NZC reveals $9.3m deficit in ‘challenging’ times
New Zealand Cricket has revealed a $9.3 million financial loss for the past year as it trumpets its biggest broadcast rights deal with Star Sports India.
Chief executive David White confirmed the hefty deficit in the annual report which will be presented at the AGM next Wednesday. It was well up on last year’s $2.16 million loss and significantly more than the budgeted deficit of $5.7 million.
White said NZC faced a ‘‘challenging couple of years’’ but explained the loss was largely due to the International Cricket Council’s new financial model. In the eight years till 2023, NZC’s slice of ICC funding would increase from US$90 million to US$128 million.
‘‘That’s been a big jump for us but what was agreed was that we get less up front, than was forecast in the old model, and a lot more to the back end of that agreement,’’ White said. ‘‘That shortfall is primarily the increase but we make up for it significantly in future years.’’
Still, a loss of nearly $10 million for NZC, whose revenue of $48.7 million was nearly $4m down on last year, is always going to raise eyebrows. In the annual report, grants to major associations and domestic players payments were up $650,000 to $16.2 million, match and tour expenses up $500,000 to just over $5m and the player payment pool increased $600,000 to $8.17m.
White said gate takings, which typically make up 10 per cent of NZC’s revenue, were down last summer when the marquee tour by South Africa was hit by the weather.
‘‘It was a big year in terms of volume of cricket so that was quite expensive. The gates were largely influenced by the weather in a pretty wet summer. Apart from that it was pretty much aligned with budget.’’
This summer, with Australia and England playing Twenty20 internationals in New Zealand and England playing the country’s inaugural day-night test at Eden Park, White said early sales were strong and he was confident the coffers would get a boost.
NZC will need it, and White admitted belts were being tightened. ’’Across the business we’ve worked hard to make sure we’re prudent with our costs.’’
He confirmed $50,000 had been spent by the organisation on a rebrand from Black Caps to NZC, in order to be more inclusive of women’s, domestic and community cricket.
‘‘It’ll be a challenging year for us financially. Then we go into the Master Agreement negotiations [with the Players’ Association] and we’ve got this broadcast revenue and we’ve got the ICC funding.
‘‘We’re in a strong position but the next couple of years will be challenging,’’ he said.
White wouldn’t say what the Star Sports deal was worth but he labelled it ‘‘significant’’, and bigger than any broadcasting deal they’d done before. ‘‘We’re delighted with it.’’
Star Sports can broadcast Black Caps and White Ferns home internationals for the next three years, with India’s two tours of New Zealand in that period a key driver of the lucrative deal.
White said India would tour New Zealand in 2018-19 and play three Twenty20 internationals and five one-day internationals, the latter extended series a lead-in to the World Cup in the UK.
The following season India would play two tests - as part of the new test championship - three ODIs and five T20s in New Zealand to lead into the World T20 in Australia in 2020.