anything but cricket
Wherever you look around the circuit, the counties seem to be selling almost anything but cricket. Last summer's epic Ashes victory has sparked renewed interest in cricket: membership figures are increasing and indoor cricket schools reported record business throughout the winter. The coffers at the England and Wales Cricket Board have been filled for the next four years with £220m from the Sky Sports television deal. But in commercial terms cricket - and in particular, county cricket - has definitely not become the new football.
While even modest Premiership clubs boast six-figure shirt sponsorship deals, Surrey, one of the biggest counties, are trumpeting a tie-up with Thrifty Car Rentals: in return for hospitality and ground advertising, 13 players and coaches will get the use of top-of-the-range Ford Mondeo Titanium X cars.
County cricket's fragile finances are increasingly based on innovative thinking, often only tenuously linked to the sport itself, trying to create commercial opportunities 365 days a year, rather than on only 40 or 50 cricket days.
Jon Fordham, Kent's commercial director, said: "We are beginning to dispel the perception that cricket is 20 years behind football and 10 years behind rugby. I do not think that is true. We are trying to do things in a very professional way."
While Kent lost £310,000 in 2005, their strategy is expansionist. The Elton John concert could make up to £50,000 but Fordham says it could also help a future search for a ground sponsor by putting the St Lawrence Ground on the map as a concert venue. The club shop, The Eleventh Wicket, one of the most profitable in the country with a turnover last year of £300,000, sells not just cricket equipment but snooker tables, dart boards and rugby gear. In the longer term Kent plan to redevelop the ground with 66 new homes, a hotel, health and fitness centre and cricket museum.
The county champions Nottinghamshire enjoy the long-term benefits of Trent Bridge's Test ground status and have produced profits for each of the last five years, £96,000 in 2005. "We are not complacent," said the Notts chief executive Derek Brewer. "We recognise all the commercial threats outside the game and there is lots of competition."
While a Test ground produces income, it also produces unexpected expenditure. "We have just had to repair the lifts in the Radcliffe Road stand and have to spend an awful lot of money maintaining the stadium; we have to employ a lot more people, with 40 to 50 permanent staff."
Membership has grown on the back of the Ashes by 1,000 to 6,300 and Notts have 1,000 junior members for the first time. But Brewer believes the advent of Twenty20 may have been a more significant landmark than the Ashes win. "We got 6,500 for a rain-affected match against Lancashire and 10,000 for a sunny afternoon against Yorkshire. It is fast and furious and gets kids talking about cricket and attracts extra sponsorship."
Leicestershire, who have always struggled for members, were given a lifeline by Twenty20; they won the 2004 competition and have filled Grace Road to its 5,500 capacity for Twenty20 games. The club have outsourced their commercial operations to Investors in Cricket, a company run by Manoj Badale, an Asian businessman, to help turn round a loss of £94,000 in 2005. Function and hospitality rooms are being refurbished and Badale is tapping into the local Asian business network with an eye to Pakistan's visit in July. Grace Road will be marketed as a venue for Asian weddings, while a 200-seater marquee is being installed for Twenty20 games.
Mark Tagg, chief executive of Northamptonshire, the county with the smallest staff and smallest budget who last year turned a pre-tax profit of only £10,000, says membership (around 2,500) brings in only £120,000 a year. "It is a very tight budget and we have to be creative."
Wantage Road has facilities for conferences and weddings and Tagg is also looking at staging concerts and developing part of the site. "We don't get major investors like those who put £1m or £2m into rugby clubs. We are a smallish club, starting from a low base, so we have to be more savvy and more business-like, trying to eke out every last penny."
Log on to Kent County Cricket Club's website and the first thing you see is a picture of Elton John, dressed in cricket whites, and an advertisement for his A Night Under the Stars concert in June at the St Lawrence Ground. It is likely to attract the largest crowd in the ground's 158-year history. The homes of Somerset, Sussex and Worcestershire will also reverberate to the sounds of Rocket Man and Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me this summer, while Durham's Riverside will play host to UB40 and the Northern Proms as well as the ubiquitous John.
Profit and loss in 2005
1 Warwickshire +£750,842
2 Lancashire +£580,164
3 Surrey +£420,000
4 Middlesex +£203,000
5 Durham +£113,498
6 Nottinghamshire +£96,776
7 Gloucestershire +£85,000
8 Worcestershire +£49,995
9 Essex +£26,129
10 Somerset +£24,620
11 Northamptonshire +£10,000
12 Leicestershire -£94,000
13 Glamorgan -£175,885
14 Derbyshire -£215,439
15 Kent -£309,998
16 Sussex -£631,366
17 Hampshire -£750,000*
18 Yorkshire -£1,200,000
*Expected loss to be confirmed at AGM
Research: Timothy Abraham
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cricket/story/0,,1766818,00.html
Wherever you look around the circuit, the counties seem to be selling almost anything but cricket. Last summer's epic Ashes victory has sparked renewed interest in cricket: membership figures are increasing and indoor cricket schools reported record business throughout the winter. The coffers at the England and Wales Cricket Board have been filled for the next four years with £220m from the Sky Sports television deal. But in commercial terms cricket - and in particular, county cricket - has definitely not become the new football.
While even modest Premiership clubs boast six-figure shirt sponsorship deals, Surrey, one of the biggest counties, are trumpeting a tie-up with Thrifty Car Rentals: in return for hospitality and ground advertising, 13 players and coaches will get the use of top-of-the-range Ford Mondeo Titanium X cars.
County cricket's fragile finances are increasingly based on innovative thinking, often only tenuously linked to the sport itself, trying to create commercial opportunities 365 days a year, rather than on only 40 or 50 cricket days.
Jon Fordham, Kent's commercial director, said: "We are beginning to dispel the perception that cricket is 20 years behind football and 10 years behind rugby. I do not think that is true. We are trying to do things in a very professional way."
While Kent lost £310,000 in 2005, their strategy is expansionist. The Elton John concert could make up to £50,000 but Fordham says it could also help a future search for a ground sponsor by putting the St Lawrence Ground on the map as a concert venue. The club shop, The Eleventh Wicket, one of the most profitable in the country with a turnover last year of £300,000, sells not just cricket equipment but snooker tables, dart boards and rugby gear. In the longer term Kent plan to redevelop the ground with 66 new homes, a hotel, health and fitness centre and cricket museum.
The county champions Nottinghamshire enjoy the long-term benefits of Trent Bridge's Test ground status and have produced profits for each of the last five years, £96,000 in 2005. "We are not complacent," said the Notts chief executive Derek Brewer. "We recognise all the commercial threats outside the game and there is lots of competition."
While a Test ground produces income, it also produces unexpected expenditure. "We have just had to repair the lifts in the Radcliffe Road stand and have to spend an awful lot of money maintaining the stadium; we have to employ a lot more people, with 40 to 50 permanent staff."
Membership has grown on the back of the Ashes by 1,000 to 6,300 and Notts have 1,000 junior members for the first time. But Brewer believes the advent of Twenty20 may have been a more significant landmark than the Ashes win. "We got 6,500 for a rain-affected match against Lancashire and 10,000 for a sunny afternoon against Yorkshire. It is fast and furious and gets kids talking about cricket and attracts extra sponsorship."
Leicestershire, who have always struggled for members, were given a lifeline by Twenty20; they won the 2004 competition and have filled Grace Road to its 5,500 capacity for Twenty20 games. The club have outsourced their commercial operations to Investors in Cricket, a company run by Manoj Badale, an Asian businessman, to help turn round a loss of £94,000 in 2005. Function and hospitality rooms are being refurbished and Badale is tapping into the local Asian business network with an eye to Pakistan's visit in July. Grace Road will be marketed as a venue for Asian weddings, while a 200-seater marquee is being installed for Twenty20 games.
Mark Tagg, chief executive of Northamptonshire, the county with the smallest staff and smallest budget who last year turned a pre-tax profit of only £10,000, says membership (around 2,500) brings in only £120,000 a year. "It is a very tight budget and we have to be creative."
Wantage Road has facilities for conferences and weddings and Tagg is also looking at staging concerts and developing part of the site. "We don't get major investors like those who put £1m or £2m into rugby clubs. We are a smallish club, starting from a low base, so we have to be more savvy and more business-like, trying to eke out every last penny."
Log on to Kent County Cricket Club's website and the first thing you see is a picture of Elton John, dressed in cricket whites, and an advertisement for his A Night Under the Stars concert in June at the St Lawrence Ground. It is likely to attract the largest crowd in the ground's 158-year history. The homes of Somerset, Sussex and Worcestershire will also reverberate to the sounds of Rocket Man and Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me this summer, while Durham's Riverside will play host to UB40 and the Northern Proms as well as the ubiquitous John.
Profit and loss in 2005
1 Warwickshire +£750,842
2 Lancashire +£580,164
3 Surrey +£420,000
4 Middlesex +£203,000
5 Durham +£113,498
6 Nottinghamshire +£96,776
7 Gloucestershire +£85,000
8 Worcestershire +£49,995
9 Essex +£26,129
10 Somerset +£24,620
11 Northamptonshire +£10,000
12 Leicestershire -£94,000
13 Glamorgan -£175,885
14 Derbyshire -£215,439
15 Kent -£309,998
16 Sussex -£631,366
17 Hampshire -£750,000*
18 Yorkshire -£1,200,000
*Expected loss to be confirmed at AGM
Research: Timothy Abraham
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cricket/story/0,,1766818,00.html