England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that county cricket clubs have combined lost 100 million during the pandemic. Neil Snowball, ECB’s managing director of county cricket revealed this information after all 18 counties published accounts for the fiscal year.
The loss in ticket sales, hospitality and events that would ordinarily have boosted the revenue of the individual clubs, including conferences and weddings. Lager venues that have different revenue streams have copped more than smaller ones.
Earlier in March, UK government had promised Sports Recovery Package worth £300 million to provide some relief for sports in the country. English cricket is expected to be the biggest benefactor of this package.
Along with package, ECB is also planning to bring fans to the stadium at some stage in the new campaign that is scheduled to start in April. According to the ECB’s roadmap, 25 per cent capacity crowds will be permitted from May 17 and 50 per cent capacity from June 21. Snowball is optimistic that county clubs will soon start recording matchday revenue.
“We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen. The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks. We are trying to be as optimistic as we can about June 21, the demand for tickets has been huge and venues will be trying to get maximum crowds in. We will know about a month out. I am hopeful we can get significant crowds back.”
English County cricket is one of the oldest and the most respected cricket tournaments in the world. Its history dates back to the 18th century. From 1993 onward, all matches have been scheduled for four days and are played between 18 first-class counties which include one welsh county. The new campaign is set to begin in full flow from next month as county clubs are currently completing deals to fill the overseas slots in the squad.