Simon Leslie: Eastbourne Borough Owner, ‘Non-League Clubs Deserve Better’ (Ep60)

Welcome to the business of Non-League football. Beneath the top four tiers of the revered English football pyramid sits a whole other football world; hundreds of teams, players, coaches, owners playing week in week out to climb the ladder. Jamie Vardy, Ollie Watkins, Jarrod Bowen, Tyrone Mings have all played non-league football. ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ recently storied the quality that exists and the difficulty in getting out of it.

I’ve wanted to do a show focused on this from day one, so I’m delighted to welcome Eastbourne Borough owner Simon Leslie to the show. This is the fully unfiltered reveal on what it is like to buy, run and try to develop a club outside the core of English football. The opportunity is huge, but the challenges are significant. There’s no soft touch here, as we welcome Simon to the Business of Sport.

In today’s show we discuss:

Buying a Non-League Team:

• What was it about Eastbourne Borough that attracted you to the opportunity when you had looked at clubs in the Football League?
• What is unique about buying a club in Non-League and what was the financial requirement to not just purchase the asset but also to run it?
• Owners now have to go through a rigorous process to check they have the resources to buy a football club…or do they? Is the FA’s ‘Fit & Proper’ test fit for purpose?
• “There’s an element of stupidity (in football ownership)”. Why do successful business people continue to plough their hard earned money into football clubs?

Can you Make Money?:

• What are the economics of a Non-League club, from no media rights to a brutally competitive commercial landscape?
• How do you stand out from the rest to drive more eyeballs and more traffic through your club?
• The importance of content in a modern sporting landscape; how Eastbourne have become the envy of many far bigger clubs with a cutting edge, multi platform media offering.
• What needs to happen to drive more revenue opportunity in football?

Football Governance Fit for Purpose?:

• How much money do Non-League teams receive from the Premier League and EFL, and what changes could be introduced to deliver a better financial outcome?
• Are the right people running football in England?
• Owners have to do more to drive change; why the responsibility doesn’t just sit on the individuals at the top of centralised football.
• Do the people at the top of Women’s football believe in their own product?
• “I am an unofficial spokesperson for Non-League football because they’re not doing it themselves and they deserve more”

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