Turkish billionaire buy Raiders

Plymouth Raiders have a new owner which wants to invest in the club and take it to the pinnacle of British basketball – with a little help from a team in Turkey.

Current owner Richard Mollard and Ross Mackenzie have agreed to sell a majority shareholding of the club to MLA College, the expanding education provider which has recently moved into the newly refurbished The Merchant office block in Notte Street.

MLA, which sees being involved with Raiders as a way to support its work with students, is part of the worldwide education powerhouse BAU Global, whose wealthy Turkish president Enver Yücel, reportedly a billionaire, is a huge basketball fan.

Online reports suggest the businessman is a billionaire, although his exact net worth is unknown.

Mr Yücel, who will now be Raiders’ new president, and BAU already own one of Turkey’s top Super League basketball teams, Bahcesehir College, which this season has reached the quarter finals of the Euro Cup, the second highest tournament on the continent, where they are due to face Latvian side Ventspils.

The new partnership with MLA College will provide the Raiders with significant additional resources and investment, the company said.

This will help it compete with the very best teams in the UK on the court, and also develop the business, forging close ties with Bahcesehir College, which could see the Raiders working hand-in-hand with the Turkish side to develop stars of the future.

John Chudley, rector of MLA College, said this could mean games between the two teams and even players and coaches from the Turkish side coming to help Raiders.

“We’d like to bring the Turkish team to Plymouth or vice versa,” he said. “And there is the possibility of player exchanges.”

He added: “We are looking forward to supporting and investing in the club to make it the best team in the country

John Chudley, rector of MLA College, said this could mean games between the two teams and even players and coaches from the Turkish side coming to help Raiders.

“We’d like to bring the Turkish team to Plymouth or vice versa,” he said. “And there is the possibility of player exchanges.”

He added: “We are looking forward to supporting and investing in the club to make it the best team in the country


Brent rag

very promising for plymouth raiders if they do indeed invest from the bottom to the top. Doubt they need to pump much into raiders to make them one of the best in britain. Wonder if they still have that european competition going  i shall have a look.

edited to add

euroleague is around but its not the champions league competition i thought it was.

Prefer netball.

Possibly the investor JB will need to kickstart Pavilions refurbishment. In an ideal world this guy builds an arena elsewhere but he wont be best pleased to see the ripped seats that JB has neglected since getting his hands on Pavilions.

Muff desperately needs a large indoor sports/Music venue.

Raiders next home game is sold out and the one after that is nearly sold out.

P.O.I wrote:

Muff desperately needs a large indoor sports/Music venue.

agreed pity brent has the dibs on building one of them!!!!

Should be building multipurpose arena including the Ice Rink on Colin Campbell court facing a proper Boulevard to Millbay through Pavilions site, not the road to nowhere "planned" now

Colin Campbell court should stay as a car park, much used and much needed.

Earwegoagain wrote:

Colin Campbell court should stay as a car park, much used and much needed.

where else would the kids play aswell

It is possible to build over a car park

green_genie wrote:

It is possible to build over a car park

But is it likely if they sell to a developer?

Given PCCs "dealings" with Brent, no.

green_genie wrote:

Given PCCs "dealings" with Brent, no.

brents not a developer hes a blagger.

pcc should be listening to ideas for that space surely something more worthwhile could go there other than charity shops which with greatest of respect there are several of st lukes and heart foundation shiops in the city centre alone.

I think affordable housing should be the plan down that end of town then the area would develop more with a bit of nightlife. It's already a great end of town to shop with the Polish shops, Pannier Market, Ritas Carribean kitchen, Mesopotamia and Thai and Sliders in the market. I very rarely visit the mall area.