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Durham back to winning ways

FAVOURABLE weather conditions and the opportunity to host key international matches have helped Durham County Cricket Club recover from a £1.3m loss to play its way to a £200,000 profit.

After recording a £1.3m loss in 2008, last year saw the club surge back into the black on the back of a test match with West Indies and a sell-out One Day International with Australia in September, new figures have revealed.

Meanwhile, with this year’s weather shaping up to be better than recent years, 2010 looks set to be another year of growth.

In the longer term, the club has also secured an Ashes Test in 2013, and has been buoyed by the recently-signed six-year sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline.

In May 2009, Chester -le-Street hosted the West Indies in a Test Match for the second time in three years. Due to the early season start and poor weather, the event yielded lower than expected income for a Test Match. However, the match still returned a small profit for the club, as did the sell out One Day International against Australia in September.

Chief executive David Harker said: “Revenue from international cricket is, in the medium term, essential to all of the Category A venues of which the recently renamed Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground is one.

“We are now seeing a recurring pattern where even the bigger, major city centre venues are losing between £500,000 and £1,000,000 in years without midsummer Test Matches. This situation is only sustainable if clubs are able to retain sufficient income from Test Matches in order to fund the costs of running such major venues in the lean years.

“Durham, with a commercial debt of £3.5m, does not have the debt levels of many other venues, which for a number of clubs is reportedly between £8m and £19m. I am pleased however that the ECB recognises the problem and that there is currently a lot of work going on within the game to address the issue of major match allocation.”

Currently the permanent capacity of the Emirates Durham ICG is being increased from 8,000 to 9,500, with further undercover facilities to be provided for supporters as well as an enhanced ECB Hospitality Area capable of hosting 200 people on a match day.

During 2009, DCCC also entered into an agreement to develop a plot of land on the Eastern perimeter of the ground. The intention is that it will be transformed over the coming years into a high quality hotel that will add to the appeal and income generation potential of the venue.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .