment and that’s one of our priorities. In regards to entertainment inside the stadium I haven’t got a clue yet. It’s all happened very quickly.

Have you got faith in IMG?

AT: I’d like to think so. I think they’re an international organisation that have all the right connections. They’ve been brought in on a strict brief, Adam has been responsible for that with other club owners. I’m sure they’ll do things to generate more income for us. They have a TV deal coming up for renegotiation and I’m sure IMG will add some leverage and support with that. You don’t really know until it happens. I’m not criticising them at all, far from it, but the jury is out.

We share the stadium with Hull City and we have a lease so it would be interesting to know what’s happening there and secondly, Adam, it would be interesting to know what you’re going to do when you leave Hull FC?

AP: The stadium is high on the agenda for Andrew coming in and we’ve had a good look at it. We have an extremely strong relationship with the leader of the council who has written to me already this afternoon and we have a good relationship with SMC particularly at ground level between myself and Joe Clutterbrook who has been fantastic since he took over as COO there. The future for negotiations looks positive.

When those start I’m not quite sure, the development of the stadium is still in it’s early stages but our lease will become part of the negotiations. When they extend their lease with the council, we’ll extend our lease. We need to fill the stadium, there’s no doubt about that and on the crowds we were getting last year on the back of poor performances, the lease is OK, but we can make it a good deal for the club if we can get two or three thousand more supporters down, so we’re throwing the pressure on John to win us some home games and play some attractive rugby to get the crowds back up. I wouldn’t worry too much about the lease, Andrew has a huge wealth of experience, I’ll be there to assist him with the council and the SMC, so it’s not something we’re unduly worried about but we’re very much aware of.

I haven’t thought about my next move, it’s been such a torrid time for two years, the actual relief to get a board together with the covenant and strength that Andrew and David possess is a huge relief for me. The stewardship and being the sole custodian was too much of a financial burden and it’s taken its toll. You deserve better and I’m sure this board will provide the funding to have that team.

Is there any chance of players coming in?

Richie Myler: We are in the market for adding players to the group that will add quality. At this time of year lots of teams are sorted and players are under contract. The new ruling comes in on December 1st in the next couple of weeks. We would like to add if the right person comes available and wants to move. The difficulty we’ve had is getting people to Hull due to our circumstances and the way our perception has been and geographical location. It’s a hard sell. I’m hopeful that people see a brighter future now and want to be a part of Hull FC, that should open a few doors.

Would a player like Liam Byrne be the type of player that would suit?

RM: I think it’s wrong to talk about someone under contract with another club, I don’t think that’s right. There’s several players and we’re clearly another middle short. Brad Fash still has an injury and will miss a big chunk of pre-season so we’re going to need to look to add a player in that department but I don’t want to speak about someone under contract, I don’t think it’s fair in that sense. A person of that kind of quality is someone that we would like to add.

If you asked most fans we would love our own purpose built stadium, is that in future plans?

AP: A new stadium is going to be difficult in Hull. We tried looking at the Costello site a couple of years ago but it just wasn’t there. I can’t see the club coming out of the MKM Stadium. We have to grow into it again and we have to make it like home and win some matches. To build a new stadium from scratch is a huge investment but it needs buy in from a lot of people. We have to make the MKM our home, get on with it, fill it up and get it bouncing. We have a negative feeling about the place because we haven’t performed there for two or three years but I’m sure that will change with these two guys. I think to ask Andrew for a new stadium on day one is a bit much but at the moment we have to make the most of what we’ve got.

What are your expectations and where do you see yourselves in 12 months’ time?

AT: For me when Rich took the job on I was very interested and I was watching him carefully hoping we’d do well I was disappointed with the scorelines and the blowouts, it was ridiculous. I was a bit frustrated with it all even though I was Leeds president, it had no impact on me, but I wanted Rich to do well and he’s passionate about it. He’s 24/7 rugby league, he never stops talking about it. My daughter’s having a baby and Rich is talking about Jake Trueman every five minutes. Hull is a great club and everything goes in cycles, it was on a downward cycle and hopefully it will come back up again. For me, next year I want us to be credible and competitive. We’re not planning on winning Super League next year at all, there’s some wonderful teams out there and the league will be more competitive than ever next year with new money but we need to start playing some good rugby and the crowds enjoy it. The fact that Hull KR are doing well is good for the city, in my opinion.

One thing that David and I are doing is for the first three years at least we’re not taking any wages, we’re not charging interest, we’re not taking any loans back out, everything that comes in is going straight back out into the personnel and improving the playing quality and roster. For me, I want to genuinely do this for Hull. Adam had wonderful success, it may not happen, it may happen but we’re really going for it. We want us to be successful again.

Could we get to Las Vegas at one point?

AT: We’d like that very much.

Do you have in your mind a firm date for when you’ll be able to say it’s done?

AT: Adam and I have had some conversations and agreed everything in principal, like you do. You do your due diligence and you run through it all and you assume everything will be OK. I would think in a few weeks’ time, I’ve no real idea. The sooner the better is the answer.