Exeter Chiefs boss Tony Rowe says a takeover by American investors can lead to the side becoming “the best club in the world”.

Cannae Holdings’ Black Knight Rugby, run by the same group that owns Premier League football side AFC Bournemouth and NHL side Las Vegas Black Knights, completed their acquisition of the Prem side on Tuesday.

Rowe, who had bankrolled the club for 25 years, will stay on as chief executive and be part of a three-man executive board alongside Cannae’s vice-chairman Bill Foley and chief executive Ryan Caswell.

Rowe says new money from the takeover will be used to fund Exeter’s playing squad with new players being targeted for the upcoming season.

“We’re not going to put it into any capital project, we’re going to put it in around our squad,” he said.

“Hopefully next season we’ll be able to spend up to the salary cap.”

He added: “We’ve been talking to Black Knight since way before Christmas, so we’ve known for some months now that, unless something was drastically wrong, today was going to happen.

“You just can’t go out tomorrow and pick up the guys you want, so Rob (Baxter, director of rugby) has been recruiting and I’ve been signing them off for the last two or three months.”

Exeter reached their first Prem final for five years last month, when they lost 26-17 to table-toppers Northampton at Twickenham.

That achievement came despite the club not maximising the Prem’s salary cap.

“We’ve got a massively talented squad, but we’ve got a few guys we’ve had to let go,” Rowe added.

“We’re bringing in a few more guys, if we lack anything at the moment it’s experience, and our trip to Twickenham a couple weeks ago probably showed that, and we lack a bit of strength in depth.

“So we’re just going to get them fixed, which we think we can do for next season and we’re very comfortable where we are and the boys are comfortable.”

It is not just the men’s side that will benefit from the takeover – Exeter’s women’s team will also see improvements.

The Chiefs reached the semi-finals of Premiership Women’s Rugby this season, losing to eventual champions Saracens in the semi-finals after a third-placed finish in the table.

While Exeter’s men have won two English titles and a European Champions Cup, Chiefs’ women have yet to win a domestic title since their formation in 2020 – having reached back-to-back finals in 2022 and 2023.

“The women’s Premiership is still quite young in English rugby,” said Rowe.

“We’re still trying to build a bigger supporter base, so we’re funding a loss.

“But Cannae and Black Knight Rugby are committed totally to supporting women’s rugby, which I think is great.

“There’s some things happening in the background at the moment that will become apparent in the next few days, but we’re really excited.

“This will actually probably enable us to put a bit more money into the ladies’ side, because the reality is when the cake is only so big to cut up, it’s been a challenge.”

Rowe also hopes joining the Black Knight stable of sports teams will not just lead to a financial boost, but also a knowledge boost as well.

He is hopeful his staff at Exeter will be able to tap into the expertise of the likes of AFC Bournemouth and their experience of running sides in major sports leagues.

“My key staff here have already said to me that they wouldn’t mind a trip down to AFC Bournemouth just to to see how they work,” he said.

“I hope we do work together, and the reality is that one of the challenges of being down in the depths of the West Country is sponsorship, and we’re very interested in talking to those guys because their front of shirt sponsor pays twice as much as my total sponsorship I get in a year for everything.

“So I’m really interested – the scraps off their table would be really nice. But I hope we do work together because, why shouldn’t we?”