Sta£e of the Nation - County Cricket Finances

One further thought on Jim's description of the County Championship as "the game's least profitable product" which is also relevant to the doom and gloom quote above.

The vast majority of members pay their annual subscription to watch four day cricket not one day cricket, and that is true at all 18 counties.

So when calculating the 'unprofitability' of county cricket, you have to take into account upwards of a couple of thousand of Sussex members paying a fairly hefty membership fee every season (£230 in 2014).

I  think Sussex had a major membership drive last year to increase the numbers, but it do not achieve the desired result. But I believe Middx claims 8,000 members so they and other counties with more robust membership numbers will find four day cricket a more attractive proposition than those  counties with smaller memebrships.

It is widely accepted that if the four day programme was cut substantially, a large proportion of county members all over the country would not renew. That is why the Morgan Report - which proposed a reduction in four day cricket - was thrown out only two years ago; the majority of counties reported that a substantial cohort of their memberships would desert and therefore they voted it down.

Taking this into account, could it be argued that "the game's least profitable product" is the Royal London Cup, which most members couldn't really care less about and which even in its quarter and semi-final stages has struggled to attract crowds ( I use the term loosely) of more than 3,000?

Interesting remark about Durham on cricinfo: "Over the course of 24 months, the club have cut their cricket budget from something around £1.9m per year to something around £850,000 per year."

Thats's almost a 60 per cent cut in playing resources, so real credit to them for still coming fifth in the LVCC and winning the 50 overs cup.

Time perhaps for the 'small' clubs to stop moaning that money means cricket is no longer a level playing field and ''man up'' : it's about leadership, coaching, desire, attitude and grit rather than cash and Collingwood and Lewis (and Geoff Cook who I believe is still around somewhere in the background, despite his heart attack last year) have done an impressive job in motivating a young group of almost entirely homegrown players to achieve far more in 2014 than several far more expensively assembled squads.

Another day, another angle on the county game and its future from George Dobell in cricinfo The route of all good in the English game

This time the dodgy one runs through the various issues hampering county clubs from providing the public with good quality competitive cricket in a customer-oriented environment - the abandonment of one-day cricket on Sundays, the extension of T20 throughout the season and often under floodlights, the dearth of experienced overseas players, ditto of spin bowlers and the complete abandonment of first-class cricket in August - before coming up with this curious set of statements:".. while the ECB have recently received several requests from counties on these lines - specifically, they asked for the start of the T20 season to be pushed back at least two weeks - it appears the current schedule will be given another season or two to take shape. Most would agree that the 2014 fixture list was substantially better than 2013.."

Who are these people who thought the 2014 fixture list was better than 2013? The point is that no-one, not the members, the clubs themselves, and certainly not the pay-at-the-gates customers liked the absence of cricket in August and the shoehorning of half of the programme into the spring months. And did county chairmen ask for the start of T20 to be pushed back? I thought that most wanted it to start later, i.e. forward. Maybe that's what he means but he's a bit too lazy to check what he's written, like the wonderful homophone in the title of his piece. The problem with Dobell is not that he lacks ideas, and usually skill in expressing them, it is that he tries to be too clever, to keep the pot boiling.

In the end this article tells us nothing that is not already known, and offers no solutions. Look at these closing sentences for empty-headed vacuity: "..few would deny that a lack of cricket in state schools and a lack of cricket on free-to-air television - or the internet - were significant factors. And until those factors are resolved, English cricket will always be pushing against the tide. Yet the roots of almost everything good in English cricket can still be found in the county game. And if all involved believed in it just a little more, it could produce an even greater harvest." I'm sure that all - or almost all - of the people contributing to this forum believe passionately in the English county game, but where is that belief going to get us? What is really needed is a strategic overhaul of the game that tackles the concerns of dwindling markets for most kinds of sport (apart from soccer), cultural issues of exposure to the game during childhood and adolescence (both school playing fields and free to air tv exposure), the rival imperatives of a strong English national game and a thriving decentralised competition, and the ability for clubs to establish and maintain a strong local brand identity and loyalty in an age of consumer choice and shifting, temporary allegiances. Now that would be a debate!

hhs,

While the builders nip off to the local cafe for lunch (they are too wealthy these days to bother about a packed lunch!) I found
your comments about GD and his article most interesting.

My understanding is: GD is being encouraged by the ‘Cricinfo’ hierarchy to be controversial and edgy. He is now viewed by some
as the ‘enfant terrible’ of cricket journalism. That is good for him and good for ‘Cricinfo’. Therefore, this particular article is
somewhat disappointing. Where are the juicy bits?

On this Sussex forum he is regularly discussed. Therefore, his approach overall must have worked. I question whether he actually
believes, sometimes, in the varied views he writes. Does he truly believe that, "The 2014 fixture list was substantially better than
2013.."?

For in the world of 24 hour news where twitter has only added to the increasing cacophony or as one journalist recently described
it, “The unstoppable media monster that consumes everything in its wake”, how does any publication get noticed? The noise is
excruciating and incessant. Therefore, perhaps, controversy is the easiest way?

But controversy can lead to a garbled schizoid imbalance where one second a cricket journalist is praising an authority, the next
criticising it. Therefore, balance becomes an even more rare commodity.

In the past, there has always been an uneasy alliance between cricket authorities and journalists. Straitjacket appeasement is often
the way as in return the journo gains exclusive news, player interviews, along with a juicy red cherry on top.

Therefore, GDs approach is dangerous. If he becomes too controversial, the interviews may dry up and ‘Cricinfo’ could be given
the cold shoulder.

So, then it is down to power. Who is more powerful and influential? The ECB and county cricket or ‘Cricinfo’ and there lyes the two
century long power struggle between the media and the establishment.

One answer is for a county club to be as open, honest and transparent as possible. And for that Sussex should be given a big pat on the
back. Whilst the journalist must show fairness and balance and where compromise is due, see the positive benefits of this rather than
the negative.

Yet, the friction between both parties is growing. Especially when the ECB have become ever more dictatorial, stubborn and intransigent.
Add to this, the growing number of local sports journalists who see their jobs on the line as circulation figures decrease and readers
turn to twitter or the web for more edgy comment and controversy, they are now realising their appeasement may cause them to lose
their job.

Personally, the only possible creed to follow is balance and fairness - praise where praise is due and criticise fairly when it is warranted. This,
then, keeps everyone honest and leaves the playing field level.

As for cricket in general, it is a niche specialist sport which is being eaten alive by the media's exhaustive coverage of football. Is there a magic
bullet to turn around its dwindling popularity? Everything that the ECB do comes to little; all the tinkering, changing, new ideas, formats... where
has it got the sport? At present, what we do know is this: 

A hot summer coupled with a home Ashes series attracts more people to watch cricket. Everything else could be viewed as humbug. So, roll on
2015, then. 

I almost 'like' your post, fraudster. I remember reading somewhere that all message boards eventually develop an inner circle. I hope it's not going to happen here - again.

Astonishing statistic - 20 per cent of attendances at all group stage T20 Bash matches in 2014 came at the Oval.

That is to say, seven matches out of 126 accounted for one fifth of all ticket sales.

Given this ability to draw big crowds to the ground it is perhaps surprising that Surrey's neighbours - Sussex, Middlesex, Essex, Kent - do not lease the ground more often to play there.

To date Middlesex have played two T20 'home' games at The Oval and Kent one, but that's it. The Kent game v Essex at the Oval produced the biggest 'home' T20 crowd in Kent's  history.

Perhaps it is time next season for Sussex to follow the example of Kent and Middlesex and lease The Oval and see if we can fill it? Playing Sussex's derby games v Kent, Miidx, Essex and Surrey themselves there would be an obvious place to start such an experiment. Those four games might attract a combined total of 16-20,000 at Hove. At The Oval, they should be able to pull in  55-65,000.

Given the huge gaps we saw in the 2014 fixture list, there should be sufficient dates on which the ground is available,too. More work for the Surrey groundsmen, but the biggest square in the country means they are unlikely to run out of pitches...

Certainly makes more sense than playing county matches in the Caribbean and Spain, which according to cricinfo is "not nearly such a far-fetched scenario as some might have you believe" (although personally I continue to believe it is even more far-fetched than the non-existent  chance that the ECB might create  a sensible fixture list for next season).

Such ground sharing co-operation also makes more sense than Sussex's evident intention to pull up the Hove drawbridge and withdraw from all reciprocal agreements with its neighbouring counties!