TV presenter Nick Knowles has become an investor in English second-tier side Cornish Pirates, following in the footsteps of Wrexham co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The 63-year-old, known for fronting BBC shows such as DIY SOS and National Lottery: Who Dares Wins, is the latest investor in the ambitious Penzance-based club after American private equity firm Stonewood Capital agreed a seven-figure deal to purchase a minority stake earlier this year.
Documentary plans
Knowles, who has already served as an ambassador for the club for more than a season, has brought in a film crew to begin producing a documentary about the Pirates and rugby's importance to the local area. He hopes to put the club and region in front of a "wider new audience" after the American investors saw the potential in the team.
The project has earned comparisons to what Reynolds and McElhenney have done with Wrexham in the football world over the last five years. After purchasing the club for £2 million in 2021, the Hollywood actors have overseen the Red Dragons' remarkable rise from non-league to pushing for promotion to the Premier League, with their journey documented in the hit FX documentary Welcome to Wrexham.
Knowles knows that such comparisons are inevitable and hopes that he can achieve a similar level of success with the Pirates, who are bidding to be included in PREM Rugby when the league is expanded from 10 to 12 teams ahead of the 2029-30 season.
Community focus
“When I looked at Cornish Pirates, you’ve got the history of Cornwall, which is phenomenal," he told The Telegraph. "You’ve got a Celtic history; you’ve got a massive fanbase which is like a sleeping giant. Rugby is as much part of their culture there as fishing or tin mining or anything else. Cornwall has that identity, spirit, has that love of rugby.
"If I can strap all those things together, and then make something that’s stunningly beautiful and then weave in all of these beautiful characters. I’d want to watch it, and I wouldn’t have to be a rugby fan to watch it," he added. "I want the series to be a postcard to Cornwall, a love letter to Cornwall, with a sporting underdog story running through it."
On the success enjoyed by Reynolds and McElhenney with Wrexham and their documentary, Knowles admitted that the secret was in engaging with the community and widening the club's appeal beyond sports fans.
“They haven’t just bought a football club and gone: ‘This is what we're doing'," he said. "They’ve engaged with the whole community. We fully intend to do the same, because if you don’t take the whole community with you, you’ve got a team with no support.
"The worldwide fame of Welcome to Wrexham rests on two things. One is obviously that you’ve got Ryan Reynolds and the other lad – the other Hollywood guy – but the other thing is the millions of people who watch it aren’t all football fans.
"They’re watching for the people. It’s about the Welsh miners, it’s about the history of Wales and fighting for their place in society, from the mines closing and what it did to the area.
"It’s about the guy who’s running the food truck outside who can’t quite make ends meet and then can’t quite believe what’s happening to his beloved team. It’s about the elderly couple who do the podcast that nobody listened to.
"The main sponsor of the team at that stage made farm trailers, and now Ryan Reynolds is doing adverts for a local farm trailer company," Knowles, whose film crew previously worked on Top Gear and Formula One coverage, added. "There’s comedy in that, but also they’re watching for the people. And when people in America come over to Wrexham to go to the game, they also want to go to the pub to see the bloke they’ve seen in the pub, see the podcast people, go to the corner shop where they’ve seen people talking."
Personal reasons
Knowles' investment comes after he took a step back from his TV work earlier this summer to take care of his wife Katie Dadzie, who had required urgent surgery. The 36-year-old businesswoman, who married the presenter last summer, was rushed to hospital when her cervix ruptured following a hysterectomy not long after they tied the knot. She was later informed she required another significant operation, leading Knowles to step away from TV to be by her side.
"I've been looking after my wife a lot because she has been through it," he told the Mail earlier this year. "She's had a lot of tough times. She's got another operation coming up.
"I will disappear for a while because I'll be looking after her. I'm always worried [about her], but she's a warrior and a fighter, so I know she'll be fine."
