We wouldn’t survive without the music...
THERE was a time when the only people allowed on the grounds of the 18 First Class counties would be the players, the groundstaff and the spectators for a 20 minute mid-innings knock around.
Now you have the likes of Olly Murs, Elton John and even Tom Jones encroaching onto the field of play with abandon – and not even wearing their whites.
Sussex recently announced that Murs – Essex boy done-good and the runner-up in the 2009 edition of X-Factor – would be playing at Hove in July as part of his UK tour. He’ll arrive on the south coast just days after playing shows at Canterbury’s St Lawrence Ground and Northamptonshire’s Wantage Road home.
Those gigs illustrate the eagerness of counties to cash in on the popularity of their venues for some of the country’s leading artists, it also shows that the income generated off the pitch is becoming as important as that generated on it.
That’s certainly the case at the three counties mentioned above, none of whom can rely on the bumper payday that generally arrives when England come to town in the summer.
“We get a fee for hosting a concert and, on top of that there’s obviously hospitality and bar sales,” says Tom Rose, marketing manager at Sussex. “For us, it’s a risk-free way of making income really. One of the major drawers is also the fact that you’re getting a completely difference audience in the ground, using your facilities and understanding that Sussex isn’t just a cricket club.
“It helps us to branch out and get that message out there – that has become really important in the past few years. We had Tom Jones here last summer and that was a huge success. He even told me he supported Sussex – not sure if that was true or not!”
With Sussex’s commercial income now rivalling that of its matchday revenues, it’s a model that a number of other counties are following. Hampshire, for example, have hosted the likes of Rod Stewart and Oasis in recent years. Even Barry Manilow headed to the Ageas Bowl to blast out some old favourites last summer.
Edgbaston hasn’t yet rolled out the red carpet for the great and the good of the music world. It has just, though, celebrated a third major firework display on a ground previously known more for the sporting pyrotechnics of Allan Donald and Chris Woakes than Catherine Wheels and Rockets.
Following its £32m facelift in 2011,Warwickshire have invested heavily in ensuring that its home since 1882 is now a year-round venue, as capable of holding celebrations on Guy Fawkes night as an Ashes Test between England and Australia.
“We’re a 12-month operation now,” says Warwickshire’s commercial director, Gareth Roberts. “Although cricket is still the most significant revenue driver, we have to rely on significant revenue coming from other areas of the business to make sure we can service our debt and also reinvest in players, people and facilities.”
A large conference centre has proved a hit in recent years, while the club’s firework display has now assured its place in the city’s annual events calendar, with 12,000 people pouring through the turnstiles last month. The ground was also opened-up for a recent filming of a cricket-themed episode of the hit comedy series Citizen Khan.
“Our turnover was something like £2.2m in the last financial year and I think it’s up to something like £2.5m this, so it’s growing,” says Roberts. “We are looking at concerts in the future, obviously the playing schedule makes things like that quite hard but it’s something we’re looking at doing, potentially from 2018 and beyond.
“We’ve diversified recently and we’ve had things like white collar boxing here, darts events, cage fighting, wrestling. They’ve taken place in the exhibition hall, with a sit-down dinner for 300 to 400 people and a ring in the middle. They’re massively popular. Always sold-out.”
It’s a far cry from the off-seasons of years gone by when the only people occupying county grounds up and down the country would be the small hardy gaggle of staff lucky enough to find themselves on 12 month contracts.
With the Christmas party season getting underway this week – and 7000 covers already sold – the work now never stops, although Roberts tells The Cricket Paper that the county have drawn a line under New Year’s bashes.
“I think the staff deserve that night off,” he says, laughing.
Further south, the thought of Murs and Jones strutting their stuff where the likes of John Snow once pounded in from might be enough to raise the heckles of some county members. In the modern era, though, as Jones still doubtless memorably sings ‘it’s not unusual’.