Five years after it was saved from liquidation, Maidstone United FC faces financial tension again.

However, this time the problem facing the football club is not a mounting debt pile and low revenues but the huge cost of winning another promotion.

“As we rise up and get promoted we will become less profitable,” said co-owner Oliver Ash, who has turned the team’s fortunes around with business partner Terry Casey.

The pair took over in October 2010, when the club had debts of £350,000 and dwindling attendances as a consequence of groundsharing with Ashford Town, another troubled club that itself went into administration a year later.

Since then, they have taken Maidstone United through two promotions, a high-profile FA Cup run and, crucially, brought it back to its home town in the new £2.9 million Gallagher Stadium, with attendances regularly topping 2,000.

Yet their plans to get back to the professional ranks of the game within five years bring with it a conundrum.

The owners have already redeveloped their stadium once to meet the Conference South requirement of 3,000 capacity. It will need to hold up to 4,000 if the club makes it to the Conference Premier and up to 5,000 for League 2.

The latest extension has already increased the stadium’s total cost to £3.6 million, upping costs to about £4 million when the previous regime's debts are included.

Mr Ash and Casey have invested £2.7m – a figure they hope to eventually recoup – with the rest of the liabilities paid for by profits.

Mr Ash said: “We are generating profits year-on-year, but this has already gone back into building the ground. We have no spare cash.

“This year has been very cash-tight because our ground extension cost £650,000.

“The next increase in capacity will cost £1.5 million. That could take six years of profits to cover.

“If we want to go up fast we will have to find a way to raise capital or borrow more to do that.”

The club is on a firm financial footing, helped by a deal with construction firm Gallagher Group to pay in advance for another five years of the naming rights to the club’s stadium until 2022.

However, the capacity issue is not the only problem facing Maidstone in the event of promotion.

“If we go up, the cost of players goes up and there would be fewer hours we could rent the pitch out,” said Mr Ash. “The only thing we can do is sell more tickets and sponsorships.

“We have a headache when we go up. I’ve always believed the club should play at its equilibrium level, where it can continue to be profitable.

“I believe that level is in the Football League. I think we can attract crowds of up to 5,000 people.

“We do have ambitions, but it is very capital-intensive.

“The club has become a very important social and support facility in the town. I hope one day to get my money back and make a profit.”

Oliver Ash did not need to invest in a football club when he first bought a 25% stake in Maidstone United in 2007.

The real estate expert had moved to France to begin a new chapter in a career that had seen him work as Europe managing director of London Stock Exchange-listed property investment company Hammerson.

He succumbed to temptation when he put his cash in the team, which was looking for investment partners to build a new stadium in Maidstone.

However, it quickly became apparent the club was in a poor financial state and its ambitions for growth under previous chairman Paul Bowden-Brown were founded on a wishful business plan.

Mr Ash said: “There was a huge gap in funding available for the club. It was running out of money because attendances were low. We had already reached crisis point.”

With no buyers interested in the club, Mr Ash struck a deal to buy it with Terry Casey, a life-long fan of the team, even though they had only met a few times previously.

The pair bought much of the £350,000 debt from Mr Bowden-Brown and invested enough to keep the club going in their first year, before reviewing their stadium strategy.

Mr Ash said: “I persuaded Terry it was worth restructuring, even with its debts, because of its value to the community and the potential of a big town like Maidstone to have a club.

“We didn’t know each other, so there was a lot of faith, but we struck a deal to restructure the business 50-50.

“The key thing in business is to make mistakes which are not critical to your business and make sure your successes are substantial...” - Oliver Ash, Maidstone United

“Terry had actually given up being a part of the club and said only an idiot would be involved in its desperate financial situation, something I reminded him of recently and we had a good laugh.”

Mr Ash believes the club’s success since then, winning two promotions and building a new stadium, has been down to their business model, even though they “were guessing to a large degree”.

This gave them a pleasant surprise when attendances were more than twice what they predicted when they moved in to their new stadium. They had hoped for about 800, but they got nearer 2,000.

However, they miscalculated in other areas, to their cost.

Their original fundraising plan for the stadium – offering shares to supporters – flopped.

The banks showed no interest and Maidstone Borough Council demanded £100,000 of debt be returned rather than lend any money to build a new stadium, as they had hoped.

“It was a difficult situation in early 2011,” said Mr Ash, who also owns a 10% stake in Brive, a Top 14 rugby club in France.

“The only thing to do was pay off all the debts in the club and invest more of our own money in the business.”

It was at this point the pair made their biggest mistake.

Originally they were hoping to build their stadium for about £1.5 million. The actual cost ended up being £2.9 million.

However, their business model held true. It has recorded its third straight year of increased gross profits margins, up 20%, with revenues reaching £1.3 million.

It rents out its 3G pitch to community clubs and makes money from its conference facilities.

Mr Ash said: “The key thing in business is to make mistakes which are not critical to your business and make sure your successes are substantial.”