County Cricket......Does It Work??

I watched a programme on BBC recently that had Sir Alan Sugar taking a look at football and its current financial situation. It got me thinking about County Cricket and I found myself making comparisons to County Cricket and professional football.

Most Counties have released their financial figures for 2010. Of the released figures only 4 Counties have recorded an operating profit. Hampshire are unlikely to record a profit, Lancashire are talking about a £2 million loss, and Yorkshire were similar. How long could this continue for?

A lot of Counties are doing ground and stadium redevelopment of some matter to keep up with the times and give their players, staff and customer the best experience when they walk through those gates. Counties cannot rely on cricket as their only income anymore and need facilties for weddings, seminars, functions etc to make their Club financially sustainable all year round. Hosting pop concerts is also another road some Counties are going down to make money. Obviously this all costs money. The Test Match grounds are spending multi-millions to provide a world class environment for player and spectator, with the smaller Counties too spending vast amounts of money redeveloping their grounds and buildings. It is a process of speculating to accumullate in the future, but can Counties record a million pound loss year after year?

So why are these losses happening? As in every walk of life the economic downturn has hit cricket hard. The ability to attract sponsers and sell corporate hospitality is more difficult than ever. The money is just not out there. For us at Hampshire a huge amount of investment has gone into hosting our first Test Match in 4 weeks time. Whether we hit our budget forecasts remains to be seen. To give you an idea, last year Yorkshire hosted the neutral Test between Australia and Pakistan. They lost over £1 million pounds on the game. Test Match ground Counties rely on sold out grounds and successful corporate hospitality to make these games a success. Does the punter have the money to spend??

Twenty20 was an initial success for all with big crowds and huge interest in the game. It was a novelty, a good night out in the height of summer, good weather and beer! Then the number of games increased. There is great debate whether this is good for County Cricket or not. Essex, Somerset and Sussex for example rely hugely on Twenty20 as they pack out their smaller grounds for every game. Without these games they would be lost. With the Indian Premier League being so big a lot of world class players are now becoming T20 specialists. The cost of these players has risen hugely, a T20 specialist now costs more than an overseas player cost for a whole season in years gone by. And most Counties have two!

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I hope so or else I will be unemployed!! One Counties Chief Executive has been in the press saying he would not be surprised if a County went bust in the near future. Hopefully this will not be the case. There are only 18 First Class Counties with a lot of proud people behind these Clubs that are working hard to ensure this will not happen.

So heres to the immediate future at The Rose Bowl, which is our inaugral Test Match, England vs Sri Lanka. It is an exciting month ahead! Lets hope for some good weather!!