Gidney: It’s all looking rosy at Lancs

DANIEL Gidney admits Lancashire have had some ‘very, very dark days’ in the last decade, but says the county is now more financially secure than it has ever been.

Despite revealing the Red Rose is now around £27m in debt, the Emirates Old Trafford chief executive says it is a manageable debt.

And with the club now guaranteed a bumper package of lucrative international cricket up to 2024 – including two Ashes Tests and the World Cup – on top of the new 150-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel opening and the ground being named a host for the ECB’s new T20 tournament, Gidney believes Lancashire are now in a ‘fantastic’ position.

So much so, he admits holding concerts at the ground – which has caused plenty of problems to the outfield at Emirates Old Trafford and annoyance to groups of members – is no longer a financial necessity. However, the club will continue to be a concert venue, although Gidney says they can be more selective in terms of what time of year they are held.

And he is adamant the money now flowing into Emirates Old Trafford – with ticket sales for one Ashes Test alone set to bring in around £5m – will be used on the team, and invested back into grassroots cricket around the county.

The rosy financial picture is a long way from the troubles of 2011 when – having been stripped of Test cricket due to the state of the ground – a long planning battle over the redevelopment of Old Trafford took the club to the brink and it came close to not being able to pay staff wages.

“We have had some journey since we lost Test cricket in 2008, but now we have come out the other side with the best package of international cricket the club has ever had,” Gidney said.

“We have a sevenyear order book now of international matches.

“It really sets us up for the future.

“It is a reward for the cricket public of the north west who have been very patient.

“Once you have difficult times, it makes you appreciate the good times more.

“There was an international match in 2009 here that was abandoned because of issues with the run-ups.

“The club went through a very, very dark period.

“If you could design a perfect storm of things that could go wrong, the club had them.

“Everything was thrown at the club.

“Most businesses would have failed. That’s why this is so much more than a business.

“We have a rich heritage and there were people on the board here who refused stubbornly to just roll over.

“They found a way to steer the club through that financial crisis, to find a way to withstand a very difficult and unpleasant legal action, and also coping without having Test match status.

“To go so long without Test cricket, to have the losses we did, the legal battle we faced, the costs of using temporary facilities – it would have broken most organisations. But that’s not Lancashire cricket.

“The way we have come through now with the stadium we have, we are in a fantastic place and it is something we can all be proud of.

“We are in a fantastic position.

“We were entirely reliant on six days of international cricket to pay the bills.

“We set out that by 2020 we wanted to be financially sustainable outside international cricket revenue, and we will achieve that.”